by Zoe Chant
“Come on, let’s continue the tour,” Gus said, and this time Cara didn’t resist as he led her to the stairs.
She wanted his lips on her again. Not just on the back of her neck. Everywhere.
“Second floor,” Gus announced as they reached the top of the flight of stairs and he led her immediately around to the next. “Not very interesting—art, guest rooms.”
Cara caught a few glimpses of yet more opulent rich-people furnishings, but Gus was already hustling her up to the third floor.
“The boys’ rooms are up here,” Gus said, leading her down a hallway. “None of them are home, so also not very interesting, but…”
Gus opened the door at the end of the hall. “This is me.”
The space revealed was a long open room, cluttered but bright, lined with windows that reflected back the room, hiding the darkness outside.
“We could stop here,” Gus murmured, gesturing to a comfortable sofa tucked in among the tables and shelves. “Or—if you wanted to continue the tour…”
Cara knew what he meant. They could try to hold back from this. He wouldn’t push her, even though he felt the same connection she felt, and the same desire.
She’d been looking for an adventure, hadn’t she? Here it was. The dashing stranger, the whirlwind romance.
“Let’s go all the way,” Cara said, reaching for his hand, and then she added mischievously, “upstairs, I mean.”
Gus laughed a little and kissed her softly again, holding her hand tight. She melted a little under it, but he pulled away enough to speak much too soon. “All the way, then. You’ve got it.”
They wound through the crowded room—there were all sorts of tables and shelves, piled with books and little boxes and yet more assorted artworks of polished metal and delicate ceramics and gorgeous colored glass and crystal that caught the last of the light. There were also some chairs and couches in amongst them, so Cara could see how this was, theoretically, a living room.
A narrow staircase at the end of the room led up to the next floor, which Cara realized must be in the square tower at the corner of the house.
The room at the top of the stairs was utterly empty, with windows on all four sides. It was a strange sight; Cara felt as if she must have suddenly gone blind, or if she’d stepped into a whole other world from the rest of the house below them.
“What…?”
“This room isn’t needed right now,” Gus said hastily.
He tugged her toward the stairs without meeting her eyes.
He led her up another flight to the top of the tower, which turned out to be his bedroom, once again full of shiny clutter and sumptuous fabrics. There were more tapestries here, hung between the windows, and another portrait that looked like it contained parents as well as a crowd of young boys. Gus didn’t give her a chance to look at it, nor at the huge wood-framed bed piled with pillows and soft, dark fabrics.
There was a spiral staircase in one corner of the room. Gus grinned and led her toward it, gesturing for her to go first as he finally let go of her hand.
“You did say all the way, did you not?”
They were five stories up already, but why stop now?
“All the way,” Cara agreed, and trotted up the tight spiral of the stairs. There was a trapdoor at the top, and when she pushed it back she emerged onto the roof inside the railing she’d glimpsed from the ground. It set off a square space, ten feet by ten feet, with the sides of the roof slanting down around it.
Cara scrambled out to let Gus follow her, turning slowly on the spot. She could see the lights of the town down in the valley, and the dark shapes of the trees. The next ridge was black against the dark, dark blue of the western sky.
Gus stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He pressed a kiss just behind her ear. “Is this far enough for you?”
Cara shook her head and dared to reach back, looping her arms around his neck. “I said all the way, Gus.”
“Cara,” Gus murmured, his lips dragging against the point of her jaw and making her shiver. She kept her arms up, leaving herself open to his touch. “Cara, mine all mine.”
“All yours,” Cara whispered, and she closed her eyes as Gus’s hands started sliding up, traveling over the softness of her belly to cup her breasts.
The feeling was muffled by the layers of her shirt and bra. She arched her back, pressing into his hands and wishing she were naked already. She wanted to feel the heat of his touch on her skin.
She could feel her pussy getting hot and slick. When she pressed her hips back against Gus, his cock was hard against her. He kissed the side of her throat as he caressed her breasts through her shirt, thumbing at her nipples.
Cara moaned. “Gus, please, I need you.”
“Not as much as I need you,” Gus murmured, his breath hot on her throat. “Here, sit, let me touch you.”
He brought her over to a bench at one edge of the roof, where she could lean back against the railing.
“Look up,” Gus said, dropping to his knees before her and nudging her thighs apart. “How many stars do you see?”
Cara spread her legs, letting him move closer, his hands running up her thighs to her hips. She could barely tear her gaze away to look up into the dark sky. It was a clear night, and she could see plenty of stars. The Big Dipper, at least, and more she didn’t know the names of. “Lots.”
Gus’s fingers slipped under the bottom of her shirt, brushing over the soft skin of her sides. Cara raised her arms over her head in silent invitation and Gus grinned.
“Gonna make you see even more.”
Cara laughed, but she believed him. He rose up on his knees to peel her shirt up and off, letting the warm night air touch her skin. He pressed a light kiss to the bandage on the back of her arm, his fingers smoothing the tape at one corner. He dropped her shirt and leaned in to bury his face against her breasts, licking and nuzzling, tugging down the cups of her bra. At the first hot flick of his tongue over her nipple, Cara moaned again, grabbing his shoulders with both hands.
“Keep looking,” Gus admonished, and then he used his teeth, lightly.
Cara couldn’t help grinding her hips against the bench. She was so hot and wet, so close to coming just from Gus’s mouth.
She gasped a little when her bra came undone. She hadn’t even noticed Gus’s hands working behind her, but she leaned forward to help him slip it off.
“So beautiful,” Gus murmured against her skin, licking over her nipples, his hands coming up to cradle the weight of her heavy breasts. “So lush, you’re like velvet.”
Cara laughed breathlessly, thinking of all the rugs and tapestries that filled Gus’s house. “Another treasure, huh?”
Gus pulled back at that, looking up at her seriously, his silver eyes somehow catching the little light that was left in the western sky and seeming to glow silver. “The crown jewel, Cara. Nothing less.”
She shivered at that, because Gus wasn’t a man who let his treasures go. He kept popsicle-stick sculptures, what would he do with a crown jewel?
Never let her go, Cara thought, and the certainty she felt was all at once the scariest and the safest thing she’d ever known.
She wrapped her arms around Gus’s shoulders and brought his mouth back to her breast. Gus’s hands were on her hips again, and now one slid between her legs, pressing through her jeans. She couldn’t help grinding against it, needing the friction, the pressure. Needing more than that.
“Yes, Gus, please—more, more.”
“All you ask,” Gus said, flicking open the button of her jeans and drawing the zipper down. “Anything you ask, Cara.”
He pushed her jeans down, and she pushed up to wriggle out of them, letting him pull her panties down right along with them. They were stopped by her thighs, spread open to make room for Gus between them, but she didn’t want him to move long enough for her to get them off.
He didn’t bother trying. He slid his hand between her legs, stirring throu
gh the damp curls at her crotch to find where she was wettest and hottest. He stroked over her pussy while his mouth trailed down from her breasts over her belly, lower and lower, hot against her skin.
His tongue found her clit as the same time two of his fingers pressed into her, stroking just right. She tipped her head back, grabbing at the railing behind her with one hand and his shoulder with the other. He worked just right—not too roughly, but not shyly.
The heat she had felt between them raged now, already consuming her. She cried out helplessly to the dark, starry sky, coming on his fingers and tongue.
He moved up onto the bench with her, kissing her. She tasted herself on his lips and moaned, reaching for him. She toed out of her shoes and kicking her jeans off as she tugged at his clothes. She wanted more. She wanted everything.
“And how many stars do you see now?” Gus murmured in her ear, his voice warm and low.
She opened her eyes, and gasped. It seemed like every place she looked, the sky had filled up with the faint glitter of stars—every dark place she looked at, she could see another one.
“Gus, it’s beautiful.”
“It takes a little while for your eyes to adapt,” he murmured. “But feel free to believe I did that just for you.”
Cara laughed and turned her gaze back to him. His gray eyes seemed as bright as stars and much warmer. She tugged up more firmly on his shirt and said, “And what can I do for you?”
Gus grinned, wide and toothy. “Oh, sweetheart, you already are.”
He kissed her again and peeled off his soft dark shirt, revealing the jewelry that had been hidden beneath. There were two thin gold chains around his neck, almost delicate. A flat gold plaque dangled from one that reminded her for an absurd instant of Mouse’s name tag. The other had a dark round stone. There was another gold chain wrapped around his left wrist, twining up nearly to his elbow.
“You’re not just a hoarder,” she murmured, touching his sparkly things. He hadn’t put the chain he’d wrapped around her arm back on, but he clearly had plenty of others. “You’re a magpie.”
“I know what I like,” Gus murmured, kissing her throat while she reached for the button of his jeans. “Beautiful things. And when I find them I like to keep them close.”
“Closer than this,” Cara demanded, sliding his zipper down, feeling the press of his cock behind it.
She reached into his underwear without bothering to push his pants down, wrapping her hand around his cock. God, he was big. She would still feel him tomorrow, every time she sat down.
If I’m back in my car… She pushed the thought away.
She had Gus now, and he had her.
“I’ll get as close as you want,” Gus murmured, shoving a hand into the pockets of his jeans as Cara gave his cock a tentative stroke. He came up with a thin wallet and extracted a condom. “Only that far away.”
She wanted to tell him he didn’t have to be even that far, but she caught the words before she spoke. Sure, she had birth control, but she’d only met him today.
She nodded. Gus put the condom packet between his teeth and stood to shove his pants down, letting her see him properly naked.
He was gorgeous, his cock jutting up from a thatch of curly hair between his legs. He had only a little hair on his chest, and almost none anywhere else. She could see the lines of his wiry muscles all over his body.
He rolled the condom on as she watched. She couldn’t help dipping her fingers into herself as she watched him stroke his own cock. He made a little longing sound and ducked back in to kiss her at that.
“Let me carry you again, hm?” Gus murmured.
He sat down beside her on the bench and took her hand, pulling her over. She went where he wanted her, far past thinking of how she must look as she straddled him. His hands founds her hips as he pressed his face into the sway of her heavy breasts, licking and nuzzling again where they were oh-so-sensitive now.
He left it up to her to wrap her hand around his cock, steadying him as she slid down onto it. He groaned as she took him in, matching the sound she made as he filled her, deep and hot and hard.
His hands guided her down, silently encouraging her to take every inch of his cock. Gus filled her so thoroughly that she could hardly breathe without crying out, but she needed every bit of him. She needed to feel him deep inside her.
Cara tilted just so under his hands, until he was pressing exactly where she needed him. She felt already on the verge of coming again when she rose up only to slide back down onto him. His hands told her what he wanted, but she set the pace, riding him faster and faster.
She came on his cock with his mouth on her breasts, once and then again and again or maybe just once that went on and on. It seemed to last forever before he finally tightened his grip and arched up under her. He came with her name on his lips, and Cara kissed him through it.
***
Mine, Gus thought, when he found himself thinking in words at all, full of dragon-warm contentment and satisfied possession.
All mine. She said. All mine, and happy to be.
Dinner and sex might not be properly dragonish gifts, but he’d given them to her, and she’d accepted them. They could work up to gold.
Cara’s weight rested on him, surrendered in the aftermath of her last orgasm, her breath still quick against his shoulder. His hands roved lazily over the softness of her skin, the ample, unstinting curves of her body, generously curved and altogether beautiful.
She was his mate. His.
Soon she would understand, and then he would drape her in gold, jewels, everything she could want. Everything except clothes, which would only get in the way. Silk sheets, though…
Then his softening cock slipped free of her and he became aware of the condom he was wearing. It wasn’t just a sticky and unpleasant bit of business to deal with, but a reminder that she wasn’t his yet. Not entirely. Neither of them had promised anything. Not just yet.
The empty room down below—a vault with no treasure to hold, an unfilled chest—tugged at him. Still he stayed where he was, enjoying as much as he did have and could hold just now. Cara was warm in his arms, and her weight was trusted to his body.
When she stirred, he helped her sit up and accepted her soft, contented kiss.
“We should go in,” he murmured. “You don’t want to sleep out here.”
She nodded and stood. It was sooner than he would have liked to let her go, but he knew better than to hold her in place by strength.
When she was on her feet he stood himself, stepping aside to tie off the condom and toss it into the nearest sand bucket of the four posted at the corners of the roof. She was watching him, her weight shifted uncertainly onto one foot, her clothes in her hands.
He smiled gently and said, “I’ll go first down the stairs, so you can fall on me if you stumble.”
She smiled back and let him lead the way, but they both made it down without incident. He could still smell her sex. He liked that she hadn’t put her clothes back on, didn’t like that she was holding them, but it was up to her.
“If you want to clean up,” he said, and gestured to the bathroom.
Cara nodded, issued another shy smile, and disappeared inside, shutting the door softly behind her.
Gus went to the opposite door, his closet, and extracted a pair of silk pajama pants, pulling them on with nothing beneath. After a moment’s consideration he took the matching pajama top. It was cut generously enough to make a very short nightgown for Cara, if she wanted it. He laid it on the foot of the bed and then went to stand by the window, looking for a darker shape in the dark sky.
Mouse found her phone, Ilie informed him.
Gus narrowed his eyes to catch the curve of a wing, black on the black.
I’ll bring it over, Ilie said. If now…isn’t a bad time.
Gus snorted at Ilie’s politeness and glanced at the bathroom door just as he heard the shower turn on. All right. Come now.
On my way, Ilie
agreed.
Gus jogged back up the spiral staircase to the roof. Ilie was gliding in over the lawn as Gus stepped out onto the roof, and Gus was shocked by the sudden burst of fury he felt, flame-hot.
Gus? Ilie inquired, veering away from Gus’s rage.
Gus pressed both hands—hands, not claws, not rending, not fighting to defend his mate—to his face. His human face. He must be human for Cara, and equally he must not shift with Ilie so close. He must not fight Ilie over Cara, or over anything else.
Sorry, Gus replied. She is my mate, but—she has not accepted any proper gifts. I must protect her against any who comes near.
Ilie said nothing to that, only flew further away in a few great sweeps of his black wings. When he was halfway across the mountain, Gus heard his voice again. I’ll send Mouse.
Thanks, Gus told him, feeling suddenly desperately lonely. He didn’t have Cara yet, not really, and until he did he couldn’t be near his brother, either. Just as well the rest of the boys were safely out of town now, though they usually were these days.
Don’t let anyone bother her car, will you? Gus remembered to ask.
No one will, Ilie assured him, and then he was entirely lost in the dark.
***
When Cara stepped out of the bathroom, Gus was nowhere to be seen. She was wrapped in a towel that didn’t cover much, her hair roughly dried and finger-combed, and she’d managed to tape a new bandage in place on her arm, though the cut seemed to have stopped bleeding.
She smiled at the sight of the pajama top left on his bed, exchanging the towel for it. It was sinfully soft against her skin, so smooth it felt almost liquid everywhere it touched. She did up a handful of the buttons, letting it just barely cover her breasts. The hem just skimmed the top of her thighs, but it still felt less precarious than the towel.
She took the towel back to the bathroom to hang up, and when she came out to the bedroom again, Gus had reappeared. He was standing in front of the family portrait she’d noticed earlier, wearing only a pair of silky pajama pants that matched the top she was wearing.
Cara walked over to him, and he smiled for her, reaching out to tuck her against his side. His smile was dim, almost the way he’d looked before he so suddenly turned away from her downstairs. He wasn’t going away this time, though.
