by Starla Night
“I wanted to apologize for tonight.”
He remained silent. She could hear his breathing, and so she forged on.
“I knew how important it was to you to be accepted by my parents. And, I had this dream of how to make everything perfect so they would only see your good points and easily accept you. But that was my mistake. I couldn’t let go of the dream.”
“And?”
“I should’ve woken up and faced reality. I’m sorry.”
He was silent for a long time.
She wanted to fill the silence with more apologies, explanations, justifications. But she wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. Pyro was fearless, but he still had feelings. She needed to respect his true thoughts.
Finally, he said, “What does that mean?”
“Well, the next time we meet my parents, we’re going to—”
“Next time?”
“Yeah.” She paced her bedroom. “I was going to wait a week for them to cool off, but you do still want to meet them, right?”
“Then you’re not going to get a divorce?”
She snorted. “No. Still no. Not unless you want to.”
“I don’t want to.”
A tingling sense of happiness slid over her skin. “Good. Okay. I’m glad.”
He was silent again.
Her heart squeezed. “I forget that you had it so rough.”
Parents and in-laws could cause problems on Earth, but most of the time they couldn’t get a marriage invalidated or declare kids to be illegitimate. Not even on the ugliest reality TV.
“That’s a relief.”
“Yeah.” And then she decided to be brave. Curling a strand of hair around one finger, she added saucily, “If you were here right now, I’d give you a big kiss.”
His voice thrummed with interest. “And?”
“And … uh …”
Amusement curled his tone. “Just a big kiss, huh?”
“I’d also run my hands over your body.”
“Sounds nice.”
She didn’t want to be nice. She was trying to be dirty. But she didn’t have the experience for it.
Be fearless.
She sat on her bed and closed her eyes, imagining what she’d do. “I’d undo your buttons one by one, kissing your skin as I went, until your shirt parted and I revealed all of you. And then I’d unbuckle your belt and unzip your jeans, tugging them off, so that I could have my way with your cock.”
Silence again. Was his breathing a little heavier?
He cleared his throat and the ragged edge of his voice sizzled against her fantasy. “And then?”
“Then I’d, um … take you in my mouth and run my tongue over you, making you hot and wet.” She swallowed, facing her nerves again. “How do you like that?”
“I like it. Let me in.”
“Huh?”
“I’m on the balcony outside your apartment.”
Oh. Oh! She jumped up and ran out into the main room. Melody was done with dishes, thank goodness. A crack of light shone under Melody’s bedroom door.
Hanging up the phone, Amy scurried into the kitchen and unlocked the sliding glass door. Pyro balanced on the railing like a daredevil. He was wearing a plain T-shirt and boxers; his feet were bare like she’d woken him from sleep. “I came to get a real taste.”
He was so gorgeous he made her mouth grow dry with hunger.
“You can’t be here,” she hissed.
His lazy grin took in her dishevelment as he hopped onto the balcony and crowded her. “Going to send me back?”
“My roommate said no.”
“And what do you say?”
She swallowed. Sneaking a guy into her room was something she had never imagined doing, not in a million years. Good, controlled, perfect Amy? She wouldn’t do that.
So what was real Amy going to do?
Amy wanted him. Her husband. Hard, sexy, gorgeous Pyro.
She grabbed his hand and drew him inside, hurrying him to her room. As she closed her bedroom door, another one opened. Her heart rocketed into her throat.
Pyro nuzzled her, teasing her to hot awareness with his teeth.
Only the distraction of listening for noise outside her room kept her from tearing his clothes off like in her fantasies and seducing him on her bed.
A tap on her door cemented her fears. “Amy?”
Caught!
Adrenaline surged through Amy. She motioned Pyro into her closet while Melody tapped again.
Smoothing her blouse, Amy opened the door a sliver. “Yes?”
Her roommate looked worried. “I just wanted to say that I hope you didn’t take what I said earlier the wrong way. You deserve excitement and happiness and good things. I hope it works out with Pyro. I’d love to meet him.”
Pyro bumped something in the closet.
Amy closed the door a little tighter. “Thank you.”
“Just not until after Thursday. I do not want to see him in this apartment until next week. Yes.” Melody smiled tightly, pushed off her arm braces, and headed back to her room. “Night.”
“Night.” Amy closed the door and leaned her back against it, breathing out slowly. This sneaking around business was going to kill her.
Pyro peeked out of the closet. He held up a tight red dress. “How come you don’t wear this?”
Ah! Her sexy, impulsive, someday-when-she-had-a-boyfriend teddy. She tried to snatch it and keep her voice down. “It doesn’t fit.”
He eyed her critically, probably sizing her. “It’ll fit. It’ll look great on you.”
She grabbed it and held on. “You’re only going to take it off me, anyway.”
“Yeah.” His eyes flared, and he released the red lace to grab her hips and grind her soft belly against his undeniable arousal. “That’s the point.”
She tried out a saucy comeback to disguise her breathlessness. “I feel your point.”
He rewarded her attempt with a slow, sexy grin that made her clench and tingle. “You’re going to.”
She tried to think of another clever remark, but before anything could come to her, he’d tossed aside the outfit and dropped his mouth to hers, covering her in a hot, hard, wet kiss.
She lit on fire.
He devoured her, his tongue delving deep into her mouth and owning her, branding her as his. And he draped her arms around his neck, urging her to take command of him. Man and wife, husband and woman.
She peeled off his T-shirt and boxers, revealing his full nudity to her hungry gaze. He grinned and flexed.
“Faster than strip poker,” she commented, again reaching for the casual sass she imagined his other women must have had.
He grabbed her wrist and cinched her to his hot body. “I challenge you to a rematch.”
“Later.” She encircled his cock and squeezed. “You have one of my fantasies to fulfill.”
His eyes flared red, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Yes.”
She forced him onto her bed and worshiped his long length, stroking and caressing. Apologizing with her body for what they’d both said tonight. It wasn’t their first miscommunication and it wouldn’t be their last. But she would listen harder and have more faith.
He groaned and slid her clothes off, covering her body with his length. She wrapped her legs around his, twining them. He gripped her face, tormenting her with demanding soul-consuming kisses, and thrust.
His cock slid into her slick channel like an electrical charge coming to ground.
He filled her with delicious satisfaction that set off a chain reaction of throbbing, needy hunger.
She needed him more. Closer. There.
He reared back so his cock base ground against her swelling bud. Every thrust shattered her with ecstasy.
She gripped his buttocks.
Their bodies ground together with delicious friction, his cock massaging her channel while the thick head pressed against her pleasure spot. Her whole body clenched in white chocolate whipped rele
ase. She gasped his name and bit his shoulder.
He groaned. Liquid heat flooded her womb. He collapsed over her, resting on his elbow, sheltering her while his comforting weight pressed her pelvis into the bedspread.
She stroked his forehead.
He kissed her thoroughly, tonguing her as deliciously as if he were ready for another round.
But after everything tonight, there was one thing she still needed clarity on. She pulled back. “What about your first wife?”
He hesitated from swooping in to complete the kiss. “What about her?”
“What happened?”
“Now? Don’t think about that.”
She pulled back far enough to look him in the eye. “Pyro.”
“You’re nothing like her.” He kissed her thoroughly.
She enjoyed his kiss and the solid width of his still-hard cock between her happy, tingling, orgasm-shattered thighs.
Then she pushed him off, toweled up the mess, and put on a fuzzy bathrobe to stave off the natural chill of the apartment. “I want to know.”
He growled something about helpfulness and balled up the towel, resting against her headboard like a male model. “It’s late. Don’t you have to finish a lesson?”
“For Thursday.” She tugged his unbending form onto the bed, making him lie flat, and angling herself on top of him as if to hold him in place, to keep him from escaping. “You’re invited to my demonstration lesson, you know.”
His expression blanked. “I didn’t know.”
“Thursday is Parent Night. They open the campus. Dress in a suit and no one will ask.”
He frowned at the ceiling. “I have to deliver our counter offer to Sard.”
“The demonstration is after regular hours. I want you to see me in action.”
He teased her slyly, squeezing her derriere through the thick fabric. “I saw you in action.”
She snuggled in, wiggling. “Come.”
“Okay.”
And then she pushed again. “So how did you meet your first wife?”
His pleased expression fled. He sighed, jammed a pillow under his head, and growled. “I don’t see how it makes a difference. She was an officer in the Colony Wars.”
Amy felt herself growing jealous. “Was she very beautiful?”
“No.” He snorted. “That’s why I thought I had a chance. She was an aristocrat.”
“You didn’t hate them back then?”
“I did. So we were doomed from the start. She never told her family about me, and after we got out, she married another aristocrat.”
“After she divorced you?”
“Marrying another is how dragons divorce.”
That sounded cruel. She stroked his long, worried cheeks. “Human divorce requires more paperwork.”
His brows lifted as though he found that reassuring.
“I’m not going to divorce you,” she emphasized for the umpteenth time. “You won’t understand this because you’ve dated and even married, but you’re my first real relationship. Most people find themselves in high school or college, but I missed that self-discovery, and it’s happening right now. It’s overwhelming. At any moment, I might fly apart and shatter into a million pieces. But this is also the most unbelievable, refreshing, exhilarating experience of my life. If I survive.”
One corner of his wide lips curled. “I feel exactly the same way.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Amy didn’t believe him. “How can you feel the same way? You have so much more experience.”
He stroked her long hair tumbling gracefully from her loose bun. Sure, he had more experience in bed, but she had him beat in confessions and honesty. And he was beginning to think they both had the same level of experience with true, naked, beautiful love.
But there was no way he would confess that. Not even to her. “Trust me.”
A disbelieving smile crossed her face. Then, she stroked his cheek, as though she’d made a decision to trust him after all.
His heart shredded into pieces and glued back together into a new shape. Did she honestly trust him? He was terrified to push her and find out…
Pyro woke in Amy’s bed.
Her phone alarm buzzed urgently. She moaned, threw an arm across his chest, fumbled for the device, and shut it off. She rolled back and sighed.
Rumpled in the bed, her sweet curves pressed against him and his hard cock wedged against her derriere. She nestled against him, her hips wiggling.
Last night she’d confessed everything to him. That she didn’t want a divorce despite his serious backslide of immature, burn-it-all-down antics. How this relationship was changing her. And how she wanted to see it through to the other side together.
He didn’t deserve her.
But he wanted her.
And Pyro was okay with taking what he wanted even when he didn’t deserve it. Hell, someday he might.
He moved her thick red hair and kissed her neck.
She sighed and curved seductively, pressing her backside against his hardening cock.
He sucked on the delicate skin while his hand curled around and cupped her breast.
She pressed against his hand, swelling with an adorable hungry moan. He massaged her and then slid his hand over her curvy belly to the slit between her legs. She was hot and wet.
“I can’t,” she moaned, pressing her desire harder against him. “I’m going to be late.”
He bent her leg, exposing her channel, and positioned his cock to her entrance. “We’ll fly.”
She made little sounds of pleasure as he slid his hard length into her tight grip. Her channel squeezed him and she moved her hips, accepting his thrusts and quickening them. He pinched her nipple and teased her earlobe.
She gasped his name and arched.
Her channel gripped him rhythmically milking his cock with her orgasm. He gave into her body’s demands and unloaded into her throbbing womb.
She lay, skin glowing with sheen and satisfaction, in his arms where she belonged. He’d never been happier. This was the woman he wanted in his bed. Always.
So he better not screw it up.
She sucked in a breath and wriggled free. “Ugh. Can I just stay in bed?”
He kissed the crown of her red head. “You have my permission.”
“Just kidding.” She oozed out of the bed and crawled across the floor. “Shower. I need a shower.”
He snuck out of her apartment while she was in the shower, careful to avoid her roommate, and crossed the brisk, early morning to get a suit from his office and make a few other quick stops. When she texted to demand where he was, he told her to come outside. She met him on the front step with surprise.
He handed her a caramel mocha and a sweet-scented paper bag. “Chocolate croissant.”
“I shouldn’t.” But the glow in her eyes as she eagerly sniffed the mocha and opened the bag told her real feelings.
“Just today,” he agreed, without meaning it, and lifted her into the sky.
Carrying her carefully across the city, he made sure she had enough time to eat if she wished before depositing her outside the gates to the private school.
Her phone buzzed as she was crumpling the bag, and she looked at the screen and grimaced.
“Bad news,” he guessed, taking the bag.
“My mom wants me to come over. But there’s no way that’s going to be a short conversation.” She pressed a hand to her forehead like it pained her. “Ugh. My lesson plan isn’t going well. Like Melody, I don’t want to see anyone until after the demo class.”
Right. He could respect that. “Not even me.”
She hesitated and kissed him. “Except you.”
Did he hear her right?
A mischievous smile curved her lips. She hurried into the gates with his contraband mocha. “I’ll text you.”
His heart swelled with promise.
He watched her disappear into the grounds, nodded at an overly curious security guard who cautiously nodded
back, and then soared into the clean morning air, startling the man.
Amy trusted him. She had faith. He needed to not screw this up.
He just needed to not screw this up.
Pyro returned to the office and called a meeting to lay out his ideas for the counter-proposal, taking their feedback and re-shaping it.
“Sard will hear our counter offer on Thursday night,” Alex said, organizing with his counterpart at Carnelian Clothiers.
“No,” Pyro declared. “I can meet Thursday morning or anytime on Friday.”
His siblings studied him worriedly.
“You shouldn’t antagonize him at this stage,” Alex advised. “Considering how radical our proposal is we should make every effort to meet him at his convenience.”
“I have an existing appointment on Thursday night,” he growled. “Reschedule.”
They blinked at him. He read their thoughts on their surprised faces. What appointment could he possibly have that was more important? Sure, he hadn’t had anything worth scheduling before. This time he did, and they could get used to it. He was a vice president.
“Mal is returning to orbit later tonight,” Jasper said, switching the subject to the other most important topic.
“He can go over the proposal if he wants to make changes,” Pyro said.
“I meant that Mother is going to be reachable also. You should introduce Amy.”
“I will do so on Friday.”
They regarded him with worry.
“That’s close to the deadline,” Amber said.
“Mother won’t like it,” Jasper said. “She may become upset.”
“Amy has an important work event. She’s asked for no interruptions until Friday.”
His siblings looked at each other and then at him.
Jasper finally spoke. “Don’t you find it worrying that she continues to refuse to work for us?”
“No,” Pyro said. “I don’t.”
Jasper blinked.
Alex took up his question. “It is tradition for dragons to marry into a company.”
“She’s not a dragon. And she has a job she loves. I’m not going to force her to give up her passion and neither are any of you. We’re on Earth now. We’ll make our own traditions.”
