by T. S. Ryder
Once the ceremony was done, it was dancing all night long. Joshua and Naomi had taken Sapphira back to their old house, and they slept the night there while the partying continued. When morning came, however, they decided they wanted to spend Christmas day in their cabin. They had put in a lot of effort to decorate it up nicely, after all.
Naomi settled Sapphira down in the crib and tiptoed out, hoping their little girl didn't wake up. Fortunately, there wasn't so much a peep from the baby.
"Your father didn't come to the ceremony," Joshua said when she settled down on the couch next to him.
A flash of pain went through Naomi's heart at that, but she shook her head. "I know. But I didn't expect him to. He's been living isolated from the pack since I defeated him and became Alpha. Maybe one day I'll forgive him for the way he raised me, but I don't think I'll ever forgive him for the way he treated my sisters just as badly… speaking of them, they want to take bears as their mates, too."
Joshua nodded. "I know. But let's not talk work right now. I want you to open your Christmas present."
Naomi straightened, her eyes growing brighter. "That sounds good to me!"
Joshua grinned at her. He went to the tree and retrieved the box he had placed there several days ago. Naomi savored the moment, stroking the edges of the box lovingly before she unwrapped it. Inside was a pile of papers. Naomi frowned.
"What are these?"
"Sapphira's adoption papers. I spoke with some of the Wolves and found out that her biological parents actually died, and that was one of the reasons she was left in the woods. So I went to my human contacts, and... She's ours. Legally."
Naomi squealed in delight. She threw herself at Joshua, kissing him passionately. She could feel her effects right away and had to hold off a giggle. He was an eager boy this morning. Well, he'd just have to wait. She had her own plans for today, after all. When she pulled back, he groaned.
"Naomi, I know that you didn't have the opportunity to get me a present, what with you taking over responsibilities for your pack, but I have an idea of what you can give me instead."
She shook her head as he went to kiss her again. "I do have a present for you."
"You do?"
"Yes." Naomi detangled herself from his grasp. "But I have to go to the bathroom before I give it to you."
She desperately held in giggles as she ran to the bathroom. There, she stripped off all her clothes and retrieved the extra-wide ribbons that she had had her sisters buy for her. Anne and Heather thought it was for wrapping a present–which it was, in a way.
Naomi circled her hips with the ribbon, just barely covering herself before she wound it up over her stomach and covered her breasts. She finished it off with a bow, then checked out her image in the mirror. A bit hasty, a bit sloppy. But perfect all the same.
Her heart beat fast when she stepped out of the bathroom. Joshua turned. His jaw dropped Naomi brushed her hair back off her shoulder and walked over to him, careful not to dislodge her ribbon.
"So this is my present?" Joshua asked, eyes trailing over her.
"Yes. I didn't have time for real shopping like you said, but I thought—"
Joshua pressed a finger to her lips. He grinned. "Best Christmas ever."
He tugged the loose end of the bow before slowly unwrapping her. His hands coasted along her skin as he did, pupils darkening. Everywhere he touched, Naomi's skin tingled. She would never grow tired of the feel of her mate's hands on her, the look in his eyes as he gazed at her body. His tongue flicked out of his mouth, running along his lips.
Naomi couldn't help herself. She threw herself on her mate, kissing him hard, trying to catch his tongue. Joshua detangled the rest of the ribbon from her body and picked her up, her thighs parting to either side of his hips. Her core tightened. Fireworks began to pop in her brain.
"Couch?" Joshua panted, holding her with one arm while he slipped his fingers between their bodies.
"Too far," Naomi groaned. "Under the Christmas tree."
The couch was only a step further than the tree but Joshua didn't argue. Kissing her deeply once more, he walked to the tree and laid her down on the red velvet skirt. The heady scent of fir filled her nostrils as he continued to work her, making fire run up and down her legs before it pooled in her legs. His mouth moved to her breath, making something snap pleasantly deep inside her. Naomi arched herself to her lover and mate, helping him as he discarded his own clothing.
"So beautiful. So strong," Joshua murmured into her skin.
"Stop talking about yourself and start talking about me," Naomi joked.
Joshua redoubled his efforts, making her gasp. Somewhere in her own bursts and pools of fire, she managed to find him with her hand. They locked eyes as they pleasured one another. Joshua's face was set in determination, jaw locked, burning passion in his eyes. Sweat was already beading the edge of his blond hairline. Naomi grinned. She loved that after only a few weeks, she already knew her mate so well that she could give him exactly what he needed as he did the same for her.
It was soon difficult to keep herself still. Naomi rocked from side to side, grunting with the effort to stay with Joshua, to avoid spiraling into the ocean of her climax. From the strain on his face, he was feeling the same. He gripped her thighs, spreading them further, and entered. Tremors shook up Naomi's body. As her mate laid over her, she clung to him, digging her fingers into his back. He kissed her hard, swallowing her whimpers.
The rhythm he set was fast, desperate to bring them higher before they finished. Their hands roamed each other's bodies as though they had never felt anything before. Naomi's core was so tight it was almost painful. She flung her head back, writhing. His mouth dropped to her neck, sucking hard, and it sent her over the edge. Her hands clenched on her arms and her whole body tensed, bringing him with her.
Joshua kept moving desperately for several more moments before he gave up and went still. They lay there for a long time, panting. Naomi closed her eyes, savoring the sweet feeling of their bodies still joined together.
"Is it just me, or does that get better every time we do it?" Naomi asked, stretching lazily under her mate's body.
Joshua grunted, nuzzling her neck. "Eventually we're going to find a peak. I hope you're not disappointed when we do."
"Disappointed? No, I think we need to reach that peak soon. I don't think I'll survive if it gets better than that." Naomi laughed. "But maybe we can make this a tradition. Every year."
"I'd like that." Joshua chuckled and kissed her, but broke off with a groan when Sapphira started crying from the bedroom. "I'll see if I can get her back to sleep so we can continue in with Christmas celebrations."
Naomi sighed as Joshua rolled off her. He stood and tugged on his pants, but she wasn't sure her legs were strong enough to carry her just yet to follow. She stretched, smiling. A mate and a child, and Alpha of her pack. All within a month. It was overwhelming, how quickly it happened. But she wouldn't have it any other way.
"She's hungry," Joshua called from the bedroom. "Can you get her a bottle?"
"Sure." Naomi got to her feet as Joshua brought Sapphira out. She quickly made up a bottle before retrieving Joshua's shirt from the floor and pulled it over her head. As her mate began feeding their child, she grinned.
"What are you smiling about?"
She shook her head, unsure if she could explain herself properly.
"Tell me."
Her grin widened. "It's just that this is the best Christmas ever."
Joshua grinned back at her. "I agree. Here's looking at many more to come."
Naomi nodded. Yes, she was very much looking forward to what the future held in store for the two of them.
*****
THE END
Bonus Book 3: The Dragon Shifter's Twins
Description
A curvy witch looking for the perfect love potion PLUS a hot dragon shifter only interested in his motorbike PLUS a headmistress who comes between them!
&nbs
p; Jessica Falls is a curvy witch who prefers to stir up love potions or sit by the fire with a steamy romance than to pour over textbooks at her magical university.
Her lack of focus is a cause of great dismay to Pearl Lancelet, the headmistress of the university, who runs the school like a 1950s boarding house, including ridiculous rules like no men allowed in the dorm rooms...
Despite Pearl's insistence that there are more important things to life than romance, at twenty-two and never having been kissed, Jessica doesn't care much what else there is to life. She wants a whirlwind romance full of steamy sex while she lands the perfect man.
And she knows exactly who she wants, too: her brother’s best friend...
Braden Clampett is a dragon shifter who leads the local group of young dragons who ride their motorbikes wearing their leather jackets.
Unfortunately, he has no interest in her whatsoever...
Can she stir up the perfect love potion to attract his attention? And will she be able to distract the headmistress for long enough to have her way?
Chapter One
Jessica Falls stood in front of the mirror, piling her black corkscrew curls on top of her head, imagining that she was wearing a white veil and dressed in a sleek, slimming wedding dress. It would be made of satin, with a dusting of beading on the bodice and the train. Maybe she'd also go with red trimming. She used to dream about having a full-on Cinderella ball gown, but that style just didn't suit her body type–not with her wide hips, ample bosom, and rounded stomach.
Sighing, Jessica let her hair drop and turned back towards the love potion she was brewing. It was a sickly yellow color, and it ought to be honey-gold by this time. Her brow furrowed. Had she forgotten to put in the lizard eyes? She sashayed over to the cupboard, imagining she was dancing with her one true love as she did so. With this love potion, she would soon be in his arms.
Contrary to popular belief, love potions didn't make people fall in love. Rather, they directed the individual who drank them to the person that they would fall in love for life with. Or could, as the spell books liked to emphasize. Jessica didn't care about that small detail. Once she brewed the perfect love potion, she would find her lover and be with him for the rest of her life.
He was going to be tall and tattooed, with rippling muscles that allowed him to pick her up and carry her around as though she was a size zero supermodel. That way they could have sex standing against the wall, which was something Jessica really wanted to try. Well, she wanted to have sex in every available position. Her eyes misted over as she imagined a man kissing her breasts while fingering her, making pleasure course through her. Someday soon, she'd have that.
As she retrieved the lizard eyes and turned back to her cauldron, her left foot caught behind her right. She stumbled, lost her balance and went sprawling face-first. Jessica shrieked as her bottle of lizard eyes cracked open on the stone floor, sending the contents rolling every which way.
The twenty-two-year-old witch had once tried to cast a spell to make herself as graceful as a swan. It hadn't helped; she tripped over her own feet or knocked things over by simply walking into a room just as much as she had before the spell, only with the added inelegance of sprouting feathers. It had taken three days for the spell to wear off.
"Stop that!" she shouted at the rolling lizard eyes, scooping up the shriveled, dried balls and depositing them back into the broken jar. She held the glass pieces together, narrowed her eyes, and called on her magic. "Fix up."
The glass repaired itself smoothly, allowed her to gather up the rest of the lizard eyes and put them back where they belonged. Jessica would never be an extraordinary witch, but she excelled at repairing and cleaning spells. It was probably because she found herself using them multiple times a day.
Unfortunately when it came to things like potion ingredients, any magic directly used on them negated their magical qualities, and so whenever she had a mishap they had to be gathered by hand.
Just as Jessica made to stand up, cracking her head on a table in the process, the door opened. The headmistress of the coven's magical university, Pearl Lancelet, stepped in. Her alabaster features twisted and a delicate hand flew to cover her nose.
The witch gagged, her head swiveling as she looked around the room. "What are you doing in here?"
Jessica rubbed the sore bump on her head, glancing briefly at the potion bubbling over the fire. She ducked her head as Pearl's gaze followed hers. The headmistress's mouth thinned. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head.
"Another love potion? You nearly poisoned yourself with the last one!"
"I used outdated foxtail last time. This time, I made sure that all of my ingredients were fresh."
Jessica set the jar of lizard eyes down and put her hands on her hips. Pearl ran the university like it was a boarding house from the 1950s. The 'girls'–they were all women twenty years and older, but Pearl insisted on calling them girls–had strict rules that they were meant to follow. Privacy was unheard of. Pearl never knocked when she entered dorm rooms. She was probably trying to catch them doing something that was against the rules.
Love potions weren't exactly against the rules, but Pearl was very clear that she disapproved of them. Jessica didn't care–she was a grown woman, and Pearl wasn’t her mother! She hated how Pearl treated her and the other students like they were children.
"You've done something wrong," Pearl said, walking over to the potion. She swirled it around with a wooden spoon and shook her head. "This would give you a bad case of indigestion and probably make you declare your undying love to any red-blooded creature you came across."
"I was about to add the lizard eyes," Jessica muttered.
She wouldn't have come to this school if she'd had a choice, but unfortunately it was the only local magic university there was. Without the coven, Jessica didn't know where she would be. Probably dead in the gutter.
Pearl shook her head, muttering something that Jessica didn't catch. "Where is your brother? The faucet in the third-floor bathroom keeps dripping."
"It's his day off," Jessica said, putting her lizard eyes away again. "He's probably off with his friends."
Pearl was stringent about the fact that only members of the female sex were allowed into the dorms. She wanted to ban all males from campus, actually, but Jessica's brother, Stafford, was an exception because he was gay, and so Pearl deemed him 'not a threat' to the girls.
Because men are threats, Jessica thought. Because none of us actually want to have sex or find a happily ever after.
Apparently Pearl thought they all wanted to be nuns for their whole lives, just like her. It was an all-female university, but the students were constantly sneaking off to town to spend nights with their boyfriends.
"With friends," Pearl repeated, her eyes narrowing. "You mean that dragon, Braden Clampett, don't you?"
That was exactly who Jessica meant, but she shrugged. "We haven't talked today."
Pearl's piercing blue eyes narrowed and she shook her head. "That dragon is a bad influence on your brother. I'll have to have a word with him when he gets home."
Jessica opened her mouth to tell Pearl that Stafford never found it easy to make friends and that it was none of her business anyway, but the headmistress had already spun on her heel, marching away. The younger witch shrugged and let her go. Arguing with Pearl wasn't her idea of a good time.
She turned to her failed love potion and sighed. It was now a putrid green. There was no salvaging it. Her only option was to dump it out and start over.
As she lugged the cauldron to the sink, her thoughts turned to her brother. Both of them had been adopted as babies, and Jessica would rather not remember her childhood. Her parents had been strictly religious and, from an early age, any sign of magic in her was severely punished. Not as badly as Stafford had been when he had come out to them as gay, but neither of them had any contact with their parents anymore.
Jessica told people that they were orphans;
the people who raised them didn't deserve to be called parents. Stafford had been sixteen when they left, Jessica twelve. The coven had taken them in, and the two had never looked back.
***
Several hours later, Jessica's hair was standing on end from leaning over repeated failed love potions and, as she was out of althea root, she settled into the overstuffed chair in her room and plucked one of the well-worn romance novels from her shelf.
Her room was full to the brim with her special things, from magical supplies to porcelain dolls and, of course, her collection of books, which Stafford liked to call 'shelves of trash.' So what if she preferred historical bodice rippers to Charles Dickens? It wasn't like his comic books were any better! Besides, Shakespeare's writings were full of crude jokes, yet he was considered to be a great artist. Why were her romances 'trash', then?
Just as Jessica had gotten to the really good part of the novel, where she stopped reading and started daydreaming about the events happening to her instead of the heroine, she heard the sound of motorcycles outside. She jumped to her feet, abandoning the novel, and raced to her window. Her room was on the third floor, but a great big oak right outside her window blocked the view of the road. She caught sight of the back end of a few motorcycles and heard Braden's voice. Her heart jumped to her throat.
Instantly she chastised herself–she shouldn't react this way just from the possibility that she might see Braden! As her brother's best friend, he was completely off limits. Even if he was taller than an oak and sturdier than a bridge, with muscles that looked like they had been sculpted by the hand of God himself. She leaned further out the window, holding her breath.
