“Maybe she is,” Stark said, pulling his wife into his arms. “Do you want another baby?”
Topper laughed and leaned back to look him. “Just like that? We just had one a few months ago. Shouldn’t we wait a little while?”
“Or we could finish our family in a couple of years. Imagine it. All our children will go from infant to adults in two years or less. We’ll be the envy of all of Magic.”
Topper heaved out a big sigh. “Some parents in Magic need lessons in loving each other and raising their children.”
“You’re speaking of the hyena shifters?”
Topper nodded. “I know I can’t change their natures. It’s not how Gaia set things up. But I hate to see the children suffering just because their parents won’t act like adults.”
“The children are not suffering tonight,” Stark promised. “Jessica and I fed the bunnies carrots and lettuce. They went to sleep with full bellies. She petted them until they curled up in a pile and slept. Her gentleness is very healing.”
“I’ve often thought that myself. How did you and I produce a child with that level of compassion?”
“I can’t believe you even asked that question. You’re the most compassionate being I’ve ever met,” Stark told his wife.
Topper studied her husband’s silvery blue eyes as they studied her back. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes,” Stark said. “That’s why you’re going to invite the scientist out here before she turns into a dragon. She deserves to be heard. You don’t really know why she came yet. Calix and Theo aren’t neutral enough to hear her out. Calix is sleeping with her and Theo is hoping Calix turned her into a dragon so he can prove a family story is not a myth.”
“I hadn’t heard any of that. How do you know all these things?” Topper asked while laughing.
“Thor keeps up on all the gossip and reports to me. I’m finding him very handy to have around.”
Laughing harder, Topper tucked her face into her husband’s chest. “Okay. I’ll fetch her in the morning after I deal with the hyena parents. Maybe I can talk the woman into voluntarily going into the Bateman cage. I don’t know what’s going to happen if she actually does turn into a dragon. We aren’t prepared to handle a first-time shifted dragon as big as a jet. That woman has to be six feet tall as human.”
“I think in the long run, regardless of what happens or doesn’t, you’re going to give Dr. Verglas the same freedom all unique creatures have to make their own life decisions. It’s the right way to treat her.”
“She could bring a whole lot of bad stuff down on our head if she tells anyone about Magic,” Topper said.
“If she threatens to talk to the wrong people, we’ll simply kill her. You can’t mind wipe everyone, Topper. But don’t fret. I’ll properly dispose of the body—dragon or human.”
Topper snickered. “Kill her? Really, Stark? The woman slept with a dragon. She didn’t ask to be changed into one. And Jessica definitely got her compassion from me. You can’t go around killing people on Earth. That may work on Glacier, but that’s not how it works here.”
“I know, love,” Stark said, kissing his wife’s face. “I know.”
“Now I can’t sleep. Let’s practice making a baby,” Topper whispered. “I’m in the mood and sex with you always knocks me out.”
Stark smiled as he rolled on top of his incredible wife. “I’d love to make an alien with you. Let’s try for a male this time.”
Lena ran her fingers through the head of Greek hair lying against her breasts. Calix was sleeping… and softly snoring. It was three in the morning, and she should be exhausted, especially after spending the last four hours making love with the man on top of her.
But she wasn’t sleeping. All she could do was think about Magic and the strange things she’d seen.
Did she believe she was turning into a dragon? No.
Did she believe Calix was already one? No again, but he sure wasn’t ordinary.
As for witches turning children into rabbits and then popping away with them in a cage? Okay, well, Lena still had no logical answer for that. Topper had said she was a witch. For some reason, Lena believed her. Call it instinct or listening to her gut or whatever. The woman’s statements had resonated with her as truth.
Topper had also shared that no one knew what Nate was going to turn out to be. What did that mean? Lena wanted to know. She wanted to know everything despite the fact this was one crazy town.
Her thoughts were so loud in her head, it was no surprise to her when Calix lifted his head and met her gaze. She ran fingers along his smooth jaw. His face never seemed to need shaving. He bent his head and kissed her as his body rose over hers.
Like they had every time the man asked for entry, her legs opened to let him fall between her thighs. He eased inside her with grace and just as much desire as he had their very first time together. The chemistry between them remained more powerful than anything she’d felt before.
Calix kissed her deeply, then moved his mouth to her neck. Lena turned a little to give him better access. She lifted her hips up to his thrusts, encouraging his moments. Denying her for once, Calix slid out of her gently and rolled her over even though she protested the withdrawal.
Lifting her hips from behind, he slid deep inside her again, this time claiming her with deep strokes that she felt to her core. Lena felt another orgasm encroaching quickly. Her fingers dug into the sheets as her legs shook. When the quake started, she raised her head and groaned at the waves of pleasure washing over her.
“Lena.”
She heard Calix calling her name as he kept plunging, but she was lost in feeling her own pleasure. Following instinct, she used all her strength and pushed completely to her knees to brace her hips.
Calix growled in her ear because her action made him have to go deeper still.
Lena felt the fire building in her again and knew another climax was coming. She strained towards it—needing it—needing him.
It felt like talons grew from her fingers as she gripped the sheets with all her strength. Her spine went rigid as she rounded her back against Calix and his plunging. Her muscles seized on the inside and she felt Calix, at last, giving up his fight to hold himself back.
He was panting hard and calling her name over and over as his tongue ran over the ridges of her spine. No longer moving, he still stayed hard inside her, throbbing and throbbing as he hissed over her demands that he remain.
She moaned in reaction to her captured lover. She wanted everything he had. “Calix,” she called.
He yelled so loudly in reply that the echo of his voice shook the walls. He pushed in hard again, pushing against her silken hold on him, and Lena finally shattered. This time a series of rainbow lights exploded behind her eyes.
Utter relaxation took consciousness completely from her. The dream she had swept reality away, and in it, she was soaring. Above the clouds, with wings spread wide, she circled the town below smiling down at all the waving people.
Then Calix called her back to him.
“I love you, Lena,” Calix said desperately, rising over her back as much as he could and wrapping himself around her. “I love you. I will always love you. I will always be yours. Please believe that.”
She could feel Calix’s heart beating hard against her sensitive skin. She could hear the blood rushing through his body that was tired from pleasuring her. There could be no other lover better than him—no one who wanted her more. There was only one answer possible to his declaration.
“I love you too,” Lena whispered back.
And then she fell sound asleep.
Lena woke when the other side of the bed dipped with what felt like the weight of a giant. She forced one eyelid up and saw Calix looking at her with great concern. His expression was so serious it made her laugh.
And it made her glad he hadn’t stayed to wake her up yesterday.
“Stop staring, Deputy Dawg. All women look like hell in the morning,” she told him.
“You’re such a guy,” Lena said, rolling to her side. She purred when Calix cupped her face in his palm. “Leaving for work?”
Calix nodded. “Yes. Theo called me. He’s already gone out to handle something. He wants me there to mind the office.”
Lena giggled. “You sure are discreet with your cell phone. I’ve never even seen you use it.”
Calix blew out a breath then just said it. Maybe she couldn’t yet hear him, but she needed to learn to do so. “Dragons in the same family don’t need phones. They just think what they want the person to hear. Theo and I speak that way all the time.”
Lena rolled to her back and away from his hand as she sighed. “Great. We’re back to the dragon thing again.”
“It’s unavoidable today,” Calix said softly. “Betty brought breakfast for you. I smell it.”
“Can you stay and eat with me?”
“I wish I could. Duty in the form of my insistent cousin means I do not get food this morning.”
“What are you doing today?”
“We will deal with the parents of Nate’s bullies. Topper’s coming.”
“The purple-haired witch, aka rabbit woman,” Lena said, chuckling. “Every time I try to sort out what I saw, I feel like Alice in Wonderland.”
“You feel like Lena in Magic to me.”
Lena pushed herself up and pulled the sheet over her breasts.
Calix stared and then sighed. “You’re growing more beautiful each time my eyes land on you.”
“I could send that compliment right back,” Lena replied with her own sigh. She waved her hand. “Go to work, Calix. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Lena, I…”
Lena snorted. “Are seriously intending to lock me up this afternoon?”
Calix rose from the bed and nodded. “I must. It’s for the good of all. I will stay with you until we know what the Fates have planned. Despite my doubts, it is a precaution worth taking. Perhaps nothing will happen. If tonight passes without you changing…” He shrugged. “Let us hope you remain your true self. We can put this behind us then and discuss a reasonable future.”
Lena inspected her arms. Her rash and the attack on her last evening both still seemed too surreal to believe. So did making love to Calix last night. The dream of flying she had was nice though.
“I have to be honest with you, Deputy Dawg. I haven’t ruled out tht peyote in the pie theory yet.”
Calix laughed. “Your persistence is both your worst quality and what made me fall in love with you. Two days. It’s only been two days. What have you done to me?”
Lena quirked an eyebrow. “You mean other than show you what a real woman is like in bed?”
Calix smiled. “You have definitely done that.”
“Tell you what…” Lena began, rubbing the back of her neck. She was relieved when she felt no unusual ridges on her spine. That had been a freaky part of her dream. “If you show me your actual dragon, I’ll let you put me in a cage for a night.”
“Done. We will do that this afternoon,” Calix answered.
Lena narrowed her eyes at him. “That was a quick answer.”
Calix shrugged. “Why would I not show my dragon to the woman my beast and I both adore?”
“Okay, I need coffee. It’s way too early to argue about myths. Go to work,” Lena ordered.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll see you at lunch. Will you be here?”
“Guess I have to be. I know your Deputy Dawg ass will track me down if I’m not. And don’t worry, I won’t be eating any more peyote pie today. I’m going to eat a nice, safe breakfast here. I need bacon. Lots of bacon.”
Calix left laughing at her and Lena shoved the covers to the bottom of the bed after he was gone.
She started to climb out when her finger caught in a hole in the sheet and ripped it. As she checked it out, she saw there were a bunch of rips. Stomach clenching in realization about what she was seeing, Lena winced with guilt as she rolled to her knees over the torn places. Her fingers fit in each hole perfectly especially when she curled them to grip.
“Unbelievable,” she said, then laughed at her own shock. “Bet buying a new set of sheets gets added to my bill. That man has not been kind to my wallet.”
Shredded sheets were definitely a first for her. But then, so was being with someone like Calix. Based on all the yelling he’d done last night, Calix should be paying for at least half of the damage.
Grinning with memories of Calix’s enthusiastic lovemaking, Lena rolled out of bed and headed to get ready. A woman couldn’t sweet-talk a purple-haired witch into letting her build a snow dome when said woman was wearing nothing more than her birthday suit.
Assuming the Topper woman would go home after her meeting, Lena planned to be there waiting for her. She’d have to hurry too so she could get out to Topper’s house and then back to have lunch with Calix at noon.
Lena wondered what kind of creature the alleged witch planned to turn the parents of the bullies into. And then she laughed at herself for joining Magic’s crazy train. The residents probably bought anti-delusion meds by the bucket-load. She didn’t care about their mental quirks though, so long as they let her build here. She couldn’t shake the idea that Magic was where she was meant to do her work.
“Going to be one hell of a day again,” Lena decided, pulling her new sleeveless maxi dress over her head. It looked better on her today than it had when she bought it all those months ago.
Deputy Dawg was just melting the pounds right off with all that sex.
The maxi-dress would let her scratch her arms too if she had another allergic reaction to something she ate like she’d experienced yesterday.
Maybe she was allergic to peyote. Who knew?
Chapter Ten
“Jessica, what have you done?”
“I didn’t do it,” Jessica denied, laughing as the snowflakes fell on her. “Mars did it with his friends. It’s snowing in our backyard, Daddy. Isn’t this wonderful?”
Stark looked up at the sky and saw clouds hovering over the house that shouldn’t exist in the desert. The men in black would no doubt show up soon. And Topper had just left for the Sheriff’s office. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or send one of the Glacieran warriors to fetch her back.
Jessica’s school was out of session today. He had intended to take his energetic daughter into town for ice cream. While he’d been showering and dressing, she’d apparently charmed the Glacierans into making snow for her.
“Jessica, we can’t have snow in the desert. It going to cause all kinds of problems,” Stark said. “We can’t…” His words dried up when his daughter started leaking from her eyes. “Stop summoning tears. I’m not angry with you. I’m trying to explain.”
“Please, Daddy. Please don’t take the snow away. It’s so beautiful and cold.”
“But…” Stark began. His head swung at the sound of helicopters. “Jessica, stay back here with Mars. Obey me. This is important.”
“Yes, sir.”
He ran from the back of the house to the front. The helicopters were circling and looking for a place to land. They wouldn’t find any spots big enough in this part of town—Topper had made sure of that—but he knew a lack of landing space wouldn’t deter them.
His attention shifted to the ground as a large white van pulled up and stopped in the driveway. A woman got out and immediately looked at the sky when she heard the noise coming from the whirling blades.
“That looks pretty serious. What’s going on?” Lena asked.
“Government visitors—nothing we haven’t seen before,” Stark carefully explained to the woman.
Lena shaded her eyes as the side door on one of the helicopters opened. “Guess I came at a bad time. I was looking for Topper.”
“My wife’s still at the Sheriff’s office.
”
Lena stuck out a hand. “Glad I at least found the right place. Hi. I’m Dr. Lena Verglas and I have terrible timing.”
“I’m Topper’s husband. My name is Stark,” he said shaking her hand. “Topper was planning to visit you at the inn after she finished her business with the sheriff. You might want to leave and head back to town right now. This situation could become problematic. I wouldn’t want to get you involved.”
Lena turned as a group of six males climbed down six ladders dangling from six separate helicopters. She laughed because it was so much like a movie scene. “Looks like they’re planning to invade your house. Are you hiding aliens?”
“Yes, but that’s not the problem today. They’re here because our backyard is full of snow.”
“Snow?” Lena repeated in surprise.
Stark blew out a breath. There was no time to create a convincing fabrication. “Yes. My visitors from Glacier created it for my daughter. She wanted it to be my Winter Solstice present—whatever that is. My daughter is extremely persistent when she gets fixated on something.”
“Ah…” Lena said, smiling at her good fortune. Fate seemed to be on her side today. “And those ladder guys must be the infamous ‘men in black’ who come to town and harass everyone.”
Stark nodded. “I usually let Topper do the talking to them. My fuse is a bit shorter than hers, and she refuses to let me ki… uh, take stronger measures to protect our town.”
Lena rubbed her nose. The man in front of her looked every bit as capable of dealing with things as those guys in black. “You know something, Stark? I think I can help you. What’s Topper’s first name?”
“Her name?” Good question, Stark thought. He wished he knew, but his wife refused to tell him. “Danielle,” he answered, even though it wasn’t the truth. “She calls herself Professor Danielle Topper when she talks to the men in black.”
“Okay. I believe I’ve got this handled. Go along with me,” Lena said, boldly reaching out to pat a tense Stark on the arm.
The men in black hit the ground and marched forward to them. Lena crossed her arms and glared over imaginary glasses. She’d left her real glasses at the inn today because the peyote pie had made her vision wonky. It would be very weird if the peyote pie fixed her myopia, but she also could get rich if that worked out to be true.
Topper's Magical Christmas: My Crazy Alien Romance, Book 4 (Magic, New Mexico 40) Page 8
