by Amelia Jade
“Slow,” she gasped as Zeke moved his hips toward her, and he instantly relaxed, allowing her to take a moment. “Sorry,” she said with a smile, leaning down and moving her head to the side so she could nibble at his neck and ear. “You’re big enough I’m going to need a minute or two at first.”
“Anything for you,” he rumbled back, his strong arms wrapping around her body and pulling her tight to him.
“Oh really?” she asked, giving her hips a slight wiggle as she pushed them down a little further on him.
Zeke’s eyes flared with delight.
“Really,” he replied, pushing his hips very slowly toward her.
Amber started to rise as she felt him sliding deep inside of her, her walls protesting his girth, but she relaxed onto him instead as he stopped, having done no more than just tease her.
“Tsk tsk,” she said as grinned up at her, and she pulled her hips away from him, letting part of his cock slide out of her.
“Foul play,” he mock grumped, twisting his head swiftly so he could latch onto her neck, giving it a sharp—but not overly painful—bite.
Amber yelped and pulled back, which had the added effect of pushing her hips down onto him. She gasped as more of him than before slid inside her.
And kept going, until she felt him press up against her body, Zeke’s entire thick length buried deep inside of her.
“Oh,” she said, the sound practically a gasp as her body shuddered in a mixture comprised mostly of pleasure but with a slight bit of pain as well as he spread her apart.
“You’re okay?” he asked, slightly concerned.
“Oh yes,” she said in a strangled voice as her body shook of its own accord. Amber felt she could climax right then and there, all it would take was—
Zeke’s cock seemed to flex inside of her, and she fell on top of him as an orgasm swept through her body. It wasn’t as powerful as the first one, but she cried out nonetheless, falling on top of his powerful chest and allowing herself to be held tight as she shook. Her eyes closed and she was blasted with a never-ending wave of pleasure that seemed to take forever to dissipate.
Her nerves were once again lit with fire as she basked in the bliss that was the highest form of pleasure she had ever known.
Somewhere throughout her throes, Zeke had begun to move in and out of her. This continued as her orgasm faded, replaced by the unbelievable feeling of his cock thrusting in and out of her. It was a sensation unlike anything else she experienced in her normal life, and right then, it was exactly what Amber needed.
Zeke sat up as she recovered. He was large enough for that to work, with her legs straightened out behind him and atop his. Her chest pressed to his and his arms kept her held closely as they rocked back and forth. The motion didn’t allow for much of his cock to slide in and out of her, but it was enough, and it drove her wild anyway, which was all she could ask for at that point.
Her eyes slipped up to the stars, seeing them twinkle and bounce slightly as she rocked in time with Zeke, their bodies so tight together, despite the shirts they both still wore.
I’m literally making love under the stars. Talk about cliché.
It was, and Amber fucking loved every moment of it. She rocked against him, the two of them taking turns whispering each other’s names and sweet nothings into their ears, so totally wrapped up in the moment that they didn’t care what was said, so long as the other said it. Amber shuddered through two more climaxes while held tightly in his arms, until Zeke exploded deep within her at last.
It was the perfect night she thought, as they lay together staring at the array of glittering gems in the sky. There was no ambient light in Cadia, and the panorama displayed before them was so breathtaking she failed to find adequate words to describe it, besides stunning. It didn’t do it justice, but it was all she could come up with.
“This was a smooth move,” she teased into his ear.
“Move? Whatever are you talking about?” he asked innocently.
She giggled softly. “It’s okay, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker, and I’m perfectly okay with that.”
“Good,” he said, his head rolling to one side so he could gently press his lips to her cheek. “So am I.”
Amber sighed in contentment and moved closer to him, seeking more of his never-ending warmth. The stones were beginning to cool beneath them now, and she had yet to put her pants back on.
“Want to do it again before we go back inside?” Zeke asked, breaking the silence without warning.
“I thought you would never ask.”
Amber cried out in surprise as he rolled on top of her with incredible speed.
Her grin matched his.
***
She awoke the next morning with a start, scrambling to put her pants back on.
Zeke had let her fall asleep outside half-naked!
It was only when she encountered blankets around her legs and then fell off the couch that Amber realized at some point during the night, Zeke had brought her in, clothed her, and tucked her in to the makeshift bed.
“Ow,” she said as her tailbone and elbows complained about the sudden drop onto the hardwood floor.
“What the hell was that all about?” a cheerful voice sounded from behind her.
“I had a minor disagreement with the couch,” she grumbled. “It won.”
Quinn laughed and came over, giving her a hand to her feet, untangling her from the blanket in the process. “You should pick your battles better than that, ‘Ber, you’re a grown woman! At least make allies with the floor before you do.”
She stared daggers at the other woman for a second, before dissolving into laughter at the bad joke.
“Fair point. Now, care to explain how the hell you’re so chipper this morning?” she asked, stretching her arms wide as muscles protested the sudden movement.
“Well, for starters, because it’s already past eight, sleepyhead. I have work to do!”
“Ah shit,” Amber said, shaking herself fully awake. “I’m sorry, I said I’d help you do that today, didn’t I?”
Quinn nodded. “Sure did. So get some breakfast into you and let’s get cracking!”
“Coffee?” It hadn’t meant to come out demanding, but Quinn just laughed off her tone.
“In the pot. I’m not pouring it though. You and your heathen ways. You’re gonna give yourself fits with that much sugar,” she admonished.
Amber made a vulgar noise and shuffled over to the kitchen.
“So, how was your night?” Quinn asked slyly just as she began to pour sugar into her cup by the spoonful.
Amber started and the spoon clanked off the rim, dumping the contents entirely into her cup.
Thankfully she preferred more than one spoonful, taking another as she studiously ignored her newfound friend.
“Playing the quiet game?”
“Maybe,” she replied.
“Zeke’s a good guy,” Quinn said at last.
“Yes, yes he is,” Amber replied, trying—and failing—to keep the dreaminess from her voice.
“Now, come and tell me everything,” Quinn ordered as she finished making her cup of heavenly caffeine.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, like, did he kiss you? Not that little thing from earlier. But like, did he make a move?” Quinn asked with a wide smile.
“Maybe…” Amber replied as noncommittally as she could.
Quinn’s jaw dropped open. “Oh my God. You guys had sex last night!”
Amber blinked. “How could you possibly know that?” she asked in disbelief. “There was absolutely not enough evidence for you to know that, unless…”
“No, I didn’t hear anything,” Quinn replied. “I was, ah, occupied.”
Now it was Amber’s turn to laugh as her friend tried to cover up her own escapades the evening before. The pair of them enjoyed the laugh and drank in silence for a minute.
“Was that the first?” Quinn asked softly.
Amber
nodded. “Yes. He took me outside under the stars.”
“In the cold?”
She grinned. “He used his breath to warm the stones, then put a blanket down.”
“Ooooooh,” Quinn said. “That sounds so lovely!”
Amber smiled into her drink as she nodded, then took another long sip. “It was something else, I have to say. Very special.” She looked around. “They’ve all gone back to Top Scale, right?”
“Yeah, they left a couple of hours ago, if my memories of when Asher stirred are correct. I was pretty sleepy,” Quinn admitted. Then she sobered. “So, are you going to be staying then?”
Amber blinked. “That’s a pretty blunt question, don’t you think?”
Quinn shrugged. “Your circumstances aren’t much different than mine were,” she said. “We’ll find a way to make it legal for you to stay. Somehow.”
“I don’t know,” Amber said uncomfortably. “Is that the right choice? It’s all happening so fast.”
“Trust me, I understand more than just about anyone could,” Quinn said, reaching to put a reassuring hand on her arm. “It’s so weird, and goes against everything I’ve ever been taught.”
“I know. It’s only been a few days, and I already feel like he’s a part of me in a way I couldn’t describe. As if he’s—”
“Your other half?”
Amber nodded vigorously. “Yes, a matching puzzle piece. Whatever metaphor you want to use, we just fit together so seamlessly.”
Quinn smiled and took another sip.
“It’s so scary,” Amber said after a moment of silence.
“Terrifying,” Quinn echoed. “Still is for me. It’s only been a few months, you know. I’m still getting used to the wholesale change in my life. Leaving everything I knew to start up a brand-new life here.” She smiled. “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
“What worries me,” Amber said, finally discussing it aloud, “is that I can’t help but shake the feeling that I might be getting forced into thinking this is the right choice because of external factors.”
“Like the fact that if you go back, you’re going to be hunted by mercenaries who will try and silence you about this pipeline thing?”
“Yeah, that might have something to do with it,” Amber said with a slightly hysterical-sounding laugh. Sobering quickly, she looked at Quinn. “I’m serious though. How do I know—” she couldn’t finish her sentence.
Quinn looked at her. “How do you know…what?”
Amber took a deep breath. “How do I know that what I’m feeling with Zeke is what you and Asher have?”
“Ah. Well, hopefully it won’t go the same way as me, where you won’t know until you’re given no choice.”
Amber frowned. Quinn hadn’t told her this part of her story. “What do you mean?”
“I was initially taken by a gryphon,” she said, standing up at the same time and playing with her pants.
“Uhh,” Amber stammered, wondering what she meant by “taken” now that she was playing with her pants.
Quinn shot her a deadpan look. “I thought you were interested.”
Amber looked around frantically for some sort of excuse to buy her time. She didn’t have a problem with women liking women. Who was she to care? But this was not exactly the sorts of signals she’d been getting from Quinn!
Laughter interrupted her and she saw Quinn doubled over shaking her head. “I’m not trying to seduce you, though you are quite pretty,” she said with a wink. “This actually has to do with the story.”
“Okay,” Amber said hesitantly, feeling embarrassed for being so gullible.
“So like I was saying. Big bad gryphon dude. Not a nice man. I tried to get away, and he cut my leg open. Bad. It got infected.” Quinn shrugged at the look from Amber. “Anyway, I became delusional with the infection. No hospital around they could take me where things wouldn’t go bad. So Asher was forced to bond with me, without any sort of discussion.”
“Bond?”
Quinn pulled her pants down to her knees.
“Holy shit!” Amber exclaimed, jumping from her chair.
There, attached to Quinn’s upper leg, was a giant Frost Dragon scale, permanently adhered to her skin.
“Yep. Crazy, right? But wait until you hear what comes along with his scale adhering to my flesh.”
Amber walked over to her newfound friend, and when she was given the nod to proceed, reached out and touched the scale. It was hard, just like Zeke’s when she felt it on him, yet it rippled along with Quinn when she moved. It was the weirdest thing.
“Does it, you know, hurt?”
Quinn shook her head. “No, not anymore. If I hadn’t already had an injury beneath it, I’m not sure it would have at all. I don’t have any other experience to tell you whether it was the scale or the injury that still hurt.”
“So, this bonded you to him? How?”
“I can sense his emotions.”
“You can read his mind?”
“Not really, nothing quite so much like that. But I can sense how he’s feeling, and how his dragon is feeling. They’re kind of intertwined; it’s hard to explain. But I know if he’s happy, mad, etcetera. I can feel him now, very faintly, but there’s still a connection between us.”
Amber ran a hand along her thigh. “That’s how you know he is serious about you though.”
Quinn nodded. “He can’t lie to me, not that he ever would. I think he tried once, about not taking out the trash or something like that. I caught him right away. It was the funniest thing to see his face react to my thoughts.”
The pair of women shared a laugh over that.
“I don’t know though, Quinn. He’s such a great guy. But this is awfully fast for me to be letting him put a scale on me. That’s serious! How do I know that this is the right thing to do?”
“You’ll have to take a leap of faith. One way or another. You’ll have to trust that this is, or isn’t, the right thing to do. Either way, you’ll never know until you do it. There are some pluses though.”
“Pluses?”
“Yeah. This little baby means I’ll never get sick or ill. And as long as Asher lives, so will I.”
The look of wonder that washed over Quinn’s face at that statement was so powerful it practically reached out and ensnared Amber. As long as he lives? From just that one scale, it could give her all that?
“How long is that?”
“Oh, somewhere around another ten-plus centuries.”
Amber’s jaw dropped open. “I’m sorry, what? Did you just say you’re going to live for another thousand years?”
Quinn nodded excitedly. “Think of all the things I’ll be able to see! It still scares me, and I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but oh wow, what an opportunity.”
“That’s something else,” Amber said, leaning back against a table. “So much to think about now.”
“Take your time,” Quinn said reassuringly, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “There’s no reason you need to decide right now. No reason at all.”
Amber nodded, but her mind was already elsewhere.
Was she really ready to commit the rest of her life to a man she’d met less than a week ago?
Chapter Ten
Zeke
“In you get!” Blaine ordered as Rhynne settled down next to them after releasing the thing she’d been holding.
Zeke eyed the senior instructor cautiously.
They stood outside in the afternoon heat in front of the Academy, a dry, slightly cool wind blowing dirt through the air. It was a warm day, but on the horizon to the east the clouds were quickly darkening. Zeke knew that by nightfall there would be rain, and it looked to be building into quite a storm. He didn’t envy anyone who would be caught out in it.
“Sir?” he asked.
“Got a problem?”
“What’s the purpose of this?” Zeke asked, throwing caution to the wind as he eyed the contraption before them.
It looked like
a shed. A wire-framed shed with fabric wrapped around it to form walls, and something firm, but light, as a base. Perhaps a plywood sheet or something. The door appeared just to be a zippered entry, like a tent door. No actual structure to it. There were no windows or other viewpoints that he could see as he looked it over again. The black material would ensure the inside got nice and toasty as the day went on. It was an interesting-looking device.
What it did not look like, was sturdy.
“Must I explain everything to you?” Blaine said with an overly dramatic sigh.
“Of course sir, we’re just recruits,” Asher chimed in with a smile.
This was a scenario that had played out between them before.
“You will get in the carrier. We will carry you to an undisclosed location. You will then make your way back here.”
Zeke looked at his instructor. That didn’t sound very hard. Why they—
“Without shifting, and without a compass or map.”
Oh. Well that made it a little more difficult. They could probably use the mountains for reference though. That should be easy.
“And if you’re thinking of using the mountains, well, have fun,” Blaine said with an evil grin.
“Why do we have to do this, sir?” Dominick asked, puzzled.
Zeke wanted to speak out, to remind his friend of his own experience with such tactics just a few days ago, but he couldn’t. Not in front of the instructors. They had been lenient once. Testing them again didn’t seem like the most prudent course.
“Because there can be occasions, Dumb-inick, where you might need this sort of knowledge. We’re here to train you to be capable in many sorts of situations, to ensure you’re able to overcome any and all obstacles. Learning to find your way without assistance is a valuable one.”
The other two cadets chuckled at the way he talked to Dom, earning them a mild glare from their friend, but none of them cared. They all went through the same rounds for different things. It was good-natured teasing. The instructors were hard on them, but they wanted their charges to ask questions and to learn, so that they would be better prepared themselves.
