Dragon Soul

by Amelia Jade

  He didn’t respond, but his eyes remained fixed entirely upon her.

  “Pyne, I was in a coma for six years. Then nearly another two of rehab. That’s eight years. I—” The room grew a little brighter and she had to reach out for the bar to steady herself.

  Instead her hand found a strong, warm arm as it wrapped around her. “Hey, it’s okay,” Pyne whispered, embracing her in a hug. “It’s okay, Kim. I promise. Everything is okay.”

  The shock of this revelation wore off and Pyne eventually retreated to his seat. A surreptitious glance around the room revealed no extra attention being afforded her way thankfully.

  “Thank you,” she said quietly, feeling steadied, though not quite ready to resume sipping on her drink. “For that just now, and for everything in the past. I…I quite literally owe you my life, Pyne. How can I repay you?”

  He shrugged. “We’ll think of something.”

  He was joking, but she didn’t feel like taking it as one. She owed him, and owed him big. “Why, though?”

  “I owed it to you,” he said simply. “I couldn’t stop Morgan from hurting you. When the car went out of control, I had two choices. One, I could grab Morgan and the money he’d stolen. Or I could save you. I chose to save you, and that goes beyond just ensuring you didn’t die. I had to make sure you had every chance to get back to life. I’m so happy to hear you have.”

  “You are an amazing person, Pyne. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.” She reached out and squeezed his bicep, realizing that he did care for her, on a level she’d never been able to appreciate before. He just didn’t know how to express it.

  “Even when they kick me out of their car when I’m in pain and tell me to take care of my horrible battle wound myself?”

  If Kim could have died of shame just then, she would have. “I’m sorry. I was so wrapped up in myself, in the fear for what’s going to happen, that I wasn’t thinking of you.”

  She felt incredibly guilty. He’d been hurt, and needed her help, and she’d freaked out and wanted him gone because he wouldn’t tell her how he felt about her. Now she knew he had spent thousands, maybe millions of dollars of his own money just to keep her alive, without ever knowing if she was going to wake up. How could she ever accuse him of not caring?

  He nodded. “It’s okay. I had Rokk do it. He wasn’t happy about it, but he understood. I guess he doesn’t feel comfortable seeing me naked. Not sure why… it’s all the same, we’re twins.”

  Kim snorted loudly into her drink that she’d just decided she was ready to have another sip of. Multiple heads turned in their direction and she just wished she could die of embarrassment then and there.

  “That is not funny,” she hissed as Pyne covered his mouth to suppress the sound of him laughing. “Stop it. Right now.”

  He just started laughing harder, his face going red around his hand.

  “Pyne, you take me out of here right now,” she commanded, slipping from her chair.

  He noted the change in her attitude and stood up. “Where am I taking you?” he asked. “Are you ready to come work things out with the situation we’re in?”

  “Maybe,” she said as they went for the exit. “But first I have an apology I want to make.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kim

  “How are you even able to walk without being in pain?” she asked as they neared his quarters. “Let alone carry me.”

  “Magic,” he replied. “Plus it hurts a bit, but the feeling of having you pressed against me far outweighs that, if that makes sense?”

  She thought it over. “I think I understand. It’s like being spanked. It hurts, but it’s a good hurt because of what’s happening, right?”

  Pyne sputtered for an answer. “Uh. I guess. Personally I’ve not experienced much in the way of being spanked.” He leered at her. “I’m usually the one to do it.”

  Kim slipped from his hands as they passed through the doors, waiting for them to hiss shut. She slapped his hand away from the lights, leaving them dimmed. “I was hoping you would say that,” she purred, heading toward his bed, hooking her thumbs through her pants and pulling them down just slightly so he could see the hint of her underwear.

  “This is one hell of an apology,” he stated, his gaze firmly on her ass.

  Right where she wanted it to be.

  “It’s not just that,” she said, undoing her belt and pulling the dress pants over her curves until they dropped freely to the floor.

  Pyne came closer, and a second later her ass tingled from the impact of his hand. “I hope not. I don’t want sex with you to be currency.”

  She was still shivering in delight from his touch while he pulled his shirt off and dropped his own pants, until he was clad in just his boxers. Then her attention was immediately pulled to the wound in his gut. All the dirt, dead skin, and dried blood was gone. In its place was a patch of pink skin surrounded by bruising and jagged lines that looked horrifically painful.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” she asked cautiously.

  Pyne nodded. “I wouldn’t have let it get this far if I wasn’t.” His finger slid up the inside of her thigh as she lay bent over the bed still. “Though you might stay like this for most of it.”

  “I can handle that,” she teased, wiggling her ass back and forth for him.

  He obliged and spanked her again. Not hard enough to truly leave a mark, but enough for a good tingle. “Not yet though,” he growled, grabbing her ponytail and tugging it gently until she turned around.

  “Why, what do you want to do first?” she asked innocently, her hands finding the tent his cock was making in his boxers with ease. She stroked him lightly through the fabric, watching his face contort with blissful ecstasy.

  “I want…” His voice died as she slipped a hand under the waistband.

  “Yes?” If he’d thought that by spanking her and pulling on her hair that he was creating a power dynamic for tonight, he was incredibly wrong. She just liked those things. But Kim was all about giving as much as she got.

  The last time they’d gotten together, it had been all about her. Tonight she wanted to show him that she wasn’t just a taker, but that she was a giver as well. Dropping to her knees in front of him was the first step. The removal of his boxers the second, and her tongue running from the base of his shaft up and around the tip of his magnificent cock was the third, though by no means the last.

  To her delight Pyne proved to be more than vocal enough for her as she sucked on him, taking as much of him into her mouth as she could. He was big, so there was no way the entire thing was going to fit. But she did her best, working up and down, using her lips, her tongue, and several fingers.

  At one point he grabbed her head and pulled her away, gasping. “Wait.”

  She shook her head, pushed his hand away and went back to work. “I can wait,” she told him, meaning she intended to finish what she’d started here, and if there was a delay before he was ready to go again, that was fine with her.

  Pyne had no response to that, much to her delight. He just stared down at her, his face contorted in pleasure and appreciation as he watched her work. Kim basked in the attention, loving knowing that she was able to please him.

  Her earlier concerns about him being unable to vocalize his feelings were gone. Eventually they would have a conversation, and everything would be laid bare on the table. But what she’d realized with the way he’d shown up at the bar, his reaction to the other soldier, and more importantly the things he had been able to say to her, was that he was trying.

  It didn’t matter to her that he struggled. It shouldn’t. If he was willing to try, to show things in his own way, then that was enough for her until he found the courage or the right words to say how he felt.

  Besides, it wasn’t like she’d exactly gone out of her way to tell him that she was falling for him. Hard. That was something he deserved to know, especially if he felt the sam
e, but Kim was too shy. She didn’t know how to speak up first.

  So instead she was going to let him fuck her brains out again, which was perfectly all right by her. Those were feelings she was confident about showing. Like now.

  Above her Pyne groaned, and she felt him tighten in her mouth and hand. She continued to take him into her mouth, unconcerned as he emptied himself in a shuddering few seconds, before turning and falling onto the bed, his legs suddenly unstable.

  Kim took a moment to compose herself, wiping a stray drip off her chin.

  “Fuck me, that was amazing,” Pyne mumbled, his eyes closed, his lower torso still twitching.

  She giggled and gently got onto the bed next to him, gently stroking his shaft with the tip of one finger. Pyne shuddered again and then laid his head back, taking several deep breaths.

  “Take your time there, cowboy,” she urged, pushing him back down as he tried to rise. “We have all night, and this time I intend to make use of it.”

  Pyne’s eyes opened and he grinned, taking her hand from his chest and placing it back on his cock. To her surprise it was growing hard again already.

  “I know. I plan on it,” he growled, before rolling—very gingerly—on top of her.

  “I mean, if you insist,” she joked, spreading her legs for him, feeling her lower lip get caught between her teeth as she anticipated that first—Oh my, there it is.

  Pyne slid all the way in without stopping, only resting when his hips were pressed firmly to hers.

  Kim lay back and watched, content to let him do some work.

  For now.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Pyne

  The next morning he awoke early and immediately got out of bed. It took every effort to do so, but he wasn’t about to be lured into the feeling of comfort and safety that he’d had last time. Morgan had had enough time now to execute his plan. He didn’t want another morning ruined by that asshole.

  Once he’s taken care of, I’m going to spend an entire week lounging in bed with her, just enjoying her presence. I promise you this, Kim. I promise.

  He’d not told her how he’d felt last night. The subject hadn’t come up, but he’d made it very clear by his actions, he hoped, just how he felt about her. That she was important to him, and the sole focus of his life. It would have to be enough until he figured out why saying the words was so hard for him.

  “My head hurts,” Kim complained. “How many drinks did I have last night?”

  “Not even one.”

  “You’re joking, right? Why do I feel like I have a horrific hangover then?”

  Pyne chuckled. “That might have to do with you being a little dehydrated. You, um,—”

  “Yeah, I get it. I lost a lot of fluids last night,” she finished, sticking her tongue out at him while still wrapped up comfortably in the sheets. “Since that was mostly your fault, will you get me a glass of water and a painkiller from the bathroom?”

  He grinned. “I don’t have painkillers. But the water should help a lot.”

  Kim downed the entire glass and he refilled it. She sipped slowly at the second. “I already feel better.”

  “More water is always a good way to go about things.” He crossed over to the bed and leaned over to kiss her on the head.

  “You’re looking good too,” she said, swirling a finger around so she could look at his stomach and his back. “This looks great, and you can barely even tell your arm was hurt.”

  “The arm was a much smaller wound. Heals much quicker. Though I wish it could be near instant. That would be nice,” he muttered, remembering the pain he’d experienced all night trying to get comfortable.

  “I’m sure it would. It’s still amazing to me though. I didn’t think things like that existed in real life.”

  “For the most part, they don’t. And we definitely don’t talk about it,” he said, perhaps a tad too forcefully.

  “Of course. I would never tell anyone!” she said, shuddering. “Could you imagine if word got out? You’d be hunted for your blood.”

  Her perception never failed to impress him. “I know you wouldn’t. Like you can see, I’m just paranoid about it.”

  “Come here.” She held out a hand, dragging him in closer to her until he sat on the bed so she could nuzzle her head into his arm, kissing the skin there. “Your secret is safe with me, Pyne. I promise.”

  He used his other arm to stroke her hair until she shivered and made happy noises. They just rested like that for several minutes, enjoying each other’s company, not feeling the need to speak. It was moments like that where he felt closest to Kim, and he cherished each one of them in a vault in his mind, reliving the moments whenever he got the chance.

  I can’t wait to create more.

  Her phone buzzed, and both of their heads snapped over to where it lay on the bedside.

  “You don’t need to get that,” he suggested, not wanting the moment to end. He had a bad feeling about what waited on the other end of that notification. Morgan had a nose for these sorts of things. This was one thing that Pyne didn’t want him to ruin.

  “How can I not? If it’s him, I need to know what he’s saying,” she whispered, sliding off him and reaching for her phone. She read it quickly and put it down.

  “What does it say?”

  “It says turn on the news.”

  Pyne frowned. “I don’t have a TV.”

  She laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “Okay, cell phone news it is.”

  It took some looking, but eventually they found the national feed for a major news channel. After several minutes, Pyne wished they hadn’t.

  “Well, the cat’s out of the bag now,” Kim said, lying back onto the bed and looking skyward in helpless frustration. “A foreign national on home soil,” she quoted. “Terrorist, spy, or something else?”

  Pyne growled. “That’s all nonsense and you know it.”

  Like before, the mood was gone. Ruined by Morgan’s meddling into her life. The asshole. So wrapped up in his grief about losing his own money that he’d been unable to accept his mistake and instead needed to find someone to blame. Now he was trying to tear apart Kim’s life that she’d worked so hard to achieve. Pyne needed to stop him by any means necessary.

  Kim crawled back under the covers and pulled them up over her head. “I’m just going to stay like this,” she said unhappily.

  He couldn’t help but laugh and carefully sprawled out on top of the lump that formed as the comforter settled. “That’s not the way to go about this,” he said. “You know that. There’s not going to be any hiding from it.”

  She shook her entire body and made grumpy noises, prompting more laughter from him.

  “I know,” she said a minute or so later when he didn’t push her any further. “You’re right, I just need to sulk like this for a bit. It’s not like it’s a surprise, right? As soon as he got away we knew what he was likely to do.”

  “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how I can ever make this up to you,” he professed. “I screwed it all up. I can ensure that nothing will ever come of this, but it would still likely mean you being out of a job. You’d just avoid jail.”

  The covers came down to reveal her face, deep in thought. Her big lower lip curled up under itself. “Let’s keep that in our back pocket for now, okay? I’d really rather solve this so I don’t end up in any trouble. We’ll just treat that as a backup, in case our primary plan fails.”

  He nodded. “Okay, that’s fine. What’s our primary plan?”

  She blinked. “I thought you had one?”

  “I never said that.”

  “Okay.” She reached for her phone and started typing into it.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Starting stage one.”

  He frowned. “Which is…?”

  “I’m booking tickets home, because I need to try and get back before things get worse. It’s not like I’m going to be able to s
tay here for long. Questions will be raised, someone high up in government will figure out what base it is in the background of the photos, and they’ll send people to apprehend me.”

  “No they won’t,” he stated forcefully. “I’ve already taken care of all that. Major von Kemp, the base commander, knows what’s going on, and he’s going to vouch for you. As will a lot of other very powerful people here on the base.”

  She put her phone down on her stomach and looked at him sharply. “So you’re saying I shouldn’t go turn myself in?”

  “Not at all,” he countered, a plan suddenly forming in his brain. “In fact, that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”

  “I don’t like that look on your face. This is some sort of crazy scheme, isn’t it?”

  “Not really.” He got off the bed and ripped the covers off her, exposing her naked body to his exaggerated ogling. “Oh hello there.”

  “Pervert.” She didn’t move to cover herself up.

  “With you? Absolutely. Now put some clothes on, much as I regret saying that. We’ve got some planning to do.”

  “Great. But you have an idea already. What is it?”

  He bobbed his eyebrows as she crawled to the far side of the bed where her clothes lay, giving him a lovely view of her rear end.

  “Stop that,” she said without even looking. “I can feel your gaze.”

  “If we had time that’s not the only thing you’d feel.”

  Her groan filled the room. “That was bad, Pyne.”

  “Are you going to punish me for it?”

  A shoe flew at him, but he caught it easily. “Since when did we resort to clothes-based warfare?”

  The second shoe followed the first as she slipped off the edge of the bed and out of his sight, though he did hear a giggle.

  “Let’s go, you international fugitive. We need to book you a flight home under an alias.”

  Her head popped up, brown eyes wide, hair knocked to one side and falling out of her normal ponytail. “You’re using me as bait again, aren’t you?”

  Pyne just grinned.

  “This is not cool. Not cool at all. I won’t do it.”