Chapter Sixteen

Skye lay still, enjoying the weight of Melody’s sleeping body and the soft press of her breasts against him. He glanced down at himself, smiling wryly. She’d been so determined that he hadn’t bothered taking the time to undress either of them like he preferred to do.

Her gown was ruined, her panties ripped and sodden, and her bodice torn in half. Yet she hadn’t complained. With any other woman, he’d have behaved differently, convincing her with his breath to let him take his time so that her energy would have time to build while he teased.

With Melody, he wanted to experience her without even that small nudge influencing her behavior. It had been Garen’s role to prepare her for this reason—to ensure she’d be fully primed and uninhibited when Skye was with her—and he’d done it spectacularly.

The sun had long since set, and Skye’s skin still glowed faintly from the infusion of her energy. Hers did, too, and he wished he could see every inch of her in the darkness, but was loath to move even enough to undress her.

The brightening of her aura signaled the end of her sleep cycle. Rather than speak, he let his free hand brush lightly over her one bare shoulder, then the top of her breast. He stopped just shy of her nipple, enjoying the way her aura pulsed with her anticipation of his touch. Goosebumps rose along her skin, the texture glistening with the energy that seeped from her pores. The magic he’d filled her with when he’d climaxed.

She released a contented sigh and raised her head to look at him in the darkness. Her eyebrows scrunched together when she looked at him. “You’re glowing,” she said.

“So are you.”

She raised her hand and stared at it, wiggling her fingers. “How …?”

“You wouldn’t have noticed it during the day,” he said. “But it’s a product of our lovemaking.”

“How do you not scare the crap out of other women?” she asked.

“Most women can’t see it. You’re very different from them.”

“Oh,” she said softly, pressing her cheek back to his chest, letting her fingertips draw random patterns on his stomach, each pass causing a stripe of luminescent magic to brighten where her skin met his, and then gradually dim. She didn’t seem fazed by the action. “So, am I the only person you’ve had this kind of contract with?”

“You’re the only person I’ve ever done a lot of things with, and we’ve only known each other for a little more than day.”

She turned her head and rested her chin on his chest. Her lips curled into a curious smile. “Oh? What kinds of things?”

“Like making love with my pants half-on. Or without getting you completely naked.”

“You prefer being naked?”

“In general, yes. Even if I’m not about to have sex. Clothes are constricting.”

“What else?” she asked. Instead of waiting for him to answer, she sat up and shrugged out of her robe, then tugged the ruined gown over her head and tossed it aside. She pushed the ripped panties down her legs and dropped them to the floor, too.

“Don’t mind me,” she said. “Naked is my preference, too.” She shot him an expectant look, and then moved to his feet where she began tugging off his shoes and socks, then pulling his pants off by the cuffs. Her initiative surprised him as much as her utter lack of shock at her glowing skin, That she could even see it was enough evidence that what Kol had said of her was true. She was Blessed.

“Ah,” he said, staring at her with perplexed amusement. “Well, I don’t usually finish. Never do, in fact. You’re the first woman I’ve made glow in the dark.”

“Ugh, that has to be frustrating for you. How is it that you guys are so …” She stared at the ceiling while she crawled back up him after tossing his pants into the pile with her clothes. “So ~generous~.”

“Us guys? Do you mean Garen?”

“Yeah, I mean him. The poor guy had the hard-on from hell all day and didn’t do a thing to … erm … relieve himself. He just kept …” She paused and let out a chuckle as she lay down on his chest, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Kept what?”

“Driving me up the wall. I admit, I was starting to curse the both of you by the end, thinking tonight had better damn well be worth all that torture. But it seemed like he was being tortured just as much in the process. How the hell do you guys deal with it? I mean, is it like this for all of you?”

She was a perceptive human, to have discerned as much from her day with Garen. He found himself eager to share the small truths of his own nature with her but stopped before he said anything. With their exchange of essence, it would be too difficult for him to avoid sharing too much once he got started, and he wasn’t prepared to mark her as his mate yet. Not until he was sure she had a chance of being accepted by his mother’s magic protecting the box. The fucking box.

“Do all women respond so well to a simple touch?” he asked, shoving thoughts of the box aside and stroking the side of her throat. He enjoyed the way she hummed in pleasure and tilted her head to give him better access.

“Point taken,” she said. “Whatever works for you.”

“What works for me ~now~ is the thought of making you glow even brighter.”

Her aura vibrated under his touch and she shifted her hips, obviously aware of his erection resting against her inner thigh, just shy of her hot core. “Hang on a sec … I think I’m getting the hang of how this ~energy exchange~ works. How about I make ~you~ glow. I like that part.”

Raising up with her hands braced on his chest, she tilted her hips just enough for her slick folds to slip along his length until she had his tip pressed against his belly, trapped between them. He closed his eyes, wishing to be deep inside her again, but enjoying her soft sounds of pleasure while she rubbed herself against the sensitive underside of his cock.

Melody’s eyelids fluttered from the pleasure she gave herself on his flesh. He lay there with his hands resting lightly on her thighs and simply observed, enthralled by her gradually brightening aura. The sweet tang of her arousal reached his nose and made his mouth water at the memory of how she’d coated his tongue the day before. He’d avoided drinking or eating anything for hours, simply so he could keep the residue of her fresh for as long as possible.

With an impatient groan, Skye slipped his arms beneath her thighs and gripped her by the ass. She let out a surprised squeak when he hauled her up past his chest until her soft, round bottom rested on his collarbone. Tilting his head up, he could just reach her creamy slit with his tongue.

“Close your eyes, love,” he murmured, grazing his lips over her smooth, wet flesh.

She repositioned slightly, tucking her lower legs deeper into the cushions behind his shoulders. In the process, she lifted off him until she was just out of reach.

“No,” she said. “I want to see it.”

The scent of her, so close and so potently aroused, intoxicated him. He longed to bury his dragon tongue deep in her again and feel her climaxing around it with her fingers threaded into his hair. But he couldn’t let her see a part of him that was so obviously ~not~ human.

He dug his fingers into her ass harder, trying to force her down to meet his mouth, but she stopped him by bracing one hand on his forehead and pushing. She laughed a wicked little laugh that made him even hungrier for her.

“No, Skye. Show me and then you can have me.”

He dropped his head back to the cushion. “What if I never want more of you than this, Melody? Wouldn’t you rather not know this about me? How far from human I really am?”

She snorted. “I sure hope you’re more than just a fantastically agile tongue. Even if that’s all you are, I hope you want more, because I do.”

He stared up at her and released his hold on her ass. She lowered herself back to his chest and let her hands slide down the side of his cheeks.

“What more do you want?” he asked, his pulse pounding in his throat. It was a dangerous question for him to ask so soon, but even as the words came out, he knew whatever answer she gave he would give her if it were in his power to give.

“To know you. Not just what you are—what that tongue of yours means—but ~who~ you are. Why it’s so important that you come to me the way you do, and why you’d rather fuck than talk. Not that I’m complaining, but I’m no fool. The contract I signed has a very vague option for an indefinite extension if we’re both in agreement at the end. That sounds like something a lot more complex than a job.”

He closed his eyes and cursed silently. “How much has Garen already told you?”

She tensed. “Not enough. Nothing that explains why you chose me.”

“You had a glowing recommendation by a man I respect.” He stared up at her trying to decide if he should share more. Closing his eyes, he sighed, the exhalation apparently causing just enough warm friction over her bare flesh to make her quiver. “Do you believe in Fate, Melody?”

Her brow twitched and she tried to move away, but he held her fast. After he finished the conversation, he fully intended to bury his tongue in her. There was no way he’d let her get out of that.

“I suppose,” she said. “Though he, she, or it has been a bitch to my family for my whole life. Until lately, anyway.”

“We’re slaves to Fate, is what we are, if you really want to know. What you’ve experienced in your life was no doubt dictated by Fate to lead you to me.”

“Then why the contract? All this effort to make sure I’m … ~primed~ … for you?”

“Because, aside from Fate, my Mother is a manipulative bitch, even from the beyond.”

He wouldn’t divulge more than that so soon, particularly not the part Kol and her blessing had to play in it, but his mother’s instructions had been clear enough where the box was concerned. The box would only open for Skye once he’d found the love of a worthy mate. She wanted for him the love she had never managed to find herself. He doubted for so long that it was possible to have both, but now that Melody was here, he began to have hope.

Her expression softened as she stared down at him, her fingers slowly and gently raking through his hair. “Yet you still say it with love. Where would we be without our mothers? Or without fate?”

He grinned up at her. “Fate did bring your delicious snatch to me,” he said, craning his head up and giving her a quick lick.

“Stop!” she said amid a delighted giggle. She smacked him lightly on the cheek before sobering again and giving him a plaintive look. “Will you just show me, please?”

He closed his eyes. Garen had already skirted around their laws enough the last day, but he didn’t think he ought to follow suit. Even though simply using his dragon tongue on her to begin with was discouraged, he’d happily used it when she’d requested the day before. Come to think of it, Kol had already done the same with her, so it was ~his~ fault she’d grown curious. But even for a Blessed, who could see some of what they were, he shouldn’t test the bounds of the law.

Skye’s sense of caution rebelled against the idea of actively revealing any part of his natural form, even if he weren’t showing her all of him. But was it only his fear of actually discovering she could be his perfect mate? That he could be happy and fulfilled with a single human woman?

“What are you scared of?” she asked, her gentle touch pausing in its stroking of his head.

“Not scared,” he said, taking a deep breath. He clutched her tighter, pulling her closer to his lips.

She gasped when he latched onto her with his mouth and stroked between her folds with his human tongue.

“Oh God, that’s nice,” she said. “Show me.”

He pulled back and traced his tongue in a small circle around her clit, keeping the very human pink tip for only a moment before he let the magic slip away from that part of him so it could shift. He kept his eyes on hers while his tongue transformed, anticipating … what? Fear? Disgust?

All he knew was that she tasted infinitely sweeter to his true tongue as he let the twin forks flick between her lips and pull them apart. Her eyes widened and her mouth parted, but not with any of the feared reactions. Instead, he watched almost mesmerized as her aura brightened and her juices flooded over the sensitive taste buds that coated the surface of his tongue.

The hunger for her barreled back full force, and before he knew it, he’d grabbed her around the waist and surged up, lifting her as he moved so that her delicious core remained aligned with his mouth. She teetered off balance for a moment and he withdrew just enough to tell her, “I’ve got you, hold on to me.” She clutched his head tightly with one hand and wrapped her legs around his shoulders, but he had her solidly held in both arms, one wrapped around her ass and the other hand held tightly in hers for balance.

The next sound out of her mouth was a cry of ecstasy as he buried his tongue deep into her again and thrust in rhythm with her hips grinding against his face.

He wished like hell that he could watch her come, but wouldn’t have traded anything for the experience of having her clinging to him like this, with her wet snatch pressed so tightly against him, quivering and clenching as she came with erratic bucks of her hips and beautiful cries hitting his ears. The energy that flowed through him was every bit as potent as the last time, and he could have easily ended the night there, with them both entirely sated. He was more than full enough to last for the next week, but he knew now that he would never be full enough of her, or of giving his energy back.

She relaxed finally and he supported her as she slid back down his chest, but she kept her legs tight around him. “My turn to glow?” she asked in a half-drunken whisper as his cock sank into her again.

“Yes, love,” he said.

“I can’t decide which is better,” she murmured, the sound carrying with it reflections of something that he’d never experienced with any woman. Granted, he generally made an effort to avoid focusing on their emotions. So many were unable to differentiate between deep love and deep pleasure, and he preferred to take his fill of their pleasure and move on before they became too confused by the realization that those were two vastly different emotions.

Melody’s aura had subsided after her orgasm and was now simply a pleasant glow enveloping them both while he fucked her. The only emotional impression was simple, naked contentment.

“What can’t you decide?” Skye asked, brushing his lips down her throat and flicking his lengthened dragon tongue between her breasts.

She moaned and arched back, letting him support her weight in his arms while he licked and sucked at her breasts.

“Whether I like your tongue more, or your cock.”

“Why decide?” he murmured. “When you can have both at once.”

A sweet, low moan escaped her throat when he drove his cock deep into her and continued teasing the tips of both breasts. He pulled back to simply watch her in the pale glow of the moonlight streaming in through the high windows behind her. Her creamy skin still shimmered faintly with luminescent blue from his energy, and her hair appeared silver in the light from outside.

He committed the image to memory, and not just the visual of her at that moment, but the subtler pulse of her aura that drifted like a cloud around her. And for the first time in weeks, he lost the sense of all those other human emotions clamoring through the air of the city around him. His senses were inundated only with her, and he reveled in every tiny nuance of her emotions.

Melody clutched her thighs tighter around him and raised her head to look at him. Reaching out, she gripped the back of his neck with one hand for leverage as she pivoted her hips with deliberate strokes to meet his.

Sweet Mother, was she coming again?

“Touch me,” she breathed. “I want to come with you.”

“I like the view too much,” he said. “Let me see you touch yourself.”

“Oh, God,” she said, her aura growing and swirling around her, teasing at his senses again.

He gazed at her, enraptured by her abrupt change. He hadn’t done a thing differently besides say those words, but here she was, on the verge yet again. Her eyes opened wide and watched him as she slid her hand down between them and stroked herself. Her fingers reached farther to where they were joined and gripped him gently, smiling at his groan of pleasure in response to the added friction. Then her fingers were on her clit again. His gaze alternated between her hand and her face, hoping to capture the moment and commit that to memory, too.

The moment before she came, her aura surged around them, a hurricane wind of energy that harmonized with her cries of his name. The sound erupted from her throat like a song, the inflection and tone shifting with each swift stroke of his cock. He pulled her tighter against him, gripping her ass to guide her hips and control her motions while he groaned out his own pleasure against her lips and spent his ecstasy deep inside her, sending with it the accumulated cloud of power.

She clung to him, panting, her muscles still spasming around his cock.

“Skye,” she whispered.

“Yes, love?” he said, nuzzling at the dewy moisture that glistened on the side of her neck. He let his forked tongue flick out to taste her there and was rewarded with a tiny gasp followed by a tilt of her head to one side.

“You’re right. I love them both equally, I think.”

“Mmm, good,” he said, staring off into the dawn light pinkening the sky outside his windows.

A familiar pleasant tickle raced up his spine—a sensation that he only had when Garen was close by. He realized with surprise that the sensation had been there for some time. He looked at Melody and followed her gaze to where it was fixed somewhere behind him, shifting just enough to see Garen leaning with one shoulder against the wall in the shadows near the front door.

The tickle along his spine turned icy in response to the hungry look Garen gave her. Skye’s arms tightened around Melody possessively, leaving him wondering about his own reaction as much as Garen’s mood. As alien as the chilly aura of Garen’s emotions was for a dragon, Skye knew the emotion well enough from the humans he’d come into contact with. The dark hint of fear that underscored Garen’s aura betrayed the truth of his jealousy, but the second Skye reached out with his mind to his friend, Garen’s aura withdrew, sinking back into him like a Shadow’s breath retreating into its master’s lungs.

By contrast, Melody’s aura grew even warmer, and her moist heat still wrapped around his cock slickened. Her emotions, however, spiked with confusion and before he could stop her, she pulled away from him. He blinked at her naked form in the dawn light as she stooped to grab something to wear, found her ripped gown, then settled on his dress shirt that was still thankfully whole.

“You’re back!” she said to Garen and started toward him, an uncertain smile on her face.

Skye rose and started after her, but paused, deciding modesty might be appropriate, all things considered.

~“I didn’t mean to interrupt.” ~Garen’s voice was calm and contained in Skye’s mind, with no hint of the emotion he’d sensed earlier. He sounded so normal, Skye could almost believe he’d imagined the earlier look. One thing he certainly didn’t imagine now, however, was the way vibrant threads of Melody’s energy trailed out through the air between her aura and Garen, and in the other direction toward Skye himself.

She stopped half way between them and turned, her pretty face caught in the reflected glow of the sunrise off a window beyond their building. Skye stood and donned his trousers, entranced by the way the light gilded her almost as perfectly as her aura. The trailing tendrils of energy reached for him and, in equal measure, for his friend, stretching toward them like vines seeking nurturing sunlight. They flamed blue in his direction and white in Garen’s, bleeding to a bright gold close the center where she stood between them, frozen in place by uncertainty.

~“Do you see this?” ~Garen asked, his silent voice awed. ~“How is she attuned to me?”~

~“It must be the bond you and I share that bled through when I shared my Nirvana with her. There’s no other way she could have absorbed your energy. It’s odd that it’s reaching for you, though. It should only do that if you’ve tasted hers, too.” ~

Garen’s expression became stricken with shock. ~“Sweet Mother, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this could happen. Forgive me.” ~He turned away and strode swiftly to the door.

“Garen!” Skye called after him. “Forgive you for what?” But his friend was out the door, leaving behind him an impression of shame and self-hatred more intense than any emotion Skye had experienced from a human. Suspicion crept into his mind for the first time, leaving him cold.

Melody turned back to him, her shock plain on her face. “Forgive him? Did he do something wrong?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Skye said. “Perhaps you can shed some light on the matter.”