Page 48

GIDEON

T here isn’t a better feeling in the world than waking up with Winnow in my arms. I tuck her more firmly against my chest, and at the same moment, I feel something warm tighten into a coil around my leg.

My eyes pop open as I remain completely still, and my heart starts to pound.

Is there a fucking snake in this bed?

The room is cast in the blushing glow of the sun’s bashful ascension into the sky. My eyes lock onto the sight of those delicate little horns peeking out of her strawberry blonde hair, and I swear to God— flowers.

I blink slowly, waiting for the hallucination to clear.

And for the first time, it doesn’t.

Some bizarre sense of knowing seems to settle upon me as the sensation of the snake on my leg has me carefully lifting the blankets. Intuition tells me that it’s not a snake. No, no. For some reason, I’m actually expecting to see a tail.

And sure enough, nestled just above the beautiful cleft of Winnow’s luscious ass is the base of a long slender tail that has curled its way around my thigh.

I stare for a moment, waiting to see if this vision will disappear. When seconds pass and it doesn’t, I gingerly lower the blankets, trying not to wake her, and stare up at the ceiling.

Either I need to be rushed to the hospital so I can get an MRI…

Or…

This world is a little different than I thought.

Huh.

Winnow makes a soft, needy noise in her sleep, wiggling her ass against my already half-chubbed cock. That tiny action is all it takes to make me fully hard.

It’s not possible to have a stroke and an erection at the same time, is it?

Only mildly concerned for my health, my arm curls back around her waist as I pull her tightly against me.

Her ass nuzzles against my now painfully hard cock again in response, and it causes all concern for my own health to dissolve.

Already, my tip is leaking pre-cum all over her backside, and my hips give a mindless thrust against her.

The feeling of her tail abates as she gives a soft, needy moan. Sure enough, when I open my eyes, the sight of her horns and flowers is gone, making me question my sanity—my health—all over again. Oddly enough, I’m saddened by their disappearance.

My mind begins to replay a montage of memories.

Harlan’s red-faced, wide-eyed fervor. “She healed, Gideon. She fucking healed. Right before my goddamn eyes.”

Winnow joining me in the kitchen her first night here after showering off all of the blood and mud.

“How’d you get your hair to dry so fast?”

Winnow shrugs. “Magic.”

Winnow’s tear-streaked face sitting on the couch as I’m kneeling in front of her.

“And where’s home?”

“Caerwynath.”

“Where’s that? Europe or somethin’?”

She huffs a small, sardonic laugh.

“Or something.”

Trigger begging for Winnow’s attention where he has her cornered, and she carefully extends a shaky hand where soft golden light unfurls from her palm and fingertips toward Trigger.

Fuck me, was Harlan right, and I’ve just been too pea-brained and arrogant to believe that maybe, just maybe, the universe is bigger than what most of us have fathomed?

Part of me still distantly wonders if I’m having an aneurysm, but the majority of my mind is reeling, trying to fully grasp this newly unveiled reality.

Perhaps it’s a combination of shock, overwhelm, and wonder that allows me to remain so calm about this, but it doesn’t at all change how I feel about Winnow.

If anything, it makes me concerned that she feels the need to hide who or what she is from me out of what I can only assume is fear.

“I want to be perfect for you too, Gideon.”

My heart squeezes painfully tight at the memory of the obvious worry and insecurity in her eyes.

This woman couldn’t possibly be any more perfect than she already is—horns, tail, flowers… This woman is pure magic. She’s my angel. And by God, I’m gonna prove to her she has no reason to hide anything from me.

The sound of tires on gravel—the announcement that my ranch hands are arriving— reminds me of the fact that my day is starting late, but I can’t be bothered to care because for the first time in my life I have a damn good reason to stay in bed.

Winnow burrows deeper against me, making her bare pussy, slick and wet with need, press against the top of my thigh.

All concerns of health and work evaporate once more, and my hand smooths over the rounded curve of her ass before venturing between the backs of her thighs.

A deep groan of satisfaction escapes me at the sensation of my middle and index fingers gliding through her folds until I reach the precious little bud of her clit.

My voice is a rough whisper against her neck.

“You feelin’ needy this mornin’, angel? You need Daddy to take care of you before I go to work?”

Winnow nods, whimpering as my middle finger teases circles around her clit.

“Yes, sir.”

Jesus, fuck, this woman.

A growl rumbles out of me as my teeth sink gently into the flesh of her shoulder, and my middle finger dips into her tight channel, pumping in and out briefly before returning to her pouty bud.

Her hips writhe against my aching cock, urging me into action.

In one swift motion, I rise to splay her legs wide beneath me and settle over her body.

Her breasts jiggle with invitation from the sudden motion.

Pressing them together to shorten the distance between the two, I take turns sucking the tips of each one into my mouth and torturing them gently with teeth and tongue.

Winnow’s moans of pleasure are fuel to my fire and have me growling against her. Her hips writhe against my length, painting the underside of my cock with her arousal.

After only a minute or so, her breath is hitching.

“Oh, fuck, Gideon, I think I’m gonna cum.”

I release her nipple with a soft pop . “Not yet, you’re not. You’re gonna give me a taste of what’s mine first.”

I shift backward to sit on my heels as I pin her knees back in a way that lifts her ass higher into the air, baring all of her to me.

Pink, wet, and flushed, her pussy clenches, as does the tight little dusky ring of flesh near it.

“Goddamn it, baby. You know I’m gonna need to eat this pussy for breakfast every fucking morning now, don’t you?”

Before she can muster a response, the flat of my tongue is licking all the way up from her pretty little asshole, to her clit. She moans, nails sinking into my forearms as I lavish her clit with pulsing sucks in between lapping at her weeping entrance.

“Such a good fucking girl.”

Winnow’s body coils tight, stilling her hips, allowing me to double my efforts on her clit as I slide two fingers inside her.

By whatever fucking magic this woman possesses, I feel that tingling energy rise swiftly up my spine in the same moment she cries out and her core spasms around my fingers. My hips rut mindlessly against the bed.

We’re gonna have to have a discussion about this as soon as she’s ready to let go of this little human disguise.

I need to be able to make my woman cum repeatedly without my own release spilling from my cock uncontrollably—something that has never happened to me before.

Gently suckling Winnow’s clit, to ease her down from her orgasm, my fingers slip free, and I lick up every drop of her release before I brace myself on my elbows on either side of her head to capture her mouth with mine.

When we part, there’s a grin on my lips, and my nose brushes hers.

“Thank you for breakfast.”

The ear-to-ear grin on Winnow’s face as she laughs, blessing me with another kiss, is enough to change a man.

To change me.

After my time in the military and all the shit that went down afterwards, I promised myself I wouldn’t take another life, but now…

If it came down to it, and I had to kill a man every day just to keep a smile on this woman’s face, I’d do it.

Winnow’s legs snake around my waist as her arms curl around my shoulders, pulling herself against me. My cock, somehow, is still fucking hard for this woman and I can’t help but distantly wonder if it’s because of her magic.

Even so, I can hear my ranch hands outside, and can’t ignore my responsibilities. When I press a final kiss to her plush lips and pull away, she gives me a sultry look.

“What about my breakfast, Daddy?”

Fuuuuck.

Burying my face in her neck, I breathe her in and try to calm my desire. “As much as I want to feed you my cock, they’re waitin’ on me, angel.”

“Can I come with you today? Surely there’s something I can do to help?”

Lifting my head, I study her expression.

The last thing I want is for her to do hard labor, much less out of some misguided sense of obligation.

And, there’s a chest-thumping possessive part of me that loathes the idea of Beau and Levi laying their way-too-fucking-pretty-cowboy-eyes on her.

Even though I’d only be prolonging the inevitable.

However, the idea of her being near me at all times, especially while this is all still so new between us, seems to soothe my soul on every level.

“Of course, angel. I’d love to have you with me. You don’t need to do any work, though.”