Page 17

Jacy

“We’re fated to be together. Can’t you feel it?”

Avery and I sat together on the sofa, the TV off and the dancing firelight the only illumination. Outside, a fierce storm struck the region, blowing snow and ice past the windows. I listened to the wind howl over the snapping and crackling of the flames and felt safe. Happy, warm, and very much in love.

“Yeah, I do,” I murmured. “Hard to believe I came here just a few months ago. Now look at us. In love. With a wonderful future ahead.”

He squeezed me more tightly, his hand resting against my stomach. “Is it time to think about planting a baby dragon in there?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, unsure if I was ready for a pregnancy. Motherhood, absolutely. I already thought of Declan as my son.

“You want more kids, don’t you?”

“Sure. In time.”

Avery kissed my cheek. “I can wait until you’re ready.”

Breathing deeply, I smiled into his Nordic blue eyes. “Thanks.”

“We should consider getting married first,” Avery mused. “In the spring?”

Lightly smacking his arm, I said, “Shouldn’t you ask me first? There’s a form to follow, you know.”

“There is?”

“Yeah. Buying an engagement ring, kneel, beg me to marry you, slide it on my finger.”

“Oh. I recall hearing something about that once.”

“Then plan the wedding, send invitations, order a cake and flowers.”

“I thought we might get one of those drive-thru weddings in Las Vegas.”

I snorted. “That’s about as romantic as doing your taxes.”

“That’s me. Mr. Romantic.”

“I’d like a honeymoon cruise through the Caribbean,” I commented with a sigh. “The three of us. Leave the cats and dog at home.”

“Declan will insist his cats come along.”

“I love his devotion to his cats, but they stay home. End of discussion.”

His chuckle vibrated against my ear. “Now you sound like a mother.”

“I hope I’ll be a good mother.”

“You’ll be the best.”

His finger under my chin lifted my face toward his. His mouth enclosed mine in a sweet, passionate, and loving kiss. Parting my lips, his tongue slipped inside and danced the tango, licking my teeth and turning my pussy into a wet, throbbing mess.

I wore a lightweight set of linen pajamas. His hand had little trouble in sliding between the thin elastic and my skin to toy and tease my clit. I moaned, my excitement growing, my lust rising. I opened my legs, leaning my back against his chest. Kissing had to stop, but the foreplay did not. Avery caressed my flesh under my top, cupping my breasts and teasing my nipples into hard pebbles.

Unable to return the favor, I laid against him and simply enjoyed the erotic pleasure his talented hands brought me. My pussy hummed and quivered, craving more, needing his thick, long cock buried deep within it. I tried to push that need aside, but his fingers, his oh so long and gifted fingers brought me to my first orgasm.

I shut my jaw in order to not cry out at the exquisite pleasure romping through me. Still, I moaned, unable to prevent that sound from escaping my lips. My pussy spasmed, quaking, and I rode the high as I might a bucking horse.

Gasping for breath, I turned in Avery’s arms. “My turn to pleasure you.”

I slid down his body until I knelt on the carpet. He pulled his thick shaft from his sweatpants and guided the head into my waiting mouth. Now he groaned, his fingers tangled in my hair, while I sucked his cock, licking, taking him in as deeply as I could. It didn’t take him long before he, too, orgasmed, shooting his come into my throat.

I swallowed his salty seed, half thinking I may need to wait before he’d fill my pussy. I need not have worried. Avery’s shaft stayed hard. He lifted me from my knees and pulled me onto his lap. I knelt on the couch over his thighs and pointed his cockhead at my pussy.

Then dropped my full weight on it.

The mix of pleasure and pain as his shaft filled me, spread me wide, made me gasp. Avery bucked his hips upward, and within moments we had a nice rhythm going. His cockhead nudged against my G-spot, and the intense pleasure flooded my loins. Deep inside me, my second climax swelled, rocking through me like a tornado.

Avery followed close behind, his cock spasming his seed into my pussy. Though I wasn’t quite ready for pregnancy, at that moment, I didn’t care if his sperm was successful. I clasped my hands behind his head and kissed him with all the love I felt within my heart.

“I love you,” I muttered thickly. “Forever. You’re mine.”

Avery kissed me. “I am yours, my blood, my heart. Our lives have been linked from beyond time.”

I leaned my brow against his. “Fated to be together?”

“Yeah. Maybe we were star crossed lovers in another life.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”

***

Avery clapped his hands together and rubbed them, grinning, like a 60’s game show host. “Today, my beloved and my child, we’re going car shopping.”

“Yay,” Declan crowed, then sobered. “What does that mean?”

Avery picked him up and swung him around. “That means, o child of my loins, our insurance check came in, and we need a new ride.” Avery eyed me sidelong. “An SUV. A family vehicle. If you get my drift.”

I rolled my eyes. “I got your drift, o grand holder of the family jewels. The insurance won’t cover the entire cost, I hope you realize.”

“What it doesn’t cover, we’ll finance.” He smirked. “Right now, I’ve got more work, aka commissions, than I can handle. And since you’re no longer on the payroll –” His smirk widened.

“Oh, this is how it is.” I groaned. “How typical in a male society that a woman falls in love, and she gets canned.”

Declan wriggled from Avery’s arms and ran to me. “You’re not canned. Dad, you can’t do that.”

“Since Jacy got a promotion,” Avery replied, pouring himself a cup of coffee, “she’s not your nanny anymore, little man.”

Declan’s eyes widened. “She’s not?”

“She’s gonna be your mom.”

His happy scream might have alarmed the neighbors if the windows had been open. Declan wrapped his arms around my hips as I laughed, then picked him up to hold him.

“We’re a family, baby,” I said, kissing his cheek. “From now on.”

“I love you, Jacy.”

“I love you, too, sweetie.”

“Why don’t you try calling her ‘Mom’?” Avery asked.

Declan grinned. “Mom. I love you.”

“Ditto.”

We drove the rental to the nearest large city an hour’s drive away. Hand in hand, with Avery carrying Declan, we walked among the SUVs at a Ford dealership. After dismissing an eager salesman, we talked the merits of this vehicle or that one, discussed the prices, third row seats and built in TVs.

“We don’t need a TV,” I argued. “We have one at home.”

“Sure we do,” Avery protested. “When we take over the road vacations, the kids will need entertainment. Besides, it doesn’t add that much to the overall cost.”

“And leather?” I lifted my brow. “We need that, too?”

“It’s easier to clean than cloth. Cloth stains.”

“And leather cracks.”

“Not if we care for it.”

Avery slipped his hands around my waist, his grin making me hot inside my warm jacket and hood. “Come on. Let’s indulge ourselves. The insurance will cover half the cost as a down, the payments for the rest won’t break the bank. We can do this.”

I studied the dark gray SUV with all its bells, whistles, and TV, then nodded. “All right. I’ve never bought anything so expensive before.”

“It’s a family car, babe. Room for the rugrats, taking long vacations, maybe take it to a remote location, drop the seats and – use your imagination.”

“Imagination for what, Dad?” Declan piped up.

I covered Avery’s seductive grin with my finger. “Declan, never mind. Do you like it?”

“Yeah!”

“Then I guess we’ve bought ourselves a new car.”

We called back the ecstatic salesman, haggled a bit, signed the papers, Avery wrote a check, and we both received a set of smart keys. Avery transferred Declan’s safety seat to the new SUV and kissed me with a grin.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything. Coming into our lives. Agreeing to a family. And for just being you.”

I slid my arms around his hard waist and smiled into his eyes. “You’re sucking up because I agreed to that monstrosity.”

“True. I love you, anyway.”

With Declan humming to himself behind me, I drove the new SUV behind Avery in the rental to the agency. After he turned the car over, he joined us, and directed me to drive to a nice restaurant to celebrate. I eyed him.

“Celebrate what?”

“Our new life together.” Avery grinned impudently. “Our future family. Our new car. And the freedom from the dragon council under whose fearful doom I no longer fear to tread.”

I laughed. “They were quite nice, weren’t they?”

“And Ian, that putz, got what he deserved.”

“What happened to him?”

Avery smirked and kissed his fingers like a French chef. “He’s been shit canned as the council liaison and ordered to report for duty as the council’s new toilet scrubber.”

“No,” I gasped.

“Yes. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer dragon.”

“Avery,” I said, glancing at him. “He could easily blame you for his new assignment.”

He waved his hand, negligent. “He can blame himself. Turn right here, the restaurant is a few blocks down.”

I followed his directions, troubled. Ian didn’t seem like the type who’d take responsibility for his own actions and attitude. He’d spent three years tormenting Avery. He’d once held a position of high esteem among dragons. Now? He was a janitor of sorts. A low life.

The implications bothered me.

Declan received a booster seat from the smiling waitress. He scribbled pictures of his cats on a paper with a crayon as Avery and I smiled at one another over glasses of wine. While not exactly a family type restaurant, the staff bent over backwards for Declan. He repaid them by showing them his drawings of his cats.

We dined on steaks and baked potatoes, drank wine, and celebrated our freedom from those who’d wished us ill. Ian had his new job to keep him busy while I’d scared Carter into leaving the state. No more would either of them darken our horizons. We talked of our future, our unborn kids, and our wedded life together.

Slightly tipsy, I clutched my jacket close around my neck as we left the restaurant. Darkness had fallen, and Declan drowsed while Avery carried him across the parking lot. Snow blew in swirling circles to land on our lashes and the pavement. I vaguely hoped our drive home wouldn’t be slick and slippery as the storm around us intensified.

Avery flipped the SUV’s door handle upward to unlock it. “Here you go, little man,” he murmured. “Let’s get you buckled in.”

As he settled Declan into his safety seat, I stood behind him, shivering in the cold, and glanced around the parking lot. A few cars pulled in to park just as an even number drove out. I happened to glance at a darkly tinted pickup – and the gleam of the streetlights on polished metal.

My eyes widened in disbelief.

“Get down,” I screamed, shoving Avery into the rear seat and on top of Declan.

The rifle’s muzzle flashed red and orange.

I barely registered the flash, the bark of the rifle. The bullet struck me high in my chest long before they hit my eyes and ears.

I staggered, fell back against our new car, the shock of being shot instantly numbed all my senses. I knew I fell, dropped onto my knees, then onto my face as Avery’s screams, his panic, echoed in my now limited hearing.

I felt the icy snow and ice on my face –