Snowflake Unbound, page 8
“I know, and I have introduced you to a lot of fun and only vaguely shady people. You have turned out great.”
He grinned. “I know, now go have some nice PG-rated fun.”
She grinned and kissed his cheek. “I will try. I won’t tell you if it slips into R.”
He laughed and hugged her. She walked into the hall, and Jack was there, smiling as she brought her bag.
He took the bag from her and held out his hand. They walked out of Nikolai and Alita’s house and to Jack’s truck. He plugged his phone in, and after ten seconds, it started having seizures.
He grinned and said, “Ignore it. I do. Frequently.”
He buckled up and put the truck in gear, driving them into the city and back to the apartment they had coupled in earlier. This time, it was going to be takeout and cuddling. She wondered if his dragon would have some kind of a nervous break not being able to mount her.
He parked and carried her bag to the elevator. They headed up to the penthouse, and she moved close to him and took his hand.
Jack smiled. “Do you want to order something?”
“Hell yes. I usually have to cook for myself at home. Having ready-made food showing up at my house is a dream come true.” She grinned. “Or wherever I am staying.”
The elevator opened, and he walked to the door, and his palm opened the lock.
She let him pull her inside, and they were absolutely alone. He carefully wrapped her in his arms, and the fire tumbled into her again. She held his shoulders and tilted her head. When he lifted his head, she smiled. “Answer your messages. I will order something for a late dinner, and we can watch something boring on television.”
He grinned. “As my lady wishes.”
She grabbed her phone, and they chatted while he answered his messages, and she ordered a vast array of dim sum.
By the time the food showed up, he had made it through the texts and half the calls. She went to the door to get the food and nodded to the courier, who handed over all the bags. She danced into the kitchen and got some bowls and plates. The entire assembly was set on the coffee table, and she opened all the boxes, grabbed some chopsticks and hot sauce, and got to work.
Jack watched her, and he grinned as he finished the last call. “Got to go. I am missing dinner.”
He snapped his chopsticks apart and went to work. “You eat really fast.”
She laughed. “Never look down at a fit woman with a large appetite. You know she burns it off.” She waggled her brows at him, and he laughed.
“But not tonight.” He smiled. “Tonight is for learning about each other.”
“Sure. What do you want to know?”
He paused. “How do you make your living?”
“I have some boutiques that were given to me by Rickart. Birthday presents usually.” She smiled. “I also make leather masks that I sell at ren faires. They were my first craft that made money with my own hands. I do that at my place in the hills.”
He nodded. “You didn’t go back to performing right away?”
“Oh, good grief, no. There were enough nerds like Ford out there just waiting for me to pop out of the woodwork, and my recovery after Erik joined the world took quite a while. When I needed something to do, I went and got some of the hides that appeared after Erik was born, and I got to work making masks. I learned to mold them, shape them, paint them. I do it during the winter months when I am not as hungry.”
He chuckled. “That is because the winter feeds you then.”
“Oh. Right. That explains why I don’t feel the cold. Mind you, I didn’t feel much at all. And the lack of a sense of smell was super annoying. It made eating anything a leap of faith.” She ate another dumpling. “I have missed dim sum so much. I had only just gone to the city a few weeks before and had it for the first time. I haven’t been able to taste it properly since, so I just ordered everything I could imagine.”
“That explains the chicken feet.” He chuckled.
She grinned. “They have a certain jelly-like charm.”
Jack finally asked the question she had been braced for. “How did you end up at that party?”
“Ah, you mean how did I join the band?”
“That’s the actual question. Yes.”
“Well, once upon a time, I drummed using sticks and branches and anything straight for as long as I could remember. My upbringing was fairly strict, and I frequently got beaten for my obsession, but I have always heard the soul of the song and the heart of nature, and I want others to hear it as well. So, I heard about auditions at a mall two towns over. I stole a pair of drumsticks from the local music store and used all my money for a bus ticket. I got there, and it was my first time with actual drums, so I didn’t know what they sounded like. I tapped the bass and giggled, hit the snare, tapped the cymbal, and then realized they were waiting for me to do something. So, I played my rhythm, my beat, my heart. I finished. I sighed. And I left the stage and didn’t know what to do. I started to wander off when one of the organizers grabbed me and told me they wanted me to do a second audition but playing with one of the assembled bands. I went back and sat at the drum kit, and the girls got together and talked. Jen came over and told me the beat she wanted me to follow, and that’s what I did. I played a steady beat for them with no variation. When the song was over, I asked them to play it one more time. On that run-through, I just let go and played the soul of the song. So, we became a band.”
“We travelled to a few competitions. I was emancipated from my family then turned eighteen, and then we had an appointment with a few agencies, including yours, but there was a party, and we were excited to be grownups out on our own for the first time. That took a turn.”
Jack snorted. “He caught the scent of cookies first. Heavy vanilla and a lot of creamy butter. He wanted to eat you up on the spot.”
She snorted, and they had a chopstick duel as he fought her for the last spring roll.
He asked her. “What happened with your band?”
“I came back to the party after leaving your bed because it was the only place I knew people, and I had no idea what had just happened. Sex wasn’t something I had indulged in prior to that. I hurt.” She sighed. “I just wanted my friends, but I ran into... Lily? She was enraged, and I am guessing that your dragon had just dumped her. She was angry, and I found my friends who had found alphas and betas to play with, and when they learned who she was, they were furious at me for endangering our chances with your agency by arguing with her. I didn’t realize she could smell you all over me because I couldn’t smell anything. So, my friends fought with me and told me I was on my own, that they would find a better drummer, and I tried to leave the party and find my way to my hotel room. That is when I got the hell beaten out of me, and I was dumped at the hospital. That fight saved my life and saved Erik. I met Rickart at the hospital where he was visiting a friend in the palliative ward, and he also caught the smell of dragon fire all over me. He offered me coffee, we talked. He listened to my story and offered me a position as his mistress. He also told me that I was definitely pregnant. So, I agreed. It isn’t like I could get knocked up twice.”
Jack growled. “The less I hear about Rickart, the better.”
“Yeah, but he was very good to me. He helped me get a home, helped me get used to my new situation, and he took me around the world with him to try and get another dragon to knock the block loose before the baby came. That didn’t work, so he started to top me up as best he could. He got worried about my survival odds, so he adopted me so that if I died and Erik lived, he would get custody. It is a weird situation, and it played into his personal fetish, but it has worked out for us, and he loves introducing me as his daughter.”
Jack paused. “Is that why he did it?”
“The more we travelled, the more we realized that there were no successful tales of dragon brides and babies living happily ever after. It was always one or the other. So, we took the steps we could, and when he realized I hadn’t actually called in when his assistant said I did, he broke every protocol he had and flew out to get me. Me and Erik are here because of him.”
She tore apart a fluffy barbeque pork bun and smiled. “I hated the process but have enjoyed the result. I rather like being alive and being a mom. You would not believe the birthing gifts I got from the dragons we visited.”
He snorted. “I would. Oh, shit. I have to get back to courtship.”
“So, what is the going rate for a nearly adult son? You didn’t even have to feed him.” She added more hot sauce to the bun.
“How much does it cost to raise a child in today’s market?”
“About a quarter of a million dollars, spaced over eighteen years.”
He blinked. “You managed that?”
She smiled. “I do not want to discuss how, but yes.”
She finished her food and stretched. “I am going to freshen up. Be right back.”
She went to the bedroom and removed her jewellery, setting it back in its case. She pulled off her dress, underwear, and shoes, and slipped on a sleep shirt that said Dragons do it with tails and tongues. It was a gift from Rickart. She had promised to get Alita one.
She loosened her hair from the sloping braid and went back to the living room. Jack had tidied up the empties, and the boxes were gone. Dragons were tidy buggers.
He looked at her and laughed. “Nice sleep shirt.”
“Thanks. I wanted to actually slip into something more comfortable.”
Jack paused. “I don’t think that I remember what it’s like to just cuddle up with someone and watch television.”
“Let’s try it and see if we like it.” She quirked her lips. She settled next to him and curled up against him, leaning her head on his shoulder.
He shuddered. “He really wants to come out and cuddle with you. He agrees to the no-sex rule.”
“Can I just lean on you for an hour, and then, he and I can have a chat?”
He chuckled. “There is going to be a lot of licking involved, but he promises not to jump you.”
She nodded. “I’ll take it. I just want the chance to relax around you. That has been in short supply.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap. “A cuddle it is.”
Chapter Eight
Luna closed her eyes and listened to him breathe as he turned on a documentary on medieval farming and just held her. Every ten minutes, he would tilt her jaw up toward him and give her a soft cascade of mate fire. It was different from that first night.
She settled against him. “How many types of fire are there?”
“Well, there are the two you have felt, breeding fire and mate fire. Then, there is fire for sex to blank the minds of the betas, the cleaning fire that adapts to what I want to clean. There is also battle fire, challenge fire, celebration fire that I keep for the holidays. Lots of fire.”
“You blank the minds of your lovers?”
He sighs. “There is a lot of enthusiasm prior, but the sight is often more than the lovers want to handle, so the fire lets them keep the memory of excitement and dulls the fear. For betas, I don’t use it all, which is frustrating, but you do what you have to do.”
“So... I was told that the breeding fire makes a mate.”
“Right.”
“So, why didn’t you do it again?”
“Couldn’t. Breeding fire only happens with one match. Our senses are on alert, looking for that match, and when we find it, we tend to act quickly.”
“You didn’t want an omega?”
“Sure, if I found one with an affinity for dragons, but I didn’t. I found you, and that was enough destiny for the moment. He took action, and then, we had to figure out who you were. By the time we did that, your band had gone off the road. He went into mourning. He hadn’t been able to put a strong enough link on you to find you, and by that point, Rickart had given you fire, so our mark was faded and the block obscured.”
She sighed and yawned. “That explains that.”
She felt herself drifting, and he lazily gave her more fire. When he was done, she said, “Why do you keep doing that?”
“Nikolai told me that he had managed to heal Alita after the birth and the damage that had been done to her and how. She was in a fragile state when he met her, and she wasn’t going to get stronger on her own, so he had to help. So, he said he gave her mate fire until it wouldn’t go in anymore and then gave her more until it dripped out of her.”
“Awkward.” She mumbled.
“It was the saturation that gave her body the power to knit itself into proper configuration for a mate.” He chuckled. “The dripped fire has its own aspects, but we don’t need them as I don’t have a beta.”
“Oh, so Alexi...”
“Is more flexible than he looks.” He chuckled. “He’s now an ideal halfway point between a beta and omega.”
“Oh. Right. Well, they seem happy.” Luna sighed and nuzzled her face against his neck. She flicked out her tongue, and he stiffened underneath her.
He groaned. “Teasing, Luna?”
“Just trying to determine whether you taste like you smell. I love orange creamsicle.” She nuzzled him and pressed against her.
He growled. “You said no sex.”
“I am kissing your neck. It is hardly sex. I am just tired of having things shoved into me and want a day off.”
He lifted his head and met her gaze. “Oh, we can work around that. Nothing shoved into you is easier than no sex. Can I work with that parameter?”
She blinked. “Why? What are you planning?”
He grinned. “It’s a surprise, but nothing will be shoved into you, but there might be some licking. Acceptable?”
She sighed. “Fine.”
He kissed her, and fire blasted into her. When he lifted his head, his lips changed texture, and her comfy seat was now hard and scaled.
“Thirsty princess.”
She looked up at him, and the dragon had a tender look in his eyes. He stroked her cheek and trailed his claws down her neck. “Lovely princess. My princess. My mate.”
“Hello, you scaly asshole.”
He looked abashed, his white-blue eyes closed and then opened. “I did not foresee events as they unfolded. I am better at moments. Princess. Finally, my princess.”
She said softly, “I have been told that a princess is an omega.”
“Princess is dragon mate. Does not matter the designation. If you are for dragon, you get mate fire; if you are mate, you are princess.”
She chuckled. “That is not something I have been called recently.”
“Other dragons not?”
“I could never be their princess, so I was their lady, mistress, sweetheart, treasure.”
“Only my princess then. That is best. Best treasure, best princess, strongest son.”
“He is that. He is very strong and very kind and a good man.”
“Best princess raised best son.”
“I should disagree, but never when it comes to Erik.”
He let out a hissing chuckle. “Found a good mentor for him, too. Best princess.”
“Don’t tell Nikolai’s dragon that. He’ll fight you.”
“He will not win. I will win because my princess is best.”
She chuckled and leaned against him. “Thanks for not trying to get into my pants tonight.”
“Princess has no pants, nor underthings. Princess teasing?”
“Not teasing. Never teasing. This is a trust exercise. I just want you to go one night without trying to get your cock inside me. If you can manage that, we might have a chance. I want to be able to tell our son that I had a pleasant night with his father, and then nothing happened, and we cuddled as we slept.”
“What can I do before sleep?”
“Anything but putting your dick in me, basically.”
He started to hiss, and she realized he was laughing. He carried her into the bedroom and settled her in the centre of the bed.
He pulled off the shreds of his clothing and circled her before settling down and taking her in his arms. In this form, his shoulders and neck were still in human configuration, but his back was longer, and his legs were larger. The tail was the tail, and his wings were tucked against his back. She was lifted and draped over his arm as his free hand stroked her thigh and pulled the nightshirt up.
“I like this shirt, so no shredding it. It either comes off or stays on, no in-between.”
“You don’t mind being unclothed?”
She turned and gave his scaly self a grin. “Not usually. Erik prefers that I wear at least one layer in case I have to get up and help him with something. Casual nudity in a parent is not a desirable thing.”
He chuckled and eased her shirt over her hips, carefully caressing it up and off her body. When it was carefully tossed to the floor next to the bed, he curled around her and started snuffling her neck.
“You smell great. Like cookies. Jack loves cookies, and I love cookies.” He buried his nose and just breathed in and out heavily. “You smell like home. Jack and I do not have a home.”
She jolted in surprise. “You don’t? I thought all dragons had territories.”
“We travel, so we have no home. You smell like home.”
She teared up at the plaintive whine in his tone. He wasn’t speaking out loud, but there was a hissing, and she heard words. His tongue flicked out and stroked across her skin. He got some hair in there, but he didn’t seem to mind. He tickled her neck, stroked her jaw, and then the dragon kissed her. It was not an easy move; he opened the hard edge of his muzzle, and his tongue did most of the work.
She tilted her head and touched his jaw. Her tongue met his, and they tangled and kissed slowly, no hurry and no eagerness for him to jump on her. It was actually really nice. A trickle of fire accompanied the kiss, and she sighed at the warmth that spread through her. It was the nicest date she had had in a long time. Certainly, there was more foreplay.
