Gone With the Witch (18 page)

"It's like those dragon tattoos on the Internet, but different."

"That's where 'I got the idea."

"Why didn't Morgan and King stop you?"

"They were getting their own tattoos."

"Not—"

"No ... mine's the most outrageous. King's is almost
sane."

"Harmony will tell me about King's, but what's Morgan's like?"

"We swore never to tell, and I knew by the look on your face when you saw it that King kept his vow and didn't tell
Harmony."

Storm got closer, slipped her hand up his thigh, felt him
shudder, and watched his dragon come to life. "So ... you got drunk because your ex broke up with you, and you got a tattoo?"

"No, I got drunk because I got dumped, and while 'I was
drunk, I made a stupid bet. I had to get sober to get the
tattoo—something to do with liquor thinning the blood and
the consequences."

Storm tried not to roll her eyes. "You loved Claudette that much?"

"No. 'I was mad at her. She wanted commitment, and I didn't, so she dumped me. I did this to assert my independence."

"Nearly a year and a half without a woman, because Mr.
Majestic got a makeover?
I don't think so. What aren't you telling me?"

When Aiden didn't answer, Storm shook her head. So
he wasn't ready to face the real reason. She could respect that.

She touched the wrinkled beast and discovered that
when in full flight, it was actually ... beautiful. Either
that,
or she liked this man a whole hell of a lot more than
was safe or sane for her. "So, I'm the first woman, other
than the tattoo artists, who's ever seen it?"

Aiden nodded, holding his breath as if waiting for a verdict, as if it might actually go his way, as if he didn't deserve it to.

But he did deserve it. This was Aiden. And Storm
wanted to see his dragon fly.

She stroked its neck. "I'm the first woman you're
aroused by who's ever touched it?"

"Easy," Aiden said. "This is his first time out in female company, and he's feeling ... cocky. Since you haven't decked me or run away, he's primed, and I'm afraid he'll breathe fire before either of us is ready."

"I'll take that into consideration," Storm said, petting
the reaching beast
an
d
tracing the curled wings raised above
its neck.

"Oh," Storm said rising to her knees. "I almost forgot.
He has a friend." She turned her back to Aiden and lowered her blanket to show him the Celtic dragon tattoo at
the base of her spine. "Meet Elektra, my dragon totem, a powerful guardian and guide, a sea goddess who gives me the courage and wonder to tap into my psychic power.
Elektra protects me, helps me grow, and adds power to my
magick."

"
A scarlet lady dragon," Aiden said. "I always thought of dragons as male, probably because of my own, but I
suppose dragons once needed to make little dragons, didn't
they?"

Storm faced him. "Your dragon is getting bigger as I

watch
." She tilted her head. "He's every bit as beautiful
but not quite as detailed as some I've seen on the Net" Aiden shuddered. "I didn't have the details in
me "
He turned her so he could see her dragon again.

Storm felt the nerve endings at the base of her spine rising to meet Aiden's fingertips as he caressed every scarlet scale. "Elektra," he said with a reverential awe. "It's a fine name for a lady dragon"

"The goddess Elektra was the mother of storms and rainbows," she explained.

"Elektra's beautiful, just like her namesake. What
would you name an
ugly
dragon?"

Hearing the insecurity in Aiden's voice, Storm turned to
worship and befriend his dragon with her fingertips. Gen
tle touches, soft, sweet, slow, taming him, and bringing him
to life. "I was shocked when 'I first saw him," she admitted.
"But he becomes less frightening as he ... grows
.. .
on
you" In full flight, he was rather beautiful. "I believe
he's a water dragon," she said. "Many of them have only one head—"

"Praise
be
," Aiden said.

Chapter Twenty-four

"HOW
about if we call him T
ri
ton, after the god of the sea
who calms the waves.
T
ri
ton can be Elektra's mate ... for now.
No commitments there, either, so don't go shrinking into your shell."

"Witch," Aiden said.
"You
become less frightening by the
minute." He cupped her face in both hands and stroked her
lips with his thumbs. "I wonder if you heard my dragon cry
ing
. '
I think it wept in silence when it couldn't reach you, even
though it trembled in utter delight when you were near."

Storm liked Aiden's attention so frightfully much; she
suddenly wished
she
had a shell to retreat into. "As a water dragon, Triton brings hidden memories to the surface," she explained. "He helps us face our painful pasts and gives us
courage and balance to face our futures."

"Triton
. '
I like his name," Aiden said. "And revealing
him sure as hell made me face a painful past"

Storm petted the beast. "Let's raise his purpose to a
giver of courage, then. Triton is a powerful god, but Elektra
is almost more powerful, because she's his seducer."

"Is she now? Let's see how that works."

Aiden's voice had become so sexy, his dragon so gor
geous in flight, that over the next few hours, Storm learned
T
ri
ton the dragon's many fine qualities and talents. He
could make her scream, and cry out in rapture, make her beg for rest and beg for flight.

The longer Triton and Elektra performed their mating
dance, the more beautiful Triton became, until he lifted the
stormy Elektra and carried her to the heavens, star by star, climbing higher and higher, the most beautiful dragon in the galaxy, surpassing even Draco the constellation on his own home turf, so to speak.

Storm fell asleep on her stomach with Aiden petting Elektra, and woke as Triton began to ... mate ... with her
again, but this time Aiden also wanted to kiss Elektra, so he
raised her hips and entered her from behind, slipping his dragon so deep, it kissed her pulsing womb.

No man in Storm's experience had ever had the length
to enter her in this way, though two had tried. But with
Aiden's dragon stroking her, hard and determined,
against slick and willing, her milking him with involun
tary bursts of greed, she experienced a primordial tem
pest of sensation that no human or vibrator had ever
matched.

Later, Aiden let Storm bring his dragon to life with her lips and her hands and the ring on her pierced tongue. She gave him kisses on his wings, along his neck, on his head and eye. And then she took him in her mouth and suckled him, until Aiden shouted, rolled her beneath him, and rose
over her to ride the waves he could tame, if only he would,
until he commanded her to rise with him, and she did.
They flew to the depths of the sea,
then
rose on mighty crests, more than once, until that final almighty crest lowered them to float and rest.

"I think my dragon is dead," Aiden said, hours later.
Storm could barely raise her head to check. "It died happy"

The next morning, she woke starving, and got up craving Froot Loops.

Aiden walked proudly naked into the kitchen and
opened the refrigerator.

"Aw, look, T
ri
ton is sleeping," Storm said.

Aiden raised a skeptical brow. "He's dead, I tell you. Nearly a year and a half's worth of happy in one day was
too much for his celibate
heart,
though I think we set a new
world record for dragon fire dancing."

Storm dropped the blanket from around her.

Aiden dropped the milk carton.

Triton lifted his head in true dragon fashion to see what he could get into.

Her
, Storm thought; he could get into her. "I think he
might be well on his way to a miraculous recovery. He
looks like he's about to straighten his spine and sing the na
tional anthem."

"Well, he should," Aiden said. "Tomorrow's Indepen
dence Day, after all, and isn't independence what you and
I are all about?"

"Totally," Storm said, yet there was something that had
changed inside her last night. She recognized it when
Aiden took care of her in the shower. She'd never had
anyone take care of her like that—other than her sisters.

Between his empathy and concern and her taste of fam
ily love, she now heard several babies crying, but she didn't
think that Aiden was ready to hear that. "I never told an
other soul the things I've told you about myself on this
trip," Storm said.

"No other soul has seen my dragon''

"King and Morgan?"

"Hell no.
They saw the drawing and the bill."

"Not even your doctor has seen it?"

"I hate doctors."

"Well that has to change. You need to take care of your
self. You're a father, now."

"I am not. We found a crying child. Hell, we found two.
Damn it. That can't be right, can it?"

"Yours is still crying. But I have a confession to make.”

“
Give it to me, baby. Oh, I'd better stop talking like
that," Aiden said. "I'm turning myself on."

"Triton the insatiable."
She led Aiden to the shower.
"Dragons love water, especially Triton. I'll get your clothes
while you shower."

"Wait," Aiden said. "Aren't we going back to bed?"
Storm turned on the shower. "We're getting on the road.
We have a quest to fulfill."

"There are quests," Aiden said. “And there are dragon quests. Which one would you prefer to follow?"

"Both. Now take your shower."

When he left the shower.
Aiden heard Celtic music
an
d
found Storm standing beside the freshly made bed—wearing a pair of clear spikes, red thigh-high fishnet stockings, his tool belt, and a lacy red bra. From a bear-shaped honey jar in the tool belt hung the bikinis that matched the bra.

"What have we here?" Aiden dropped his towel, while his dragon prepared for flight.

Storm gave him a Cheshire cat grin. "I figured that after so long, you and your dragon might need a tune-up.”

“
Where did you find the tools?"

"Here and there."
She lifted the contents from each
pouch on the tool belt, one by one. "Honeysuckle candles for mood and scent" She put them in the holders, lit them, and turned off the light. "Makeup brushes—very erotic." She whisked one up beneath his dragon's neck, and he shivered with arousal.

"
Bath powder and puff."
She powdered his navel. "Edible raspberry massage oil from my magick bath kit ... in honor of Triton the raspberry titan. Handcuffs--your old friends—but I thought you might like to use them on me
for a change, along with anything in the tool belt that
strikes your fancy. Your assignment, should you accept it, is
to find my third tattoo"

Triton jumped at the opportunity. Aiden grinned.
"What's the honey for?"

Storm raised a brow. "I plan to use it on you. I found it
in your cupboard" From the tool belt, she took a small
plastic tube that she shook like a rattle. "Honey first, then chocolate sprinkles." Storm looked down and cleared her
throat. "I can see that Triton's agreeable. What about you?"