Gone With the Witch (21 page)

They kissed forever, ravenous and magnificent, tender and satisfying, kisses made of healing, not sex, of caring, too—on her part, though maybe not on his. But that was okay. She cared enough for both of them.

Aiden had foreplay down to a science. His glorious pre
liminaries created an enticing promise of sexual fulfillment
and oblivion. He looked her straight in the eye, focused, and she could see that he was determined to raise her up, make her his, and tame her in the process, a plan she embraced.

"You're aptly named," he said during their slow, sensual
foreplay, "and I mean that in the best of ways. Storms ener
gize," he explained. "They force new life from barren lands.
They're exciting and turbulent. You're the storm who cap
tured me, clearly the most beautiful tempest I've ever made dragon love with—okay so you're the
only
woman I've ever made dragon love with—and I can't believe you're also the
woman I swore a few days ago to stay away
from."

Dragon love,
he'd said. Did he even realize he'd used
the word
love?
Probably not, or he'd be on his way to cardiac care.

"I never thought you'd admit trying to stay away from
me. Uh-oh, looks like you're sorry you admitted it," she
said, reading the sudden surprised look on his face, and not
because she was slipping her hands beneath his shirt. "Or do
you think I'll misunderstand your intentions? Don't worry. Let me explain mine. This is sex, McCloud, not commit
ment. I'm a rogue storm, and you're a rogue dragon, and
we each wreak our own brand of havoc, alone. I'm as independent as you."

Aiden's relief made Storm happy because she'd pleased him, but a bit sad, too, deep down, because she wished he liked her as much as he liked storms. She wished he could come to appreciate her value, however turbulent, that he could ... love ...
her.

"I thought I was supposed to be comforting you," he
said.

"Oh, you were, make no mistake, but now we're both comforted, aren't we?"

"You have no idea."

Storm
lay
the back of her hand on her brow. "I don't ex
pect you to fix a lifetime of hope gone up in flames, Aiden.
Just help me forget, for a while, that my most cherished dream might've become my worst nightmare."

"I know something about living with nightmares,"
Aiden said as he cupped her face, a touch she cherished, and he pulled her so close, his dragon wings caressed her. When had she lost her panties?

He opened his talented mouth over hers, as his dragon
soothed her deep down and lifted her, body and mind, with
pleasure.

It was still difficult to tell who consoled who. She didn't
think Aiden knew, either, maybe because he sensed the change in her and understood her no-commitment ploy—
her lie. Or he realized that he cared more than he wanted
to, which spooked him.

Either way, he took to ravaging her lips in a bid for mindlessness, caressing every inch of her that he could reach, nearly tearing the rest of her clothes from her body with an enthusiasm she welcomed and returned.

A kiss like magick, he gave her. Like a first kiss in a parked car, enthusiastic and unreserved, but this was the kiss of a man who gave pleasure, not a boy who took it. A
man with experience, unafraid of breaking her, body or
spirit, despite her fragile emotions.

Storm pulled back, pushed him down against the pil
lows, and pulled his shirt over his head—he must have lost his boxers around the same time she lost her panties—then
she made love to his dragon, took it in her mouth to tor
ment him, while he thrashed and begged for mercy, and
then she took his dragon deep into her womb, where she made Triton sing, and roar, and breathe fire.

This from a m
an
likely as broken as her, though stronger
and more doggedly resilient.
This man, this dragon
god ..
she
could very well come to love.

Chapter Twenty-eight

•

SHE
caught fire, too, so much so that she rose above her thoughts and touched that magick place where pleasure
obliterates pain. There, amazingly—because she was riding
him, not the other way round—Aiden took her to a place where sadness disappeared, and ecstasy held sway.

"You taste of sweet life, and I'm a man starving for
every
bite."
He gasped as she took to riding him harder.

She shouted with the burst of her orgasm and with her
power to take him with her to the brink of the abyss, where
he cursed her and blessed her and begged her never to stop.
"You're like ... the wind off the sea," she told him, "a run through the woods in the black of night, like an earth king who believes in ... me ... despite the odds."

"I am that," Aiden said, changing their positions and
taking charge with a jaunty play of kisses dancing their
way down her torso.

Storm raised her hips so his lips and licks wouldn't miss
her hoped-for target, but Aiden missed it anyway, and she
pouted for all of a second before he began again at her toes
and nibbled his way upward.

"I haven't trusted a woman for nearly a year and a half,"
he said, "hadn't slipped inside one for as long, until yesterday with you, a prickly witch who speaks to a part of me hidden so deep, 'I don't know what it's called."

"Let's call it trust," she suggested.

"That's safe," he said, his instincts of self-preservation still sharp amid so much pleasure.

He skipped her slick and aching center for a second
time, which made her scream.

He chuckled. "I want your mouth again, first," he said. "Your lips are like overripe plums
. '
I can't get enough of your nectar." He kissed
an
d
nibbled those plums, and who was she to complain?

With a practiced hand, he found her center slick from when she'd impaled herself on his dragon, and when he replaced his hand with his mouth, he all but consumed her, petal by petal, matching his rhythm to a magick mating dance among the stars.

"I've never—" Storm's orgasms hit her like swells pummeling the shore in a gale, each greater than the previous, the tempest ending in a tidal wave of pleasure that wiped away all the sadness in its path.

Breathing deep, gasping for air, Aiden took a moment to
rest, and Storm chuckled. "You've just ruined my best vi
brator's track record for staying power. Now I'll have to go
sex toy shopping again."

"Can I come?"

"Sex toy shopping?"

"Okay. Sure. That, too" Aiden got right back down to business, but despite his slick pulsing dragon arousal, he raised his head from his oral ministrations. "Did you just admit to using a vibrator?"

"How else do you think I survived the three weeks
before you finally came out of your cave, Dragon Boy? What's a girl to do?" Storm rose on her elbows. "For that matter, what's a boy to do? What did you do, during your lengthy ... d
ry
spell?"

Aiden rose up to kiss her, so she tasted herself on his

lips
, and then he collapsed on the bed beside her. "Sorry I asked"

Amused at his reticence, considering his exhibitionistic dragon, Storm chuckled. "Dragon's blood, how else could
you su
rv
ive if you didn't let your dragon fly across the
night skies? How often did it take wing in the last three
weeks? What kind of an effect did 'I have on you?
Seri
ously.
Details, please."

Aiden groaned. "You're something, you know that?"

"I'm a lot of things, so my sisters keep telling me. Brat and pain in the ass come up most often, but an unambiguous replacement for the word
something,
from you, could give my poor negative ego a positive boost."

Aiden looked down at his dragon preparing for renewed
flight and winked at her. "Does this give you any indication?"

"Which would make me ... dragon bait?"

"A dragon dream."

"His wet dream, you mean?" Storm put his dragon exactly where they both wanted it. "I can live with that."

STORM woke around ten that night to find a note on the bedside table. “Be right back."

What had she done, passed out from exhaustion?

Wondering when he'd left, she ordered room se
rv
ice.
For some reason, she'd gotten her appetite back in spades.

She had time to take a quick shower and was thrilled to find complimentary lavender shower products in the luxu
rious bathroom. Lavender would be great for cleansing
away the negative energy she'd likely absorbed during her encounter with the cocktail hostess from hell.

Storm hung the sachet she'd found on her pillow on the showerhead so the water would run through the lavender. She visualized herself beneath a waterfall and asked to be cleansed in the name of healing. With three deep breaths,
the lavender water and body silk washed away her negative
tension and stress—body, mind, and spirit. Even her aurafelt cleansed. As she toweled d
ry
,
the lavender-scented air empowered her positive healing as well.

Wearing the hotel's lush terry robe and slippers, she signed for a midnight snack of no small proportions.

When Aiden got back, he handed her a plastic-draped
hanger, a tiny Naughty Nightie bag, and a shoe box. He put
the men's store bags to one side and let her tear into her goodies while he uncovered the food and went to town. "Guess you worked up an appetite, too."

Storm loved the short black strapless sundress he
bought with its tiny, scattered, red-stenciled sea horses,
but she squealed over the black, fringed Prada slingback spikes.

Aiden smiled and picked up one of the shoes to hold in his palm.
"As
soon as the salesgirl said these were a bold and risky choice, 'I knew they were perfect for you. Inside
the Naughty Nightie bag, you'll find everything you need
to wear beneath the dress."

Storm emptied the bag and hooked a finger through its only contents, a pair of black lace V-string bikinis. "You can be my personal shopper any day."

"You can be my dragon rider any day"

Storm joined him at the formal dining table,
an elaborate
amber Victorian chandelier above them, and a brick-colored Oriental carpet beneath them, for strawberries and champagne, melon with prosciutto, cracked crab, and raspberries in chocolate baskets.

"Quite the feast," he said.

"I'm an eclectic witch," she said, cracking a crab leg.

"What's in the big brown paper bag?
Groceries?”

“
Supplies to get us through the rest of the night.”

“
That's one whopping big bag of condoms. What
are

you
?
Super Dragon?"

After they finished eating, Aiden emptied the bag on the
bed.

Storm whooped. "Every kind of vibrator I've ever
wanted to t
ry
,
butterflies and rabbits, gnomes and hum
mingbirds, oh my. Hah! You even found a dragon vibrator!

Let's see how it stands up to the real thing." She wiggled her brows.

She held up one of the toys. "Aiden, this is an extender.
You s00ooo don't need an extender."

"Which reminds me, I bought larger condoms. More room to fly."

Storm sighed and placed a hand on her heart. "T
ri
ton
the majestic dragon"

Aiden
bowed,
his killer grin dangerous.
Falling-in-love-with dangerous.

Chapter Twenty-nine