WickedBeast (24 page)

Reaching around between her legs, he knowingly strummed her
center of sensation. Giving her every pleasure he could, but it was still
nothing like she gave him. He was sure of it. His fingers plucked and stroked
her clit with increasing pressure as her body drove him into the gates of
complete oblivion.

Cord closed his eyes and hung on to the sleek Wind Witch in
his arms. She took him with her into a reality created for them, by them. Her
orgasm wrenched through her body, his eyes rolled back and the stars exploded.
Empting his seed into her, shattered the world.

As soon as he could scrape together the composure to return
to the present, Cord carefully pulled out of her body. It felt like hours
passed, anything was possible, but he hoped it hadn’t been quite that long. He
was shaking. Lying facedown, she didn’t notice and he was grateful for that.
Whatever he had called an ego was now prostrate at her feet, he had no question
of that.

Getting up, he stumbled into the bathroom and did the
necessary cleanup. Jamming a fresh washcloth under the warm water, he refused a
glance up at the mirror. Call him a coward but he wasn’t sure he could face the
creature looking back at him.

Taking two washcloths, just to be sure, he returned to her
and carefully cleaned sensitive folds. Doing her this service did nothing to
dispel the need to express how he was feeling. Kelly moved for him, letting him
handle her with her head still in the pillow. He suspected she was a little bit
embarrassed and that almost amused him.

Her vulnerability drove the emotional confusion to a new
level. Adorable was what she had been before. There were no words for how she
looked to him now. His hands moved over her with reverent care.

Dropping the washcloths by the bed, Cord lay down and
gathered Kelly into his body. Holding her against his chest, he wrapped as much
of himself around her as he could. She hadn’t said a word yet. He was aware
that their time alone was running out. It seemed as if someone should be doing
some talking.

“I can’t apologize,” Cord said into the back of her neck.
“I’m not sorry. I’m a little overwhelmed, but nothing could make me want to
take one minute of that back.”

“Good.”

Kelly’s response was brief and gave him no clue what she was
thinking.

“Are you all right,” he asked in an attempt to get a little
more out of her.

“Dunno.”

“Come on, give me something to work with.” Cord tightened
his arms in a gentle hug. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re upset.”

“Not upset,” Kelly stated. She was waiting for him to say
the words. Own what had passed between them.

“That’s a start. What would you say you are?”

“A little tired. A lot blown away.”

“Still doesn’t give me any clue to your emotions,” he
pointed out.

“I have never experienced anything like that.” Kelly had to
let him work this out on his own. He knew something was completely different
but he had to identify the emotions. Telling him he was in love would be
cheating him, stealing the opportunity for him to find that depth of emotion in
himself.

Cord frowned at her answer. It didn’t help him. Not being
able to see her face was a distinct disadvantage. Her tone was soft but not
hesitant.

“You surprised me,” he tried a different approach to get
more than short statements out of her.

Kelly took a deep breath. It wasn’t exactly a sigh, just an
excuse to not say anything for a few more seconds. “Everything surprised me,”
Kelly confessed. “That doesn’t mean I regret any of it either. I guess I have
some questions about what happens now.”

“What do you want to happen?”

“That’s a good question. There’s so little I control about
what is happening that it’s hard to figure out what I want to happen. I think
I’d like to understand what did happen first.” Kelly slowly turned to face him.

Cord gave her a rare smile as he met her eyes. “I’m not sure
there are words for what I feel. Emotions are not supposed to be important to
my kind. Some doubt we have them, I’ve doubted it in the past. I no longer
doubt.”

Kelly searched his eyes, a small frown on her forehead. “You
didn’t think you had emotions?”

“Not so much,” he confirmed. “We have instincts, a lot of
drive and very little concern for others’ needs. I’m not sure if that means we
have no emotions, but I’ve never noticed them before now.”

Kelly bit her lip as she regarded him seriously. “The guy
who made himself Barney did it because he wanted to. Not because it would make
the three-year-old happy? I can see what you mean. Dragons have absolutely no
ability to be concerned about anyone but themselves. And all that standing
guard and being fierce is just because, what, it’s fun?”

Cord scowled at her mocking face. “That’s different.”

“How?”

“Well, I was mostly making you happy. If I make you happy, I
get more of your attention. See how self-serving that is?”

Kelly’s face was very serious but her eyes were laughing at
him. “Of course it is,” she agreed with him.

Still scowling, he studied her as her point sank into his
brain. “Are you saying you think dragons are emotional?”

“Nope. Never said that. I suspect if someone called you
emotional, you’d be handing them their ass.”

A wolf’s smile spread across his face. “Well, if you put it
that way, call me emotional all you want. Handing your ass is the most amazing
thing I’ve ever done.”

A pink flush lit Kelly’s cheeks and her eyes dropped to
examine his breastbone. “It was amazing, wasn’t it?”

The smile left Cord’s face as he gazed down at her. “More
than amazing, much more,” he agreed.

“I liked it,” Kelly whispered.

“I know,” he growled softly.

She was still blushing furiously, both hands resting on his
chest because she needed to touch him. Feel the heart beating beneath hard
muscles. He was getting close to understanding himself. It was sort of cute to
watch him work it out.

“We have to get dressed,” Kelly changed the subject. “Minuet
will be looking for us soon.”

“I know where she is and what she’s doing,” Cord said
causally as he sat up. “Take your time, I’ll get dressed and go find her,” he
assured her as he stood and moved into the bathroom.

Kelly stretched out on the bed, pulling the sheet over her
because she really wasn’t that casual about being naked. It was silly. Her eye
strayed to the bedside table where the toy rested. He came out of the bathroom
and she had to pretend she was looking at the clock.

A wave of his hand and the plug disappeared.

“Where do things go when you do that?” Kelly had to ask as
he pulled on his clothes. He could undress with a thought, and yet there he
was, dressing normally. So many things about him didn’t make sense.

“Usually they go to my place. All dragons have lairs. For me
it’s just a place to store things. I don’t live there.”

Cord only had jeans and boots on as he sat on the bed and
gather her and the sheet into his arms. The need to hold her had rushed through
him unexpectedly but he continued with the conversation. “I use it as a sort of
holding place. If I own a thing I need, I retrieve it. Or return it there.
Creating a tool can take a great deal of energy and knowledge of its
construction, time consuming when the thing is complicated, so storing things
is a time-saving tool. I’ll take you and Minuet there when we have time.”

Cord’s cheek rested on the top of Kelly’s head as he spoke,
his arms wrapped around her. “I think I’d better get Minuet. She’s getting
hungry,” he stated, and gave Kelly a gentle squeeze before releasing her.

After he left the room, Kelly tried to hurry through another
shower and dressing but she simply couldn’t. Languid satisfaction would not let
her rush. Everything felt more vibrant, touch, scent, even her hearing. She
supposed being exposed to dragon senses might rub off just a little. Finally
getting herself out to the kitchen, she found Minuet and Barney making a very
late lunch.

Minuet was instructing Barney and the big purple dinosaur
got everything wrong. Laughter lived in the room with them, and Kelly found she
could see the color of joy as well as taste it in the air.

The three of them spent a pleasant evening exploring the
gardens after the meal. Minuet splashed in a fountain for a while, played on
all the equipment in a lovely playground area they found and ran when she
wasn’t doing something else.

Bedtime came early for all of them as the crash after
traveling caught up with Kelly and Minuet.

That night, Cord stayed in her bed all night. They didn’t
make love but he couldn’t stop holding her. Kelly had to smile as her big
dragon struggled to understand his needs.

The idyllic calm didn’t give them much time. The next
morning as they drove to Loch Ness it was shattered with the coming conflict
they could not escape.

Chapter Thirteen

“Him coming,” Minuet said. “Him berry mad.”

Cord pulled the car to the side of the road. “Which way do
you feel him, honey?”

Minuet pointed ahead.

Cord got out of the car quickly. “Stay here,” he directed,
and walked to the front of the vehicle. He stood still, reaching out with
senses. Harrison came at them fast. Without Minuet’s warning he might not have
noticed the change in atmosphere soon enough. Harrison was using a lot of
energy to conceal his approach.

To the two watching from the car, Cord appeared to shimmer
and disappear in a short burst of bright light.

Kelly gasped and searched with her senses. Then she felt
him. He was the air and light, moving at rapid speed to the north. Minuet had
been sitting between her and Cord, now she was clutching the dashboard as she
leaned forward to gaze out the windshield. There was silence, suddenly a great
gust of wind swept along the road causing dirt devils to spin out and die on
the edges of the gale.

“Can you hear anything?” Kelly asked Minuet.

“They yelling,” Minuet said. “Dat other one argues Cord.”

“Just argue? Not fighting?” Kelly asked worriedly.

“Playing. Liked me and Coco with ball,” she explained.

Kelly hated to rely on Minuet for the details of this fight.
She wanted to distract her from something that could get very ugly, but since
she had no way of following the action and Minuet seemed quite comfortable with
it, she had no other option. The wind around them died down to a normal breeze.

Abruptly Minuet jumped with a yelp of pain. In the next
instant a structure appeared several yards away in the rocky field beside them.
An instant later Cord materialized beside the unusual building.

“Me talk mean dagon,” Minuet stated as she scrambled behind
the wheel and out Cord’s side of the car.

Kelly was up and running after Minuet but wasn’t fast enough
to catch her as she came to a halt beside Cord.

From inside the structure a loud roar was followed by a
racket as someone pounded the walls. The building was an ornate castle, but only
about nine feet tall and fifteen feet around. It had Barbie-pink rock walls,
bright-purple tiled roof and golden bars on every window and door. It glittered
in the morning sun. Every surface sparkling.

Cord, Kelly and Minuet stood about ten yards away from it as
the roaring, pounding and now cursing continued from within.

Cord put an arm around Minuet’s shoulders. “It’s a very
pretty castle. Why did you do that?”

“Him hurt Cord,” Minuet stated. “Him want hurt Mommy.”

“I know, sweetheart, but everything was all right. I didn’t
need help.”

“Mommy say fighting bad. It a rule.”

The noise from the structure suddenly ceased. There was
silence as the three of them waited for what would come next.

“Cord! What the hell is this?” boomed out the little castle.

“I believe you’re in Barbie’s dream castle,” Cord informed
his questioner.

“What the fuck is that? Get it the hell off me!”

“Clean up your language, and I didn’t do it. Look out the
front door window and you’ll see who wants to talk to you,” Cord instructed
sharply.

“Who the…”

“Curse one more time and I’ll show you something you haven’t
seen before,” Cord threatened softly, cutting off the voice from the castle.
“If you can keep a civil tongue, perhaps the little lady holding you captive
will reconsider. The problem is, if you take too long getting a grip she will
forget how. Three-year-olds can’t write down the original spell.”

A face appeared in the round window of the ornate front
door. The man had rippling blond hair and startlingly blue eyes the color of a
stormy ocean. Below the eyes dark smudges of exhaustion made him appear old. A
straight nose and chiseled features would’ve been extremely handsome when he
was young, and if the individual wasn’t scowling. Just looking at his face
showed he was severely underfed.

The face regarding them did not stop scowling as his eyes
moved over the three people standing there.

“The lass did this?” a slightly calmer tone questioned.

“I do it,” Minuet stated firmly. “You not hurt Mommy or
Cord. I makes sure.”

“Cord, you better be explaining,” the male in the castle
said softly, his eyes never leaving Minuet’s little form.

“Harrison, meet Minuet,” Cord introduced them. “I suggest
you start believing what you’re sensing. If you had listened to a word I said
instead of sinking talons into me you’d have a clue what’s going on. As you can
see, she likes things pretty and sparkly. Tick her off some more and you might
find yourself turned into something pretty and sparkly.”

“What is your little friend? I’ve never encountered her kind,”
Harrison said cautiously, still addressing Cord as he kept eyes on Minuet.

Minuet stepped from under Cord’s arm. Little hands landed on
her hips as she faced the sparkling castle. “I Minuet,” she told him firmly.
“You be nice. No more mean. It hurt you berry lots. Now you sick.”