Lance

Strange things happened tonight.

One, I nearly told Selena Salazar how we came to be, a legend nobody but the four of us knew. Two, I proceeded to feed her. I intended for her to take a bite, fill her mouth in order to discourage her questions, but as her mouth closed on the fork, my beast stirred again. And that was a third strange thing. My beast seemed to take up permanent residence at the surface of my mind whenever I happened to be around her.

I should pay attention to my beast, give in to what he wanted, but I also couldn’t very well bend her over the table and plunder her virginal pussy. Could I? I shook my head, trying to suppress the urge to grab her hair, yank it back, and devour her month. Guys didn’t do that. Despite my appearance, for the most part, I was still a man. I knew how to treat a woman. My dragon, on the other hand, didn’t know shit about women.

While I mused about bending her over the table, my little soon-to-be-cyborg ate her entire meal from my hand. She hadn’t protested or peeped a sound, dragon legend all forgotten. After Nentres excused himself for the night, I realized I’d ignored him the entire time. But I couldn’t stop feeding her, watching her, doing things that pleased her, because the more I fed her, the more she moaned and the more my beast pushed against my mind. My body ignited as if fire coursed through me.

Across from the table, at the far wall, my reflection showed in the mirror, and I froze. The blue scales on my neck were visible. I’d forgotten to wear a scarf.

Ms. Salazar stretched out her hand and brushed her finger over the top of my glove. I snatched my hand away.

“Sorry. I couldn’t resist,” she said.

Neither could I, it seemed. “Downtown Los Angeles,” I said, answering her question about where I was from. Albeit a little late.

She caught on. “A California native, then. We moved here at the beginning of the Ice Age.”

“Where from?”

“Norfolk, Nebraska.”

“Never been there. But I’ve lived all over the place.”

She frowned. “All over LA?”

“All over everywhere. From one foster home to another.” I pinched my lips. What the fuck was wrong with me? I didn’t want to talk about me at all. I wanted to get through dinner and send her on her merry way upstairs. Then I needed to go into the library and dig up some more dragon fucking mythology, ’cause apparently that was what I’d need as a reference to figure out what my beast wanted from her.

I chewed on rice to keep my mouth shut. It stuck to my teeth. “The rice is overcooked.” I poked it with my fork. It stuck to the fork. “Not fluffy.”

“If you’re so anal about it, why don’t you cook it yourself?” she asked.

“I’m not anal about it. I simply know what it should taste like.”

“It tastes fine to me.”

“Because you haven’t tasted real rice.”

“Or I’m not picky and anal about rice.”

I chuckled. “I’ll cook you rice tomorrow.” Huh? I hadn’t cooked in ages. But I’d said it, so I better do it.

Ms. Salazar smiled at that, and we spent the rest of the meal in silence. I’d never been much of a talker, and the silence between us didn’t bug me. I pushed my plate away and leaned back, watching her tuck her hair behind her ear, lick her lips, fidget in her chair. I felt like she expected me to…entertain, yap about nothing for an hour, waste my breath on talking about my foster homes so she could cuddle me and feel sorry I’d been raised by nobody and everybody.

Still, I didn’t like watching her fidget or making her feel uncomfortable. If we’d lived in different times and this was a date, I would’ve taken her out to dinner someplace nice like that Diamonds place in Malibu I’d always wanted to go to but never had. I’d make conversation, try to impress her with my…wit. But we didn’t live in that world anymore, and Diamonds was nothing but a pile of concrete buried under snow now. “Can I get you anything else?” I asked. A rhetorical question. I liked my guests comfortable. I’d fed her, and she could go to sleep now.

“Yes, actually.”

I leaned in.

“Is there any dessert?” Ms. Salazar blushed.

I frowned. “I’m not sure.” I stood and just then noticed the kitchen staff had gone quiet. It was never quiet around here, precisely why I stayed away from the common areas. Wolves were rowdy creatures. Dragons were more solitary. When not having fish on the go, out in the seas, I ate my dinners upstairs in my chambers, rarely venturing down here. “Follow me.”

I showed her into the kitchen, surprised to find people there. At the door, I paused and lifted an eyebrow at Belle, Mandy, and my other kitchen staff, who lined up against the far counter. They said nothing, probably because they couldn’t see my lifted eyebrow gesture past the cloak I wore. “And you all are standing there because…”

People found things to look at on the floor.

Ah, they were eavesdropping and got caught. I leaned to the right to see the exit door ajar. They’d tried to escape when they heard me coming in, but hadn’t quite made it.

Mandy found her voice. “We were just leaving.”

“Mm-hm.” They still stood there. “Get leaving, then,” I said.

My staff scampered. The door closed and locked, and I stepped to the side and waved a hand. “After you, Ms. Salazar.”

“Selena.”

Selena. I liked her name. I could roll her name and her pussy lips between the two tips of my forked tongue. I could twist her little bud. I bet her pussy was shaved. I bet she didn’t have hair anywhere, just like me. Days of women shaving were long gone, replaced by laser removal in a single hour. Cy tech served women, and women liked to be served.

Selena walked around the food prep area in the middle of the kitchen, then leaned her elbows on it, propping her jaw on her chin. “Can I call you Lance?”

“Only in the bedroom.” What? My expression matched hers. Wide-eyed, stunned stupid, we found shit to look at on the empty counter. Surprised I’d actually voiced my dirty thoughts, I attempted to change the subject. “What kind of sweet things do you like?” Oh yeah, I was a world-class gentleman, because asking her about sweet things worked so much better to get my mind off her pussy, the thing I imagined would be the sweetest dessert for me. I needed to count to ten before replying to any of her many questions.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Besides honey, we don’t have a lot of sweets in the habitat. There are these brown bars called chocolate, but that’s not the real chocolate I remember eating as a kid. Chocolate is rich in taste, but not too sweet.”

“I don’t have chocolate.”

“Bummer.”

“I have eggs.”

She bit her lip, made a sour face, but she didn’t know that a delicious, simple, and sweet dessert came from eggs. “Don’t knock it till you try it.” I got to work. From the walk-in fridge, a closed space set outside at this time of night, I got two eggs. Back in the kitchen, I found one deep plastic bowl and another shallow one plus a whisk. Selena inched closer, her body heating mine from her proximity. I broke the egg and separated the yolk from the white. I passed her the yolk. “Sugar is behind you, middle cupboard, labeled sugar. A spoonful.” I pointed at the bowl. “Then mix it.”

She stood there as if I’d asked her to decode a Cy interface. “Get,” I ordered, curious if she’d obey me.

Selena blinked, then got to it.

Mm-hm. I wondered if she’d be a submissive in bed. Likely. When my dick hopped on the opportunity to take a submissive after many years of suppressing the bedroom activities that actually excited me, I whisked the egg white.

Selena watched me whisk away, her own hand mixing in the sugar with yolk ever so slowly. “Mix it like you mean it,” I told her.

She snapped her eyes to mine, and I smiled.

She returned it. “I’ve never cooked before.”

“We’re not cooking.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

She circled her spoon as if stirring precious stones from my treasury. “We have no need for kitchens, at least not kitchens as big as this one. The kitchen in our apartment is probably the size of a bathroom here. It has two pantries and a foot-long counter. One closet is cold and one is dry. We get what we need in packets, and we move on with our day.”

“So you don’t…socialize while you eat?”

“No. Why would we? We eat.”

“That’s a great setup as far as I’m concerned, but people around here enjoy their meals very much. They yap more while they eat than any other time during the day. You’ll see tomorrow during breakfast.” I paused. “Before you leave.”

Selena stopped mixing too.

I’d offered her shelter for the night. Tomorrow, I’d send her back to her dad safe and sound and well fed. She’d remember this experience, maybe tell her kids one day about the monster whom they shouldn’t fear.

She pushed the bowl toward me. “Is this done?”

I sensed some attitude. She was upset I was sending her back. I knew she would be.

I mixed a little longer until the egg white became fluffy, almost like frosting, and I poured sweet yolk over it, making it a fluffy two-layer dessert. I got her a spoon, scooped it up, and offered her a taste.

She shook her head.

“Taste it.”

“Nah.”

I growled. It bothered me that she wouldn’t eat from my hand. I picked her up and put her on the workbench, then stood between her legs. Spoon in hand, I offered it to her again. “It’s rude to refuse food.”

She made a sour face and stuck her tongue out. It was pink and cute and small, and I wanted her to lick my balls the same way she tasted the spoon.

“Mmmm. Oh my God, it’s actually good.”

I’d bet she’d like licking my balls more. “Eat.” I fed her the entire bowl of eggs, watching her mouth open and close for as long as it lasted.

Selena rubbed her belly. “I’m full.”

“Excellent.” I put away the dishes and rested my fists at either side of her hips. When I leaned in, she didn’t retreat. Our lips inches apart, I smelled the homemade soap we used to bathe with on her skin. I wanted to kiss her. But I couldn’t. She only ever saw my lips and bottom jaw. She didn’t even know what she would be kissing. Because under my hood, blue scales covered my face and hard armor covered my vital human parts. I felt her fear, I smelled her uncertainty, but I saw that she hadn’t backed off or told me to keep my distance.

There was something about Selena. I didn’t know what it was, but I intended to find out.

“Do you think I could see you now?” she whispered.

“Not tonight.”

“I don’t have another night.”

“There’s something between you and me,” I said. “Do you feel it?”

She nodded.

“So I’m not gonna send you back.”

“Oh!” She sat up straight. “You’re not?”

“No.”

She threw her arms around my neck. I stood there, not knowing what to do. My hand landed on her back and rubbed.

Selena took it as a cue to release me. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“So I’m staying,” she said and waited for another confirmation.

“For some time.”

“How long?”

“I want to know what this is. The thing between us. Do you?”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t possibly imagine what I looked like. I wouldn’t show her. I would blindfold her, explore her body while she wondered about mine. She didn’t need to know. If she saw me, she’d flee. “So then you’ll stay for however long our thing lasts. I’m in need of a companion.”

“And my whiskey line?”

“I don’t want your money.”

She lowered her eyes, took a button of my cloak, and twisted it, played with it for a while. I let her. It was a nervous gesture. I leaned in and sniffed her hair. My dick pulsed, and I spread my legs to relieve the pressure in my balls.

“My virginity? Do you want that?”

“I do.” God, I could be such a selfish prick.

She nodded. “When?”

“Tomorrow night. Come on, I’ll walk you upstairs, then I’ll see you for breakfast.”