Breath of Innocence

Sandwiched between a Shadow and a Guardian. Eben could think of worse things, but Camille had been wrong. So wrong. He loved sharing her with Roka, but some nights wished like hell for the dragon to go flying just to give the two of them time alone. But on the nights Roka would shift, Camille would whoop in excitement when he bent his bulky form to allow her to climb on. After the first few flights, Eben began to beg off. He’d go back to their bed, embrace her pillow, and fall asleep with the scent of her in his nostrils.

It wasn’t even sex he wanted from her—just her undivided attention, something he had yet to be graced with since the ritual had begun. Hell, he even missed the little moments they’d had during their jungle trek before they found the temple, if they could be called “moments.” The stolen glances when they’d meet eyes for a split second across the campsite, before hastily looking away and trying to pretend they weren’t both too terrified to talk to each other. At least those moments had been theirs and theirs alone. He had never been so turned inside-out over a woman before.

Now there was another face in the mix and he had no idea what it meant. Another dragon who could snap him like a twig if he said the wrong thing, not that he’d ever seen a hint of animosity in Roka. If anything, Eben was the one prone to violence. The large, platinum-haired dragon seemed to have a calming effect on everyone around him. When they would go out on the town in Sydney, Roka could stall a bar fight merely by being present.

Rafe didn’t seem calm, however, in spite of the air being obviously permeated with Roka’s breath. Eben had grown accustomed to the delicate scent of it, like the faint scent of Camille that lingered on his own skin even after he’d bathed. Roka’s breath had the same effect on Eben as Camille’s aroma—a kind of subdued longing, though lately Camille’s scent evoked a much more potent flavor of need. A craving he couldn’t fully grasp, but that he desperately needed to sate.

The Shadow was clothed now, in a black t-shirt and black jeans. Roka hadn’t bothered conjuring clothes for himself, lately preferring to experience the variety of human-made garments he could find. He now sat comfortably across their breakfast table from Rafe in a white terrycloth robe, sipping coffee. Heavy cream and sugar, Eben knew. He guessed the Shadow took his black. He poured himself a cup and carried it back down to the cabin so he could shower and dress.

Several minutes later, Camille’s figure appeared ghost-like through the steam that coated the shower door. She stood outside it for a moment, seeming to hesitate.

“Can I join you?” she asked in a soft voice that instantly made him feel guilty for being an ass to her earlier.

“Please.” The word came out scratchy, like a desperate plea from a dying man to be put out of his misery.

She entered and stood beneath the rain shower in the center of the enclosure. He didn’t move, remaining against the hot jets that sprayed water from the side of the shower. The sight of her naked body calmed more than it aroused him. He watched her wet her hair and tilt her face up into the water. He was fascinated by the way it streamed down over her skin in wet sheets, cascading off her nipples in thicker streams, pooling slightly at her navel before spreading through the trimmed vee of dark gold between her thighs. He could watch her all day, just like this, and never get tired of it.

She moved toward him, a quizzical smile on her face. Eben’s heart raced the closer she got. God, why did her proximity always affect him so acutely? He watched her lips move but couldn’t register her words, he was so enthralled. Her blue eyes widened and her brows arched higher, questioning. Finally he snapped back to his senses.

“Uh, yeah, here’s the soap,” he said, handing the bottle of body wash to her.

Camille’s brows drew together. “Are you all right? You’ve been acting strange lately.”

He kept his face a mute mask and shook his head. “I’m fine.”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t believe you.”

The floral scent of the body wash filled the steamy enclosure when she squeezed a measure into her palm and handed the bottle back to him.

“Believe what you want. I’m fine.”

“Fine. Get my back, will you?” She turned away from him and shifted backward almost unbearably close. Close enough for her ass to brush against the erection he hadn’t realized he even had until the slightest touch of her made it painfully apparent. She had to know how she affected him. Once he’d made his feelings known to her that night in the temple, she’d seemed more intuitive. Maybe she had always been that way but her shyness beforehand made it impossible to tell.

Christ, he wanted her now, but he wanted more than just to get his rocks off with her underneath him. He wanted to witness her enjoyment of his touch and know it was only his touch she was enjoying. To give her pleasure and know every little sound and twitch she made were only because of the things he did to her.

He gently picked up the wet rope of her long hair and draped it over her shoulder. The soap slicked down her back in a fragrant lather. He moved his hands in slow circles, massaging her neck, her shoulders, then lower. She let out a soft sigh of contentment and leaned back farther. Any closer and she’d be flush against him. He slipped one hand between the cleft of her ass and delicately cleaned there, too. Knowing she was probably still tender, he refrained from touching her more than necessary.

Silently, he moved around her and let the spray from the side rinse her back. He took over washing the front as slowly and methodically as the back, starting again at her neck and shoulders. The contortions they put her in during sex weren’t comfortable—he’d experienced some of them himself. This was the first time he’d had sole access to her after the fact, however, and he intended to enjoy it for as long as possible.

He cupped both soapy breasts in his palms, kneading them in slow, gentle circles. He didn’t mean to tease, but it was second nature to try to elicit a response from her this way. It always worked. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she moaned, arching against his touch. The weight of them in his hands along with the soft, quick pants from between her lips was the best combined experience. He brushed thumbs over both nipples and watched her face, fascinated by the ripple of enjoyment that passed across her features.

He reached to the side and aimed one of the other myriad nozzles at her to rinse the suds off. When he glanced back, her eyes were open and watching him with a mixture of love, lust, and confusion. Was she feeling the same things he was? An unusual sense of discovery that they’d never experienced before? They had made love before without Roka getting involved, but never without him in the room. His presence had been ubiquitous from the very beginning.

This felt very different. This singular focus they had for each other. It would end soon, but he intended to savor it.

She tilted her head back when he moved closer, and accepted his mouth with hers. Her lips were wet and tasted a little soapy, but her tongue was as sweet and velvet soft as always. Eben lingered, absorbing her need like a sponge until he felt saturated. He released her and bent to her breasts, taking her nipples between his lips one at a time, sucking them into pebble-hard peaks.

Her fingernails raked through his hair, scoring his scalp and pulling him closer. “Oh, Eben. You know I love you, don’t you? I’ve always loved you.”

The words had the force of cleansing fire, but they weren’t enough to sear away his worry. They only served to reveal his weakness, and it was too stark to deny. He loved her. He always had, and sharing her had become a heavy yet necessary burden.

He claimed her mouth again and pushed her hard against the thick glass at the back of the shower. With both hands, he gripped her thighs and lifted her up. Her skin made rough skidding sounds against the glass as he slid her higher until her legs could wrap around his waist.

“Yes,” she whispered when he pressed his throbbing tip against her hot core. ~“I want you. Always.”~

He slid deep, his hips rocking hard against hers. Her slick heat was so welcome. After the cold air on the deck above, the shower’s heat had done little to warm him. Her warmth seeped into him with each steady thrust, with each tight squeeze of her muscles, urging him deeper. She clutched at his head, pulled him to her again. Her lips traced silent affirmations against his jaw, his mouth. Their tongues slid together in an intimate dance, articulating the things they felt, but had no words to adequately convey.

They climaxed together, shuddering, clutching, clinging to the last drops of pleasure. Their mouths bit and sucked, seemed to drain each other dry like parched wanderers in a desert being dragged away from the long sought oasis.

He refused to release her, however. He punched the knobs for the shower, turning everything off.

“You can put me down now,” Camille said, pushing away just enough to look him in the eye.

“Do you want me to put you down?”

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck. He grabbed a couple towels with his free hand and draped one over her shoulders. At the bed, he climbed on slowly, scooting on his knees until he could lay her down against the pillows, following so that their hips never parted. He intended to keep making love to her for as long as possible, to take advantage of this window of opportunity to have her all to himself, even though the steady, throbbing glow of her mark made it agonizingly apparent that she would never be wholly his, ever.

***

“What is it?” Rafe asked, his brow creasing with concern when Roka hadn’t spoken in several moments.

Roka met his friend’s gaze and studied him for a moment. The Shadow knew the trials of love well enough, but he had yet to forge the kind of bond with another that Roka had with Eben and Camille. He might understand, and after the story Rafe had shared, Roka believed he could share his own in confidence.

“It’s the bond I have with them. It was unconventional to begin with, but at least the Council has no laws against us mating with two humans upon awakening. Issa refused to take him.”

“Was there something wrong with him?” Rafe asked.

“Nothing at all, save his love for Camille. In spite of my bond with him, which is mutually satisfying, I think he still prefers her.”

“You have the power to release them, you know. Or to simply let them be together and get out of their way.”

“In theory, yes…” Roka glanced toward the narrow stairwell that led down to the lower deck where the master bedroom was. It was impossible to ignore the combination of emotions welling up from beneath him. His connection to the pair was strong. Everything they felt, he received a concentrated taste of. Camille’s worry for Eben. Eben’s desperate need for her love. They were sharing something now that he didn’t think he could compete with, nor did he believe he should.

“But…” Rafe raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“But they are mine.” Roka’s teeth clenched and he pounded the heavy table with one fist for emphasis. The wood creaked under the strain. “His connection to me may not be very deep yet, but we are both lost without her.”

“You understand my predicament, then,” Rafe said.

“Yes. I understand well. You should rest now. There’s a spare cabin below. We will fly at dusk.”

Rafe nodded and stood.

“Rafe, if she offers again…” Roka began.

“I will decline, for his sake, and for yours.”

Roka nodded and watched his friend descend to the lower deck. He sat in silence for a moment, then stood and left the shelter of the interior to stand at the railing facing the bow. Dawn was creeping over the horizon ahead of him, chasing the night across the sky. There was nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere, being able to witness these moments. Shifts in the universe, another cycle beginning while the prior ended. The continuous flow of it, persisting uninterrupted, for eons.

In some ways he regretted his own interruption. The enforced hibernation. Time had stood still for him and his brethren for five hundred years. Their own cycles arrested for reasons most of them had forgotten, yet took for granted as necessary. After Rafe’s visit tonight he agreed that their laws needed to change, but also felt a little guilty. Had it not been for those laws, he never would have been the Guardian that night in the temple. Never would have been the object of Camille’s innocent affection. Perhaps it didn’t matter, though. Perhaps fate would have brought them together no matter what. He had to believe that, if he were going to help Rafe with his quest.

The sun finally peeked its shining head over the horizon. The surface of the water became a vast ocean of pure gold that made him long yet again for a child with similar qualities. He didn’t wish for a White like himself. Only the Virgin’s Guardian ever rose above the rank of servant and protector. He wished for a child as full of wide-eyed eagerness and wonder at every new experience that Camille possessed, and one with the same fearless curiosity as Eben. Sweet Mother help him, but he loved them both so much. It pained him to know that one of them might ever be unhappy.

The flood of emotions he’d channeled from them all morning subsided as the sun’s full glory finally birthed itself from beyond the edge of the Earth. It hung there in proud challenge to the shadows that fast retreated to the other side of the world. With a silent greeting, Roka turned and went back inside.

He let them sleep for a little while longer, finding comfort in his own thoughts. There was something to be said for true solitude like this, and he hadn’t had it since being frozen in jade in the temple. He didn’t miss it, but being presented with it now, he relished it. The other two were a constant presence in his life, his thoughts, his bed. He was truly happy, a feeling he never imagined he would feel during all those centuries of guarding his race’s treasures. Camille had chosen him, and everything else had followed.

His bond with Eben, though solid, felt tenuous at the moment, when the man’s desperate craving for Camille was too apparent to deny and drowned out all else. Roka had considered taking one or both of them along on this quest he was embarking on with Rafe to find the lost purebred his friend loved. He had second thoughts now. As much as it would hurt to leave them behind, it seemed that was the best choice. He knew the perils of where he and Rafe had to travel. Camille and Eben could handle it, he was sure, but he doubted Eben would object to staying, and Eben would be able to convince Camille it was the best plan.

He wandered into the galley and perused their food stores. They were well stocked for weeks, but it would only take a day for them to sail back to Sydney after he left. The skeleton crew they had brought with them was made up of competent and loyal employees bonded to Kol’s family. Roka had yet to hire any of his own and bond them to be loyal to him. He preferred the freedom of only being responsible for himself and the two humans he loved, but knew that would likely change before long.

He tied his hair back into a tail and began cooking, the best way he’d discovered of rousing the two of them from sleep without actually climbing into bed with them and trying more intrusive means. He didn’t wish to intrude on them this morning after the taste of their true feelings he’d had earlier. He only wished he’d understood before now what was troubling Eben so he could have found a way to fix it.

Within half an hour, the aroma of fresh baking quiche filled the yacht, luring his lovers to the upper deck. Camille appeared first, sleepy eyed with golden hair trailing in tangled strands over bare, sun-kissed shoulders. The spare top she wore rode up enough to display her tan abdomen and a small glimpse of the glowing mark that adorned her belly. The evidence of her readiness to procreate always incited a surge of need in Roka, but he quelled it this morning. The contrasting absence of the glow in Eben’s mark was as much of a signal to their conflict as their emotions. It would do Roka no good to tell them their own feelings if they couldn’t articulate it themselves, however.

“You should be sainted,” Camille mumbled around mouthfuls of food a few moments later. “This is the best breakfast I’ve ever had.”

“After your performance last night, I’m not surprised,” Roka said.

“So, how is your friend doing? Is he recovered?”

“Well enough to travel.”

“I hope he smartens up and learns to ask for help before it’s too late next time,” Camille said.

“We won’t have to worry about that because I’ll be accompanying him.”

Eben, silent until that moment, looked up from his meal. “You’re leaving?” His tone was partly excitement, partly apprehension. When their gazes met, Roka nodded.

“But we’re going with you, right?” Camille asked uncertainly. She was intuitive, but disbelief could breed denial and override any certainty she had of the truth.

Eben answered for him, still holding Roka’s gaze. “No, he’s not taking us. Do you want to tell us what this is about? I only heard the bit he told us on the helipad. Something about finding a lost dragon, right? An Unbound?”

“Yes. She must be kept safe from the Council until we can convince them to change our laws. They won’t be able to find her until the Verdanith is assembled so we have that in our favor, but we can’t very well resist helping look for the lost fragment after begging them to reassemble it. And we do want it assembled, don’t we?” His inflection didn’t exactly frame it as a question, and he directed the statement at Eben, more than Camille.

“Of course we do!” Camille answered.

Eben remained silent.

“But…” Camille began, gazing off into the distance as she pondered some plan. “We can look for the fragment. Erika’s probably going to call us, anyway, depending on what kind of information they already have. We can make sure to ‘help’ just enough to give you more time to find her. Where do you think she is? I mean… do you have leads?”

Half the tension Roka had been holding in his shoulders left him at her eager response. Camille did relish uncovering a mystery. So did Eben, and the two had been too long away from an expedition like this. Perhaps that’s all they needed to sort out their issues—clearly one brief night alone together hadn’t been enough to resolve things between them.

“Rowan is a young dragon and just learned her true nature. When I was her age my parents had already released the binding on my magic so I could shift. I spent the first year after I came of age simply stretching my wings like all young dragons do. There are places we go when we do so.”

“Dragon teen hangouts?” Camille said with a smile. “Did you hook up with girl dragons and make out and stuff?”

“That wasn’t encouraged, but it did happen. Not to me. I was more focused on the challenge of flying as far and fast as I could. Learning what I could do with my new body—I was already well acquainted with my human body.”

Eben finally showed an interest in the topic. “Where are these places and how do you know where to go first?”

“They’re scattered around the globe. Remote, unpopulated areas. Mostly mountaintops that have been imbued with magic over several millennia. It’s become a custom for every new dragon to leave a bit of their magic behind, and the power has built up. Humans can’t sense it, but it acts as a beacon to young dragons. We’ll backtrack to where Rafe lost her and find the closest location from there. With luck the two of us will be fast enough to catch up with her before it’s too late.”

Camille whooped in excitement and bounced out of her chair. Her ebullient nature always amazed Roka and the enthusiasm she showed now reaffirmed that he had made the right decision. Even Eben’s mood seemed vastly improved—he smiled at Camille, watching her dance her way to the kitchen with her dishes. She danced back, hopped into Roka’s lap and kissed him soundly.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” she said, cupping his cheeks between both her hands.

Roka briefly considered urging them back down to the bedroom and spending the rest of the day making love before he and Rafe had to leave. He sensed that Eben would be happy with the idea, too, but not for the same reason Roka wanted to do it. He absently brushed his palm across her belly and she gripped it and held it over her glowing mark.

Camille leaned her head close to his and whispered in his ear. “You do what needs doing. We have all the time in the world for this.”

With that she was dancing over to Eben, singing a song about expeditions and swaying her hips to her own little beat. She straddled Eben’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. The kiss lingered a bit longer than the one she’d given Roka and a brief sense of triumph washed through Roka—a feeling he knew didn’t originate from inside himself.

Yes, my loves, you will have each other alone for a time, while I ensure my love-sick friend doesn’t self-destruct. Take care of each other.