6. A Picnic
Leni
I lost track of time again while snuggling Archer, but when we finally emerged, it was already lunchtime and the sun was high in the bright blue sky. I prepared us a picnic basket and decided it was time to set out so I could show him my home. Hopefully, soon, our home.
I’ve lived on this island for ages. I still took trips and saw the rest of the world, but this place was my own.
Over time, parts of the island had changed, especially as the weather wore on it, but it was still perfect.
It was isolated and protected away from humans so that no one ever stumbled on my shores. It was ideal for a monster like me.
And even more ideal to share with my fated mate.
Archer wrestled the basket away from me, mumbling about allowing him to serve me. I chuckled and decided to let him carry it, then led the way down the well-worn path to the beach.
“It’s beautiful here,” he said, his voice carrying all of his excitement. He was practically vibrating with it. His energy seemed to be endless, and I loved that about him.
“And here I was thinking that you were a city boy,” I teased.
“I am a city boy, through and through. But I still appreciate places like this, and honestly would happily live far away from a city one day . . .” he trailed off. “I think I’ve always dreamed about living in a cottage somewhere quiet.”
“What about your friends?” I asked.
It was easier for me since I’d lived here for ages. All my friends knew I would visit them when I wished to see them. But for Archer, it was different. Would he want to leave his home and live here too?
“Well, of course I would miss them. I would miss my family. But I’d rather live somewhere nice and make time to visit them. Plus, with how easy it is to talk to people online, long distance friendships aren’t hard. You do know what the Internet is, don't you?”
“Hey,” I quipped. “I’m not that out of touch. Don’t make me punish you again.”
His laugh chased after me, and I grinned as we started down the stone staircase. The air was salty, the sun was nice and warm, and everything felt like a dream. I shook my wings, enjoying the feeling of being outside. Especially after rolling around in bed all morning.
We made it to the bottom steps, and I led him to my favorite spot to sit and have a picnic.
When I turned to face him, my heart melted. His eyes glimmered with excitement, his attention focused on something else. I followed his gaze and grinned—he’d spotted one of the cats.
“That’s Pepper,” I said. “Then there’s Carrot, who’s an orange cat that thinks he has more than nine lives. You’ll see him at some point.”
“Oh my gods,” he whispered. “I want to pet them.”
Pepper licked her paw as she lounged in a shadow beneath a shrub, her eyes flickering over to us.
“If you chase after her, she will surely run away,” I said. “You have to let her come to you.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay. Okay. I can be patient. Probably. Sort of.”
I wrestled with a smile as I watched him. “Maybe you should get a kitten.”
“No,” he groaned. “Plus, there’s already two here. They’ll love me eventually.”
Without a doubt, they would. I snorted and pointed at the sand. “All right, little demon. Open our basket and put out the blanket for us. Let’s eat.”
He drew in a deep breath, pulled his attention from Pepper, and did exactly as I asked. He knelt down in the sand, opened up the basket, and rummaged around as he pulled out a giant blanket.
I couldn't help but admire Archer. Hours of making love with him, and I still couldn’t get enough.
He was shirtless, and I was able to admire every muscle in this light.
Dark hair fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were a beautiful shade of brown—mahogany and oak with a golden ring around his pupils.
Freckles dusted his nose, and they turned him from devastatingly handsome to endearingly cute.
That was the thing about Archer. I couldn't help but think about how damn cute he was all of the time. I just wanted to smother him. I wanted to bite him. He gave me cuteness aggression, which was a term I’d learned from one of my friends who kept up with modern language.
The perplexing thing was that I'd never found someone I wanted to fuck so badly all that cute. Sexy? Yes. Hot? Yes. But cute? Never. It wasn’t a word I thought I would use to describe someone I was so hungry for.
First time for everything, even for a monster who’d been alive as long as I had.
Everything I learned about him only made me want more. I wanted to know his hobbies and what he did with his time. I wanted to know about his job and his daily routines, and everything else in between.
Hopefully, we’d both be satiated at least for a couple hours before wanting to fuck again.
Right.
We’d see. The thought had already crossed my mind about riding his face into the ground.
Butterflies erupted in my stomach the longer I watched him. A purring sound hummed in my chest, my tail flicking behind me.
He was getting the sand off the blanket. Making sure that it was clean, and there were no wrinkles.
Archer looked up at me once he finished. “Can I make you a plate, Mistress? Especially since you're the one who prepped all the food. You know I can cook, right? I’m actually very good. You’ll have to tell me what you like to eat.”
I thought about it for a moment, deciding it would be good to have a more in-depth discussion about our dynamic. Everything was happening so fast, and I wanted him to understand my thoughts.
“Here’s the thing. You will learn all of that about me, and I do love the idea of you taking care of me that way. But outside of the bedroom, we don’t have to have a full-time dynamic, unless that’s something you are interested in.”
Archer nodded as he listened, his throat bobbing as he swallowed nervously. “I am interested, honestly. But I do think it is wise to get to know each other better. That’s a lot of trust. Not that I don’t trust you, of course.”
“I know we trust each other, but it’s still just a seedling of trust. You do not offend me by saying that.”
“Good.” He exhaled as he started pulling out food from the picnic basket. “I like to serve. I like being used. It satisfies me on a deep level. It makes me feel fulfilled. I know that it’s not for everyone, and it would put pressure on you—”
“It doesn’t put pressure on me,” I said.
I kicked off my shoes and stepped onto the blanket, settling down as he put out the board of meats, cheeses, fruit, and crackers.
“I am a Dom. I’ve always been one. It’s what I need in my life.
But being a Dom means that I take care of you as much as you take care of me, and in order to do that, we must know each other. ”
Archer nodded. “Agreed.”
Then he knelt down next to me, holding a bundle of grapes in his hands. I raised a brow at him. “Are you going to hand feed me, little demon?”
“If you wish, Mistress.”
I reached my hand around and grabbed his asscheek, tugging him a couple inches closer. I opened my mouth and he offered me a grape. The sweetness popped as I chewed and I sighed, realizing I really could do this all the time.
“Tell me about your hobbies while you feed me,” I demanded.
“You’ll laugh at me,” he said as he offered me another grape.
“Go on.”
He wrinkled his nose. “I like to crochet miniature kink equipment.”
That got my attention. My mouth dropped and I choked back a laugh. It wasn’t because it was funny, but just that it caught me off guard. “Crochet? Kink equipment?”
“And frogs.”
“. . . Frogs?”
“They’re my favorite animal,” he sighed. “I have a tiny shop online. It’s one of those hobbies I somehow just fell into, and now it’s like all I do in my spare time. With my job, I’m online all the time since it’s remote, so crocheting is something that gets me off screens and it’s creative.”
“I want to see them,” I said. “I want a crocheted frog. For my kitchen. But I want her holding a riding crop.”
Archer laughed as he offered me another grape. “A crossover, huh?”
“Absolutely,” I said. He kept laughing and as I finished my bite, I wanted his mouth on mine more than anything else in the entire world. “Kiss me.”
His eyes darkened with need and he immediately leaned over, kissing me nice and slow. His tongue slid against mine as I pushed my claws through his hair.
“Fuck,” he mumbled between kisses. “We’re not going to get very far in this conversation if you keep kissing me.”
I sighed and gave him a gentle shove away from me. He leaned back and put the grapes on the board, and my gaze dropped to the tent in his shorts.
“Already?” I hissed.
He blushed. “You’re too hot, it’s gonna happen. My cock is helpless to your wiles.”
“My wiles?” I burst out laughing and sat up as he poured us each a glass of fizzy champagne. “Darling, you haven’t seen my wiles yet.”
“Then I’m absolutely a goner.” I snickered as he handed the glass to me. Archer winked as he took a sip. “Okay, it’s your turn. What are your hobbies? What’s your favorite animal? What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite position?”
“Archer,” I hissed as he giggled. I was having too much fun.
I shook my head at him as I piled cheese onto a cracker, thinking about his questions.
“Hobbies? I do a lot of things. I love reading. There’s a library in London I often pop into through a portal.
There are two Cyclops who run it, and they have everything.
Every few years, I find a new topic and dive into researching it until I learn everything about it.
I love learning new things. I think I’ve had a thousand different hobbies at this point.
Although, I can’t say I’ve ever crocheted frogs or kink equipment. ”
He stuck his tongue out at me playfully. “I can show you how.”
“Mm-hmm. Maybe.”
“You can teach me how to fuck you how you like, and I can teach you how to crochet a riding crop.”
I shook my head at him. I’m going to love him so much. I already knew it. “Deal. Favorite animal—I love cats, clearly. They’re just so moody and wonderfully independent. My favorite color is sky blue. My favorite position . . . hmm.”
He wiggled his brows as I thought about it. Gods, there were so many I liked. I started to blush the longer I considered, and then even more when I realized what the answer was.
“What?” he asked. “I can tell you’ve thought of it.”
“Well, my wings are very sensitive.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“I like when they’re touched while I’m being fucked.”
“We can do that,” Archer said. “Maybe you’ll show me all the sex toys you have. I can always play with your wings while you ride one of them.”
Ooh. I hesitated for a moment, wondering if our size difference bothered him. There’d been times in the past where my male partners felt emasculated and it eventually became an issue . . .
He seemed to predict where my mind was going. “I love your body,” he said. “Not to be superficial, because I think there are other parts of both of us that are far more important. But I love every part of you.”
“It doesn’t bother you . . . using sex toys?”
“Of course not.” He frowned, his brows pulling together. “I mean, I want to still be inside you when you let me, because you feel really fucking good. But your pleasure brings me pleasure, and however we do that only matters in the sense that I want to be good at it.”
“Okay.” I breathed a little easier. “I wouldn’t want you to feel like . . .”
“Leni,” he said seriously, reaching for my hand.
“Sex is great. We both already know our sex is going to be great. I do not feel less than about my cock not being exactly what you want all the time. Besides, there are a million other ways to make someone come without penetrative sex. It’s pretty fucking rare for everything to be perfect, but I feel like you are perfect for me. ”
I nodded, feeling a sense of relief. It was a rare moment of doubt. I knew what I wanted and needed in sex, but I also already cared for Archer in a way that made me wonder if he would be satisfied by me.
He put down his champagne glass and crawled over to me, rising onto his knees. He took my hand, guiding it toward his erection as his lips hovered above mine. “You can’t feel this and tell me you doubt how much I want you.”
I leaned in, closing the gap between us and kissing him again. My wings swept around him and I heard the clink of one of the glasses tipping over, but I didn’t care. He melted against me, a moan rumbling in his throat as I tasted him—champagne and sweet summer grapes and lust.
His fingertips glided along the ridge of my right wing and my eyes rolled back, a full body wave of pleasure rushing through me.
“Oh, you really like that,” he whispered.
“Yes,” I huffed. “You know, I didn’t plan for us to have sex on our picnic, but between your scent and your touch, I’m going to end up flying you back to bed.”
“Or you could fuck me here,” he mumbled.
“On the beach with the sand?”
He chuckled. “We have the blanket, don’t we? How about you lay down and let me feast on you?”
“Little demon,” I sighed. “Put our lunch away.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
He moved fast. Less than a minute later, he had our blanket cleared and ready for me to sprawl out. I rolled over onto my stomach in the center, letting my wings completely spread out.
“Enjoy your meal,” I teased.
“Oh, I will.”