Chapter 10
Arkyn watched from where he sat in the foyer of the daycare center. Parents entered to pick up their children from the indoor playground gathering area and chatted briefly with the daycare workers during the exchange. It was all very civil and professional.
And then there was Ama.
“Hi, Wyatt, I see you have new shoes!” She addressed an older sibling clutching his mother’s legs as if trying to blend in and not be noticed while she talked with a worker. He sported as much of a back-the-f-off expression as a four-year-old could muster.
“Do they light up when you run?” Ama continued to talk to the toddler.
Wyatt hesitated answering. But Ama’s smile and open expression finally encouraged him enough to nod and offer a few obligatory taps to show off his light-up sneakers.
“Wow! That’s so cool!” She threw her hands in the air, her eyes and smile wide with amazement. “I bet they make you run speedy fast!”
Ama’s animated facial and body language pulled a reluctant smile from the toddler. He stepped away from his mother just enough to take several quick steps in a small circle.
Ama clapped and cheered. Then leaned toward the boy as if sharing a secret, pointing to her tie-dye-colored clogs poking out from under the swishy fabric of her wide-legged pants. “Wanna see what my shoes can do?”
He glanced at his mom, whose attention was still on the other worker, then nodded. Ama tippy-tapped a series of dance moves that rivaled any cartoon character. If grace, elegance, and skill had a complete opposite, that would be Ama’s frenetic bop, complete with silly expression. It sent Wyatt into a storm of giggles.
Then she leaned even closer and cupped a hand to one side of her mouth as if sharing a secret. “Wanna know what type of shoes I get to wear tonight?”
When Wyatt nodded enthusiastically, Ama stage-whispered “Bowling shoes. How awesome is that?! Have you ever worn bowling shoes? I bet it’s better than being a super hero!”
Wyatt laughed at her antics, as did Arkyn.
Ama continued to chat with Wyatt for another minute until the mother, younger child perched on her hips, called to Wyatt to leave.
The smile and joyous wave he offered Ama as he departed made Arkyn smile.
Ama continued to interact with the children—babies and toddlers, patrons of the daycare and their older siblings alike—leaving a wake of smiles and giggles wherever she went. She talked the finer points of being a princess with one little girl, interrupted a battle between two brothers with a giant robot impersonation, calmed a hysterical toddler by laying on the ground next to him and calmly acknowledging his big emotions until they passed, and cooed and gurgled to a number of babies before handing them over to smiling parents.
No matter how she did or did not fit in the outside world, she was in her element with all these young children, most of whom couldn’t express themselves verbally. Yet she understood them as clearly as if they could, and acted with the quiet confidence of someone who knew her worth in these matters.
Arkyn was simultaneously impressed and proud, and—he knew it wasn’t appropriate, but—aroused. Ama was a joy to watch in action, and he couldn’t take his eyes from her.
“Hey Arkyn, are you here to pick up Teddy?” One of the fathers approached him.
The man had lost some hair and gained some weight since their high school football days, but Arkyn remembered him. He stood to clap the man on the shoulder in greeting. “Hey, Joe, good to see you. No, I’m not picking up Teddy. I’m here to pick up my date.”
Joe whistled low and glanced around. “A little young for ya, don’t you think?”
Arkyn chuckled, but Joe’s next words cut deep. “Guess it’s your only option since you’ve slept your way through all the single adult women, huh?”
His dragon thrashed in anger at the suggestion he might prey upon children and the insult to his active dating history—not that the latter was too off the mark—but Arkyn subdued the beast before it could spring forth in the entryway of the daycare.
As if subconsciously sensing his dragon-level irritation, Joe cleared his throat and took a nervous step back. Arkyn raised a menacing eyebrow at his former teammate, his voice low. “Maybe I’m simply moving on to the single mothers. I heard you recently divorced.”
“We’re, uh”—Joe swallowed at the not-so-veiled threat—“trying to work things out.”
“Well then, best of luck.”
An arm wrapped around his, followed by a carefree laugh. “Arkyn, don’t scare away the parents until they’ve picked up their children.”
He turned to address the purple-haired sprite at his side. “Ready to bowl?”
“Yes! I’ve been watching YouTube videos all week. I will mop the lane with you.” She tossed out that challenge out with a jaunty cant of her head. Then she pursed her lips on a thought. “Or, I’ll bake you a soufflé. Not sure which.”
“As long as you don’t start homesteading out of your apartment, we’ll be fine.” He teased.
Her smile eclipsed the sun, and her galaxy eyes sent him careening toward the stars. They exited the daycare without a single good-bye to anyone, only pausing when they reached the passenger side of his truck.
“Uh, I hope the dress code allows for stains.” Her smile dimmed as she tugged on the front of her shirt. “There was a formula mishap today, on top of the usual bodily fluids.”
He didn’t care that she might have stains on her shirt, but he also didn’t want her feeling self-conscious about it. “Actually, we’re doing blacklight bowling. So the stains might stand out, but in a good way.”
The gasp of excitement she emitted shot straight to his cock. Truthfully, he could barely keep his hands to himself and his lips from stealing hers. Fuck it, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body against his, burying his nose in her hair and inhaling her night sky and starlight scent. Then he dipped his mouth to her ear. “If it bothers you, you can borrow one of my spare shirts I keep in the truck.”
“Roller coasters.”
“Hmm?” He spread chaste kisses along her neck, barely hearing her response he was so focused on the feel of her slight frame pressed flush against his. She vibrated with intensity and he sensed her power, a physical strength one would assume she lacked if her willowy physique was any indication. But she lifted babies and toddlers for a living; she was by no means weak.
“You smell like roller coasters. And I want to ride you.” Her voice dipped to a throaty whisper as she climbed him like a monkey, wrapping her long legs around his waist so suddenly, their entwined bodies fell against the truck door. Those words from any other woman would be a bold sexual advance, but Ama no doubt meant them very literally. Her lack of innuendo didn’t bother him in the least.
His dragon was a living thrill ride. Maybe he could show her one day.
A muted, insistent meow pierced through the haze of their embrace, and Ama squealed softly when she looked to the source. “You brought Astra!”
Arkyn smiled as he carefully disengaged from their intimate embrace and glanced around. Nothing untoward had happened, but anyone passing by would think otherwise. Not that he cared for himself—apparently, he had a reputation for fucking anything—but he was oddly protective about how people perceived Ama. Then he opened the truck door so she could snatch up the little furry cockblocker. The two greeted each other like old friends, both rubbing cheeks and purring.
They cuddled and cooed while he lifted them into the passenger seat, then walked around to climb into his own side. Ama smiled at him as he buckled his seatbelt. “I thought bringing Astra was contingent on sushi and milkshakes.”
He scritched the kitten’s chin. “Yeah, but I haven’t managed to make that happen yet, and didn’t think it was right to keep you two apart due to a failure on my part.”
Ama kicked off her shoes and curled her legs up, turning to him as best as her seatbelt would allow. “Thank you. This has been the best date ever.”
Damn if he didn’t agree, and they’d barely begun. He chuckled and put the truck into Drive. “Hope it’s okay; some of the family is joining us. They claim it’s to keep me from being too handsy with you in public, but I think it’s because they like you.”
Her smile never dimmed, and he wasn’t entirely sure she’d heard him. But he didn’t question it. Especially not when they reached a stoplight and she blurted. “Can I kiss you?”
Good gravy, the woman blew away all his cool with those words. Rather than risk his voice cracking with nervous desire, Arkyn simply leaned toward her in a silent offer of his lips. She met him halfway, her tentative kiss quickly heating to a desperate duel of tongues.
The impatient honk of the car behind him yanked his attention back to the road and the green light.
And so the game began. At each stoplight, they kissed until someone honked. He made sure to go the long way so their route was filled with stoplights. Halfway there, hands got involved. And those hands didn’t pull away when the honking began. Maybe he should have been a gentleman about it, but once his palm had wandered under her shirt and bra and cupped her breast, he wasn’t letting go. Not until she grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from her pert morsels.
Dang, he hadn’t meant to be so forward?—
She tugged open the elastic waist of her pants and plunged his hand into her panties. By the Allfather, he was going to come in his jeans before they even reached the bowling alley. She was hot and slick and moist down there. He circled his fingers around, loving the catch of her breath each time he passed over her clit, gathering her arousal on his fingertips. Then he sunk one finger deep in her tight core and they both moaned. With half an eye on the road—they were going to crash and how would he explain this to the insurance company but not even Níeh?ggr could make him stop—he leisurely pumped a finger, then two, in her while circling her clit with his thumb as she rocked her hips and moaned.
Then she leaned over him and wrestled his stiff cock from his pants, licking him like he was the tastiest ice cream cone because of course he needed more stimulation that simply being fingers-deep in her pussy. When she swallowed him down, his leg flinched and the truck lurched forward.
Her technique was rough, but gods her enthusiasm was off the charts, and he hurtled toward an orgasm like he was back in high school digging his car keys from his pockets. Astra clung to the dashboard where she’d escaped to warm herself in the sun, and he turned onto a quiet road, hoping no one called the cops or a service vehicle to aid them as they slowly progressed at a lurching, halting speed. With each downward bob of her head, sucking him deep into the humming, hungry heat of her mouth, his arm jerked and steered them along a veering, pitching path that considered lines and obstacles merely suggestions.
To make matters worse, his control of his dragon slipped and the beast cavorted just beneath the surface, its powers rumbling through the ground beneath the street, shaking the trees lining the sidewalks so leaves and dry limbs rained down on them.
Mother of the Gods and Odin’s Lost Eye, Arkyn gulped for air as his balls tightened and the tingle of his approaching climax zapped along his spine. Ama’s moans around his cock grew in volume and intensity as her core clenched his fingers, thrusting against his thumb in search of her own release.
“I’m coming!” Someone yelled, and he yanked the truck into a parking lot as they both groaned out their release. His leg jerked against the gas pedal and the truck heaved forward, hitting a concrete parking block with enough force, they bounced over the obstacle, Ama popping off both his fingers and his cock, juices flowing from both. Arkyn grabbed for her so she didn’t hit the wheel or dash or slide off the seat, pulling her face against his torso until he could stop the truck and put it in Park.
Neither moved for several gasping breaths as their hearts and bodies calmed. He cradled Ama with one arm and carefully unhooked her seatbelt. Her galaxy eyes swirling with latent desire and sparkling with wild laughter, she eased into a sitting position, licking her lips like a cat with cream and staring at him, a smile on her face like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar and had no regrets
He understood the sentiment.
“Not that I’m complaining in the least,” he murmured. “But all that usually happens at the end of the date.”
Ama glanced at his cock, growing flaccid and listing against the side of his thigh, surrounded by dribbles of his own cum that had spewed from her mouth as she’d been thrown off during the most embattled parking job he’d ever experienced.
Her impish grin revealed a couple shy dimples as she wiped his release from her chin with the back of her hand. “Do you mean the sexy time or the crash landing?”
Unable to resist the temptation any longer, he brought the fingers that had been buried deep in her pussy to his mouth and sucked her juices from them. His eyes closed and he moaned as the ambrosia coated his tongue.
“Mmmm, I’m gonna have to taste you again, dontcha know.” Her eyes opened and he leaned forward so he spoke against her mouth. “But I prefer to drink directly from the source.”
Her breath hitched at the promise, but Ulrik’s voice in his head stopped Arkyn from further pursuit of that possibility. “That was an interesting parking job, big bro. Hopefully you bowl better than you drive.”
Ama giggled and reached for her shoes as Arkyn worked to tuck himself into his pants. He plucked Astra from the dash and pocketed her in his shirt. Ama’s gaze raked him and grew hazy with lust. “Let’s go bowl. Maybe you’ll score again.”