Page 17 of Her Dragons

So instead we ended up watching television.The TV was mounted on the wall just past the piano and distracted us from the temptation of wonderful but exhausting sex.That was when a certain commercial came on.

The ad showed a series of shots of people — humans, Drakes in dragon form, and Drakes morphing back and forth — in the park that we’d just flown over, flying and frolicking around amid balloons and vendors and games.The announcer beckoned everyone to come to the annual Haventon Drake Festival.

Every ethnic and national group living in Haventon had its outdoor celebrations every year — blacks, Italians, Greeks, Irish, Jews.There was also, of course, a very lively Gay Pride.The Drake population of the city had their own well-attended event — which made me sigh wistfully at the fun that I was seeing on the screen.

“You know,” I said, “I haven’t been to one of those since…,” and a bitter memory darkened my thoughts.I finished, hesitantly, “…since…Mark.”

Alex made a tsk sound in reaction.“Yeah.Why am I not surprised?”

“Don’t tell me,” said Jake.“He didn’t want you around a park full of other dragon guys because he was possessive and jealous.”

“He thought they’d be hitting on you,” Alex guessed.

Rolling my eyes and exhaling heavily, I said, “Something like that.He just refused to take me and forbade me to go.And…,” it pained me to admit it, “I was afraid of what would happen if I went without him and he found out.He would have probably left me black and blue all over.”

“Son of a bitch,” Alex said in a low, angry tone.

“Well, you know what?” Jake said, squeezing my thigh.“This year, you’re going — with us.Mark can stay the hell away.And if he shows up, he’ll just have to deal with Alex and me.”

“Damn right,” said Alex, giving my shoulder a little squeeze.“It’s fun and you deserve it.You haven’t had enough fun since you got with that bastard.”

“I’ve been having plenty of fun since I left him, though,” I said, looking back and forth at them, showing them the happiness they’d given me.

“You’re about to have a little more fun now,” Alex said suggestively.

Grinning at them, I said, “Maybe we’d better fuel up with some lunch first, guys.Back to the kitchen?”

Jake rose and offered me his hand.“Back to the kitchen.”

I took Jake’s hand and stood up, Alex standing up beside me.“We’d better put on a little something first.”

We went back out onto the terrace to collect what we’d peeled off, then made for the kitchen, as hungry for food now as we were for what would happen after we ate.

CHAPTER 6

Alex

Lily was good to have around the apartment, and not just for the sex, though there was plenty of that.Jake and I were all over her.We couldn’t get enough of her and she couldn’t get enough of us.That surprised us both a bit.We frankly never went for curvy girls before we met her.Our usual female was human and lean — not a stick figure, but more of a model type.Lily wasn’t fat, but there was just more to her than the women we were used to taking to bed.And we were also surprised at how being with Lily in Jake’s uncle’s place was starting to seem like a life.

Neither of us had really figured out what we wanted to do.We were both out of college; it had taken me longer to finish because of the stint in jail.But here we were, two guys done with school and not sure of what was coming next.Jake’s Uncle Robert was basically paying us to take care of his apartment while he was away, which made a nice set-up but couldn’t go on forever.We were staying there until we came to some decisions, but somehow the decisions didn’t seem to be coming.Jake had majored in Communications and I started out Undeclared and settled on Liberal Arts, which could have meant almost anything.Neither of us really knew what direction we’d go.We both just wanted to find something we could enjoy.

Right now, what my buddy and I frankly enjoyed doing most was Lily.And we did her a lot.

Still, outside of that, Lily was a help to us.She pitched in with the household chores, and with her around it was that much easier for us to keep the apartment spotless for UncleRobert.Jake didn’t tell his uncle she was staying with us, though Robert was once a young Drake himself and knew what young Drake guys were like.He must have assumed we had girls over, even if he didn’t know we had one living in.But with Lily staying with us, our life seemed like it was taking on a shape that we liked, even if we didn’t know exactly what the hell we were going to do with it.

Late one morning after sex in bed and the shower, when we finished breakfast and cleaned up from it, we all went out to the terrace just to sun ourselves.Lily put on a one-piece bathing suit that looked as sexy as a bikini on her.Jake and I hadn’t worn much more than thongs since we started having fun with her, and after helping her put on her sunscreen — which got us both really tempted — we both went dragon.The three of us just lay there and basked, Lily watching the sunlight play on our dragon skin and smiling and curling her toes at us, and we had the best time, not even touching her but thinking about what we’d end up doing with her after a while.

It was close to noon when Lily said, “You know what, guys?There’s something I’d like to do for you.”

Jake and I both raised our dragon heads with interest at that.We blinked at each other and looked curiously at Lily.“What can you do for us that you haven’t already done?” I said with a flick of my dragon tongue.

“I need to practice,” she said.“I haven’t been practicing because we’ve been into…other things…and I’ve been wanting to play, and there’s that gorgeous piano just sitting in there.How would you guys like it if I gave you a little mini-concert?”

Trading another look with Jake, I said, “Well, sure.I haven’t even heard you play yet, but Jake says you’re really good.”

“She’s really good,” Jake said.

“Of course I’ve never been into jazz that much,” I mentioned.

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