Page 8 of Moonlit Alexandrite

“Newt.” The surprise on his face was as much of a tell as any that he hadn’t noticed his son’s absence. The affectionate look was gone in the next instance as he noticed me trying to subtly disengage from the boy’s hold.

“What are you doing with my son? Again?”

I cringed. It sounded like an accusation, and I wasn’t sure I liked his implication.

“I found him in my purse and thought I should return him.” I kicked my chin up and pretended for all I was worth that he didn’t intimidate me... or turn me on. Honestly, they were kind of one and the same at this point. Ren frowned, then bent to Newt’s level.

“What were you doing in Red’s purse, Newt?”

The boy squared up to his father, and I smothered a laugh at the defiance in his eyes. “She’s herd. My salamander told me so. I want to get to know her.”

Ren reared back and coughed, as though covering some emotion he didn’t want to reveal. “Son, you and me are herd. You can’t run off with strangers. It isn’t safe.”

“She’s nice. She gave me chocolate milk and let me play with Rusty.”

This was going from bad to worse. I could see all sorts of conclusions being drawn in his head, and I edged slowly backward, ready to run. Even my succubus was on the same wavelength. Run now, so there were better odds of coming back later. Just as I braced to turn, I was pinned with a fierce amber stare that froze me where I stood. He closed the distance between us on a prowl that made me think of big cats. Scary cats that would tear you to shreds. Until he was right up in my personal space. The scrape of his stubble against my hair caused a shudder to work its way through my body as he practically growled in my ear, “I don’t know you. I don’t like you. Stay away from my kid.”

I nodded furiously, and as he broke the connection between us, I finally turned tail and bolted from the club.

* * *

“I don’t know you.I don’t like you,” I mimicked in a sing-song, trying to self-soothe as I wandered aimlessly. “He doesn’t even know me. Jerk.”

I funnelled my frustration into kicking a rock and took small satisfaction as I heard it ping off one of the many warning signs along the loch. At some point, this one appeared to have read: ‘Caution. This is a PSA advising against the riding of the black horse that resides in this loch. The beast thrives on souls’. The words had been blacked out with marker so they were only just visible if I squinted, and a large penis had been drawn over the whole sign so that the only untouched words read: ‘The horse. The beast’.

A soft whinny brought my attention around. And then there he was. Onyx coat glistening as he stepped from the water. The horse was more stunning up close than I had imagined. I watched him in this dark, quiet space as he approached on soft hooves and nosed my shoulder gently. I opened my mouth to soothe and encourage him. What came out was, “Italian stallion, please tell me horses really are hung. Better yet, please show me.”

What the actual fuck?!

My succubus was flirting with horses now?

Thank God they couldn’t flirt back, I thought as he nuzzled me more insistently. With a last glance at the vandalized sign, I threw caution to the wind and mounted him.

He took off down the shoreline, and I crowed with the exhilaration of the ride. The power of his muscled bunching and gliding reported through my thighs where they clutched his flanks, but the ride was surprisingly smooth. In fact, the gentle rock of the ride was becoming quite... stimulating.

I tried to adjust my seat and realized I was stuck.

“Woah!” I called, trying to get the horse to slow down so I could work out what was going on, but if anything, his speed increased. The vibration of his hooves sent warmth flooding through my lower body, and I squirmed at the sensations he was causing. “Horsie, I need you to stop.”

How the hell did you make a horse stop running?

I tried taking a handful of his mane, but the shift in my weight caused the friction on my center to increase to a red-level warning. Without breaking stride, the horse turned ninety degrees and headed for the water. The shift required to keep my seat threw me over the edge and into the biggest orgasm of my life. I screamed and shuddered, and the next minute I was falling.

I landed in a heap on top of a very hard, very naked someone.

“Where did the horse go?” I wondered, as I pushed myself upright, still shuddering through the last of my release. It was only then that I realized I sat astride the pirate bouncer from Flare. His long brown hair feathered out around him like a halo and he looked up at me through wide, seal pup brown eyes.

“Did... did you just come on my back?” he asked, his face a mixture of shock and arousal.

“I feel like that should be my line.” I huffed a laugh and rolled off him to lie in the sand.

Best. Ride. Ever.

Chapter Five

Lex

“So you’re new around town?” the bouncer-turned-horse-turned-naked man asked, rolling to face me, as though completely unaware that he was cut like a marble statue with a sleeping anaconda draped casually over his thigh.

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