Valentine's magic rolled back into his palm, and he closed his hand. "Then let's eat and get to work. Unless you are too tired?"
Yelena snorted. "The orgasm was good, but not good enough to knock me out."
"I'll aim for that next time," he replied. It wasn't a promise—it was a threat—and Yelena's dragon sang inside of her.
"Magic first, sex later," she said, the bite on her neck throbbing.
Valentine's lips lifted into the charming Greatdrakes smile. "I wouldn't have it any other way, baby girl."
18
Valentine left Yelena to review the sigil options he had designed and returned to his rooms to retrieve his tattooing equipment. He never traveled without a kit, not even into Faerie. It helped him feel centred when he had his guns and inks with him.
He wasn't sure how late it was, but the halls were quiet, and from the sounds coming from the rooms beside him, Reeve and Charlotte were enjoying themselves.
Valentine pulled a face. He had heard his brother's shagging far too much of late, and he made a mental note to put up some silencing wards on his rooms. Yelena had the right idea, staying in the mountain's equivalent of a tower.
He was grateful no one was around to try and stop him and 'see how he was doing.' Did he really appear so unhinged that even Taranis's knights were keeping an eye on him? He thought of his reflection in Yelena's bathroom mirror. Okay, so he might have been a little manic, but he wasn't unhinged. He thought of Yelena's taste, and his mouth watered.
"Fuck, focus on the magic," he told himself. He had never felt out of control over anyone before.
When he wanted sex, he paid for it. Like his brothers, he had never really had time for relationships and felt nothing for the people he had fucked. It was a release, and that was about it. He didn't like to be touched for too long, and non-transactional sex would require some kind of affection.
Being with Yelena wasn't like that. He practically dry humped her and came untouched. That…wasn't normal. It usually took him far longer to get out of his own head and be present enough to come at all.
His dragon growled,I have always tried to tell you she is different.
Valentine gathered the last of his tattooing gear together in his satchel and slung it over his shoulder.I know. I just wasn't ready to listen. We will fix her hand, and then maybe she will be able to help us too.
Want her. Want her. Want her.The dragon tossed an image into his mind of Yelena on top of him, licking his throat.
Valentine ran his hands through his hair and tugged on it. "I know. I feel it too. Let me think long enough for the magic, and then we will see how she feels about anything else."
She wants us, too.
Valentine ignored it. There was no reasoning with it when it was in an obstinate mood. In that way, they were the same. He let magic fill his mind, gently pushing the dragon out. It didn't fight him, knowing what had always come first for them.
Valentine had never really been interested in anything that wasn't magic, and finding that he was equally interested in a person was a new experience for him.
And he wasveryinterested in making Yelena submit again.
"Magic, magic, magic," he whispered under his breath, trying to get his blood to cool down.
He almost felt normal again by the time he made it to Yelena's door. All that normal unravelled as her scent hit him and he spotted her sitting cross-legged on the floor with his drawings and new ones of her own scattered around her. There was a smudge of ink on her chin that made his mouth dry out.
"Good, you're back. Come here and explain what this design here means. I want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding it," Yelena said, snatching up a piece of paper and waving it at him.
A smile was on Valentine's face before he could stop it. His dragon tried to tell him something, but nothing existed in that moment but the girl on the floor. If it had been anyone else, he would have cringed and tried to start tidying them up and getting them to move to a proper space. His OCD need to have order didn't apply to her.
Valentine placed his bag down on the coffee table next to what was left of their dinner. He toed off his boots, dropped a cushion beside her, and sat down. If she needed to work on the floor, he wouldn't interfere with that.
Balance. She's the balance, he thought to himself. The balance and the opposite.
"Show me what you need help with," Valentine said, taking the sketch from her.
Yelena was drawing with her left hand and was making small, frustrated sounds every time it shook. Valentine wrapped his hand over hers.
"Tell me what you want me to do, and I will draw," he said.
