“You’re beautiful, Fern.” With shaking hands, I traced the rounds of her shoulders, then let my fingers trail downwards. “If you knew how often I fantasised about just this moment.”
“Really?” Her smile was a little tremulous. “You hid that well in the library.”
“I must confess, I was only pretending to read the books.” Her tunic was pushed off and then my hands went to the hem of her chemise. Sliding a finger underneath, I stroked the hot satin of her skin. “Because it gave me an excuse to get closer to you.”
“You entered into the library…” She gasped as my other hand traced the slope of her breast. The nipple was poking through the thin cotton, begging for me to touch it. “On false pretences.”
“The books were boring, but sitting across from you at the table, itching to slip down to the floor and under it, before burying my face in your skirts?” I nodded as her back began to arch. My fingers gave her nipples an experimental little tug,which had her mouth falling open. The noisy rasp of her breath was music to my ears. “It had me aching, Fern.”
“Where…?” Her eyes roamed across my body, then slid down. My cock was straining against the leather of my pants like a dog on a leash. “Here?”
That curious combination of coy and bold was damn near undoing me. Well, that and her hand wrapping around my dick. Even through the leather, her touch branded me, claiming me as hers. My hips flexed, forcing my length into her palm, before I got a hold of myself.
“I didn’t dive onto that balcony just so you’d touch me, Fern.” My teeth ground together as her grip tightened. “Just knowing you’re safe is all I need.”
With a hiss of breath, I took a moment to pull it together when she pulled her hand away.
“When my sister walked down the aisle in a dress that took days to make,” she said, “I thought she looked like a fairy princess. All the things I was told about marriage and courtship and men came together on that day. Rose was the queen and Bryce was her king, so in my mind, they lived happily ever after.”
“But they didn’t.” I searched her face for clues. “They didn’t, right?”
“I left white dresses and being given by my father into the arms of another man behind the day I went off with Auren. I became a dragon queen, not a fairy princess. That means I make my own decisions about what happens.”
My eyes dropped down as she tugged at the lacing on my pants. The leather parted, almost with a sigh, eager to reveal me beneath. My eyes rolled backwards the moment her palm touched my shaft.
“Gods, Fern… Fuck… Fuck…”
Just a second more, I told myself, glorying in the feel of her caresses. But I was boiling, ready to erupt and that meant I had to knock her hands away.
“If we’re going to do this, it has to be skin to skin.” Mywords came out in a great tumble. “There can’t be anything between us. We need…”
She paused, then nodded, undoing the clasp of her pants, but that was when I took over. I had the fastenings opened, then was sliding them and her underwear down her legs. My own clothes followed suit, then I froze as I climbed back onto the bed.
“What?” Her tone was too sharp, her voice wary. “Lorien, what?”
It was her hands moving to cover herself that prompted me to act. Pinning by the wrists again, but now for a completely different reason.
“You are so beautiful,” I said. My voice was ragged, the words forced past my teeth. “I can’t help but stare at you, wanting to remember every detail of this moment.” Our eyes met, and I felt like I was sinking into those pretty blue depths. “Something might happen. You might get snatched away from me, but this… I’ll remember this.”
“Lorien.”
She sighed my name rather than said it, which was music to my ears.
“But I’m told our memory improves when we engage more than one of our senses…”
I mumbled that into her neck, kissing my way down. She had no reply other than soft sighs. They grew louder, more fractious as I kissed lower, finally tracing the point of her nipple with my tongue. Looking up I saw her face was flushed, her lips parted as her body undulated like a wave in time with each pull of my mouth as I sucked the little bead into my mouth. Her hand went to my head, holding me fast, but she needn’t have worried.
“The fact that our pleasure is not required when conceiving a child is proof the gods are no friends of women,” one of my sisters had told me when I became a man. “You don’t have to please a woman, Lorien, but if you are any sort of man, you’ll make sure you do.”
Yes, that, I thought, pulling free and then kissing my way lower.
“What are you…?” she asked as I parted her thighs, then licked along her seam. “Oh! Oh…”
Lick her, taste her, find her pearl and polish it with my tongue until she reached her peak. My mind was on a one-way track and it wouldn’t stop until she was done. Soft thighs closed around my head and her hips bucked up off the bed, but I kept pace with her. Fingers teasing her core, a silent cheer went up in my head when I found her soaked. My fingers found her entrance, and I was ready to try to stretch her hymen as gently as possible, only to find it was already gone. Virginity was prized among the girls my father sold, but those that rode horses often had no hymen to break.
And dragons, it appeared.
One finger slid in, the muscles clamping tight around it. I waited for a convulsive flex before delving deeper. So hot, soft, it wasn’t hard to imagine what it’d feel to have her body wrapped around mine, but it wasn’t my pleasure I was focussed on but hers. My tongue always moved faster than my brain, but for once this was a good thing.
