“Should I apologize for stealing your innocence, Princess?” he murmurs. “Because I’m not sorry—I just want more of you. I want your mouth on my cock again and I want to taste your sweet little pussy. I want to make you come while I’m on top of you, making you moan.”
My breath catches in my throat and I find that I can’t look away from his burning gaze.
“I…you…you shouldn’t say such things,” I whisper at last.
“Maybe not,” he says. “But I’m not taking them back. Now, let’s get you healed.”
“What? What do you mean?” I blink, surprised at the sudden change of topic.
“I can heal all this…” He nods at the wounds and scratches up and down my arm. “Using my Drake’s power.”
This is news to me.
“You can? But how?” I ask.
“Like this.” And he lifts my hand to his mouth and sweeps his tongue from my wrist all the way up to my elbow.
The hot, wet sensation sends a shiver down my spine.
“Oh!” I gasp, and try to yank my hand away. But Valen won’t let me.
“No, let me heal you,” he insists. “It’s bad to have open wounds in the forest—you could get sick.”
“You can’t heal someone by licking them!” I protest.
“Oh no? Take a look.” He nods at my arm.
I look down and, to my surprise, he’s right. The area where he licked me is healed. There are no scratches or wounds or even scars—no marks of any kind. It’s almost like he magically erased all the damage the thorns did.
“How…how did you do that?” I whisper, turning my arm back and forth in the firelight. It doesn’t change—the area he licked is still healed.
“I told you—my Drake’s power. He likes you, you know,” he adds in a low voice.
I feel a surge of fear.
“If you—or he—are doing this because you think I’ll let him…let him breed me?—”
“No, I don’t think that.” He sighs. “I know your people would consider that beast-loving—though to be fair, he’s a person just like you or me, he just happens to have scales and a tail and wings.”
“But you said it to me the other night,” I point out.
“Yes, I said a lot of things. I was angry. I’m still angry.” He touches the collar around his throat. “But you and I made a deal—once we get the Healing Draught for your mother and I take you home, I’m free. Until then, we need to work together. And since I can’t have you dying from infection before we finish this quest, you’re going to need to let me heal you.”
Then he tightens his grip on my wrist and begins licking me in earnest. I shiver and bite back a gasp as his warm, wet tongue caresses my flesh, moving up and down my arm until I’m all healed.
Well, my arm is, anyway.
When Valen finishes my arm, he sits back and looks at me critically.
“Is that all? The only place you got hurt?”
“Yes, that’s all—just my arm,” I say quickly. I’m not saying anything about the way the vines wrapped around my breasts. And I’m especially not going to tell him how one pierced my nipple—even though to be honest, that area does feel quite achy and hot and painful right now.
Valen narrows his eyes. He leans closer and inhales deeply. Then he sits back, frowning.
“I can tell you’re lying, Princess,” he growls. “I can smell it. So come on—where else did the thorns pierce your flesh? Tell me. Or better yet—show me.”
I bite my lower lip and find I can’t meet his eyes.
