My bond with Myel had been sated last night, but I still felt his pain, physical and emotional. That, piled on top of my frustration over Rook, meant I couldn’t settle.
Vyns came to me.
“Your spirit is in chaos,” he whispered. “Allow me to help you relax.”
I sighed thankfully and nodded.
But as he shed his clothes, he paused. “Unless… you’d like someone new?”
New?
Vyns sent a meaningful glance at the door. “Koar?” he whispered.
The dragon entered, lips tight.
“I told her I can’t,” he grumbled.
“Don’t be another man turning her away, she’s had enough of that today.” I guessed Koar had told Vyns what had happened between me and Rook.
“If he doesn’t want to…” I said, trailing off, leaving it open.
“What doyouwant?” Vyns asked me.
Did I want Koar?
My dream from the night before returned. It had been an exaggeration, a fantasy, but still I shivered with desire. It had been more than Koar’s powerful physical presence and size which had moved me, but his dedication. Would he dedicate himself as much to my pleasure as he did to guarding me?
The dream suggested he would.
Koar’s hard expression suggested he was not interested.
I was more than a little curious what being with a dragon would be like, but only if it was what he wanted.
“I… wouldn’t mind… exploring a new partner…ifthat’s what you want,” I said this directly to Koar.
The big man seemed torn, like he had that morning. His jaw twitched and bunched as he stood there, fighting some inner war.
“I… can’t, mistress,” he said, somehow seeming both relieved and upset about this. “I do not feel I’d be able to perform my duty as your guard if I was… so close to you.”
“We’re safe down here,” Vyns tried.
Koar shook his head. “I can’t allow myself to think that way.”
So the big man was on alert twenty-four-seven? I’d known he was dedicated, but… wow. I’d never had a man quite so devoted to my safety.
Yet even after he’d said he couldn’t, he didn’t leave. Something made him linger.
A thought popped into my head. “Do you want to watch?” I wasn’t really into exhibitionism, but maybe that’swhat Koar needed to get over his issue, whatever it was. Because I agreed with Vyns that I was as safe as I was ever going to be here and now. Even if Saldrea figured out where we were, I had Vyns and Koar and Lhorine and my grandmother to help fight.
Koar returned to jaw-twitching stillness.
Maybe, if I just did it…?
I slid my legs apart and touched myself.
Koar grunted, that tell-tale bulge growing in his pants. He backed off, standing in the doorway, eyes glued to me. I grabbed my breast, hard, groping myself with one hand while working my slit with the other, till I was nice and wet.
Koar grunted and looked away.
