My hand on his other shoulder slides up and around the back of his head, angling it away to grant me better access. I hear Ozias suppress a moan, making it sound throatier. Without meaning to, I press in closer at the third swallow, my chest pushing against his as my knee slides over one of his thighs, then the other, so that I’m straddling him. He wraps his arms around me on my fourth swallow. I grind into him on my fifth, and I feel him stiff beneath me. On my sixth swallow he rocks me against him and my moan muffles into his neck. He whispers my name into my ear, hot and rasping.
He presses his own mouth against my throat. “And if we were doing this, really doing this, I’d take from you here at the exact. Same. Time.” His words send a thrilling rush down my spine.
On the seventh drink, I feel it at the same time Ozias says, “There it is. Stop.”
The bond dances across my tongue, but I find the power to let it go and I feel it fizzle out in my veins. I pull away, his blood welling for a few seconds more before the wound closes up. I lick up the column of his neck, taking the last vestiges of his blood into me.
A shiver wracks his body and then he’s on me, one hand bracing the back of my neck, the other under my thigh, flipping me onto my back, pelvis grinding into mine before he stills. He’s shaking as he hovers over me, breath billowing his chest.
“I’m trying very hard,” he says through his teeth, voice gravelly, “not to come undone and bury myself in you.”
Heat and desire pool between my thighs.
“Do it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SAYING THE WORDS is like unfurling a sail on a torrent of wind—wild and untethered. His mouth descends upon mine, his hands pulling my body more firmly to his. The sweep of Ozias’s dancing tongue along the roof of my mouth blissfully erases all thoughts from my mind. The pressure of his body dampens the feel of my dragon scratching at my seams. His fingers press into my thighs, enticing me to part my legs further for him to nestle in more deeply.
I’m not shy with my want as I rake my fingernails down into the neck of his robe, pushing the fabric off his back. Ozias trails hot, open mouthed kisses down my neck and unbinds the tie holding my top together until my breasts spill free. He stops, pressing his forehead against my breastbone, gathering his breath.
I whimper, needing him to move, to keep me here. Mydragon pulls and tugs—as if to tell me he’s waiting for me on the other side. To tell me she wants me to go. I squeeze my eyes shut tight, wrap my legs around Ozias, grasp him by the jaw and lead him up to kiss me again, pressing my bare chest to his.
He moans into my mouth and I take it. I need to fill myself up, and keep my mind and body heavy with this want and desire.
When Ozias lifts his head, breaking our kiss, his eyes are a dark ochre. “What are you doing to me?” he asks, genuine confusion pinching his brow.
“What?” I ask, breathing heavy. I hazily recall asking Zhoric the same thing days ago.
“It feels…sometimes around you, I feel weak.”
I frown, which has him shaking his head.
“I’m explaining it wrong. I don’t know how to describe it.”
Squirming beneath his scrutiny, I pull back, feeling myself fade. As swiftly as I pull back, that pull from my dragon rises.
“And now it’s gone,” he says, dragging his hand up along the side of my ribcage, passing all too briefly along the side of my breast until he cups my neck.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“What did you do? To make it stop?”
“I—” I hesitate on the words, trying to decipher what was happening. “I pulled back.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Whatever you were doing before—do it again.”
I shake my head as if to say I don’t know what he’s talking about, but his mouth is on mine again and I try doing what I was before—I take. I imagine filling myself up with Ozias—his power, and I move desperately against his large, hard frame.
His mouth trails down my throat and over my breastbone again. Only thankfully, this time he doesn’t stop.
“Yes, Kaisa.” His tongue finds the peak of my nipple. He swirls it around his tongue. “This is it.”
“What?” I ask again, breathless, the question thick.
