He kept unnaturally still under me, only his left hand traveled up my back with his fingers sinking into my hair on the back of my head.
“Elaine…” he rasped, his voice strained. “Youneedto get off my lap.”
I leaned back quickly, pushed away from him by a flash of mortification. Did I do something wrong? Then the reason for his rejection became clear. With my knees on each side of his hips and my legs spread wide, my core pressed against a hard ridge under his skirt—his cock. He really had one, and it didn’t feel like anything that I’d heard about the shadow fae’s mating cluster.
Instead of a knoll of undulating appendages, a solid, oblong hardness pressed against me through his skirt. I rocked my hips forward, feeling raised horizontal ridges along the length of his cock. I could tell that it was neither human nor fae. It was something else entirely.
I held my breath in shock, unsure what to do.
“Please,” Timur begged, dropping his forehead to my shoulder. “Please get off me, sweetheart.”
My doubt melted, only the memory of his fingers between my legs and the tantalizing sensation of his claws gently running over my back when he was giving me a bath remained.
Timur might look like a monster, but he didn’t act like one with me.
“What if I don’t?” I asked breathlessly.
“Then I don’t know what the dragon inside me will make me do to you.”
“What if I…” I tripped over my words, but found my footing quickly, finishing the sentence in a strong, confident voice. “What if I don’t mind you doing that to me, whatever it may be?”
He lifted his head, finding my eyes. I didn’t shy away from his gaze, facing both the questioning look from his blue eye and the hard stare from his red one.
The dichotomy of this man had never been as apparent to me as it was now.
A red eye and a blue one.
An ink-black skin and a chalk-white bone.
A fae and a dragon.
A man and a beast.
The two halves of him that were at war with each other yet somehow had to find a way to co-exist in the same body.
What torture this war must cause him every single day?
“You want to know what I’ve been dreaming of doing to you?” he gritted through his teeth, holding my gaze with his otherworldly eyes. “I want to grab your hips, hike up your skirt, impale you on my cock, and make you ride it hard while I fuck you raw. This isn’t a mating fever, my sweet Elaine. It won’t pass in a few days. My lust stays, festers, grows stronger, driving me insane. I’ll fight it. But I can’t win if you keep rubbing your soft, wet cunt over my cock like you’re doing right now.”
He hurled the crass, crude words like rocks, probably meant to repulse and repel me. But I knew him too well for that to offend me. On the contrary, his words, said in that gruff, deep growl, excited me even more.
“I thought I’ve already shown you tonight, how much I enjoy your touch. Do you still not get it? I want you, too, Timur.”
I rocked my hips once more, wrapping my arms around his neck. Dragging my core over the hard circular ridges of his cock, I sucked in a breath as a hot flush of desire pooled in my lower belly.
“Elaine.” He gripped my hips, looking torn between stopping me and moving me faster. “You can’t play with the dragon. It’s…I’m…”
His words dissolved into a guttural growl. His claws pierced the fabric of my skirt, pressing into my skin with a sting of pain.
It should’ve scared me into stopping. But I felt no fear, only the need for more. Fisting the hair on the back of his head, I turned his face to me.
“Don’t fight it, Timur. Control it. Keep it at bay. Keep me safe while I play, and I’ll make it feel good for both of us.”
I knew he would keep me safe from both the hostile world out there and the wild beast inside him. Whatever war had been waging inside him, he never let it touch me. I couldn’t help him or save him. I couldn’t win the war for him, but maybe I could make it one less battle for him to fight.
Desire spread in a warm swell through me, waking every nerve in my body.
“Lust doesn’t need to hurt,” I whispered against his lips. “Feel me, Timur. Feel everything that I’m feeling for you.”
