Reaching up, I laid a hand on his snout, tentatively at first. He stilled underneath my touch, ears flattening against his skull in submission. Submission to me. This powerful creature, submitting to me. My hand caressed his scales with reverence. The connection between us began to thrum. I swore I could almost hear it out loud.
Heat speared into me when I met his eyes. It didn’t make sense, but I wanted him. Blue eyes turned molten.
“Don’t be scared,” he said into my mind.
“Why would I be scared?” I asked. He didn’t frighten me anymore.
Then, he shifted back to his human form gradually and rapidly all at once. His hand jerked and closed around me. I yelped as I fell to my rear. The dragon in front of me shrank, wings and tail retracting. When he was about twice as large as a human, his features blurred, smoothing and reshaping until Rhys’s face was staring back at me. As he shifted, I slid down his hand, grasped firmly in his arms, until I was standing in front of him with my hands on his chest.
I looked up into his eyes and smiled. There weren’t words to communicate my gratitude, so I reached up and kissed him.
16
Rhysander
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
She wasn’t supposed to care for me. And there was no denying it. I could feel what she was feeling through the blending of our minds.We were only supposed to be together long enough to break the curse and make a son. I’d never planned for emotions to be involved.
I tried to reason through it, apply cold, hard logic, but her mouth was pure chaos. Her hands on my dragon were my undoing. He was anything but logical, ruling the bestial, wild parts of me, overwhelming my good sense. Goddess help me, but I didn’t want to fight her anymore.
Members of my household rarely came up to the aviary, having no use for it other than the view, and even then it was depressing for them. So if I were to flip her skirts up and take her right here, no one would be around to interrupt us. Again, like she could read my mind, she pulled me to an alcove inside the stairwell that lead down to the main levels of the castle.
“Eager, little pet?” I asked as her arms wrapped around my shoulders and she pressed herself to me. She trembled. My senses were still highly attuned to her and my dragon was wishing he’d never let me shift back.
“Yes,” she said plainly. I could smell her cunt. I bet if I reached underneath her dress she’d already be wet for me.
I threw my senses out to see if anyone was near, and we were alone. At least for a while. The men were hours away and the others would know not to disturb two new mates.
“Turn around.” My voice was harsh with need. The scent of her was driving me mad.
She did as I instructed and my breath came out in a hiss full of steam and smoke. Without my instruction, she gripped the skirts of her dress and drew them up over her hips. My claws shredded her sweet little underthings. I didn’t care. I’d replace them.
Her breath hitched as I pinned her to the wall. I considered for half a heartbeat if I was being too rough with her. Up to now our bed play had been gentle to an extent, but when I parted the scraps of material to caress her thighs, she lifted her ass to me, beckoning me with the sway of her hips.
“Now,” she pleaded. “Rhys, now.”
I meant to be gentle, meant to woo her with touches and draw her slowly to completion, but when I pulled my cock free of my breeches and lined it up with her opening, she reached a hand back to grip me. The groan that exploded from my chest was more of a growl, more beast than man.
She stoked up and down my length and I had to press my head hard against the stone wall in front of me to keep from spilling myself all over her hand. Arching, she fit the head of my cock to her sweet, wet cunt and eased herself back. Fuck, how I liked when she took control like she was the master of the beast inside me.
Her head fell back against my shoulder at the first thrust and she balanced herself with hands against the wall. I’d like to say I seduced her, made it last, and made her scream, but I could only say one with good conscience. It was wild. It was violent. It was dangerous. I was no better than the animals in the forests, fucking her with a savagery that she matchedand invoked in equal measure.
I ripped the bodice of her gown to reach her breasts, needing to fill my hands with her curves. She made a sound of objection, then I felt her mind cloud with pleasure as I captured her nipples between my forefingers, tweaking and rubbing them with relentless focus until her hips were rocking back and forth over my cock. Our grunts filled the little alcove, along with the sound of my cock driving into her wetness and her little pleas.
If I had been planning to keep my dragon from wanting a piece of her, too, he had other ideas. When she felt my skin shift into scales, I could have sworn her heat clenched around me. I tried to control it, tried to bring him back under control.
She gripped the hand covering her breast. “What are you doing?”
“Give me a moment.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I laughed a little. “It seems I have little control where you’re concerned.”
Her hips ground against me, pulling a groan from my throat. “I don’t want you to have any control.”
“Keep teasing like that, woman, and I’ll make you regret your words.”
