Page 24 of Breaking Briar

For a moment, everything goes silent. The near-constant hum of pleasure dissipates until I can finally form a coherent thought. When has anyone ever wanted to know what I was thinking?

Father never cared, and Mother was too busy. The only one who ever really spent time with me was the old wise woman in the woods. But even she did more talking than anything else. Could it be that Philip isn’t as much of a monster as she claimed?

That’s when he moves his hips again, sending zings of that pleasurable pain through my body. Something large and thick moves deep within me. It can’t be what Mother described. In all the times I saw him before the Holy Wars, there was never anything this thick protruding from his body.

This must be something else. Something evil. Reptilian. Just like the talons that still pierce my wrists.

“I’m waiting, Briar. And you will do well to remember I am not a patient man. Not any longer.”

He’s waiting? For what? What does he want from me? Already the buzz builds back up in my brain until I can no longer think. My thoughts! He wants to know my thoughts.

“I- I-” His fingers drift lower, scattering the few coherent observations as he brushes against my skin.

“You- You- What?” he mocks, grazing my neck with his teeth.

“Please,” I cry out, not knowing what exactly it is I’m begging for.

I just need the sensations to stop. I need to be able to think. I certainly can’t do that while he wedges his hand between us and uses his talon to scrape against that forbidden part of me I was never allowed to touch.

Now I know why. If I had known pleasure could exist from merely a touch, I would have stayed away in my room and given myself this gift all day long. As it is, with every swipe of his hand, my eyes cross and my body arches up, begging for more.

“Come now, little Briar. Surely you can speak to me. We were friends at one point.”

“Please,” I manage to gasp as I writhe under his touch.

“That’s it. Beg me, little princess. Perhaps I’ll be merciful and allow you release.”

There’s that word again. Only now I’m certain it doesn’t mean he’ll allow me to escape. Squirming under the onslaught of sensations churning in my body, all I can do is lie there and let him have his way with me. No one can fault me if I’m trapped, can they?

All they’ll have to do is see the marks on my body and know I tried to get away. I tried to be good. They don’t have to know how miserably I failed at it or how horribly he made my body sing for him.

“Tell me your thoughts and I’ll send you to the stars. I promise on my life.” He pulls his hand away, allowing me to take in a deep breath.

“Do you mean to kill me?”

Philip’s dark chuckle skitters along my skin, causing almost as much pleasure as his touch. “Why would I do that? It’s far more fun to torment you.”

I believe him too. “So you mean to torture me until my body can no longer take it?”

This time, when he looks down, a serious frown twists his lips. “Do you mean to ask if I plan to do to you the same horrors visited upon my people? I should. I should rut you until you’re nothing more than a husk. I should gag and bind you, not allowing you even the ability to scream as I give you pain and pleasure in good measure. But I won’t. I am, after all, not a monster.”

Blood drains from my face as I try to pull away from him. “What are you talking about?” Fear dampens out the sparks of pleasure as I try to rip myself away from him.

None of this makes sense. Nothing he’s saying makes any sense. Tears wet my eyes as I struggle in vain to be free of his body. Philip says nothing. He simply looks down at me in a rage I’ve never seen before.

CHAPTER 11

PHILIP

“Don’t lie to me, princess. It’s unbecoming of royalty. Don’t play dumb as if you don’t know the terror wrought upon my family, my mother, at your father’s behest.”

Again, the dragon claws at my insides, desperate to be free. He wants to exact revenge on Briar, the last living Kendrick. Though I feel similarly, I must keep my head about me.

I cannot lose control. Not now. Not when I’m so close to finding out the truth. My hand hovers close to Briar’s clit. I wonder if I can sexually torture the answers from her pretty lips.

Easing my thumb over the taut bundle of nerves, I swipe a few times, smiling as she bows up against me. Her inner walls clamp down around the dragon’s knot, drawing out a pained groan from my lips. This is supposed to be me torturing her, and not the other way around.

Briar’s eyes widen as the pleasure flushes her face. Her lips open and close a few times as if she longs to say something but cannot find the words. A shiver races down my spine, tingling along my back as I watch her, helpless, stretched out underneath me.