Page 26 of Breaking Briar

“But what? But your father? Do you want to know where your father is, little Briar?”

I slide up behind her and cup her breast, allowing my talon to extend and graze her nipple. She drops her head back as a wanton moan flits from her lips. How I wish we had this moment under different circumstances.

If only her family didn’t lay destruction at her feet. I could have explored each and every sigh, every moan, discovering what she liked, what she loved, and what she craved. But that opportunity is gone now.

“Ask me to tell you where your father is. Beg me. Plead with me. Maybe I might show you mercy and tell you. Maybe I’ll let your imagination do its worst. Maybe I’ll fuck you senseless and you won’t care either way. What will it be, little Briar?”

Her eyes flash with indecision. Poor thing probably doesn’t want to know. Pulling back, I allow her an infinitesimal moment of reprieve. “I’ll make a deal with you. Tell me what you know about my family’s castle lying in ruins, and I’ll show you mercy. I’ll fuck that sweet pussy of yours while I tell you where your father lies.”

“I- I know nothing!” she cries out, her fingers once more seeking out her hair.

When will she ever learn she cannot escape me?

Shaking my head, I grab her wrist and hold it still. With my other hand, I take hold of a prickly vine. The thorns pierce my skin, but I grit my teeth and refuse to cry out. With grim determination, I wrap them around her delicate wrist, my balls clenching as her fevered cries ring out in the forest.

Next, I wrap a vine around her other wrist, then her ankles, spreading her legs wide so I have full access to her body. After she’s where I want her, I place my hand in between her heaving breasts, resting it against the bone.

Her heart pounds against me as I slowly, inexorably push her back. The moment the larger thorns pierce her body, I know it. Briar’s head falls back as her body shudders. Pained moans drift around her like a cloak, settling on my skin like the gentlest of rain.

Blood drips onto the ground, mingling with the cloudy puddle of combined fluids. “You can’t get away from me, little Briar. Now tell me what I want to know.”

I slide my fingers inside her, groaning at how they grip me. Pumping in and out, I listen to her panting, feel her body straining. She’s not trying to get away. For this moment, at least, she strains toward completion.

“Tell me. Tell me and I’ll grant you pleasure beyond anything your body can comprehend.”

“Please. Philip. I-”

“There is no Philip here,” a guttural voice rasps from my throat. “Tell your Dragon King what it is he wishes to know. Why do my men lie slaughtered on the ground? Why does my father burn on a funeral pyre? Why was Philip’s mother so brutally used and tortured, cast away as if she were nothing?”

At that last part, Briar freezes. Everything seizes as she looks at me, horror in her eyes. She didn’t know? How could she not know? I want to believe her, to know for certain she had nothing to do with this. But until she tells me what happened, I can’t believe the shifting expressions crossing her face.

Curling my fingers, I stroke that spot deep inside her, my cock pulsing as horror gives way to pleasure once more. I tease her a bit, bringing her ever closer to her release, but refusing to allow her to tip over into that sea of bliss.

“Answer me, Briar. I can do this all day. The question is, can your body hold out? Can you survive being brought to the edge like this? Over and over? Here, let me help you make your decision.”

The dragon’s tongue slithers out from between my lips, long and thin. Briar jumps as she watches it dip down, impaling herself further onto the vines. But there is no escape from our plans.

I flick the tip against her clit, smiling as she howls in need and thrashes about. In the haze of her pleasure, she seems to forget the thorns pushing deeper and deeper into her body. Blood slithers down her limbs, dripping onto the ground below.

In this moment, she’s never been more beautiful to me. Trussed up, her body taut with need, and her cries spurring me forward. Pulling my fingers out, I add another digit and slide three deep inside, stretching her out a bit more.

It’s not the size of my knot, but her keening wails tell me just how much she likes it. Again, I lash at her clit with the tip of my tongue, feeling her inner walls clench and release. She’s close. So very close.

Pulling back, I look up at her, my eyes burning with intensity as the dragon fights to take over. “Tell me, Briar. All of this will be over if you tell me.”

CHAPTER 12

BRIAR

His words have no meaning. Nothing has any meaning. The amount of pleasure coursing through me is overwhelming. It twists and turns through my veins, clenching and releasing through my muscles.

“So you like me punishing this naughty clit with my tongue then,” he hisses around the reptilian organ.

I should be repulsed, disgusted, anything other than what I am—aroused beyond comprehension. His muscles ripple in the waning sun, speaking of strength and virility. How I want to run my lips and tongue over them, learning his body as intimately as he has learned mine.

But I can’t. The wise woman in the woods… the wise woman… she said… I… Gods, but what did she say? I can’t even remember now. It feels as if it were centuries ago.

It’s preposterous. Philip should be an old man, not this paragon of sexuality undulating before me. Right? I cannot bring my mind to understand how much time has passed. My head aches and throbs as I force it to work. It’s as if a wall resides between me and what I yearn to know.