Page 37 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

She nods, but her body is still tense, and I motion for him to stop.

‘Are you sore?’ I ask.

She nods again and I see Brax give an almost imperceptible wince.

‘I didn’t realize… I thought you’d already taken her.’

‘I only used my tongue,’ I murmur pointedly, and I get another wince.

‘I’m sorry, little rabbit. I was too rough for your first time.’

‘You can’t heal me too?’ she asks him.

I see his jaw tick and my lips twitch. He hates that he can’t do it. He always has.

‘No,’ he admits quietly.

‘It’s a rare skill,’ I say, unable to keep myself from rubbing it in a little. ‘One he doesn’t have.’

His answering scowl would have a lesser dragon quaking, but not me. He’s forgotten who I am… What I am.

Maybe I’d forgotten, too.

I switch places with him and put him and the past from my mind. I want to savor this. Last time I did it quickly for her sake because she was scared. This time, Brax has unknowingly paved the way for my softer touches with his roughness.

I ease a long, lone finger into her, healing her carefully.

Her relaxed sigh and the way her body unclenches as her pain recedes is like a balm on my soul, something I didn’t know I needed. The dragon paces through my mind, wanting more than what I’m doing right now, but I shove him back ruthlessly.

We’ll take her now, but I’m in control, not you. You’ll hurt her. She needs calm. Seduction.

I can feel his frustration.

She’s strong, not weak,he snarls.

She’s human,I reply silently.

I slowly draw my finger from her and, unable to help myself, I pop it into my mouth with a groan.

She gasps and I register my friend’s surprise. I hate humans, or I’ve always professed that I do with my peers in the faction. But there was a time…long ago.

I shut the thoughts down. It’s not the time to indulge in memories.

Instead, I let my eyes move over Mari, taking in the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the way her eyes are riveted to the finger I’m still sucking on, and I’m overcome with an urge to understand what she likes, what makes her body heat.

I lean over her, making sure she’s watching me as I draw my hands slowly up the inside of her thighs. Her eyes drift closed, and I tut at her, my hands stopping their ascent immediately.

‘Eyes on me, Mari,’ I growl and watch as those green, expression-filled orbs snap open, pupils dilating.

She likes the orders, I realize, but I’ll bet she doesn’t know that about herself.

‘Did you enjoy being prey?’ I ask.

‘No.’ She shakes her head, but I can tell she’s not giving me or herself the whole truth.

‘What was it that you didn’t like?’

Her brow knits together. ‘Th-the water and the thing. The fish. It almost got me, and I was hanging upside down.’