Page 24 of Court of Rivals (Their Dragon Rider #1)

G areth

I’m storming down the hall, angry and aroused all at the same time, when I hear Lucien shouting my name. Fuck, just what I need. That asshole. That asshole who exposed Harper to everyone. I’m going to slit his damn throat.

I ignore him, afraid if I see him right now that I just might kill him, but he lacks all self-preservation. Instead of picking up on my very clear non-verbal cues, he grabs my shoulder and spins me around to face him, so that I can see that there’s already a nice black eye forming on his face.

It should match the one fading on Harper’s beautiful face.

“What the fuck?” he shouts.

I grab him and shove him hard , until I’m pressing his back against the wall. Rage burning through me. Begging me to do something I’ll regret. At least something I’ll regret when my father hears about it.

“ Walk away ,” I say through gritted teeth.

The arrogant bastard shakes his head, anger in his eyes. “You punched me.”

“You deserved it.”

“I was teaching her a lesson.”

I pound my fist into the stone behind him. “ What lesson?”

Uncertainty flickers in his face. “I embarrassed her. Humiliated her.”

My breath is coming in and out so fast that my vision is starting to wavier. “You showed every horny bastard in that training area her breasts. Her breasts! My breasts! You fucking piece of shit!”

He looks shocked. “Your breasts?”

Did I say that? I didn’t realize I said that. “No one is to see any part of her ever again.”

I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but I can see his thoughts turning. “Do you like her?”

Air hisses between my teeth. I don’t like anyone, least of all that arrogant woman.

“No. But she’s the only female dragon rider.

Whether we like it or not, right now she is something precious, at least until we can be rid of her.

Something that belongs to the crown. To us.

We’re supposed to convince her she’s not meant for dragon riding, not give every asshole here something to jerk off to later! ”

His gaze is calculated as he studies me. “I think it’s more than that for you.”

Fuck. I don’t need this right now.

I go on the defensive. “And you don’t feel anything for her?”

There’s a flicker of doubt in his eyes. “If I felt something for her, would I be helping you get rid of her?”

“We’re both on the same page, she has to go,” I tell him, finally managing to step back from him. To draw in a full breath. “But her body… don’t fucking mess with her body again.”

A vision of her flashes in my mind again, and I have to bite down a groan of arousal. I’m already rock hard. I have been since I caught sight of her, rolling around on the ground with my brother. His dick pressed up against her.

“You know,” he tells me slowly. “Just because we’re going to be rid of her, doesn’t mean we can’t sleep with her…”

“Stay away from her,” I snap.

Lucien can get any woman he wants. Women fall at his feet like flies. I’ve personally watched him break the hearts of half the ladies in our court. But me? It’s rare that I connect with a woman. Rare that I respect a woman. And I need connection and respect if I want to fuck someone.

Unfortunately for me, I both connect with Harper and respect her. I feel it every time I talk to her. A desire to talk further. To ask her questions. To get to know who this mysterious woman is beneath all the reasons we’re enemies.

My brother can’t have her. I won’t let him.

As we stare at each other, he seems to realize it. “Are you telling me she’s off-limits? You’ve never told me a girl was off-limits before.”

“I didn’t say that,” I mutter, too proud to actually speak the words.

“Alright then,” he says, smirking. “I guess I’ll put my sights on Harper. And you know what happens when I put my sights on a woman.”

As he walks away, I lift a hand, reaching out for him, trying to find the words to tell him not to touch her. Not to go near her. But I can’t say it. If I do, he’ll know just how deeply Harper’s claws are in me.

Instead, I turn and storm to my room, kicking the door open, then throwing it closed. I’m so fucking angry that I want to tear everything in my room to pieces. No, I want to tear Lucien to pieces. With his blond good looks. With those rare green eyes that make girls swoon. No one turns down Lucien.

She won’t turn down Lucien. Unless she hates him after what happened in the training yard. But, fuck, even women who hate him, sleep with him.

Arousal and anger swim through me, so powerful that I’m left shaking. I sit on the edge of my bed, telling myself to breathe. Telling myself that I have to remain in control.

You want the female dragon rider. Sylvara would normally sound amused by my human suffering, but she doesn’t sound amused now.

I–I don’t know what I want , I tell her through my thoughts.

Well, I know what I want. I want Ebron. He will be my mate. I will beat the other females and take my place at his side.

This conversation does a little to ease the tension inside of me. Do you think you’ll really become his mate?

I am faster, stronger, and smarter than the other females. He would be a fool not to have me in his harem.

Harem? I ask, curious.

When male dragons are young, they enjoy their freedom and females find them to mate with.

They enjoy each other’s company for a mating season, and then they continue their separate lives.

But when a dragon male gets older, he seeks out mates.

Females to be with him through every mating season.

Females to raise young with. Ebron is now ready to take females to be by his side always, and I will be in his harem.

It’s weird. Every time I think I understand dragons, I learn something new. How will this affect things with us?

It is the natural order. Ebron will take his females as mates, and Harper will take her males as mates.

Every muscle in my body tenses. What do you mean Harper will choose her mates?

Sylvara laughs in my mind. If Ebron chooses me as his mate, then you will be Harper’s mate. And whoever else Ebron chooses, will bring more mates for Harper.

That’s not how humans work.

That’s how it always works. Ebron will have his harem of dragons as mates, and Harper will have his mates’ dragon riders as mates.

No , I tell her again. Humans are more complex than that. My… mate will be a woman from a noble family, being with her will strengthen our families allegiances. I will not simply end up with a commoner as a wife because you become the mate to some dragon.

She laughs again. I guess, we shall see if you can fight the powerful connection.

After a moment, she fades from my mind, and I lose awareness of her, but her words linger far after.

If what she’s saying is true, I will inevitably have Harper as my mate…

my wife, and have to share her with others.

The thought brings a flood of complicated emotions.

Matching with her makes no sense. And sharing her with others? That would never happen.

Never.

I think of her pretty face, of the curves of her body, of her breasts, bouncing and exploding out of her top, of feeling them against my back as I carried her, and of her sweet scent, like that of flowers.

Rock hard again, I stand and do the only thing I can.

I undo my pants, pull my length free, and wrap a hand around my erection.

Already I know it’s been too long. Too long since I was with a woman.

Too long since I touched myself, because as my mind imagines Harper from head-to-toe, when it remembers gripping the ties of her shirt against her chest, pressed against her door, trying to come up with any reason not to fuck her brains out, I explode.

Easily. Quickly. The power of it bringing me to my knees as I continue working myself frantically before slowing my stroking.

Taking in a harsh breath, my eyes flash open. I’m on the floor, on my knees, stroking myself as I think about an arrogant, foolish woman. One who claims the only male dragon. One who seems to see herself as my superior.

And I must be the fool she thinks I am, because I still want her.