Page 45 of Exquisite Monster (Dragons of Viria #2)

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

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KATALENA

T error gripped me as I fell. Gleym wouldn’t save me this time.

Andaros had made sure of that. Now it was me and only me falling.

The last one. The hole hadn’t been this bright the first time.

I hadn’t been able to see the bottom. Stars.

The fear was a living thing inside me. No longer was there water or a dragon to catch me.

I gasped, my back arching in phantom pain and shock before I realized I wasn’t dead. Clearly, the potion I made hadn’t helped the nightmares. It made it easy to fall asleep, but it didn’t keep me asleep. Maybe I needed the stronger version I’d learned for incapacitating enemies.

Hauling in a breath, I opened my eyes. I was lying on a soft mattress, my mate looking down on me with concern. Sirrus had a hand beneath my neck, searching my body with his eyes for the source of the pain. “You were thrashing,” he said. “And I felt?—”

A different kind of fear crept up and gripped my lungs with shadowed claws. “You can feel my dreams?”

His thumb rubbed back and forth gently on my neck, and he finally pulled me closer with his other hand on my hip, hot through the thin fabric of the nightgown. “This is the first time. But it didn’t feel like an ordinary dream. More like a nightmare.”

“Yes.”

Sirrus pulled a soft blanket from the bottom of the bed where it had been kicked away and forgotten, tucking me against his body before he covered us both with it. “Will you tell me?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said quietly. “It’s not real.”

“Your fear is very real, whether it’s a dream or not.”

The same resistance I felt with Endre pushed back on his words. It was just a dream. It shouldn’t matter. Shouldn’t affect me at all. And yet, last night Zovai showed me all of his feelings and fear, and I returned them. I could do no less with my other mates.

I pressed my face into his chest and fought the frustration. There was nothing I wanted more in the world than for all of us to be free of this pain.

A low purr began in Sirrus’s chest, all of me instinctively relaxing into the warmth of that sound. No bad dreams could reach me while I was in his arms. Not with that sound vibrating through me.

“Let me ask you something, Princess.”

I made a small sound but kept my eyes closed .

“Why do you believe you are not strong when your entire world has been turned upside down and you’re still standing?”

“I—” My voice cut off, like it refused to find the answer. “I don’t know.”

“We took you,” Sirrus said. “No matter if you view it as a rescue, we took you from your home.

You believed you were going to die and faced that possibility with more grace than any of us would have.

You were thrust into the world of dragons with us .

Three dragon mates when you did not even know we had human forms.

“You were tricked and humiliated. Our kind tried to kill you more than once. And even after we made you ours, we could not keep you safe.” The emotion in those words struck low in my gut.

“You’ve had to fight for your right to live since the moment we met you.

I would be more surprised if you weren’t angry. Weren’t afraid.”

“Not everything was bad,” I whispered into his skin.

My moments with them. The beach. Our bonding. Them teaching me pleasure and taking me for the first time. Dancing with them before we knew what would happen. All of those were good memories.

“Thank the stars,” he murmured. “And I know all of us will keep those memories. But it doesn’t change the fact that you have needed to fear and to fight.

And I know you may not be able to believe it, but I will not let a moment like this pass without telling you that you are allowed to feel.

” His arms tightened further, and I buried my face in the hollow of his throat.

“You are allowed to let the pain hurt. Ignoring it only makes it worse.”

But I didn’t want to feel it. Because it hurt. I wanted to forget it. At this moment, if I could choose to stay on this little island forever and ignore everything, I would.

And if we did that, everyone I’d ever known would die. Helena. Taia. Baris. My father. Every innocent human merely trying to survive in a world that was dying because a crazed few wanted more power.

Even then, I was tempted.

“I do feel it. I spend every moment feeling it. Right now I don’t want to.”

I had spent the day brewing more potions from Gleym’s teaching to keep them fresh in my mind. And then practiced throwing the darts. Just because there was a reprieve did not mean I could be lax.

When Sirrus came to get me, I was exhausted and took the sleeping draught to quiet my busy mind. Now that I was awake with him, I did not want to sit in our pain. It was already taking too much from all of us.

I wanted something else. Sirrus had not taken me since we’d arrived on the island. I missed it. Missed him .

The purr in Sirrus’s chest grew stronger as he felt the direction of my thoughts. “Is that what you need? For me to fuck you?”

I knew he felt my smile, and I pulled away to meet his gaze. “Perhaps.”

Now that I knew they did not care whether we were all together, I would not hesitate.

Sirrus cupped the back of my neck and pulled me upward, brushing my lips with his. Blooming heat grew beneath my skin, and I didn’t feel that hitching hesitation that I had to hold on so tightly. My night with Zovai allowed me to breathe, and all I felt was relief.

Our bond was a sultry smile, and Sirrus’s actual smile followed. “Would you like to know one of the things that kept me sane while held captive?”

“Maybe?”

His eyes flashed as he tossed the blanket aside and pulled me to the edge of the bed.

Both hands slipped behind my knees and pulled them apart while his eyes remained on mine.

“Remembering the taste of you. The sight of you in that dripping silver nightgown while you writhed, learning how to receive pleasure.”

A kiss on my inner thigh had my heart pounding. My voice felt stuck. All I could do was breathe as his hands and lips stroked upwards.

“Tell me I can taste you again, Princess.”

“Yes.”

One move, and my legs were over his shoulders. I sank back onto the bed and breathed deep. Sudden heat rolled over my skin as he touched me with nothing but his breath, telling my body how close he was and drawing pleasure to the surface. Another moment and his mouth was on me.

Stars , every time they used their mouths I swore I forgot how good it felt. His mouth sealed over me and I arched off the bed as he pushed his desire and arousal straight through our bond while he sucked the soul out of my body.

The stars were now behind my eyes. I fell apart, too wound up from wanting him, too overwhelmed by the feeling. But Sirrus didn’t stop. Instead he drank my pleasure greedily and showed me that he remembered everything they’d learned about my body while I’d been in their bed.

He didn’t stop when my thighs locked around his head in ecstasy or when I shuddered into bliss a third time. Not until I begged. “Sirrus, my heart will explode.”

“We can’t have that.” He crawled up over me like the predator he was. “I need you alive for a very long time so I can do that repeatedly. ”

His lips shone with the remnants of my pleasure, and I was reminded of what I’d never been able to finish. Never even been able to start with him. He tilted his head in the dragon way, looking down at me, and I laughed. The way he stared felt like he was trying to figure something out.

“What are you thinking? I can’t interpret it.”

I swallowed. “The last time I tasted any of you was that day on the beach. With Endre. I never got to finish.”

Sirrus went still the way only a beast could, staring. Those blue eyes seemed to get bluer and clearer as his chest heaved. They blinked to gold and back again. “You desire it?”

“You’re telling me you don’t want my mouth on you?”

He groaned and dropped his mouth to mine, kissing me until I was breathless. “Of course I want that,” he growled.

“Then why do you hesitate?” Nerves fluttered in my stomach. “I won’t be skilled, but I will learn.”

Smoke came out of his nose when he snorted a laugh. “Lena. It is not that.”

“Then—”

“We’ve all come through something, and though I want to devour you, I want you to be ready and not merely returning a favor. I never want you to feel like my pleasure is more important than your soul. It is not.”

I sank my fingers into the short strands of his hair and kissed him again. Harder. “I know it’s not. But I want it too. I want to know how to make you come undone in the same way you do me.”

A low groan came out of him. “Mate.”

“Let me taste you,” I whispered in his ear. “I’ve heard many things and experienced none of them.”

Curiosity rang through the connection between us. “What have you heard?”

I smiled. “Whispers. About the ways a gentlewoman might please a man. When they thought I wasn’t listening, of course. Ways to take him deeper, and how, the deeper it was, the more pleasurable.”

It was his turn to smile, sultry and teasing. “Your body still isn’t used to my cock when I’m fucking you. Though I will absolutely enjoy your mouth, I don’t know if your throat is ready for all of me.”

I took that teasing smile and sent it right back. “Then I’ll simply have to practice, won’t I?”

I watched his breath go short. “I suppose so.”

“Let me taste you,” I ordered. “Just like this.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Sirrus was already naked, and the sight of his body over mine as he shifted and knelt over me was nearly enough to send me into pleasure all over again.

He looked down at me, the moonlight painting every line of him in brightness and shadow.

The changing of his skin to the palest of blues, though it darkened and flowed in different places on his skin.

He also wasn’t wrong. His cock was thicker than I remembered, though I remembered feeling it just fine. There was every chance I would never be able to take all of him in my mouth, but I truly wanted this. And I didn’t want to stumble. I wanted to know what made him unravel.

“Show me,” I murmured.

He froze for a moment, studying my face. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I want to know what you like.”

Bracing one hand on the bed, Sirrus took his cock in the other and guided it between my lips. Already he was big. The skin softer than I would have thought. The rich taste of him somehow exactly what I imagined and not at all.

He grabbed my hand with one of his. “Squeeze my hand when you can take no more.”

I wanted all of it, but there was no way. My mouth was so full of him I couldn’t breathe. And the way his body shook, his eyes closed, and the pleasure streaking through my chest, I knew he enjoyed it. I squeezed his hand.

Then I sucked.

“Fallen fucking stars, Lena.”

I couldn’t smile, but I wanted to. Sirrus moved his hips, pulling back and thrusting into my mouth again, never going further than I’d let him the first time. Until I squeezed his hand again and he pulled back.

“Are you?—”

“Teach me,” I breathed, and pulled him back into my mouth.

He swore and braced his other arm on the bed, muscles of his stomach flexing like he held himself back from driving in to the hilt. The image gave me as much heat as his flames on my skin. Some day.

The memory of the beach flooded my mind. “Your mouth on his cock won’t hurt you, Princess. But if he takes your head and fucks your mouth and throat the way he wants to, it might.”

“That can happen?”

“That will happen.”

I wanted that. I wanted to see them truly unleashed in a way I knew they hadn’t, because they didn’t want to harm me. But I wanted everything . So I grabbed Sirrus’s thighs and pulled, telling him without words to give me more. Teach me. Guide me .

“Your tongue,” he said quietly. “Use it. Underneath. At the tip. All around it.”

I obeyed, exploring with my tongue while sucking. He didn’t have to tell me he liked that. I knew. Felt it. Savored his pleasure singing in my chest.

In the dark alleys of Rensara, where I’d seen women on their knees, their heads moved with a familiar rhythm. The same rhythm that moved my mate’s hips now. I could do that. So I tried, meeting his thrusts by pushing forward, his cock pressing almost too deep.

My eyes watered, but there was something satisfying about pushing that limit. Because I chose to.

Sirrus groaned. “I haven’t had you in nearly three months, Princess.”

I pulled back and laughed. “You had me not two days ago.”

“And it is still not enough,” he growled as I took him in my mouth once more and teased him with my tongue. “We have yet to make up for the time lost. And as much as I’d like to fuck your mouth for as long as I can, I will not last. You feel—” He broke off in a curse and pulled away.

“Wait.”

He frowned. “I’m going to finish.”

“And?”

My mate stared down at me. His bond spoke of wild desire warring with the urge to protect and honor me.

“I said I wanted to taste you, Sirrus.” I pulled on his thighs once more. “Don’t make me beg.”

He didn’t, pressing back into my mouth. I was less in control now, and I didn’t care because I wanted his pleasure overflowing.

Sirrus closed his eyes, a low rumble rising in his chest. His control faltered.

Every sensation echoed back and forth between us, and I loved it, because every move I made, I felt how much it affected him.

When I curled my tongue he groaned and heat streaked through him.

When I let him thrust deeper, there was a feeling of awe and a vast, sweeping, delicious ecstasy.

The feeling caught him and held him, the orgasm crashing through him and into me. He exploded across my tongue tasting like salt and wind. The sight of him shuddering, the feeling of him climaxing, the knowledge that it was all because of me was more than enough.

We both stayed where we were, catching our breath.

Sirrus did not take his eyes off me as he pulled back. Gathered me up and brought us back to the top of the bed with pillows. Covered us once more in the blanket before taking my leg and hooking it over his hip .

He pushed inside me, large though he was no longer fully hard. No intent beyond comfort and closeness. I liked the sensation and loved feeling how much he enjoyed it too.

The rumble of his purr had my eyes fluttering shut, drawn back down into sleep and safety. There were no more nightmares.