Page 162 of I Dream of Dragons

He grabs my hand, brings it to his mouth, unfolding my fingers. Kisses my palm. “Command me.”

He has said that before. More than once.

Echoes. Echoes and whispers.

Gods, he’s so beautiful, his beauty honed and dangerous like a blade. With Phaethon, it excited me. With Jai, it wrenches my heart.

I withdraw my hand and he allows it, dark eyes watching me, his mouth soft with a faint smile.

My body clenches as I push the shirt off those broad shoulders. He shrugs it off carelessly, letting it fall to the floor, and his muscles flex.

So strong. He could crush me with one hand, lift me off my feet with barely any effort. He lays that power at my feet.

My mouth waters. I want to run my mouth over every inch of warm skin, smooth or scarred and marked. It’s all perfect to me. His strength, all that power leashed in his tall body, calls to something old in me, a part not ruled by logic but by instinct.

I need him against me, over me, under me, inside me.

Not yet. I struggle for control—especially when I lower my hands to his pants, sitting snugly on narrow hips, a dark trail arrowing down, pointing at the bulge of his trapped cock.

He’s offering himself to me to unwrap, to touch as I please, and how often had I dreamed of touching him when I first met him? Back on that river shore, when everything had seemed possible and yet this strange ending to our story was nothing I could have ever imagined?

I undo the leather belt, pull it slowly off him, then pop the buttons at the front. One, two, three, four bone buttons. His hands are balled by his sides. He’s breathing faster now.

“Rise,” I whisper, gesturing at his lap. “I need to push your pants down.”

His mouth turns up into a smirk, revealing that sexy, faint dimple in his left cheek. “Tell my cock to rise higher and see what happens.”

My mouth twitches.

He lifts up on his knees, and with the movement, his stomach contracts again, forming ridges, his pecs bulging, all those delicious muscles outlined for my pleasure.

It’s enough to make a girl feel faint with desire.

Then I push down his pants and discover that he’s wearing nothing underneath. His scarred, muscular thighs part and his hard cock swings up, slapping his taut stomach, thick and long.

He’s right, it can’t rise any higher. It’s large and powerful, like the rest of him.

Breathtaking.

Knowing he has already been inside me does nothing to lessen my excitement.

That was Phaethon, I repeat to myself. This is my first time with Jai.

Right?

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

JAI

I’m not the kind of man to submit to anyone. I’m Athdara, the dragon summoner, the king’s general, the madman who controls dangerous shadows.

I’m used to being feared, used to the respect generated by that fear.

There is… reverence in the way she puts her delicate hand on my cock, though. I like that. I should hope for some intimidation when faced with the sheer size of my desire for her.

And submitting to her is fucking easy. Since I met her, I’ve wanted to kneel at her feet.

I remember following her around, basking in her bright light, awestruck. She was never a butterflies and flowers kind of girl, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But she loved books and stories, she loved adventure and sweets eaten on the river shore. She loved wading into the water to watch colorful fish flit by.