Page 84 of I Dream of Dragons

“No, no, no…” I clutch at his forearm. “Don’t throw me down!”

His nostrils flare. “Your fear smells sweet.”

I’m shaking as I try to pry his hand off my neck. “Damn you. Put me back down.”

And he does. He opens his hand and I drop down to the floor, coughing and panting. I knew he was strong, but I never realized just how much. It never scared me before.

It scares me a little now.

I rub the burning marks he’s left on my neck. “Phaethon…”

“Show me,” he says, voice low and full of clangs and echoes from other worlds. “Put your hands on me.”

“That’s what you want?” I eye him and I can’t deny I still desire him. It’s pure animal attraction. Has to be. He’s so handsome, pure masculine power, that I can’t resist. The fear only made the desire for him pulse stronger, and for some reason, the small of my back is burning, where my birthmark is.

But I ignore it, just like I’m ignoring plenty of things right now in favor of experiencing life. Living the moment.

Getting Phaethon to look at me with desire in his cold eyes. Breaking him.

Making him almost human.

With a boldness I don’t really feel, not anymore, I step closer again and put a hand on the bulge between his legs. “Like this?”

He jerks and hisses, lips peeling back. I force myself not to move, trepidation and arousal warring inside of me.

“Should I let go?” I whisper.

He looks down, between our bodies, brows lifting. “That’s all? You’re just… touching me and it feels like lightning?”

“Lightning?” I frown. “Not sure that’s good. Does that hurt?”

“No.”

“So you do feel a difference from pain.”

He’s observing me now, brows knit. Again that confusion, that disconnect between what the body he inhabits needs and what he knows. Between pain and pleasure.

It’s almost adorable. Almost moving me to feel something for him.

Such a strange juxtaposition—Jai, who is formidable but fair and gentle, who knows how to kiss and hold and pleasure me, and Phaethon, who is cruel and violent but seems at a loss when it comes to fun and delight.

Mad as a jackal…

“So that’s what you and Jai did?” he asks, making me realize I’m still touching his hard-on. “This groping thing?”

“What? No, that wasn’t it. Let me?—”

“Now you have shown me your way,” he says, baring his teeth, “it’s my turn to show you what I had in mind.”

Oh shit.Again, I step back, or try to. “Careful,” I whisper. “Don’t break me, Phaethon.”

“Fragile, I know.” He puts a hand on my shoulder and simply pushes. “But also strong.”

Insult. Praise. Hesitation. Violence.

I shouldn’t want this, but I do. Oh, I do, and I shiver when he shoves me down to my knees, fumbling with the other hand with the buttons of his pants.

Slightly clumsy, making me wonder if he’s ever present in Jai’s mind when Jai dresses or undresses. Perhaps that bores the mighty Eosphor to death—but then he pulls his hard cock out of his pants and the sight of it, the sight of those powerful hands handling that big, hard cock cut my breath short.