Page 88 of I Dream of Dragons

His hips snap, grunts leaving his lips, one arm somehow finding its way under my head. Cushioning it.

I don’t have time to consider this kindness. We are racing toward the end, hurtling into the hurricane. My body feels stretched, elastic, pulled to the point of breaking.

His shout twines with my cry as our bodies slam together one last time, holding, almost levitating off the ground. His cock is buried so deep inside me it’s melded with me, his rock-hard thigh muscles crushing me, his arm still cradling my head.

His face just an inch away, hovering over mine, eyes dark and wide like the sky.

Gods…

What was that? It feels as if the world was broken and remade. Turned upside down in an untimely Reversal, changing everything.

Upending my life.

Restoring my faith, somehow.

Dangerous, I think, too dangerous.Don’t. Don’t let yourself fall. This isn’t Jai, this is someone else wearing his body, and you shouldn’t fall for Jai either.

Time doesn’t turn back and I’m here for a specific reason.

And yet…

How am I drawn to this alien being? How am I drawn to Jai, too? To both of them? How is it I welcome the crushing weight of that tall, muscular body on mine, the ache of his cock still buried inside me?

I know, I just know that I will cherish the ache it leaves behind, too. This mark he put in me.

This mark… My mind snaps to the king, putting on me a betrothal mark that seems to affect my free will and links me to him in ways I didn’t ask for.

A royalty birthmark on his wrist.“Birthmarks trump marks that were applied.”

The words echo in my mind, distorting, looping. What does that mean? Betrothal marks are for life. How can a birthmark trump them?

I gasp when Phaethon pulls out of me, gritting my teeth as every inch of him—and there are many—is dragged against my sensitive inner walls. He grabs his jacket from somewhere nearby and throws it over me.

Then I gasp again when the world shifts. His arm under my head curls, and he pushes the other one under my knees, lifting me.

He slides to his feet in one smooth movement, hefting me in his arms, against his chest. Above me, the sky swirls with stars and the colorful draks still whirling over the palace.

“Little Human,” he breathes, but there’s no malice in the pet name this time. “Leli.”

It sounds a lot like… affection?

Keep dreaming, I tell myself.This is Phaethon we’re talking about.

So why does it feel like he’s holding me the exact same way Jai did?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

RAE

Clutching me to his chest, Phaethon marches us back into the palace, down passages and through halls, and I swear, he glares at any guard who approaches us and they back away, paling.

Laughter grips me and I shake in his hold.

“Are you all right?” he asks, and I look up at his frowning, handsome face, my arms looping around his neck.

“That’s a very Jai-like thing to ask,” I mutter. “Are you?—?”

“Still Phaethon. I hate to disappoint.”