Page 16

Chapter 16

Marius

M arius left Titus to the gaming board, giving some lame excuse about needing to speak to Remus concerning a saddle issue. He was feeling… All wrong. Irritated. Agitated. Frustrated. Hot. Confused. He rubbed a hand over his face and tried to decide where he was going.

Outside. Yes. Some air would help.

The lowering sun gilded the outside of the keep and turned all the crystals into mirrors for the sky’s tattered clouds. He braced his forearms on the half wall that opened to the area leading to the cliff’s edge, the spot where they often took off at the start of a mission.

A hum of energy rolled over his shoulders, down his torso, and then lower. He frowned. What was that? He’d felt something odd in the arena this morning too. Even Ragewing had noticed it, so he wasn’t completely losing his mind. Or was he going mad, and the dragon had simply been humoring him? After all, one small female with an overactive mouth had completely discombobulated him.

What was that shade her cheeks turned when she blushed? It was almost the color of autumn crystal wine… He shook his head and finished his mug of watered wine. So foolish.

A subtle wash of light caught his eye. He looked toward the cluster of varied crystals that grew in the rock over the keep’s entrance archway. Had they lit up? Surely not. That would mean their magic was working…

A light, feathery sensation danced down him and brought his body to a version of alertness that was highly unacceptable at the moment.

“I am sorry for saying what I did about your face, High Captain.”

His heart slammed into his ribs. Stones and snakes and everything in between, it was the female. Why was she following him? And why did her leathers fit her unlike how they fit anyone else?

“If you stare at my waist for much longer, I’m going to think you appreciate it more than my ability to ride a dragon,” she said, grinning like an Unseelie.

His body thrummed with want. What was happening?

She sidled up to him and leaned against the half wall. Her golden amber eyes almost appeared glazed.

“Did you have stronger wine? I assure you that the sky battle to come is no small thing. You must be in top shape if you plan to display your talent on the dragon and with fire commands…”

Her gaze snared him, and his words of warning fizzled on his tongue. The world tipped a little.

He reached out and tucked a loose strand of her ebony hair behind her gently pointed ear. She shivered and her eyes half shut.

“You’re fascinating.” He was in a daze… “So fearless.”

A grin slicked across her wine-damp lips and he longed to taste the drink on them. Another wave of desire lashed through him.

Her eyes snapped open wide and her grin broke into a bright smile. “Ah, no. I do feel fear. But my passion overrides it. To feel the wind as we fly… The dragons are miracles! The way they work with us instead of eating us whole. They could and well we know it. And their ability to turn and soar and dive. Don’t get me started about their beautiful flame!”

Her joy suffused him. She understood what he felt for dragons and for the sky. She, unlike anyone, displayed the happiness he felt quietly inside…

Suddenly his hands were tangled in her wavy hair and he was pressing his lips against hers. She tasted like spice and wine and warm summers. He gripped her waist—so small in the circle of his hands. His blood roared and he shoved her against the half wall. She laughed, low and sultry, against his mouth and twisted her tongue with his. Sensations like sparks lit up his skin at every point of contact.

“Oh, no…” Ophelia’s voice cut through the fog stirring Marius’s mind. “I guess you two didn’t get the warning in time.”

Jerking backward, he clasped Tahlia’s hips tightly. Stones, he had kissed Tahlia, and Ophelia had seen them.

Tahlia quickly stepped away from him and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I promise you that?—”

Ophelia held up a hand. “Calm yourself, competitor. It’s the crystals. A series of small earthquakes in the valley lit up the ley lines, and the breeding crystals activated. They have been flashing off and on since this morning, though only one guard noticed and he thought he was mistaken.”

Tahlia was still flushed and a tangle of hair hung over one luminous eye. “Activated. Without a dragon’s touch?”

“Yes,” Ophelia said. “They warned us inside, but I guess you two missed the announcement… Anyhow, be careful. If you felt the effects that strongly, the magic will likely give you some tempestuous imaginings. They mean nothing.”

Marius felt like he was under a scribe’s eyeglass. “Yes, I was getting some air and, well, I, it was certainly disconcerting.” He took a breath to steady himself, then bowed once to Ophelia and once to Tahlia. “Though the explanation makes this incident understandable, I remain apologetic. To you both. Now, I must meet with Remus before the sky battle preparation begins.”

He spun on his heel and strode through the courtyard toward the gate, his mind on the wrong pair of lips.

The sunset’s light and mist blurred the view of his pathway. Dizzy, he wound his way toward the southern wing’s side entrance.

His thoughts refused to be tamed as he imagined a disrobed Tahlia lying on her stomach at the edge of the cliff, near the takeoff point. Moss cushioned her naked body and he couldn’t stop staring at the way her legs curved up to her…

He blinked and tried to dispel the daydream as he climbed a curving set of stone steps. But his mind wouldn’t obey and instead showed him Tahlia.

In the moss at the edge of the cliff, she glanced over her shoulder, her pouty lips swollen from kissing him. He covered her bare body with his and whispered in her ear.

“Wild one, I have caught you now.”

She moaned and shifted one smooth leg so that he was positioned to fully mate with her. Pressing her hands to the earth with his fingers laced in hers, he held her in place and drove into her warmth. A groan escaped him and he forced himself to go slowly, though the feel of her was breaking him into glorious, blissful pieces. She called his name and he lowered himself—nearly losing his control—to nibble the tip of her ear. She shivered beneath him.

“More, Marius. More. Now…” She turned and he savored the side view of her face, her shuttered eyes and dark lashes. Her sweet tongue touched her bottom lip.

His body tightened and he almost finished then and there, but he kept himself in check, arms shaking as he thrust strong but still slow, drawing her into a fury of mewling sounds and gasps.

“Please.”

Her pleas were a tonic stronger than any wine. He couldn’t believe he had this courageous, beautiful, sun ray of a female…

She cried out, hips bucking as much as they could, pinned as he had her, and he increased his pace until all was pleasure—and the only good kind of pain—in a breath-stealing release.

Marius blinked and opened his eyes. Somehow, he had made it back to his bedchamber. He stood, slightly dizzy, with his cock in his hand. He pressed his forehead against his bedpost. It had been a daydream. He was the biggest fool ever to fly a dragon, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret the imagining.

“You’re pulling me apart, Tahlia of Northwoods,” he whispered to the empty room. “Absolutely destroying me.”