Page 48 of The Dragon Queen #3

“Soren, we shouldn’t…” I moaned, but that didn’t stop me from kissing him. I needed the feel of his stubble, the taste of his mouth. Beer and wine and man, it was exactly what I needed. Everything was so hellishly grim and he was the perfect antidote.

“Well, I know that, lass.” There, that was the difference. He rasped that out under his breath in a tone that screamed of need and selfishly, I was glad for it. I had to know he was just as affected by me as I was him. “And we’ll stop if you truly wish it.”

“Don’t you dare,” I growled.

I truly sounded like a dragon queen then.

“No?” I loved this side of Soren. Few ever saw it but me. That devilish look in his eyes, the way his head tilted to one side as if to get a better look at me. “Then we better lock that door.”

“No.”

My hand grabbed his sleeve and he could’ve tugged free, but he didn’t. Instead, he stopped where he was, staring down at my hand, then up at me.

“But anyone could walk in, Pippin.”

That was the point, I wanted to tell him, but instead, I just pleaded mutely for him to understand. Brom had made clear we’d need to hide what we were, but it was killing me. Just then I envied Queen Gloriana desperately. She could parade all her men in front of the entire court, right up until the point she died.

“I don’t care,” I told him and that had his brows creasing. I longed to smooth it away. “I don’t, Soren.”

“Pippin—”

“I’m tired, so tired, of washing in lakes, of eating bloody jerky, of peeing behind a tree. I’m tired of being dirty and tired and scared, really scared, but most of all.” I stared at him, willing him to either walk towards that door or me, because then I’d know. “I’m scared of pretending I don’t care about you, when I do.”

“What’s this about then?” he asked with a shake of his head. “Pippin, is this because of that girl?”

He didn’t even name the baron’s daughter, which pleased a small part of me, but that wasn’t the answer.

“Rhiannon? No, she was just doing the same thing I would’ve if a wing of handsome Royal Riders visited my father’s home. I’m sure she’s glad to be home, but with that comes responsibility, duty, expectations, and I think for just one night…” My throat was feeling tighter by the second. “She’d want to slip into your room and just let herself go wild.”

“Is that what you want?”

The frown faded, and I caught a familiar shine in his eyes. It was the same one he used when we knew he’d push us hard during a training session, and I had to wonder what he’d make me do now. Not sit ups or running around the room, that was for sure.

“If you’d come to my father’s house, if you’d looked at me twice?” My eyes couldn’t stop moving, taking in all the parts of him. Those broad shoulders, that wide chest, those thick arms. Everything about Soren screamed of competence, strength and that was wildly attractive. “I’d have found out which room you were going to sleep in too.”

“Would you indeed?” He was back standing before me, his hand sliding up the nape of my neck, teasing the small hairs there. “And what do you think would’ve happened the minute you slipped into my room? ”

I grabbed that suggestion with both hands, sliding them down his tunic. I found the toggles, plucking one, then the other, him watching me the entire time. Part of me wanted to prolong this. I had so little time to just be with him. I wondered if Draven had sent Soren up for just this reason. It seemed to fit with his controlling ways. I’d thank him so very nicely later if that was the case, but now…

Under the tunic, under the shirt, he wasn’t a drill sergeant anymore. This was Soren, a man I’d caught a glimpse of that day when he trained me to fight, those strong hands working liniment into my muscles. He stopped thinking about his duty and started thinking only of me.

My hands spanned his chest when I had him shirtless. It was a possessive thing, but also a reclaiming. This smattering of hair was mine, that scar was as well. He was mine, mine, mine. I kissed him then, winding a trail down one pectoral, then leaving a little peck on a hard nipple, following a scar down. His stomach muscles tensed, popping through his skin and I marked each one of them as my hands went to his belt.

“Pippin…” His hand spanned my head, cradling it as I worked his belt free. “Pippin, no?—”

Whatever he had to say, it was cut off as I eased his aching length out. Hard, angry, and red, it was eminently male and demanding of my attention. I made sure to do just that. A little kiss on the head and he was hissing, his grip on my scalp tightening.

“You don’t need to do that.”

This was his secret voice, the one he saved for just me.

“Yes, I do.”

“Gods, Pippin…” I treasured that ragged prayer as I opened my mouth, licking up his length, then swallowing as much of him as I could. “Not too deep.”

I spluttered, my throat convulsing, but whatever devil drove me, it wouldn’t let up. I went back for more, and his hand curled around my throat, pulling me free and forcing me to stare up at him.

“I love you, lass, but you know that already. I don’t get to tell you that beyond closed doors, but I try to show you in everything I do. It’s all for you, Pippin, every single bit of it.” I went to reply, but a finger was pressed to my now swollen lips. “And that’s why I don’t want you choking on me. Open your mouth if this is what you want.”

I obeyed him without question and a peace settled over me. I didn’t need to claw at him to get more, because he’d always give me what I needed.

“That’s a good girl.” A flush of unexpected pleasure rushed through me. It felt like I was always working so very hard to try to keep up with a game I was utterly unprepared for. Just those two words made me feel so much better. “Gods, there’s nothing better than the feel of your mouth.”

He rasped that out as he eased his cock in, stopping me when I went to move my head. Instead, I was forced to close my lips around him, swallowing hard, a small rush of something salty telling me how he felt about this.

“Well, except for one thing. Walking around in rider pants, I watch those hips of yours swing and wonder if every other bastard seated around the general’s table is thinking what I am.”

“What?” I asked when my mouth popped free.

“Of wrenching down those pants that outline the shape of that sweet little arse.” The men spoke of earthy things when they were together, but never to me, and right now it sent a thrill through me. “Of propping one leg up on a table or a chair, or a windowsill, opening you right up for me.”

He stroked my cheek with such gentleness, all while speaking a kind of filth that would have a fine-born lady blushing. I knew that because my cheeks burned hotly.

“I think of sliding my hands between your legs, finding a wet little secret you kept for just me.” His thumb pushed my mouth open and his cock soon replaced it, moving back and forth with a methodical slowness, but never going too deep. “I’d play with the mess you made, then drop to my knees and do the one thing I wake up every morning needing to do.”

He stared into my eyes, even as my vision began to blur, turning him into a mysterious, dark shadow. Perhaps that’s why I missed the cue. He yanked himself free, a small chuckle making clear he noted me leaning forward, chasing him for more.

“That’s what I want from you now, lass. Up now and against that desk.”

“But I haven’t washed…”

My protest was a perfunctory one. I was scrambling to my feet and then moving over to the heavy table, my hands slapping down on the sheets of parchment left there for our use. Soren knew his way around a dragon rider’s uniform, having me out of my tunic, then my shirt, in seconds. The cold air pulled my nipples tight, but he covered them with his hands seconds later.

“Are you wet for me?” he asked, none of his usual gentleness in his voice.

I could imagine right now that he was some strange rider, ready to despoil the lady of the house. One hand was shoved down the front of my pants, parting my folds. A small grunt of satisfaction from him told me I was. My fingers creased the parchment as they clawed at the desktop. His fingers moved lightning fast, finding my pearl and strumming it like an expert musician. I went up on tiptoes, the tension ratcheting too high, too fast, yet I sobbed out a gasp when he pulled his hand free. A wet sound made it clear that he would get his taste no matter what I had to say about it, and then he was undoing my pants and yanking them down around my ankles. One knee was brought up, just as he asked, baring me to the entire room.

“Imagine if they walked in right now,” he rumbled. “Those lords, those soldiers, who think you belong only to him.” Who that was didn’t require clarifying. “You are given the title of queen and expected to walk by Draven’s side.” His hand slapped down over mine. “But you wear our ring. Ours, Pippin, say it.”

“Yours…”

I was disobeying him and that had consequences in the training room, but there was a reason for it. Sometimes one of my men needed me the most, and now that was Soren.

“Gods, how I wish…” I felt his body pressed against mine, the cool leather of his pants a contrast to my hot skin. One hand went to my throat while the other slid up my inner thigh. “Tell Draven to abdicate. Tell him to make you queen, because I’ll serve at your feet, everyday if I could just walk out into the world and claim you as mine. Tell him that, Pippin.”

“Yes…”

This was an agreement that came under duress, but I couldn’t seem to care. My hips bucked backwards, spearing myself on his fingers, though not for long. Teeth ground together as he pulled his hand free, only to drop to his knees and replace them with his tongue.

There was glorious impreciseness to what he was doing. Fingers were hard, unrelenting, but tongues were so much softer, sweeter. I couldn’t stifle my moan, not even when my hand was slapped over my mouth, because Soren knew exactly what it took to move me. Higher and higher, it was like riding on dragon back as we saw things no other human would be blessed enough to witness. My foot stretched, taking me up onto my tiptoes, but his hands pulled me back onto his face. Harder, faster, he worked me over and over until I let out a little whine.

Right as he pulled away.

I blinked, wondering what the hell had happened. Had someone walked in the door or?

Ohh…

A brush of something hard, thick and then his hand was clamping down on my shoulder as he thrust up into me.

“Yes, just like that.”

Did I say that or did he? It didn’t seem to matter. We were one person right now. Every movement prompted more and more pleasure until it felt like I burned with it. Rather than try to douse myself, I just wanted more. My hips slammed into his, the whole world feeling like it shook with every stroke.

“This is what I dream of, Pippin. You and me together, out in the light. Able to take our pleasures where we find them, able to love freely. I’m not some rider who’d take advantage of a girl who snuck into his room. That’s never how it would be. I’m a man, my queen, who’s hopelessly, utterly devoted to you and can’t think straight any time you’re around.”

I wanted to tell him how much it hurt me too. This was an impossible situation and it felt like the war was just a distraction from the inevitable. We would slip up. Two people, six, they couldn’t feel what we did and keep it under wraps. Love had a way of coming out, always, and right now, I couldn’t have wanted anything more. I clung to his hand, holding it over my heart, hoping he felt in every beat that I loved him just as desperately. That someday, somehow, we’d find a way to get free of the shadows and walk in the light.

“Well, well…” I looked up sleepily to find Draven standing over us, an amused look in his eyes. “Faithlessness never looked so good on a woman.”

“I’m faithful.” I yawned and tried to stretch, but a sleeping Soren gripped me tightly, refusing to let me go. “You know I’d never look at another man other than the lot of you.”

“You wouldn’t want to.” Flynn tried to smile, but there was something brittle there. His flushed cheeks, the way his eyes glittered, it made clear that he’d had a bit to drink. “My father taught me how to fight a duel. Fair warning, I will call out any potential rivals.”

“No need,” I replied, pushing back gently so that Soren rolled over, before curling up against his back. “I have my hands more than full with the lot of you.”

“Well, if you really do want to fill your hands…” Ged crawled onto the bed, snuggling into me.

“Another night,” Draven insisted. “I excused Pippin with tales of a headache, Soren playing the role of the protective guard, but an amorous cacophony coming from this bedroom would make that lie plain.”

“Too late…” I mumbled.

“Gods.” Draven’s hiss was one part affection, one part frustration. “Well, perhaps it's lucky we fly out at first light. ”

“Why first light?” Ged’s voice was muffled by the pillow. “It’s always first light. Why not second, third, or fourth light?”

“We travel for Holdfast Bay first thing in the morning, which will hopefully avoid any awkward questions.”

It did. We were gone before Rhiannon or the baron were awake, slinking from the castle like curs and riding for the coast. Hours later, we arrived just outside the city, staring across the field at the town.

“Are you seeing what I am?” Draven asked as he peered through his spyglass.

“What, that there’s not a boat bigger than a skiff anywhere in the harbour?” Ged asked. “Yeah, I see it, but if this place is as big a port as you’re saying, where are all the ships?”