Page 54 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 54

Another battle was waging in his mind, but I could see that this time it was much more complex. He didn’t fight against simple compulsion, but a far greater foe: the pressures of responsibility, honour, duty, everything that weighed upon him. And from that he created a wall between us.

But I wasn’t willing to allow that to happen.

I couldn’t think about Brom or the queen or any-bloody-thing right now, because there was only him: his stomach muscles tightening under my unstudied touch, his body winding itself tight, ready to spring into action or away from me, but I wasn’t about to give him an option.

The hum in my mind intensified and I was willing to bet it did in Soren’s, too, as I flicked one button open. Then another, then another until I was able to slide a hand under the cold wet fabric to get to the smouldering hot man beneath it. I stared up at him, feeling like I was drowning in the dark depths of his eyes as I pushed my hand up and across his chest.

“You were sent here to teach me.” My voice was little other than a whisper. “So teach me, Soren.”

“This isn’t for me…” His voice was urgent and desperate, even as it trailed away. “I shouldn’t…” He teetered on the edge of something big and I begged him with my eyes to just jump off.

He marked the moment he did so by cupping my jaw in his hands and tilting my head back until his mouth was almost on mine.

“You think I haven’t wanted that since the moment I met you? This poor little straggling thing, that’s what I tried to tell myself when we met, to keep me away from you. You were to be my prince’s wife, my queen, and I knew I’d be proud to serve you. You’d been through all that shit and it never broke you for a second.”

A big thumb brushed against my cheek.

“It seemed like it was ordained by the gods, you becoming queen-in-waiting, because who was more of a queen than you?” That thumb slid downwards, arrowing towards my lips. “But then that fool let his mother reject your status, let her send you to the bloody keep, and my heart, my mind, never felt more full, of you, Pippin. I needed to protect you, I felt that keenly, seeing all those fool boys who’d want to get their hands on you…”

He studied my eyes then, soaking in my every expression.

“Then I realised I was right there alongside them. You’ve seen that I respond to you. Of course I do, Pippin. I always have. You’re beautiful and strong and you don’t let a fucking thing keep you down and I’ve never been so bloody infatuated by a woman as I have been by you. My body yearns for you.”

I moved then, trying to close the gap between us, but he stopped me.

“I’m not the one for you. I decided that long ago. A girl whose father died too young? No good comes from replacing him with another. You might think you want me now, but?—”

“Is that the way this works?” I jerked myself free of him, standing firm on my own now. “You think to step in to the space he left, protecting my honour, making decisions for me?” I shook my head sharply. “My need for that died when Father did. What did I become in a year of looking after pigs? A woman. No, an adult. Every day I got up and ensured my own survival with no help from anyone.”

I moved my head from side to side much more slowly.

“Only hindrances. I might be young. I might be inexperienced, but no one can take my autonomy away from me, not without my permission. Don’t come up with pretty lies about how it would be dishonourable to pursue whatever the hell this is between us, when the reality is you’re just too scared to try.”

The stiff breeze whisked my words away as soon as I said them, replacing them with the hush of the sea. I heard the tide come rushing in as he shifted on his feet, then he let out a guttural growl.

If I needed a reminder of just why he was the drill sergeant, I got it then. He scooped me up and then dropped me down full length onto the sand, covering my body with his moments later. The hum grew louder as he shoved my legs wide and settled between them, pressing his response to me right against the place I needed it most. He watched me gasp, then arch my back, trying to increase that sensation, but he grabbed my hands and held them down over my head against the sand as he stared down at me.

“Ged taught you a lesson on how you can take your pleasure?”

“You talked about that?” I flushed bright red.

“We talk about everything, lass. That’s what men do. So, do you know what I’m going to do to you?”

I didn’t. Despite my brief experience with Ged, I was blundering into something that women of my class were woefully unprepared for. But I couldn’t seem to stop myself, because I was determined to have this.

I was determined to have something for me. I felt that keenly, so that if I was to be forced into marriage, I’d have this moment to store away. Him, the sand, the breeze, the sun. Something that was mine. So in answer to his question, I shook my head slowly, not sure what he planned to do, but I’d trusted Soren thus far and he hadn’t seen me wrong, so why wouldn’t I do the same now? At that realisation, I pressed my body against the long hard length of his.

It didn’t take long for him to respond to my invitation.

Whatever was holding Soren back snapped and his mouth came crashing down on mine.

My lack of reaction to Christian had been how I’d known he wasn’t the one for me. In contrast to Christian’s gentle kiss, Soren’s lips were hard, demanding entrance. And as he plundered my mouth, making my lips sting, I felt a fire come alight inside me, hot and molten and ready to burn me up. I strained against his grip, sucking his bottom lip into my mouth, scoring him with my teeth, needing more, more, until I gasped out my urgency.

“I’m thinking you’ll be getting more than you bargained for,” he growled, pulling away from my lips to kiss a line down my neck. “But you need to listen to what has to happen in order for things to proceed.”

He pulled his hands away, propping himself up, but when I reached for him, he shook his head. Soren had an element of the drill sergeant in his gaze now, which sent a dark thrill through me.

“Hands on the sand, Pippin. Don’t bloody move them. Because if you do, this stops. You’ll only move them because you’re feeling overwhelmed. Because this is too much. Because you’ve just bloody changed your mind. Move your hands and I will stop.”

Somehow by delivering these strict rules, he was empowering me and I moved restlessly against the sand, then nodded.

“Your words, Pippin. I need to hear your words.”

“If I want things to stop for any reason, I raise my hands off the sand,” I said. “And if I don’t?”

I’d never seen this side of him – it had always been packed away behind his gruff exterior – but a slow, carnal smile formed on his lips.

“I have dreamed of you being under me, Lady Pippa, so bloody often. Stay still and I’ll show you exactly what I’ve dreamt of.”

I nodded and he dropped down again, kissing me and kissing me, burning a trail down my neck as he undid buttons all the way down to my waist and peeled my shirt away. A cool breeze played over my skin like a gentle caress, followed quickly by his searing touch. I felt the prickle of his beard which, coupled with the much softer sensation of his lips, had me writhing. When his mouth covered my nipple I went rigid at the feel of it, a star of pleasure bursting inside me as he sucked it in. As the suction grew, tighter and tighter with each moment, so did the pleasure.

“Soren…!”

I gasped, arching my back to force more into his mouth, but I needn’t have bothered, because he was already devouring me. As he gorged on one part of my body and my other nipple pulled tight, it wasn’t neglected either. His hand covered it, then he drew his calloused fingers together to pinch the sensitive point and that’s when I felt it. Something tightening deep inside me, that pearl Ged had so deftly introduced me to throbbing in counterpoint. I groaned then keened, unable to form words as I pleaded for something, anything to bring whatever this was to the stunning conclusion I was sure was coming.

He pulled away then, brushing his prickly lips lower against the underside of my suddenly sensitive breasts but not giving in when I lifted my torso to try to push my nipples back to his mouth. His kisses dropped lower and lower, then his hands went to the waistband of my pants and undid the button.

Was this it? The customary fear of giving away your maidenhead rose, then fell away as I felt him tug my pants down. This was Soren. I needed his body pressing mine down, making it come alive in ways I’d never experienced, needed to writhe against his mouth as he pressed one kiss to my bare hipbone, then another lower. I’d started taking the medicines Madam Gilly had given me but… as Soren pushed my thighs wide, the feel of him, of the breeze making this feel oh so terribly lewd, I couldn’t seem to care about those age-old womanly concerns.

Quite the opposite.

I felt safe right now, safe enough to let myself experience this. Safe enough to let him?—

“I need to taste you. Pippin.”

“Oh gods!”

I yelped as I felt his tongue slide up and through me, the feeling too slick and indistinct to describe properly, other than as bliss. It felt like bliss. Just soft little laps against my pearl, then teasing the place that ached hard, the sensation seeming to soothe and make it worse, all at the same time.

“Gods, if you knew how often I dreamed of just this, of tasting your wet little pussy. I’ve stood in one of the shower cubicles or in the bathroom at your estate, rubbing one out to what I imagined what it would be like.” He stared at me up along the line of my body and I just strained my aching muscles, trying to get him to take another taste. “You’re untouched, aren’t you?”

All of the warm concern was back in his voice, which was why somehow I’d known he was the right one to do this. All of the terrible tales of men ravaging women didn’t mesh with what I knew of Soren, and neither did this experience. I just nodded, then let out a frantic little whine.

“That tells me how far we’ll go today.”

“No, Soren, please…”

I was literally begging, not wanting him to be sensible or smart, because I couldn’t be. The thought of riding back to the keep with this fire burning in my blood made me want to scream.

I needed this.

The queen might dictate the rest of my life, but I needed something for me, something I’d chosen, and right now, that was Soren. I went to tell him that, but I realised he knew, his hand landing on my mound, his thumb finding my pearl and massaging it far more thoroughly than I’d ever managed to. Then, as the pleasure built, hovering over me like a swirling storm, he dropped back down and licked.

One long stripe up my entire seam, nerve endings tingling in their wake before he focussed on my pearl. It felt like his tongue flickered all over it, and as his tongue moved faster, my pleasure increased.

I broke the rules then, my hands slapping down on his head, holding him right where he was, knowing that if he just kept going… The waves in my ears sounded like they swelled and swelled and I did the same, my breath coming in short little pants before…

A sweetness the like of which I’d never experienced before rose up and drowned me utterly and I surrendered to it. It went on and on in long pulses, each one greater than the last until finally even that faded. I opened my eyes and stared at the sky, naked, sated and feeling oh so good.

“You broke the rule,” he grumbled, but there was no rancour in him, especially not when he scooped me up and held me close, cradling me in his lap. His lips tasted salty when he kissed me, much more gently now, even as his hand slid up my thighs. I squirmed when he petted me softly, everything feeling over stimulated.

“Still sensitive?” I nodded. “That will pass, sooner for you than me.”

I looked up then, the moment feeling so very intimate as I stared into his eyes. Because I saw him now, the man, not the rider or the drill sergeant. The man who’d pleased me so very well and would be looking for the opportunity to do so again. I leaned forward and kissed him slowly, a softer thing, but when I moved, I felt how hard he still was.

“I need to look after you—” I began to say, going to move when his hands clamped down on me.

“No, you don’t.”

“But you pleased me and I need to?—”

“There is no need, Pippin.” He gazed down at me, willing me to understand. “This is not a transaction where I trade your pleasure for mine. I took a great amount of satisfaction from making you feel so very good.” I flushed then and nodded, but something in me wouldn’t let it lie.

“And if I wanted to?” My hands moved restively over his shoulders, across his chest and when I shifted again, more slowly now, he didn’t stop me from straddling him. “What if your pleasure is just as important to me, as mine is to you?”

“The gods sent me a brutal challenge when they sent me you,” he growled. “I’m trying to take things slowly, Pippin.”

With the inference that he’d court me, I was willing to bet. My heart sank at the reminder that it wasn’t possible. My hands moved, tracing the line of his shoulders, then along the front of his shirt, unbuttoning it to the sound of his complaints which washed away as soon as I stroked my hands across his bare skin.

“Are you as sensitive here as women are?” I asked, circling one small medallion of a nipple with my nail.

“Some,” he grunted out. “Not sure if as sensitive, but…” He let out a shaky breath. “I feel it in my cock, if that’s what you mean.”

“Show me.”

His eyes flicked open to stare into mine.

“I told you we don’t have to?—”

“And I’m telling you I want to. Very much.”

It was true. I felt like a cat who’d been left to sleep in the afternoon sun, all loose and warm, and I wanted to make him feel just as good.

“You’re the devil,” he grumbled but he pulled away, going up onto his knees and, as he opened the button of his pants, I traced the hard line of him through the fabric, learning his shape. Then he emerged, hard and wanting, twitching in the cool breeze.

“Like this, yes?”

I trailed my fingers up the swollen length and it jerked in response.

“It all feels good, Pippin. Too damn good.”

My hand wrapped around him, clasping him the way Ged had done to himself, moving that sleeve I created up and down to the sounds of his groans. His hands landed on my head, gently now, a small stream of encouragement muttered between pained gasps. But that was nothing compared to the sounds he made as I bent down, assuming that my mouth would feel as good on him as his did to me.

He tasted salty and felt warm against my tongue. I swiped it across the swollen crown of his manhood and he let out a guttural groan.

“Gods… Pippin… I…”

I felt completely in control right now, this massive strong man literally on his knees because of me. I craved that feeling as I craved the taste of him, moving forward to engulf the head with my mouth.