Page 32

Chapter 32

Kaya

“ C yrus.” It’s all I get out before we are kissing, devouring one another as best one can with lips and tongue and teeth. Every inch of me is fully awake now and pain-free.

“I’m so sorry, Kaya.” He drives his tongue into my mouth and swipes it over mine.

Pleasure floods me and heat builds in my core. “No, I should have been honest with myself. Even if you do end up leaving, I can handle it. You are worth the risk of a broken heart.”

His hands are in my hair, his talons lightly scraping and digging into my scalp, and I feel like I’m the dragon because my body is on fire.

“I will never, ever leave you. I was a fool to think I could give you up even though I should.”

“Don’t say that,” I gasp as he kisses a trail down my throat to my chest. “You aren’t a fool.”

“Kaya, my Kaya,” he murmurs against my shoulder as he rolls on top of me. “I went to the place the ghost showed me on the map.”

“You did? I thought maybe you had.”

“I’m sorry I left like that. I am an idiot.”

I kiss the side of his neck and move my hips to feel his cock against my center. Desire rips through me and I suck in a series of quick breaths.

He is shaking like he is barely hanging on to his self-control. “I found a city of dragon shifters.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“But no, Kaya. It’s nothing without you at my side. I don’t give a whit about my kind if I can’t have you.”

His wings spread over us, blocking out the light. His eyes are sparkling and half-lidded. I know he has a mate mark before I see the edges of it peeking from his tunic. I know it like I know myself. We are fully aware now of our feelings for one another. It’s like we are connected in mind, body, and spirit.

“This is…” I giggle and can’t stop smiling as he draws a hand down my shoulder and my arm.

“It’s intense, isn’t it?” His breath dusts over the tops of my breasts and my nipples peak. “Kaya, will you marry me?”

I freeze, thinking of the map. “Don’t you want to go back?”

“No. I want to be here, in our hometown with you. Forever.”

His words are the song I always wished to hear, but I don’t want him to miss out on being a part of his kind’s community.

I put my hands on his big chest to slow down his kisses. “Cyrus, I have an idea.”

He leans over, and his tongue flicks out to touch my ear. I’m melting. What was I about to say? My mate mark is throbbing, but this time it feels perfect.

“We can visit the city, can’t we?” I ask.

Pulling back, he stares at me. His gaze is a touch on my cheeks, nose, and forehead. “You are a goddess. I will never deserve you. Of course, we can visit if you are up for the flight.”

“I trust you.”

Cyrus’s eyes shut momentarily, and he takes a deep breath, his body pressing into mine in the most glorious way. “I know you do. And you are teaching me to trust myself. I can never thank you enough for that, for seeing me as more than a gambling partier who has more bad habits than all the folks in the king’s dungeon.”

Grabbing him and pulling him against me, I laugh. His hair smells like the night and I kiss one of his horns. He moans and I feel his cock twitch between us.

I put my mouth next to his ear. “We will go to your kind’s city for our honeymoon.”

He jerks back, face split into a massive, open-mouthed smile. “You accept?”

“I do, my gorgeous friend, I do.”

“Don’t you dare call me friend ever again,” he says, pushing his hips forward roughly.

My laugh at his comment is swallowed by the sheer delight coursing through my blood. “Blessed Stones, that feels amazing.”

“Tell me what you want, sweetness. I will do anything you request. Absolutely anything. If you want a list of my skills and my desires, I’m happy to provide that as well. But I think I need to fuck you simply first to calm this mate mark magic down.”

A shiver of want shakes me and my heart races. “Yes, please do.”

“I will be careful. I know you haven’t…”

“I have only had one partner. It’s been a long time, too.”

Not that I don’t pleasure myself with the fancy toy that Tully gave me for my birthday ages ago. She said it’s as healthy and normal as cleaning one’s teeth. I smile at the memory, then my focus shoots back to Cyrus, and my body heats up again.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I will take good care of you, my sweetness.”

“I know. But please, don’t ask me to tell you what I want. That…” I make a face, unsure of how to voice what I’m feeling.

“You like to be told what to do?”

“I guess? I haven’t experienced that, but at the kissing booth,” I say eyeing him for signs of combustion, “I found that I didn’t like those who were careful and always asking me what I wanted. Your kiss is the only kiss I’ve truly felt here.” I put a fist on my heart and then place a hand between us, between my legs. “Or here.”

His eyebrow lifts and he smirks. “Just as I thought. That healer didn’t have a chance.”

Another chuckle escapes me. “No, he didn’t. Too soft for me. I like my rough dragon shifter with his naughty side. Boss me about. Tell me what to do so this is the best it can be for both of us. I think, I…”

“Don’t lose steam now. Tell me everything.”

“I think I want you to be rough.”

“I will do my best, but I don’t want to hurt you this first time. We can ease into that. All right? Just say stop if you need me to.”

“Perfect.”

He nods, then a dark look sweeps over his eyes, a look as hot as coals. He rises onto his knees and his cock looks enormous even though it’s still trapped in his trousers. He grabs my dress and lifts it to my waist, exposing my silken shorts and my fine wool stockings. My face flushes. No one has looked at me undressed in this much candlelight. It was dark the last time I did this. And this is Cyrus, my soon-to-be-husband and my true mate. I hope he likes what he sees.

I touch the neckline of my dress. “Do you want me to…” I tug at it like I can show my breasts to him.

“Not yet. Grip the headboard, Kaya.”

Delicious chills run down the backs of my legs and I grab the wooden rungs of my headboard obediently. He reaches between my legs and his finger finds the open slit of my shorts. He hums appreciatively and runs a talon over the seam of my cunt.

“You’re incredibly wet. Very good.”

He lowers himself and spreads my knees with his hands. His talons dig into my skin and the pinch is exactly the right level of pain to make me pant. He looks at me over the layers of my rumpled skirts, and then his tongue finds the spot where his finger was. The wet heat of his mouth on just the outer areas of my cunt is already unspeakably wonderful. He licks once, twice, then his tongue divides my seam and drives into me. I buck my hips and he lifts his head.

“Stay still.”

His commanding voice just makes me wetter. “Yes, Cyrus.”

“Call me your mate.”

“Yes, my mate.”

“I’m going to fuck you now. I can’t wait any longer. The mate mark in dragons is brutal.”

I imagined as much since he seemed near death when Tully brought him here. I draw my hands down, placing them on his head.

He scowls and jerks his chin at me as he tugs his tunic off and then pulls his trousers down to his knees. “On the headboard.”

Why do I love him ordering me around? Because I don’t have to think or worry. Because it’s just pleasure and Cyrus and it’s perfect.

His chest is a marvel of angles and curves. Green and gold scales run over the tops of his pectorals, then dive down. His mate mark shows tea leaves and sugar, and my own mark pulses with satisfaction. His scales lead to his narrow waist. The tendons and flat expanse of smooth flesh that stretch down to his massive dragon cock is a work of art. It’s all gorgeous. He is stunning from every angle. Every inch of him.

I wrap my fingers around the wooden rungs again and study his cock. It grows right there before my eyes. Scales shimmer along the head, and veins of what looks like fire run beneath the flesh.

“Tully was right about shifters.”

He grins, then goes serious again. “Hold tight. This will be a little painful for you, but you can handle it.”

I nod and grip the headboard.

His gaze roves over my body, his hands dragging over my shorts, talons snagging on the embroidered flowers that run down the sides where my hips stretch the fabric.

“So beautiful. My mate is so very beautiful.”

I preen at the tone of praise in his deep and rumbling voice. His wings shudder and rise to cover us fully. He braces one hand on the bed beside me, then positions himself at my entrance.

“You’re soaked.”

His jaw tenses, and his throat moves in a swallow. Sparks appear and dance around the edges of his wings, creating a sort of net around us that casts a golden light. Magic. Dragon magic.

He pushes into me, hot and so hard. Inch by inch, he enters me. My body is squeezing itself around him. He bites my shoulder and I moan, loving the pressure of him inside me and the hint of pain.

“Be still,” he orders.

But I can’t. The pleasure is mounting, and I just need him to move or I need to move. He snarls, and a thrill shoots through me and I nearly come just from that.

“Be still, mate.”

The sparks increase in intensity to flames that warm but don’t burn.

“Please,” I whine. My body shudders, and that coiling pressure deep inside me quivers. “Cyrus, my mate, please.”

“You’ll wait. If I can wait, you’ll wait.” His lip curls and shows his teeth, which are sharper than a human’s. His hips move again, inching himself farther into me. He inhales sharply. “Your scent. Ah. You smell divine.”

The flames join with one another to form a complete crescent of light that extends over our heads and along his wings.

“Now,” he growls, more monster than ever.

Then he drives his hips forward. Pain and delight mingle to make me call out. The pleasure is untangling, expanding. His cock is as hot as fire and it feels as though sparks of pleasure spread from its insistent pressure. He is fully inside, his stones against my body and his hot cock deep and throbbing. I’m about to beg for more when the tremors of a climax begin. He refuses to move.

“Hands on the headboard, mate,” he snarls out, holding firm.

Pleasure ripples out from my center and echoes through my entire body. My head falls back, and I am gasping and panting and straining for more, even though I just came and it was astounding.

“Very good,” he says. “Now, I can fuck you fully.”

I can’t get enough of that look in his eye.