Page 35

H alvard and Cyrus walk behind my friends and me. It’s a gorgeous summer day in Ravina Roxa and the blue sky is filled with dragon shifters flying to and fro.

“Call me crazy,” Cyrus says, giving my arse a pinch, “but I don’t think one is supposed to bring half of their hometown on their honeymoon, sweetness.”

I slap his hand away and continue down the colorful main road. “Hush and eat your croissant.”

Cyrus grins and does as ordered.

“She’s the boss, boss ,” Halvard whispers to Cyrus, chuckling.

“She definitely is,” Cyrus says back.

I don’t fight the smile that stretches my cheeks.

Renen and his partner, Bertrand, exclaim over the architecture. My brother and Bert are probably the only human couple within a five hundred mile radius. I grin at their linked hands and the wedding bands on their fingers. They eloped and showed up here at my honeymoon trip with that surprise news. I’m over the moon for them.

“Have they ever hired any non-dragons to design here?” Renen asks Joaquin, who kindly offered to give us a tour once we were rested and ready.

Joaquin walks beside Tully, Rom, Argos, and Laini. “No,” the dragon shifter says, “but you could be the first. You’d just have to complete the memory elimination again.”

Anyone who isn’t a dragon shifter must have a witch wipe their memory of how to get here before leaving.

Tully licks the crumbs of her croissant off her fingers. “I can do detailed work. I’ll keep the offer of design work in your big noggin, Bert, and get rid of the path here.”

Joaquin smiles at her until Argos raises an eyebrow and steps around the group so he’s between the shifter and Tully.

I chuckle and link arms with Laini. Spark flies over head, yipping happily at all the dragons in the sky.

“I guess Argos’s open mind only goes so far,” I whisper to Laini.

Laini grins. “I thought they were going to proposition everyone at the May Day festival after they both got all worked up during the kissing booth craziness.”

I shake my head and bat Cyrus’s hand away from my arse again. He’s following close and being quiet, but he can’t keep his hands off me. Which I love.

We tour the winding streets, then Joaquin takes us on a boat around the lake. A castle with rounded domes and flapping banners sits on the far side of the water, its reflection broken by the fins of golden fish.

“I wish Rychell could have come with us,” I say to Cyrus and Halvard. “She wants to expand her trade and bring more foreign spices to Leafshire Cove.”

“She’s a clever one, isn’t she?” Halvard is looking across the water at the castle, a funny look on his face.

Cyrus and I swap a grin. I think someone has a crush.

“She is,” I agree. “Next time, I suppose.”

“Aye,” Cyrus says and Halvard nods.

Rom beckons Laini to peer over the boat’s edge. He’s pointing at one of the fish, a much larger one than the rest.

I snuggle up to Cyrus, and we watch the sun shimmer off the castle’s roof. Halvard begins walking the starboard side, his gaze drawn to the field of poppies beyond the castle’s towering form.

“It’s so beautiful,” I say quietly to Cyrus. “If you want to move here, you know I would do it for you.”

“Not a chance.”

“Really?”

“It’s not home,” he says.

I lean back against his broad chest and exhale, incredibly relieved. “I’d miss my bakery.”

“I’d miss my pub.”

“And all of our friends.”

They’re chatting and laughing, and I know I couldn’t live without them. Cyrus is my lodestone, but they are the breath in my lungs.

“Agreed,” Cyrus says. “This is simply our new holiday location. In fact, I might be able to purchase us a villa on the lake. Would you like that?”

“I would! But do you even have any savings left after paying off our booths?”

Betilda had informed me that after ruining the remainder of the orphanage’s chances to raise money, Cyrus had bought up all the leftover tickets and filled their coffers more than full.

He curls a lock of my hair around his finger. I’ve been wearing loose styles on holiday because I love it when he touches my hair. It makes me shiver in the best way.

“I was able to do some work for this city in exchange for a hefty sum,” Cyrus says.

I twist and look up at him. He’s smirking like he does when he wins at dice.

“What did you do?”

“I taught the pub guild owners how to play Ice and Bones.”

My mouth falls open. It’s a high stakes betting game and Cyrus’s favorite. He rarely allows for it to be played at his pub these days because it ends up in fights.

“You didn’t.”

He snorts. “I did.”

“You introduced an entire city of your kin to an entirely new vice.”

“I mean, is it that surprising?”

I laugh and he holds me close, nibbling my ear.

“Let’s go back to our room,” he whispers.

A thrill sweeps through me at the thought of having my mate, my husband, all to myself again. He’s so deliciously naughty and sweet and kind. I will never get enough of him, so I don’t argue against this idea of his.

When the boat docks, we bid everyone goodbye for now, making plans to meet for dinner later.

At the inn, a large structure with more rooms than our little Acorn Inn back home could ever dream of, Cyrus carries me over our threshold and sets me on the bed.

“You know that’s only a tradition for the wedding night, right?” I ask. “We have been married for almost a month.”

“You’ll be carried and you’ll like it, human,” he says, grinning and pinning me on the bed.

I laugh and struggle in vain. I don’t really want to escape, of course. This is just our game.

The room is already lit by numerous pillar candles set into pewter holders shaped like the mountains that surround the city. The bed is a four poster with velvet hangings and rich coverings. It’s sumptuous. Not what I would choose for every day, but perfect for a fine honeymoon. The employees at the inn have followed all of Cyrus’s detailed instructions. The fire is stoked, and multiple trays of bread, cheese, nuts, and dried fruits sit around the room amid pitchers of wine and fresh water.

“So what will you do with me this afternoon, my menace?” I ask, kissing his knuckles and then the gold ring I put on his finger the day we wed.

A low growl rumbles from his chest and throat, and he flips me onto my stomach. He begins tearing off my clothing, piece by piece, and dropping rough nips and kisses over my calves, toes, the backs of my thighs, and my arse. Once I’m liberated from all thought of body-covering fabric, he takes his time with more kissing, touching, and fondling. His hand snakes around my waist and dives low. His talon gently nudges its way through my folds to caress the area right around my bud. I set my teeth into his upper arm and he growls against the nape of my neck.

“Mine. My mate,” he snarls quietly.

I am already incredibly wet from his delightful treatment. He knows exactly what I like somehow. Is it because we were friends for so long and my likes and dislikes outside the bedroom helped him understand my desires with him like this?

His teeth bite down on my arse cheek and he hums with appreciation.

“So lovely. So round.”

He crawls up to lie on me, his cock like a brand between us. He rocks forward once and grunts.

“Oh, Kaya. You are almost too much for me.”

I whimper and tilt my hips for more contact and he slides a hand under my hip to help me along. His cock slides between my legs and notches at my entrance, hot and hard and exactly what I want. He moves a fraction of an inch and I moan into the bedcovers, knowing he will tease me forever before giving me everything. With painfully slow movements, he does just that, edging forward and back, never entering, only teasing. Then he rises up suddenly and rolls me to my back. He is on his knees, lifted up and looming over me.

I take a moment to appreciate the sheer beauty of my mate. His scales glitter in the candlelight and his tail moves gracefully behind him, the spines sharp and dangerous-looking. His taloned fingers are loose at his sides and his wings are spread half-way. Absolutely the most handsome male in the world, no doubt about it.

“On your knees, mate,” he commands.

I do as he asks and wait for my next order. I love not having to think. I can just be and feel and do. It’s incredibly freeing.

“I want your pretty mouth on me. Now.”

He grabs a handful of my hair and guides me to his cock. Even though we play at him being rough, and indeed he often is, he is still gentle when it counts and I always feel completely safe. I part my lips and take his length into my mouth as best I can.

Keeping a firm grip on my hair, he moves my head closer. “Relax for me, sweetness.” He smoothes his thumb over my chin and along my jaw. “Relax.”

I exhale around him and let my jaw go slack. He pushes into my mouth a bit more and he groans loudly. His body shudders and his talons pinch at my scalp. I’m about to come just from how virile and sexy he is. I love it when he takes firm charge of everything.

“Look at me when you’re sucking my cock,” he commands.

I lift my eyes and he grins down at me. “Good. Very good. You are so damned beautiful when you’re on me like this. You can take some more, I think.”

Moving his hips and keeping a hold on my hair, he begins a slow rhythm. The sounds he’s making, the inarticulate mutterings, are building a tension in my core that could tear me to pieces.

“You wish I would fuck you now, don’t you?” he asks, his voice low and rumbling.

I mumble a yes around his cock.

“You must wait, sweetness. I’m in charge, and I’m taking what I want. You’ll wait for your mate and you will come when I say you do.”

I’m about to fall over that edge despite his demands. Because of them.

He thrusts gently into my mouth again, then he snarls and goes still. He is about to lose himself, too.

With a quick and graceful movement, he uses his tail, wings, and hands to put me on my back with my legs spread. It happens in the space of one heartbeat. He presses into me, entering me fully. My head drops back onto the velvet pillows as I gasp and pleasure scrapes its way down my entire body. I’m shivering with want.

“More, please,” I whisper.

He only gives me a sultry stare and withdraws, pausing at my entrance. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“Please, Cyrus. My mate.”

I press my face sideways into the pillow to muffle my moans. My inner muscles are already coiling, grasping on nothing. His hand curls around my breast and he licks my nipple, making me squirm. His hips shift. With his weight on his elbows, he enters me again in one excruciatingly slow thrust, but it’s all I need. I’m spasming around his fiery length, and the sparkling heat of his fire magic is sending pleasure across my breasts and down my legs and all along every feverish inch of my body.

“That’s all it took, hmm? Interesting. I wonder how many times I can accomplish this today and with as little work on my part as possible.”

“You’re a terrible brat,” I gasp out as the climax fades.

He jerks and thrusts three quick times and I’m rising to the very peak of desire again immediately. “Let’s make a bet.”

“I don’t…” I am shuddering. So close.

“What was that?” His cock throbs deep inside me and his fire lances out from the contact creating long streams of pleasure through my entire torso.

“I don’t gamble,” I pathetically gasp out finally.

He grins against my cheek and smoothes my hair away from my damp forehead. “I order you to place your bet, Mistress Baker, my mate, my heart.”

“Five!” I can’t stand it. I buck my hips and do a snarl of my own.

“Ooo, I think we can do that. If not, I owe you. We can figure out a prize later.”

Cyrus finally works into a quick pace and I’m unraveling in his arms.

After, he pulls me against him—my back against his chest. It feels so perfect that I might die of happiness.

“Will you tell me now what Joaquin found?” I ask, my words so quiet that I’ll be surprised if he can hear them.

The city clerk had found records of Cyrus and his family, but Cyrus hadn’t wanted to talk about it with the others around. We had met up with them after their research and bought chilled cider to drink at a cafe.

“My parents didn’t leave me,” Cyrus says.

I put his hand over my mate mark and hold it there.

“Aye, they were brewers here in the city and decided to expand south, so they moved to Brightsburg. My mother didn’t know she was pregnant and so she didn’t record my potential existence in the city’s books.”

“Is that the Brightsburg that’s a day’s walk from Leafshire Cove?”

“That’s the one.”

“Do they know what happened to them?”

I didn’t want to say too much for fear of upsetting him. He’d told me had no memory of his childhood and very little from his adolescent years.

“The records don’t say. And neither Robin nor Lucretia ever spoke of it. I will just have to let them rest, all of them, and appreciate the fact that I wasn’t abandoned as I had thought.”

“Where did you get that idea anyway?”

“Not from Robin or Lucretia. I’m not sure now that you mention it.”

“I bet it was just some arsehat’s cold bullying when you were young. You took it to heart.”

“Arsehat. You sound like Laini and Tully.”

I smile and curl into him even closer. “I’m glad you know the most important part of your history. That you were loved.”

He kisses the top of my head. “Thank you, my friend, my love.”

We trade kisses and trace one another’s faces, simply enjoying being together in the quiet peace of our new bond.

“There is one more thing I learned,” Cyrus says.

I raise my eyebrows and halt in running a finger over the tip of his ear. “Yes?”

“I am descended from the ghost.”

My mouth pops open and I smack his chest lightly. “Really?”

“Yes,” he says, grinning proudly. “Joaquin believes that’s why my parents were drawn to the area around here. I am directly from the noble line of Dragorian Sunscale.”

“You’re noble?”

“Not truly. Too many other marriages that were quite far from those noble bloodlines over the years. But I did sign on to use the surname Sunscale since I do have a claim on it.”

“So I’m Mistress Sunscale now?”

“You can be. You choose.”

“I do choose! That’s way more exciting than baker.”

He chuckles and whispers in my ear, “I adore you more than the stars love the sky, Lady Sunscale.”

“I adore you right back, Lord Sunscale.”

With his warmth all around me, I fall asleep and dream of our future together. Dancing in Rustion’s courtyard glade with our friends clapping around us. A bigger bed in my room, taken up mostly by a large set of wings and a tail. Sio curled up on Cyrus’s lap. Maybe three or four younglings from the orphanage and one child we made running about the bakery and the pub.

Life, rich as cinnamon and sweet as sugar.