10. Blake
BLAKE
I’d never tried to hold magic steady before. Sure, I waved my power around in a sparring match—I’d even enjoyed that fights were a little unfair. They ought to be, if I really was a Cavendish.
But to hold heat and energy in the air, not let it seep from the open cave mouth, keep it concentrated around the egg—I’d never done anything like that before.
Never. That kind of control had been beyond me.
Frankly, it was the sort of power Athelstan had brandished to raise the Spires. I might not have a clear idea of just how strong my brother was, but I doubted he could do that.
In fact, I’d doubted our father could’ve done it either.
Perhaps it was because our need wasn’t so great as it’d been when we’d first rebelled against dragons, but we were getting weaker.
Until . . . now. Something had changed.
Maybe my need was greater here and now. I couldn’t say what was different, only that the power beat steadily in my chest. Holding the air around us felt as simple as standing. It felt like I could go on forever.
I drifted in and out of awareness, slumped in the warmth of Andreas’s side. It felt right—righter than his bed had, without him in it. The steady rise and fall of his breath behind me helped me rest more soundly than I had—
Well, I might’ve said in days or weeks, but it was even longer.
Maybe I’d never felt so relaxed before.
I came back to myself, because it was hands touching me instead of the firmness of an enormous dragon. Andreas was sitting behind me, his legs folded to the side so I was cradled in the curve of his body.
His warm, muscled, completely naked body.
Dazed and happy, I smiled up at him. “Feeling all right?”
He hummed, brushing a hand from my shoulder to my wrist and back up.
“Will it hold?” Andreas glanced into the fire, where the egg was cradled in a swirling blanket of air, fire dancing along its shell.
I nodded. It wouldn’t even take effort, I thought.
My whole body felt nice, like I’d just eaten a lovely hunk of beef.
When I let that feeling take me, the warmth spread out and out and out, until I thought we could walk barefoot around every inch of the cave without fear of losing toes to the cold.
“Good,” Andreas murmured. Next thing I knew, his lips were against my shoulder. He dragged his mouth across my skin and I—was that a kiss? Was he kissing me?
“I want to take you to bed.” It wasn’t the way his mouth stayed pressed to my skin that brought me up short, only that I was confused.
I must’ve stayed quiet for too long, because he lifted his head and cocked a brow at me. “Do you want that?”
“Yes.” I nodded swiftly. “Definitely yes.”
He smiled. How was he even more gorgeous when he smiled than when he scowled at me?
He hefted me up in his arms, and the only thing I minded about that was that I couldn’t stare at him.
Once he had me on the bed, he crawled up after and stripped me slowly, piece by piece of clothing I’d mostly borrowed from the dragons. It was rougher than I was used to, but practical and warm. Most importantly, it hadn’t had any singe spots from Andreas’s ire.
When I was naked beneath him, Andreas growled—not a frightening sound, but one of appreciation. He bunched a fur up, folding it beneath my hips as he held me up with just one hand.
“Comfortable?” he asked, lowering me down.
Sure, maybe, but I could hardly think about that when he was tracing his hands over my legs, spreading them apart, looking at me like he wanted to devour every inch of me.
Breath hitching on every inhale, I nodded, shimmying my heels across the bed to spread my legs wider.
Andreas’s approving chuckle made me wish he’d pin me down and take me swiftly.
He didn’t. Instead, he forced me to watch as he found his oil and spread it over his thick fingers. He slipped one inside me, and I wanted to howl for him to hurry the fuck up and take me, but I could only clutch at his shoulders while he kissed his way down my chest.
The flat of his tongue laved over my cock, working from the very base of it to the tip before he swirled around and sank his lips around the whole thing.
Then he did the most dastardly thing of all—he looked up at me through his dark lashes, his eyes glittering like sapphires, and he hollowed his cheeks.
Groaning, I threw my head back. My ass clenched around his finger, but another growl rumbled in his throat, making it vibrate against the head of my cock. The second I relaxed, he worked another finger into me.
In and out, quick and efficient, until my body got used to the feeling and I relaxed for him all the way. I wanted him. Wanted to take him while he pressed me down into the bed. Wanted to belong here always.
He seemed to get the message, because he pulled his fingers out, crawled up my body, and hitched one of my legs over his forearm to hold me open. With his other hand, he spread oil on his thick cock and held it steady.
I whimpered when he pushed inside, dragging him down until his body trapped mine beneath him, a wonderful weight holding me still.
The way he’d arranged the fur held me in just the right place for him to get the leverage he needed.
He snapped his hips forward and I yelped, pressing my teeth against his bare shoulder.
“You like that?” He leaned back, looking at me with a toothy smirk.
“Harder,” I begged. I never wanted to doubt that he’d fucked me too, taken me exactly how he wanted me.
How was he sweet about it, when he thrust roughly into me and moved his hips, grinding in a deep circle that worked my balls against his lower belly? It was like he meant to drive me crazy and take me apart in every way.
I clung to him, desperate and needy and—
Please want me.
I didn’t say it—couldn’t really say anything right then—but I put the wish out into the universe because I needed it. Andreas had hated me, but if he could change, if he could want me, love me, maybe I wouldn’t be quite so lost.
He kissed me everywhere he could reach, teasing my nipples with his teeth and sucking the sensitive skin of my neck and being an absolute menace as he kissed my flushed ears. They’d always been sensitive, and I’d swear the whole world had turned to sparkling pleasure all around me.
When he finally made his way to my lips, I was a mess, open-mouthed and panting. “Touch me,” I pleaded against his lips.
He was. He was touching me everywhere. But I wanted—
That.
He wrapped his hand around my cock and moved his hips fast, matching his grip to the pace. On a broken cry, I came, jerking in his hand and shooting between our bodies.
A few more thrusts, and he came too, his face buried against my neck, praising Nye for—
For me.
When he slipped out, he rolled off me, but that wasn’t the end of it. No, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me on top of him, a warm, living cushion I wanted to wrap myself around and keep.
As much as I wanted clarity, I allowed myself a moment to enjoy this. Andreas no longer hated me, at the very least. He’d fucked me like he knew me—had paid attention to what I wanted and was perfectly pleased to service my every need.
And before I could drift off on that hazy sea of acceptance, we were interrupted.
“I thought I heard fucking,” Harri announced merrily as the three of them marched into the cave.
“I take it you’ve come to your senses, finally?” Bran cocked his head at Andreas. There was no way I was getting in the middle of that.
But Andreas wasn’t angry. He sniffed beneath me and tightened his arm around my back. “I have.”
Warmth suffused my chest. That almost sounded like he meant to keep me.
Gareth was the only one who didn’t immediately jump into bed. He scowled into the fire. “How have you managed to keep it so warm?”
Against Andreas’s chest, I drew in a sharp breath. The dragons didn’t like magic—a more than understandable position to take, really. I’d honestly expected Andreas to refuse me when I offered to help.
I didn’t really want to explain and upset them.
But Andreas dragged his hand in a sweet, possessive sweep from my hip to between my shoulder blades.
“Our mage did it,” he rumbled. The pride in his voice made my cheeks burn.
“You’re telling me,” Harri said incredulously, “that we don’t have to burn a forest’s worth of wood just to keep our caves warm?”
Andreas huffed through his nose. “You can’t just use him whenever you like.”
I lifted my head. “It’s all right. I mean, maybe not every cave all at once, but I can do this. Or . . . I think I can. I’ll definitely let you know if it gets taxing before we have to adjust, but—” I glanced up at Harri and bit my lip. “You can use me, if you want.”
“See?” Harri sneered at Andreas. “I can use him.”
Taking the invitation I hadn’t entirely been unaware of, Harri crawled up the bed on his knees and fell over my back. A moment later, I felt the blunt tip of his cock nudge between my ass cheeks. I moaned as he pressed inside, the sound mixing with his above me, and a grunt from Andreas beneath.
“Watch yourself,” Andreas hissed at the added weight. I could almost feel Harri’s sharp smirk over my shoulder as he thrust in, so hard I slid a few inches up Andreas’s chest.
I clutched for his shoulders, and Andreas reached up to cup my face.
“All right?”
I could only nod at him. Harri set a merciless pace, but I hardly minded as it forced my hips against Andreas’s, trapping our cocks between our bodies in the most glorious way.
I let them press me there, sandwiched between them both, and with a ragged sound, sought out Andreas’s mouth. The way he kissed me earlier had made my stomach melt, and somehow, the feeling didn’t lose any of its sweetness with Harri pounding at my ass.
“Jealous?” Bran sang beside me.
I didn’t realize he was talking to Gareth until Bran had bent him over the side of the bed, and Gareth was getting fucked too.
The way the dragons moved, the slick sound of skin hitting skin, and my desperate whimpers into Andreas’s mouth, all meshed to heighten everything—the way my skin tingled, how fast my heart raced, the deep, pounding pleasure inside me.
And Andreas’s silk-smooth cock, trapped hard beneath my lower belly.
I felt him come, and I swear, I wasn’t imagining how warm his load felt against my skin. The way he shuddered under me, how he held my hips to keep me flush against him—I fell right after him.
And Harri went right on riding me, ignoring the shudders that worked up my spine and had me caught between wanting to pull away from him or shove myself back on his insistent cock.
Beside me, Gareth made such a low sound it was like the world itself was opening up. I held out my hand, and he took it and pinned it to the bed. His fingers laced through mine, and he squeezed so hard my fingers ached.
Then, he cursed against his forearm, went rigid with his mouth open on a stifled cry, and he came.
I turned to watch him, stricken by how pretty his lips looked all flushed and swollen. His shoulders had turned a rosy pink.
Bran had fucked him well, and he more than earned his own pleasure, slammed into Gareth’s ass like it was the best place in the world to bury himself.
Perhaps it was. I wondered if he’d let me find out.
Harri shouted when he came, my whole body shoved into Andreas like a battering ram. Under me, he just held me together through the storm of it, and the strange stillness that followed before Harri pulled out and flopped to the side.
It was nice, having them all here together. A wonderful pile where I felt wanted without questioning why.
Andreas sighed, tracing his fingertips up and down the backs of my arms idly.
I couldn’t stand it. I had to know.
“Your mage?” I whispered, glancing up for surety.
“Ours,” Andreas rumbled. He combed his fingers through my hair and kissed my forehead and I decided, then and there, that I liked this cave better than any palace or fortress I’d ever been in.