Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Ella
We were in the tower. The orblight was a pale silver glow around us. Dirk was shirtless, his muscles glistening in the soft light.
When did he get wet? How did we get up here? What happened to his shirt?
“Hello, Ella,” he rumbled as I ran my fingers up over his bulging, steely arms and pecs.
“Hi.” My voice was a squeak in the night air, nerves wrapping tightly around every part of me.
His muscles weren’t the only thing bulging.
“Don’t be scared.” He brushed some hair out of my face. His fingers dragged across my skin exquisitely, leaving every nerve ending twitching in their path and sending a matching shockwave zipping between my legs.
“I’m not scared,” I said breathlessly, staring up into his perfect face, lost in the azure seas of his eyes as they rippled and swirled with clouds of silver from his dragon. “Not with you.”
“Good.”
He stepped closer and I gasped as his hard cock pressed against my stomach through his shorts.
“You do that to me,” he growled into one ear, nipping gently on the lobe until my head fell back.
“I do?”
The rumble of his dragon more than answered that question.
Nervously, unsure of myself and my motions, I slid one hand down his pec, over the mate mark I had somehow left, and toward his waistband.
Fingers as strong as steel wrapped around my wrist with all the softness of silk, holding me firm without hurting. “No,” he commanded, my fingertip a fraction of an inch from his thick shaft.
“Why not?” I asked, disappointment mixing with fear. Was I not skilled enough to pleasure him?
“Because,” he said, one hand shimmering, shifting, until his fingers were replaced with claws. “I am going to pleasure you first. I will show you what you deserve. The way your body is meant to be treated. The way you have forgotten.”
I shivered as the claws gently sliced the sleeves of my shirt and down the side until it peeled away from my skin, landing on top of shorts that he had shredded as well.
Dirk’s eyes widened, filling with more silvery light as he looked at my body.
I wanted to run away as all my imperfections were bared for him.
The scars were invisible to the eye. The innate healing of dragon blood had taken care of that.
But I felt them. I knew where they were and what they represented.
My hands came up of their own accord, covering my nudity from his devouring stare.
“No.” He stepped forward, my mate, and took my hands in his. “Not this time, Ella, my darling. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I want to see every line, every curve, every inch of your skin. I want to know it, touch it, taste it. You are mine, mate.”
I shivered as he grabbed his shorts and dropped them to the ground, his dick springing free, thick, hard, and magnificent. I stared at it until he stepped close to me once more.
“And I am yours,” he rumbled, lifting me into the air and carrying me several steps until I fell back into thick, plush covers.
Where had the bed come from?
The cavernous ceiling of Hollow Earth was far above me now, a gauzy haze of clouds partially obscuring it.
What happened to the roof and the citadel tower?
Then Dirk was over me, kissing me hard and then soft. I arched up against him without thinking, the small tufts of chest hair brushing against my nipples unexpectedly.
I moaned, and Dirk went rigid.
“What?” I asked, stiffening and moving so I could see his face. “Did I do something wrong?”
He shook his head. “My mate, there’s nothing you could do in this moment that is wrong. You are perfection. I only wish I could get you to see what I do. To know it the way I know it. I might fail, but I will try.”
And then he kissed my neck and didn’t stop. He moved to my collarbone and the soft skin of my upper chest. He kissed, licked, sucked on my breasts and nipples until I was a squirming pile of liquid under him, panting and rubbing my thighs together greedily.
Thick fingers slid over my upper legs, grasping just above the knee and gently pushing outward, parting them until I was completely exposed. I shivered. I hadn’t been this vulnerable with someone since I was a teenager. And it wasn’t like this. Dirk was slow, and tender, and good.
I cried out wordlessly with pleasure as he kissed my inner thighs, one and then the other, alternating as he moved upward, his tongue exploring and teasing all at once. Until he found me soaked and ready for him. Not just ready. Desperate.
The cry of pleasure when he licked me for the first time echoed in the night for any to hear. His tongue was warm and firm as it parted my lips and easily found my throbbing peak. I drove my fists deep into the covers as I ground against his face.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed this. Wanted it. Wanted him.
“Don’t stop, oh, right there, right there.” I grabbed at my breasts, twisting my nipples gently.
Dirk’s growl exploded out from between my legs as he watched, and without warning something slipped inside my pussy.
It was too much, I was sliding to the edge, an avalanche that couldn’t stop.
“Dirk, I’m going to come,” I moaned. “Don’t. Stop.”
I reveled in the oncoming moment, a pleasure I would soon know, that I had thought I would never feel from another. An ecstasy I’d forgotten could even be possible for me after …
The orblight vanished. The warmth disappeared. Darkness loomed up out of every corner, and my orgasm dried up. Dirk lifted his face from between my legs, but it wasn’t Dirk.
He had a beard, and his blond hair was gone. His smile was twisted, laughing, condescending. He only had one eye.
Laughter echoed out from the dark as I clutched at my body, trying to cover up. We weren’t alone.
No. It couldn’t be happening. Not again. Not like …
Boom. Boom. Boom.
“I’m coming in!”
I jerked upright in the bed with a shriek, clutching the covers to my chest as Anna burst through the door into my bedroom. She charged onto the bed with a fury, reaching my side and wrapping her arms around me, ignoring the way the soaked sheets plastered themselves to both of us.
“It’s okay,” she whispered in my ear, squeezing tightly with some of her new dragon strength. “I’m here now.”
I shivered in her arms, trying to regulate my body as it went to war with itself at two polar opposites. My arms and chest were cold and covered in sweat, my heart racing and adrenaline pushing me wide awake.
Between my legs was a roaring furnace, and it wasn’t sweat.
Struggling to catch my breath, I forced my brain awake. It had been a dream. The entire thing. From Dirk on the tower, to the sudden nightmare from my past. All of it, a dream. It wasn’t real.
The throbbing from between my legs argued otherwise. The pleasure, the things he was doing to me … it had felt so real. Had I been doing it to myself? In my sleep?
“I’m okay,” I told Anna after a few minutes had passed and I was no longer gasping for air. “I’m good now.”
Anna looked doubtful. “I thought you were past these?”
She was referring to the nightmares I’d suffered after the slave collar had been removed. For the first week, every sleeping period had been filled with nightmares.
Different ones. There had definitely been no Dirk in them and no pleasure. Not like this.
Could it be like that with him in real life?
“El?”
I shook my head. “I was. I am. This one was different.”
“How?”
“Dirk was there.” Not wanting to elaborate, I left it at that.
Turned out, I didn’t have to say more. Anna was smiling.
“I had some doozies about Caz,” she said.
I hung my head.
“It’s probably just part of the mating process,” she continued. “I’m not really sure.”
“Then how did you know?”
“The room has an, uh, the air …”
I buried my face in my hands, groaning.
“They go away for a bit once you finally give in,” she said, sounding thoughtful. “I guess because you’re doing it in real life so much. Then they come back. At least for me.”
“They do? What do you think that means?”
Anna shrugged. “I think I might be on the verge of having my first heat.”
“What?” I sat up straight, her arms falling away as the conversation shifted to her now, something I wasn’t upset about. “Already?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Caz and I are bonded now, though, so it was inevitable.”
I frowned. “Is this why you’ve been having those strange shivers and dizzy spells?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s all new to me.”
“Any other signs?”
“Just more of that feeling,” she said knowingly. “In my dreams. During the day. All I want to do is touch him or have him touch me. And the instant he does, I want more. Which is a lot, since I already wanted him every time I turned around.”
“We know,” I said, grateful for the chance to finally tease her back.
Anna laughed, swatting at me. “Hey, it’s not like you and Dirk are any different. You just don’t realize it.”
“We are not!” I protested, hoping it didn’t sound as weak as it felt.
“El, you’re always stealing looks at him when you think we aren’t watching. When he comes up in conversation, you always have a little smile on your face, like you’re in a daydream. Like right now.”
“I do not.”
“Hey, listen,” she said, sobering. “I just want you to be happy. I can see that he makes you happy. You might be blind to it, you might be uncomfortable admitting it, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t see it. We aren’t going to act oblivious just to put you at ease, El.”
I sat back against the headboard.
Do I really do all that? Is it so obvious to other people?
Although I had stopped fighting against things with Dirk entirely, maybe I was still trying to fight an imaginary war with myself to deny things I desired.
Could it be more like the dream instead, if I just let my guard down around him entirely?
My stomach tied itself into knots at the thought.
“Anyway, breakfast should be served soon. Take a shower, and come with me this morning.”
“Where are you going?”
“The old dungeons. Holly is down there with the other Grounded that have stuck around after they were rescued from the illegal market when Caz was looking for you guys. It’s been too long since I’ve visited them, and if I do go to into heat soon, I’ll be shut in Caz’s quarters for who knows how long. ”
“Getting your brains scrambled,” I teased.
“Damn right. And once you finally cave, you’re going to be mighty upset you spent so long denying yourself the amazingness that is being bent over by your mate.”
I gaped at her bluntness, but she just laughed and pushed me off the bed toward the bathroom.
With enough chivvying, I got into the shower. The water poured over my body, erasing the remnants of erotic dream and nightmare at the same time.