Chapter 72
I dream of a brilliant, shining, starry sky, with dramatic clouds slowly revealing all the splendor above them.
Then I see the ghost of a majestic dragon, soaring through it all.
And then it all switches, and I dream vividly of Daegan returning.
I feel him wrapping his thick, warm, muscular arms around me, enveloping me in his scent that feels like home. It feels so real I could almost…
“Daegan!” I cry out, flipping around to face the body behind me on the bed.
His eyes lock on mine and I begin to shed happy tears as I wrap my arms tightly around his neck, placing desperate kisses on his mouth, his cheek, his hair, everywhere.
“You’re really here.”
“I’m here.” His hand brushes the side of my face as it runs through my hair. He looks me over with concern, seeming to check every bit of me. “You’re okay?”
I slowly nod. “I am now,” I whisper.
His eyebrows crease. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head and close my eyes, burying my head into his chest. I wish I could just stay here in the safety of his arms forever, shutting out all of our problems.
Another tear escapes my eye. He strokes a finger down my back as he holds me closely to him. “I love you. With all that I am and all that I’ll ever be. In this life and the next. I’ll always find you.”
“I love you too,” I repeat, and I mean it with everything that I am. “And I’ll find you too. Though you always seem to beat me to it.”
A deep rumble that resembles a chuckle emanates from his chest, and I place my head against it.
We lie in silence for a while, just enjoying being with each other again. But we both know we can’t stay here for long. I think we’re both trying to hold onto this peaceful moment for as long as we can.
“Did Raef tell you about…” I can’t bring myself to say it out loud again. Especially to him. I’ll break in front of him.
He shakes his head. “I asked where you were as soon as I saw him, then came straight here.”
I release a heavy sigh into his chest, hiding my face. I have to say it. I just need a moment.
As if reading my mind, he asks in a soft voice, “Where’s Rhydra?”
I shake my head, a strangled squeak escaping me as I try to hold it in.
He wraps his arms around me so tightly that it actually makes my chest hurt even more.
I squeeze my eyes shut so hard it hurts, trying to choke it all down.
But it’s impossible. Now that I’ve stopped worrying about whether he’ll return, everything else I’ve been holding back breaks loose. I’m a mess.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers into my hair. “She was incredible. Brave.” He strokes my hair over and over. I lie in his arms for so long, letting him soothe me, until I finally feel a little better.
“I killed so many people,” I whisper in horror.
“I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry.” And that’s all he can say as he continues to hold me.
“Are you okay?” I look up at him with my puffy eyes, and he smiles at me like I’m still the most beautiful thing in the world to him.
“Yes,” he replies.
“It’s okay if you’re not. You’ve been through just as much.”
“Unfortunately, Elysande, I’ve seen a lot of death in my life. I wish I were more like you. I wish it affected me more.” His somber confession is heartbreaking. It makes me want to squeeze him even tighter.
“We can finally try it,” I say, pulling my head from his warm chest.
His clothes look clean and new, like he wasn’t just on the run from a bloody battle for days. Later, I’ll have to ask all about what took him so long to find us, but not right now. All that matters is that he’s here.
He nods as a morose look fills his eyes. “Are you not excited? Isn’t this what you’ve been chasing for years?”
He closes his eyes for a moment, and I watch his throat bob as he swallows.
Finally, he meets my gaze again. “It is. It’s just…
I’m enjoying just being with you right now, holding you, feeling your soft skin against mine.
” He runs a soft hand down the side of my thigh, and tiny bumps rise all along my arms in response. “What’s a few hours longer?”
The air becomes thicker and heat gathers between my legs.
He looks at me, eyes heavy with desire, and I lean in and kiss him with all of the desperation, worry, and sorrow I’ve felt the last few days.
He matches my intensity, swirling his tongue in my mouth as he grabs my leg and places it over him, then pressing his hard length against me.
I moan in response, which only makes him hungrier.
I reach into his shirt, feeling the hard muscles of his chest, when my hand halts on a nasty lump that wasn’t there before.
We lock eyes as he places a hand over mine. “I’m fine now,” he says.
“You weren’t though?” I ask in a panic. “What happened? Let me see.”
He dips his head, taking a deep breath before conceding. Then he lifts the lightweight black shirt over his head and I gasp.
“Daegan. What—”
“It happened outside of the castle. But clearly, I’m fine, so you don’t need to worry, okay?”
“How is it healed so well already? Your dragon healing works that fast?” I don’t understand. His words don’t assuage the sick, worried feeling settling in my gut. Someone did this to him. He was nearly taken from me.
“A kind Arryzan.”
I swallow, reaching out tentatively again, and he lets me touch it.
A nasty, fresh, raised pink scar now colors the left side of his chest. Almost right where my head was just resting, and I somehow didn’t even notice through his shirt.
It’s like a blade ran right through him.
Like… Rhydra “How did you survive this?” I whisper.
Tears fill my eyes when I realize how close I truly was to losing him.
I don’t know nearly enough about battle wounds, but this seems like it was dire.
“I was very lucky.” He grabs my hand that’s resting on his chest and places a kiss on the back of it as he looks into my eyes. “And I had an unrelenting will to get back to you.”
He wipes at my cheek as soon as one of the tears escapes my eye, and then he places a kiss where I still feel the ghost of it, his lips so warm and real.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
His lip pulls back in a sad smile. “I’ll try my best.”
He leans down and begins to kiss me again. It starts slow but becomes more heated and desperate, our breaths becoming more urgent as we hold each other close. The thought of almost losing him makes me want him even more. It makes me want to pull him as close as possible and never let him go.
He rolls his hips into me, reaching into my shirt and palming my bare breast, pinching my nipples. Heat and throbbing and wetness overpower everything else, and I become desperate for him.
I reach down, undo his pants, and free him.
Then I run my hand along his smooth, hard length.
“I need it. I need you,” I say through a moan as he rubs my nipples even harder, bordering on pain.
But I like it. A lot. My hips move into him against my will, and he groans into my mouth at the feel of our bodies pressing against each other.
“Fuck,” he growls.
“Give it to me. Don’t hold back.” I tilt my head back, locking eyes with him, and it feels like my heart is outside of my chest. I could almost come with just the look he’s giving me. It’s emotional, but also laced with a carnal, feral desire.
He places another kiss against my lips as he shifts to hover over me, then he leans his forehead against mine in a tender moment. “Anything you want, it’s yours.”
He yanks my pants off, shocking me for a moment as I watch him pull my shirt apart, exposing everything.
“So fucking beautiful,” he says in a deep voice as his gaze travels along my body.
He places his hands on my inner thighs, pushing my legs apart so I’m completely exposed to him, then he leans in slow and torturously, finally meeting that spot between my legs that’s desperate for him.
He licks me hard and slow in one long, languid swoop.
Then he stops, meeting my eyes. “I’m done holding back with you.
From now until we break that curse, I don’t care where we are.
I’ll fuck you in the forest or in a closet.
I’ll have my taste of you up against a tree. I don’t fucking care. You’re mine now.”
“Please do,” I reply with a breathy moan.
He leans back, looking down at me with all of his mouth-watering muscles on display just for me, then reaches out a hand and inserts a finger, making me gasp.
He watches my face with a smirk. “I love that sound.”
I make a similar sound in response.
He tilts his head, adding another finger, and moves them slowly in and out as he continues to hold my gaze.
“I want you to fuck me like we don’t have tomorrow,” I whisper.
A flash of sadness crosses over his eyes. That wasn’t the response I meant to elicit. “Hey. We’re together now. It’s okay.” I reach up and pull him toward me with my hand on his neck, and our mouths meet in a slow kiss that makes my chest ache.
He rests his forehead against mine after a moment, and then he leans back and looks down at me, his eyes full of heat and lust again.
“Fuck you like there’s no tomorrow, huh?” He leans down, placing a few kisses along my inner thighs and then finally a few at my center, making my entire body twitch with impatient anticipation, before pulling back again. “Your wish is my command, princess.”
I eye his hard length as he holds it in his grip, the tip already leaking a drop or two.
“Say it one more time.” He smirks, the veins in his forearms on full display.
I blush for a moment, not used to talking this way, but with one look in his eyes he eases all of my worries. “I want you buried so far inside me that I forget, just for a little bit…”
“Forget what?” His smirk is replaced with one of concern.
“Everything,” I whisper. I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to be consumed by him.
A look of understanding settles over him. He leans down to place another gentle kiss against my lips, and then he pulls back just a hair, whispering against my lips. “Then that’s what I’ll give you, love.”
He stands up, his thick, muscular thighs catching my attention as he eyes me with a grin.
Then he flips me over with one easy motion, pulling me back at the hips so my ass in the air.
“Fuck,” he breathes. Then releases a dark chuckle.
I twist my head to look back and find his heated gaze directly at my center.
“Grab the frame.”
“What?”
“You said you want it deep, right?”
I swallow, feeling my desire for him dripping down my leg. I want him desperately. “Yes,” I whisper.
He jerks his head toward the wooden frame of the bed again, so I get up on my knees and do as he commands.
I feel his large hands grip my waist, pulling my ass out more and pushing my lower back down so I’m in an arched position.
The sting of his hand against my ass cheek makes me gasp, but then I smile, wanting more.
“Perfect,” he mutters. “Fucking perfect.”
I squirm a little, the anticipation making me desperate, the intense need for him to fill me making me unable to think straight.
I feel him move closer as his left arm wraps around my waist. His other hand lands beside mine, grabbing on for leverage.
I feel him line himself up as he leans in, whispering against my ear. “Tell me if I’m too much, love.”
Shivers run through me as I nod, and I feel the hot tip of him press against my entrance.
But he doesn’t move yet. Instead, he runs his hand slowly down my spine, all the way to my ass, and then squeezes with both hands, keeping his head lined up with me.
I try to push back against his tip, but he stops me with a dark chuckle.
“I thought you said whatever I want?”
“Okay. Fine. I was just enjoying this perfect view,” he says as he lightly slaps each of my ass cheeks with his hands, then grabs on again. His fingers curl around my hips, and my breathing becomes desperate.
“Daegan,” I moan in frustration.
At last, he pushes into me, stealing my breath as he fills me with a delicious hint of pain. Not all the way, though. He has a lot more to give. He pulls out, then slams into me again. This time all the way. He’s buried so deep inside of me, stretching me out, I see stars.
He pulls out again, then slams back into me, picking up his speed. It remains deep and rough, but now he’s going faster, my breath hitching with every thrust.
His hand lands on the frame again as he wraps his arm around my waist tightly. His hips move against me with such force, I have to push against the frame to keep us from slamming into it and breaking it.
He’s giving me what I asked, alright. He’s buried so deep inside of me I can’t see straight, and as he reaches his hand around and rubs at the sensitive bundle between my legs, I feel like I’m about to shatter.
Over and over he pumps into me with such delicious, feral thrusts that my mind is free of anything but this.
Yet somehow, I still I want more of him.
I’ll never have enough.
“More. Harder,” I whimper.
His two fingers make circles between my legs as he fucks me harder, and then all at once I explode.
My head falls against the wooden frame and he lets go of it to grab my waist again, this time so tightly he must know I’ll collapse if he doesn’t.
He keeps circling with his fingers, and then suddenly I feel him spilling himself inside of me, and it’s as if it prolongs my orgasm even more.
He pumps into me with a few more deep jerks as I ride the last waves, and then he stills, leaning his forehead against the wooden frame beside me.
He still has a hold of my waist, and he’s still buried inside of me. I close my eyes and try to catch my breath.
“I love you,” he says, peeling his eyes open to look at me sideways. He’s still pressed up against me from behind, and I love the feeling of it.
“I love you,” I whisper.
I move to separate, but he tightens his grip on me, shaking his head.
“No.” He kisses my shoulder. “I’ll let you breathe for a minute, but then I’m pushing you down onto that bed with that perfect ass in the air just for me, and I’m fucking you again.”
And just like that, my body is clenching around him, still inside of me, and my hips involuntarily thrust against him.
The smirk he gives me could melt any ice that I summon. “I guess you don’t need to wait then.”
He flips me down onto the bed, pulling my hips up in a rush, and makes good on his promise.