Chapter 31 Roland
ROLAND
Hafgan glared at me when he walked Aderyn to the altar where we made our vows. All I could do was nod and hope that he understood that, for the rest of my life, I’d do whatever it took to spare Aderyn another moment’s pain.
But Hafgan had lost his entire clan to human greed. I couldn’t fault him for continuing to be wary when his life and love and family were on the line. All I could do was prove to him, over and over again, that I wasn’t a risk to anyone.
I had to keep proving it to myself too, because Aderyn needed me—wanted me—as much as I wanted him.
When I looked into Aderyn’s eyes, across our gripped hands, even the twisting guilt I felt for Hafgan disappeared.
Aderyn was here. For all my flaws and failings, he still chose me.
Nothing else mattered when this was the rightest I’d ever felt. From the very start, locked in cages side by side, it’d been us.
Promising him forever? Saying the words was easy, because my heart had felt them with every beat.
Then, there was the reception, and the only things that made it bearable were the twins, happy and hale, laughing boldly as they ran around the great hall, and Aderyn’s hand in mine.
When we circled the room, he accepted congratulations and didn’t talk much otherwise, but he seemed content to lean against my arm and hold on tight.
Sometimes, I’d catch his sidelong glance and my cheeks would flush.
Perhaps if I’d been an older king, one whose back ached from sitting the throne so long, I wouldn’t have been so eager to be done with all the revelry.
I needed him alone.
Once we’d decided to wed, every kiss had simmered with promise. We held ourselves back, never discussing it outright, but dancing away whenever we got close to something more. There was something exquisite in the game, in waiting for him, in taking time to prepare.
But now, the seconds were ticking down until the game was over, and it took every ounce of fortitude not to drag him back to my chamber—our chamber—and pin him down to our bed.
We were finally able to excuse ourselves, and each step away from the great hall toward the royal wing had my heart beating harder.
I let him in first, lingering back to take a deep breath. I had to calm down. I’d asked Tristram how to—to do this the right way. I might be a virgin, but I knew that sex could be wonderful or a complete disaster, depending on how much care you brought to bed.
And this—enjoying Aderyn’s body—was not an issue without any potential weight to it.
I hoped he felt safe enough to enjoy me too, but if he didn’t, if it was too much and he got overwhelmed—well, then I’d hold him as long as he wanted me to and we wouldn’t broach the subject again until he was ready.
My love had plenty of reason to feel at odds with his own body that had nothing to do with my litany of mistakes. I wouldn’t take it personally.
Resolved, I entered the room after him and shut the door with a soft click. He was facing me directly, expression open, not shrinking or trying to make himself a smaller target. He bit his lip, spots of pink high on his cheeks.
“Good day?” I asked, my voice rough from—
Well, not from how much I’d spoken that day. It was just . . .
He was undoing the buttons at the top of his collar, and the green silk of his coat spread to reveal the pale golden column of his neck.
I swallowed hard.
“Wonderful day,” he agreed. I was relieved to hear his voice was just as strained.
I stepped closer, glancing down at his fingers. “May I?”
He dropped his hands, rocking forward onto the balls of his feet even as I reached for his buttons. I spread his coat wide, and the shirt under it, until I was able to smooth my palms across his soft skin.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” I muttered, just above his lips.
“Me too,” he whispered back.
I lifted my head, searching his face, even now worried that he would put me first and ease my worries at the expense of his own desires.
He only stared at me, blushing and smiling so sweetly. His hand cupped my cheek.
“Me too,” he repeated as his fingers curled around the nape of my neck to drag me into a kiss.
We undressed each other as we stumbled toward the bed, unwilling to part even to kick off our boots and undo every lace.
When he was naked, my breath caught, and I leaned back enough to see him. He was so beautiful—every line of his body and sinuous curve of muscle absolutely captivating.
I pulled him close, slipped my hand around his ass—which fit so perfectly in my palm that it was a miracle—and he hopped into my arms. One knee at a time, I crawled onto the bed and tipped him toward the pillows.
We kissed and kissed, and ground our bodies against each other until everything was a sparking haze of pleasure I wanted to swallow me whole.
But that wasn’t all I had in store. There was oil, plenty of it, and however this went, I thought I could make it good for him. “How do you want me?”
He whimpered, staring at me with sparkling eyes. I only had a second to worry that he was overwhelmed and I should pull back, before he spread his legs wider and rolled his hips up and I got the point.
“You sure?” I asked, breathless.
He nodded, chewing on his lip again.
As I got the oil, he squirmed impatiently beneath me. His cock was flushed and rigid and ever-so charming, with the head slick and plump. I couldn’t help dragging an oily hand down his shaft before I went lower.
He let me touch him everywhere, circling my middle finger around the puckered ring of muscle, squeezing the round of his ass cheek until he cried out.
When I finally slipped my finger inside, only to that first knuckle, I watched his mouth fall open. His gaze was trapped on mine.
“Does it hurt?”
Too fast, he shook his head, but the way he arched his body spurred me on. I curled my finger to drag the tip of it against the inside of him, searching for—
“Ah!”
That. That funny, smooth, fleshy spot inside him that made his eyes fly shut and his hips jerk. His cock bobbed against his lower stomach, and I pressed my lips together hard to keep from grinning too triumphantly.
I massaged him there, working gently at first—little swirls of my fingertip before pushing deeper, dragging my finger between the curves of it until he was all but sobbing with need.
“Please,” he begged. “Roland, I need—”
He made a tight, frustrated noise, like he didn’t quite know how to put words to what he needed. Didn’t matter; I intended to give it to him.
“Touch yourself,” I said. “I want to feel you come from inside.” He’d squeeze around my finger, milking every bit of pleasure from it as I got to watch just how he liked his pretty cock touched.
Desperate, he gripped his shaft and pulled his fist up to the head with a twist, but that was as far as he made it before he shook his head.
“I want to feel you from inside,” he insisted, rocking his hips up off the mattress. “Please, Roland?”
How could I say no to that? How could I say no to anything, with my husband spread naked beneath me?
Overeager, I nodded. ”Just—Just give me a second.”
Wanting to please him, I’d ignored my own erection, but it was straining and hard as I’d ever felt when I spread oil liberally from root to tip.
I’d meant to please him first, to prove myself or—or—
It didn’t matter, because staring into his eyes, I was lost.
Holding my cock, I positioned it with the tip pressing against his rim. The sound that came out of him was unholy, and I bit the edges of my tongue to muffle my own moan.
I pushed in, watching between us as my fat tip stretched him wider, the way his ass had flushed all around his hole from my teasing.
He’d gone soft back there, but still, he gasped and I froze.
“Does it hurt?”
He shook his head quickly. “No, it’s—it feels tight. Really . . . full.”
“It’s not even half in.”
“Doesn’t hurt,” he assured me.
A flex worked through his dick again, and he took a deep breath low into his belly. I felt it when he relaxed his legs, and his hole with it.
Somehow, he was pressing down on me, inviting me in, so I pushed forward. His body was tight and hot, squeezing me in a way that made me forget to breathe. When I bottomed out, I held myself still, overcome by—by this.
It felt so fucking good to be inside him, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I’d never been a man of faith, but a strange reverence came over me as I stared down at his face.
He’d shut his eyes. His eyelids were pale, with a soft golden shimmer he’d thought to smear across his skin for our wedding. His lips were flushed deep pink and slightly parted, his breath warm and still sweet from the wine we’d sipped earlier.
I leaned in to kiss him and slipped my tongue between his lips, which parted like a perfectly ripe peach.
We kissed like that until he whimpered and heel hooked around the back of my thigh. Without any conscious choice on my part, we fell into slow movements, rocking together. I flexed my hips, pushing as deep as I could, determined to bury myself inside him. That was where I belonged now.
Pulling out, that ring of muscle dragged over my cock’s head in a way that—fuck, I wasn’t going to last like this.
I thrust back in, and his eyes flew open in shock, but the smile that followed—that looked like delight to me.
We set a pace together, me pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth to keep myself together.
I wanted him close. Shit, I meant to make him come first, but how was I going to manage that when his body was a blissful squeeze around me—my cock, my heart, didn’t matter.
He carried me to heights I’d never imagined.
“Roland,” he whined, his eyelids fluttering half shut even as he fought to keep his gaze on me.
It undid me. I drove into him, and my cock pulsed. Over and over in rolling waves, I came. His body surrendered to it, his cry rising to match mine as if he could feel my pleasure as his own.
While I was still buried inside him, his hand sped between us. A few quick strokes was all it took to send him tumbling after me. He whimpered as his cock jerked, spilling pearly seed all over his graceful fingers.
As he came down from it, his body shook, the muscles in his abdomen twitching with aftershocks.
“Good,” I panted, smiling down at him. “So good for me, my love.”
He chewed his lip again, but that couldn’t hide his pleased smile from me.
Dazedly, he reached up, combing his fingers through my damp hair. “You’re sweaty,” he said quietly.
The right corner of my mouth tugged up. “Sorry.” I leaned in to steal a quick peck from him. “I lost myself in you.”
“Oh,” he said on a soft breath. His green eyes went hazy at that, his pupils becoming wide, dark pools. He reached for me and wrapped his arm around my neck to drag me in for another kiss.
“Will you do it again?” he whispered against my swollen lips.
I grinned. “You don’t think I’m finished with you already?” I rolled my hips, and the slick pressure of him around me, his body making way for the sensitive head of my cock, was almost too much for me right then.
Thing was, too much of Aderyn would still never be enough to satisfy me.
“No, husband—” Moons above, that word felt so good to say. “Now that I have you to myself, I have every intention of wearing us both out. Tonight and tomorrow and—” I kissed him again. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to eat sometime, but I’m in no hurry. We’ll have it brought here.”
My sweet dragon smiled then, and I determined to give him everything in the whole world. Another aviary and every feather that fell from a bird’s wing and all of my heart and life and future.
“So . . . again?” he pressed.
I laughed, tipping forward to steal another kiss. He gasped as it moved me inside him.
“So impatient,” I muttered against his lips, rocking my hips.
I hadn’t even softened all the way, and every tiny move on my oversensitive cock rode that line where pleasure crossed into the most exquisite kind of pain.
I had to have him again, fuck him until my dick was hard again and he lost his mind on waves of pleasure.
Still, he had the clear sense to stare right up at me and stick out his chin. “It’s only impatient if I mean to be done with you, Roland, and that? It’s never going to happen.”
My heart squeezed hard, and I kissed him again, safe in the knowing that Aderyn loved me enough to stay.