Chapter 21
TWENTY-THREE YEARS OLD
“Clover,” Franny called from the front of the bakery. “Someone is here to see you.”
Franny bustled through the door separating the kitchen from the front of the store with a wide smile. “I’ll finish up here. Go greet your guest. It’s been a few years since you’ve seen him, and I know how close you two used to be.”
Clover moved slowly toward the door, with no idea whom her sister-in-law meant. What if it was Paul? What if he’d lied? Franny didn’t know what Paul looked like.
With her hand around the hilt of her dagger hidden in the pocket of her dress, she pushed open the swinging door, poised to strike, and froze. “Thomas?”
Thomas lifted his head with a boyish smile, his golden gaze lighting up. “There she is.”
Clover moved around the counter and gave him a stiff, awkward side hug.
“I told you I wanted to see what your brother kept going on about,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “You weren’t kidding about the cold. This is terrible.”
“I tried to tell you,” she said quietly, still in the habit of speaking softly and sparingly in public spaces.
Thomas leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms. “I’d like to explore while I have the time off, maybe go to the garden region you once mentioned, but I only took a week off.”
Thomas was the blacksmith in Dragon Village. “Don’t you have an apprentice?”
He snorted. “I wish. It’s not like Dragon Village has a large population.”
She glanced at the clock. “Do you want to have lunch and catch up?”
“That sounds like a great idea.” He patted his stomach. “I’m starving.”
An hour later, they sat in a local tavern as Thomas told stories about the antics of people back home. Some she knew. Some she didn’t. The way he spoke about one woman in particular caught her attention.
“You and Lucy are together,” she guessed. “You said she works at Amos’ estate?”
Thomas's face split into a blinding smile. “We are, and yes. Did Amos not tell you about her?”
“Amos doesn’t talk about his staff,” she said carefully, sensing a story she hadn’t been told.
Thomas sat back and stretched. “He and Lucy are close. Years ago, he saved her from a highborn in the capital and sent her to Dragon Village.”
Hydra members from around the kingdom often sent women or families who were in danger to Dragon Village, so it wouldn’t have been worth mentioning to her. Rationally, she knew that.
Irrationally, she wanted to flip the table. Amos lost it when Thomas spoke to her in a room full of people yet he was close with a woman who works in his house.
She fought for calm, the hot seed of jealousy burrowing deep in her chest. “How long have you two been together?” Wasn’t it bad enough that her husband was in a fake relationship with another woman?
Her jealousy didn’t care that Lucy and Thomas were together, it cared that Amos had never mentioned her even once in the many letters he’d sent.
“Our relationship is new.” He sat forward and rested his arms on the table. “I think you’d like her. She’s funny and sweet but won’t hesitate to put someone in their place.”
Fan-fucking-tastic. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
Thomas looked at her with a funny smile. “You talk a lot more when we talk about Amos.”
Embarrassment bloomed across Clover’s cheeks. Her family said the same. She shrugged.
“It’s nice,” Thomas admitted. “None of us could pry you out of your shell. I’m glad you found someone who can.”
Later, Thomas and Clover stood on the sidewalk in front of the bakery saying their goodbyes. “Isabella asked me to deliver something for her,” he said, pulling a leather pouch from his pocket.
“Isabella did?” She took the pouch and peeked inside, pulling out a silver chain. On the necklace was a tiny dagger with a gold hilt.
“She said it reminded her of you.”
She and Isabella had seen each other a few times over the last couple of years, but they weren’t necessarily close.
It touched Clover that the woman had thought of her at all.
“I’ll write her a letter to thank her.” She tucked the pouch in her pocket and clasped the necklace around her neck. “I love it.”
“Ow,” Thomas hissed and jumped back, trying to shake a growling Eddy off his pants leg.
“Eddy!” Clover scolded, grabbing the tiny fox’s body. He wouldn’t let go, and she had to bop his nose until he released Thomas’s ankle. “What has gotten into you?”
“Is that a fennec fox?” Thomas asked, lifting his pant leg to assess the damage. “What is it doing in the mountain region, and why are you holding it like a pet?”
Clover scowled at Eddy. “Is Amos in there?” Eddy nodded, and her scowl deepened. “We’ll talk later.”
“Is that Amos’ familiar?” Thomas marveled. “I’ve never seen his mark. I only knew it wasn’t a dragon.”
Eddy tried to leap at Thomas with an opposite-of-ferocious growl. “Amos, stop or I’ll lock you in the bakery until Thomas leaves.” The fox settled, but didn’t take his eyes off Thomas.
The shit-eating grin on Thomas’s face would get him killed the next time Amos went to Dragon Village if he didn’t drop it. “Good to see you, Your Highness.”
The entire Hydra had taken to calling Amos “Your Highness,” and he hated it. Which was exactly why they did it. Eddy yipped at Thomas, who laughed.
“I’m going to go before I get a puncture wound,” Thomas told her. “It was good to see you. I’ll stop and say goodbye before I leave Friya.”
Eddy lunged again, nearly slipping out of Clover’s grip. Thomas chuckled again and walked away.
Clover held Eddy out in front of her and stared him down, still pissed about his close friend Lucy. “Amos, you and I need to talk. I’ll meet you at the capital. Once I get everything in order here, I’ll tell Eddy when I’ll be there.”
Eddy whined, and she set him on the ground. “Amelia will be off of work soon, and she’ll be looking for you.” She spun on her heel and stomped into the bakery, shutting the door in his infuriatingly cute little face.
Thomas,
Since you like necklaces so much, I made you one out of rope. I’ll even help you put it on.
Stay the fuck away from my wife until then.
Amos
Amos paced the cave at the den’s entrance. Clover was due any minute, and he didn’t know if he wanted to strangle her with the fucking necklace Thomas gave her, or drop to his knees and beg forgiveness for whatever he’d done to piss her off.
When he’d connected with Roland and asked him to go to the bakery, he hadn’t expected to see Clover standing with Thomas.
He definitely hadn’t expected that asshole to hand her a necklace.
Roland had been too far to hear them, but since Clover had put the necklace on, he guessed she hadn’t told Thomas to go to hell.
He’d seen red, and luckily, Roland had been pissed to see another man trying to take Amos’ mate. It hadn’t taken much convincing for the fox to attack on Amos’ behalf. Unfortunately for them both, he only weighed a few pounds.
The sound of wings drew his attention to the den where Ember appeared with Clover on her back. No sooner had his mate’s feet touched the ground than he pulled in for a rough kiss, biting at her lip for the hell she’d put him through.
As soon as Ember disappeared, he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back. “Hello, little viper.”
Clover shoved at his chest, growling when he didn’t release her. His eyes caught on a silver necklace stacked over the chain holding her ring, and a feral need to rip it off nearly swallowed him whole.
Her hand flew to her neck. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I’ll take that necklace off one way or another.” He tugged her hair harder. “You never should have put it on.”
Amos let her go and stepped back. “Run.”
Anticipation shot down their bond, and she took off, but he reached out and grabbed her. “Game over.”
Her elbow caught him in the jaw, but he held fast. “Godsdamn, viper,” he ground out, as she stomped on his foot and broke out of his hold. Instead of running, she kicked out. Amos caught her foot and yanked her forward.
Clover jumped, wrapped her other leg around his neck, and twisted her body until they hit the ground, rolling until she straddled him. She ripped her dagger from its sheath and pressed it against his throat in seconds.
The prick of steel against Amos’ neck stung, and he smiled. “Gods, I’ve missed you.”
Clover pressed the blade deeper. “I can’t imagine why when you have your close friend Lucy,” she seethed.
What? “How do you know about Lucy?”
Her blue eyes blazed, and she lifted the dagger. Before she could plunge it into his flesh—because he didn’t think she was bluffing—Amos grabbed her wrist.
“I’m not hiding her from you. I just didn’t know you knew her,” he explained, trying not to laugh at the murder in her eyes. “Did she go with Thomas to the Human Kingdom?”
Clover lowered her dagger with Amos still grasping her wrist. “No, but he told me about her and how close you two are.”
Fucking Thomas. Amos had only planned on beating the shit out of him for giving his mate jewelry, but the man just earned himself a death sentence.
“We’re only friends,” he swore. “I saved her before I lived in Dragon Village, and when I moved there, she asked for a job, free of pay, at the estate to say thank you. I count her as a friend but nothing more.”
“And yet you threaten Thomas for even looking at me,” she accused. “You’re a hypocrite.”
Amos clenched his jaw. “Because Thomas wants to fuck you. Lucy would saw off her right arm before she kissed me.” Jennifer too, he wanted to tell her, but there was an unspoken rule that they didn’t speak about his fake mate.
It was a sore subject for Clover. He understood, even if he did wish she’d let him calm her fears by telling her about the other girl.
“Thomas and Lucy are together now, yet you still attacked him when he visited me at the bakery,” she snapped. “Maybe I’ll attack Lucy the next time I’m in Dragon Village.”
Amos’ cock was hard as steel. Her jealousy aroused him almost as much as her murder attempts.
She rocked against him slightly. “Are you hard right now?” she asked, disbelieving. “You’re sick.”
He flipped them over, careful not to hit her head on the ground. “Everything about you makes me hard,” he drawled. “Especially when you’re pissed.”
Amos dipped down and licked the side of her face. She shrieked and tried to push him away, but he pinned her arms above her head. “You got spit on my face,” she complained, tugging against his hold to wipe her cheek with her arm.
“Do you want my spit somewhere else, little viper?” He reached between them and ripped at the laces on the front of her pants. “I’m going to release your hands while I pull out my cock. Be a good girl and pull your pants down.”
He expected her to fight him, but she complied, kicking off her pants with impressive speed.
Watching her undress nearly made him come. “Lie back.”
She lowered herself to the ground and maneuvered her thighs to either side of his legs. “I need you to fuck me,” she said, her voice low and sultry. “Now.”
He tsked and tweaked her nipple through her shirt. “Impatient little thing.” She gasped and arched her back slightly, pressing her breast into his hand.
Lowering his gaze to her glistening cunt, he licked his lips. Fuck, she’s pretty everywhere. Moving back, he leaned down and spit on her pussy, watching it slide between her folds. His voice went rough. “My spit looks good on you.”
Amos stroked his cock, rubbing his thumb over the piercing at the tip. “You’re sure I can’t eat first?”
Clover reached for him. “I need you,” she begged, and damn, he liked the sound. He imagined her on her knees, begging for his cock. Later.
Grabbing her thigh, he lifted her slightly and teased her clit with the head of his dick. She moaned and palmed her breasts over her shirt. As much as he loved watching her like this, he needed her as much as she needed him.
Her pussy swallowed his cock as he slammed into her. She cried out, and he thrust again, setting a punishing pace. “Is this what you wanted?” he asked, fucking her into the stone ground.
“Yes,” she breathed. “More.”
Holding on to her thighs so she wouldn’t slide across the floor, he plunged into her, the piercing tugging his head with every stroke. He’d gotten the piercing for her, but fuck, did it feel good for him too.
Clover’s quiet gasps and pleas were music to his ears, and he pushed deeper with every stroke. He leaned forward slightly and rotated his hips, using his pelvic piercing to work her clit. Their climaxes built in a slow, tightening crescendo.
Neither of them spoke. Only the sounds of their bodies coming together and their moans of pleasure echoed off the walls. He needed her to come first, but his lack of experience and shared pleasure down the bond threatened to make him explode first.
Amos dropped one of her thighs and pressed on her lower stomach, moving faster. Clover twitched, and her hands reached for his arms to anchor herself. “Come on, little viper. Come for me.”
Her pussy spasmed and her cry ricocheted around them.
Pain bit at his arms where she dug her nails in, but it barely registered.
He was too enamored with watching her lose control.
As she came down, he pulled out and moved over her, planting a knee on either side of her chest. He bent forward and braced himself over her with one arm, pumping his cock until thick ropes of cum painted her throat.
Clover watched him with heavy eyes as he caressed the side of her face, staring at the mess covering her neck. His eyes lifted to hers. “The only necklaces you wear are mine.”
Early the next morning, Amos watched Clover climb onto Ember’s back. He’d had her all night and this morning, forgoing sleep so he wouldn’t miss a minute with her.
“By the way,” Clover said, her mouth pulling into a wicked smile. “The necklace was from Isabella.”
She tapped Ember’s neck and the dragon jumped off the cliff with Amos’s laughter trailing after them.