Chapter 10
Harper
I take a deep breath and knock on Gareth’s room, having no idea what I’m about to face.
I’m prepared for him to be angry. I’m prepared for him to accuse me of betraying him, and I have no idea what I’ll say when I have to deal with all of that.
My heart says I owe these men, that in some strange way they owe me.
But reality? Reality says I owe them nothing.
“Come in,” he calls. Nothing in his voice betrays l how he’s feeling.
I open the door and close it behind me, then turn to see Gareth standing beside a tub, a towel wrapped around his waist. My jaw drops open, and I find myself absolutely eye-fucking this man as water runs over the hard lines of his body, and his towel does nothing to hide the outline of his absolutely massive cock.
“Harper,” he says, surprise in his voice.
I jerk my head up and swallow hard. “Sorry, I can come back another time.”
I’m turning when he says, “No, you can stay. What’s going on?”
And the thing is, he doesn’t sound angry in the least bit. He doesn’t even sound possessive or betrayed. He sounds… hopeful. Happy maybe.
Looking back at him, I will myself to keep my focus on his face and not the rest of him. I won’t be able to get through this if I look at his body. “I was just coming to check on you.”
“The Hollowborn didn’t hurt me,” he says bluntly.
I take a couple steps closer. “I know he didn’t, but I think I might have hurt you.”
He looks away, those beautiful blue eyes of his filled with a million things that I’ll never get to hear. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, then before he can answer, add, “I know I upset all of you when I came back with Sevrin and seemed close to him. I know we talked about this, but you and I didn’t really get to talk.”
He sighs. “You know how I feel.”
I come closer. “I really don’t.”
When he meets my gaze again, the pain there takes my breath away. “I’ve just been asking myself over and over again what’s different about Sevrin. Why is he so easy to love when I’m so hard to?”
My heart breaks, and I walk over to him and put my hand against his cheek. He presses his face against my palm like it’s all he’s been waiting for. “I never said that. I just said things were complicated between us, and Sevrin has made things easy.”
“How? How has he made things easy?” Gareth asks.
“Prince Gareth–”
“Call me Gareth. You call him Sevrin. I’m going to be your husband too.”
I nod, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “Gareth, I tried to explain it before with all of you, but maybe I didn’t do a great job. Sevrin has just made it clear from the very beginning how he feels about me, but that hasn’t been the case with any of you.”
He’s staring at me intently. “When you arrived at the academy, you were like nothing we’d ever seen before. A female dragon rider on a male dragon. Someone who wasn’t from nobility. We tried to handle things the best we could, but we clearly failed in everything we did.”
“Not in everything,” I tell him gently. “I mean, I’ve clearly grown to care about you.”
“Have you?” he asks, and there’s hope in his voice.
“I have.”
“And you know that I– that I– feel things for you too?”
I smile. “Yes, I know that.”
He looks relieved. “And you know that I, well, I want you to be my bride too. Right?”
“That’s good to know,” I say, still smiling.
He’s just so damn sweet. Watching him trying to get his words out is both darling and painful. It’s like the man has never once talked about his feelings in his life. How he got to adulthood without ever being vulnerable, I’ll never know.
Or maybe I will. I’ve met his father, after all.
“Here’s the thing.” He fights for his words, opening his mouth several times, then closing it. His brows drawing together in frustration while he works his jaw. “You’re like my sword.”
“Your sword?” I repeat, trying to follow his logic.
“Yes.” He nods enthusiastically, looking hopeful. “My sword stays at my side. That’s its place. I need it to survive. I don’t know what I would do without it, and I would die to make sure no one would ever take it from me.”
I rise up on my tiptoes. He watches me carefully as I plant a soft kiss to his lips, then murmur, “I can handle being your sword.”
“Yeah?” He sounds… excited.
Capturing my lips again, he kisses me harder.
Our kiss ends, and he kisses me again, and again.
My smile, my amusement, are gone as he takes my breath away with each touch of his lips.
I’m breathing hard, my hands running down his wet chest. My fingers splay as I reach his stomach and feel the shudder that rolls through him.
His tongue darts into my mouth, and mine meets his. They tangle together, deepening our kiss, until I feel like I need more. My hands move to his towel, hesitate, then undo it. I feel him tense, and then I reach down and wrap both my hands around his length.
“Oh fuck,” he growls, and the sound of his rough voice makes my nipples harden.
He undoes my top and tosses it on the ground, then does the same with my shoes, socks, and pants.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m naked before him, and his dark gaze is running over me in a way that’s so possessive it takes my breath away.
I go to reach for his cock again, but he pushes my hand away and tosses me onto the edge of the bed.
He kneels between my thighs. My legs go over his shoulders, and he gives no warning before he presses his mouth to my hot core. And… it’s like pleasure is radiating straight from my pussy throughout my entire body. My head falls back, and my knees fall out.
“Yes, Gareth, yes!” I murmur, tossing my head.
He licks gently for a while, building my arousal, making me wetter and wetter, and then he begins to lick faster, and I start to bounce myself against his face. Then he sucks, and stars dance in front of my vision.
“Gareth,” I plead, “I need you.”
He growls low in his throat, and I feel a shudder pass over him.
He climbs back to his feet, then turns me around on the bed, my feet on the floor, and comes up behind me.
His cock pushes into my folds and begins to slide around.
I feel myself dripping, know that I’m dripping onto the floor, but all I can do is grip the blankets and hold on for my life.
His cock shifts under me, angling for my entrance, and I tense as the big head of his cock pushes inside of me. I don’t know what it is with these men and their big cocks. I don’t know if it’s something in their oats, or in the wind, but whatever it is, my men have had too much of it.
Or maybe just the right amount, since I always enjoy it when I’ve adjusted to them.
He continues to press inside, one inch at a time, as my body hugs him tightly. “Oh my gods, Harper,” he groans. “You have the tightest pussy I’ve ever had. You’re so fucking tight. Gods, I love you. I just want to be with you. I want to live inside your body every night and every day.”
It’s almost the most I’ve ever heard Gareth talk. I’d be laughing if I wasn’t so busy taking his massive dick, every muscle in my body tight.
He finally makes it fully inside of me, and I’m breathing hard, waiting for my body to adjust to his size.
Waiting to feel that red hot pleasure instead of the slight uncomfortableness that comes from having something this big inside of me.
He pulls out just a little, then pushes back in, and I gasp.
“Fuck,” he says, sounding out of breath. “I’m going to take you every night. You understand me? Every night I’m going to claim your pussy until you’re dripping with my cum every fucking day of your life.”
His words turn me on. Make me hotter and hotter. I’m afraid I’m going to soak his damn bed.
He pulls out, then plunges back in, over and over, grasping my hips and keeping me in place as he pounds me into the bed.
“That’s right, baby. Take me deep. Take me all the way. Sear my fucking cock into your sweet little pussy.”
I’ve never had a man talk to me like this before. I like it. I like it a lot.
He reaches around me and grabs ahold of my breasts, feeling the weight of them in his hands, rubbing his thumbs along my nipples, pinching me at random. The sensation deepens the raw need inside of me that I can’t seem to shake as he thrusts into me over and over again.
“Am I big enough for you?” he whispers.
“Yes,” I murmur, gripping the blankets tightly.
“Am I hard enough for you?”
“Yes,” I whimper as he thrusts into me again.
“I want my fucking name tattooed over your pussy. Do you understand me? I’m putting my fucking name on you.”
“Yes,” I manage.
He speeds up, faster and faster. My breasts bounce in his grip, pleasure streaking through me like a rope that’s getting pulled tighter and tighter.
I close my eyes. Curses explode from my lips.
The rising tide of pleasure sweeps over me and pulls me under, and my orgasm hits with all the power of a runaway horse.
I’m screaming his name over and over again. I scream until I get hoarse, but I’m still screaming. My toes are curled. My eyes roll back in my head, and every hair on my body stands on end.
Which is when Gareth explodes inside of me, filling me with his cum. He doesn’t stop his pounding as he spreads his seed throughout every inch of me. He slowly calms, leaning over me. He kisses my shoulder, still buried deep inside of me.
“Oh, fuck, Harper. You make me crazy,” he rasps.
We stay like that for a long minute before he pulls out of me, picks me up and puts me on the bed, before climbing in behind me and pulling the covers over us. I don’t know what he’s going to do when he lifts one of my legs and sticks his hard cock right back inside of me.
“Gareth!” I say, surprised.
He kisses my neck. “I just want to stay inside of you.”
I laugh, feeling relaxed and content, wrapped in his arms. “You know, you get pretty chatty when you’re fucking.”
He laughs. “I didn’t know.”
We lay that way for a long time, his warm arms perfect, before he says, “I just want to be close to you.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re as close as you can get,” I tease.
“You know what I mean.”
I rub against him. “I know what you mean.”
He’s struggling for words, I know, but I give him time to sort them out. “I want a different relationship than my mother had with my father.”
All these poor boys do. Their dad really did a number on them.
“I know.” Then I hesitate before asking, “What was your mother and father’s relationship like?”
He’s quiet for a long time, but his hand rubs up and down my side and hip.
“My mother was in love with my father. She thought having me would be the thing that finally made him understand that she was meant to be at his side. It didn’t.
She tried everything under the sun to get him to love her, and only her, but he continued on with whatever woman he wanted that week.
Eventually, she took me up to the battlement.
She told me love was dangerous and painful.
That all it ever did was bring harm. And then…
” He doesn’t seem to want to continue, but he does. “She threw herself off the battlement.”
I gasp. I knew she’d died, but no one ever said how. What a completely fucked-up thing for his mother to do. If she wanted to be done with this world, the least she could have done is spared him from watching it. No wonder he has such a hard time with love and romance.
I turn to him, and our eyes meet. “I’m so sorry.” He doesn’t say anything. “I’m sorry your dad’s an ass. I’m sorry you had to lose your mother. And I’m sorry she traumatized you for her own selfish reasons.”
He just nods.
“Gareth.” His eyes meet mine. “You know none of that is normal or okay, right? There are a million happy families all around the world. Families where a man and woman meet, have children, remain together, and are happy.”
“Then why don’t we ever see those kinds of families?” he asks, and there’s an innocence to his question that breaks my heart.
“There’s a lot of sadness and pain out in the world. But that’s not the only thing that’s out there. Belonging and love are there too. We can have that.”
His blue eyes are filled with uncertainty. “Can we?”
“Of course!”
He looks away. “It’s just been so hard to get close to anyone since then. Not friends. Not even my brothers.”
“That’s understandable. What you went through was a very hard thing.”
“Was it?” he asks, and he really doesn’t seem to know.
“Yes, it’s a really hard thing, and it could fuck anyone up. You should give yourself a lot of credit for the man you’ve become, because you’ve turned out great, despite what you went through.”
“I feel,” he struggles for the word, “broken.”
I smile. “We all feel a little broken. And we are all a little broken. But broken things can be fixed, and can be even more beautiful once their pieces are put back together.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“It might not be easy, but I’m here with you. Your brothers are here with you. Even Sevrin will be here with you, to help navigate a life with people who want to be close to you.”
He makes a little sound of disbelief.
I touch his face. “Gareth, we can have a new life, but we have to be open to new things. You have to be willing to open up to all of us. If you do, I think we can create a really amazing family.”
He releases a slow breath. “Maybe with you and my brothers.”
My stomach flips. “And with Sevrin.”
He says nothing.
“This won’t work if you aren’t open to all of us connecting.”
He sighs. “Fine.”
It’s not great, but it’s progress. That’s all any of us really needs. Progress.
The rest we can figure out.