Chapter 14 #2
“You must not be getting the joke–” Lucien begins.
“No, I get it. Your father raised all of you so that even when you were terribly ill you felt you had to pretend to be tougher than an illness, which drove Alaric to nearly dying as a child. Is that right?” Sevrin asks.
“It’s not funny the way you say,” Gareth mutters.
“It’s not funny at all,” I tell them. They look at me, and I scrunch up my face. “Guys, seriously, your childhood was twisted. I’m sure if you think about a lot of ‘funny’ things that happened to you as kids, they really weren’t that funny.”
Alaric grabs a drink. “Can everybody just drink, please?”
So, we do.
“Let’s switch to something more fun,” Lucien suggests. “King’s Bones?”
Alaric laughs and claps his hands together. “You guys better be ready, I’m good at this one!”
Sevrin looks at me.
I explain. “Two people roll a dice each. The person who rolls the highest dice chooses a person to drink. The person who rolls the lowest dice has to drink.”
Something fierce grows in Sevrin’s eyes. Competition. “Let’s do this.”
Over the next two hours, we roll dice and talk, getting more drunk with each passing moment, despite the fact that we’re getting married tomorrow.
Traditionally, men and women have their final party the night before a wedding anyway, and having a hangover at the wedding is nearly a tradition.
Gareth puts more wood on the fire every time it starts to burn low, and the empty liquor containers gather at the end of the table.
Alaric, true to his word, had the best of luck with the dice game, and Sevrin had the worst. I was just after Alaric, which was probably for the best, since they were all bigger than me and could handle their liquor better.
Alaric, Gareth, and Lucien get together, standing before the fire, arms over each other’s shoulders, and begin to sing, “Oh, raise your cups, you wing-born lot, for the night is warm and the ale is hot! We’ve flown through storms and fire’s breath, we’ve danced on the razor edge of death!
So pour it high and drink it deep— tomorrow’s foes can wait for sleep!
“Hey-ho, let the dragons roar, fill the tankards, more and more! For we fight like storms, we love like flame— And no one rides the sky the same! Hey-ho, to the tales we spin, of wars we’ve won and hearts we’ll win!”
Sevrin leaps to his feet and links arms with them, and then they’re all singing the verses over again, Sevrin stumbling through them, but holding his own.
I clap a rhythm to the song, laughing hysterically.
Lucien suddenly launches himself back, and then they all fall back, near the fire, in a tangled mess of limbs, laughing as hard as I am.
I stand up, and step all over my dress. Lifting the skirts, I try to sort myself out, then decide the hell with it. “I’m going to go change.”
They barely notice me, but I grab a nightgown and a robe and go behind the screen.
“People say dragon riders are good in bed because we’ve got incredible balance and stamina. I say that’s nonsense. It’s not balance. It’s not stamina. It’s the enthusiasm,” Lucien jokes, as I try to get free from the dress.
“You dragon riders burn hot and fast. We Hollowborn? We don’t get tired… ever. Ask your ladies which they prefer.”
There’s more laughter, as I finally get free of the dress and drop it to the floor. Grabbing my nightgown, I slide into the lighter material with a sigh, then begin to pull on my robe.
Suddenly, I feel it. Ebron’s and his mates desire.
It hits me hard and fast for a moment before it dampens.
A shudder rolls through me, and I envision my connection to Ebron, then picture myself closing it off.
I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight, probably nothing, but if Ebron was kind enough to be considerate of me, I should do the same for him.
“The dragons are fucking,” Lucien says.
Alaric laughs. “Yeah they are. Get it, Ebron.”
I shake my head, still feeling some of my dragon’s desire flowing through me.
“Well, back to the topic at hand,” Lucien says, slurring the words. “Harper has had all of us, let’s ask her who she prefers. It’s us dragon riders, right? They call us dragon riders for a reason. We’re very good at holding on tight and making sure no one falls.”
Then Alaric says, quietly but loud enough for all to hear, “I haven’t had her yet.”
I try to come out behind the screen, but trip on my mess of a dress and hit the floor. “Oof.”
“You okay?” Sevrin asks, but he doesn’t sound all that concerned.
“She’s just clumsy,” Gareth says. “Right?”
I get back to my feet and dust myself off before coming out from behind the screen. “I’m only clumsy on the ground. In other places, like in beds or on dragons, I’m flawless.”
Glancing up, I realize they’re all staring at me, mouths hanging open.
Reaching for my hair, I start smoothing down the strands. “Do I look like a wreck?”
Alaric clears his throat. “Not even a little bit.”
Lucien changes the subject. “So, who’s better in bed, the Hollowborn or us dragon riders?”
I cross the room and sit on the bed crosslegged, thinking. “I don’t think you guys really want to know…”
That seems to snag all of their interest. “Seriously, we want to know,” Lucien says, then more quietly, “I was your best, right?”
I laugh and shake my head. “You don’t really want to know.”
Gareth’s eyes are dark as he watches me. “We’re big boys. We can handle it.”
I try to hold back my smile. “Well, my best was actually this farmer back in Pennyvale. Not only was he the kind of guy who didn’t have to come up for air, but his hands… the things he could do with his hands would blow your mind.”
Gareth comes over and sits down beside me on the bed, looking pissed. “Bullshit.”
“No, really,” I say, fluttering my lashes. “Being with him was an all night fuck fest. I’m pretty sure we got a round of applause when we were done. They named that day after us.”
Sevrin comes and sits on my other side, looking more than a little irritated. “You wanted me to… last longer?”
I think of that actual night, and my face feels hot. If he had lasted longer, I would’ve been pounded into a pile of goop. No, no way did I need that to last longer.
“And I hardly got enough time. I didn’t even get a full night to show you what I could do,” Gareth says grumpily.
I change my tactic. “The thing is… he just did a few special things. Things to get me really going.”
“What things are these?” Alaric asks, entirely focused on me.
I have to swallow down my smile. “He… danced for me while taking off his clothes.”
Complete silence follows my comment. I can see all of their drunken brains working, and it’s cracking me up. I go and snag another bottle of liquor, then sit right back down between them, enjoying the feeling of their warm bodies beside my own.
“I could do that,” Lucien says, like he’s come to an awe-inspiring conclusion.
It’s hard to hold down my squeal, but I manage it. “I don’t think you can. This guy just had something about him. Pizzazz maybe.”
“I have pizzazz!” Lucien argues.
I pretend to study the bottle of liquor as I sip it. “And confidence. He had so much confidence. You know that’s the number one thing that attracts women to men.”
Lucien leaps to his feet. “I have confidence!”
Then he walks until he stands in front of the fire and starts to dance. My jaw drops, and I can’t take my eyes off of him as he reaches for the buttons on his shirt.
“This is really doing it for you?” Sevrin asks in disbelief, but I can’t even answer him because I’m too busy staring at, what I assume, will be a complete disaster, standing in front of me.
He works his way down the buttons on his shirts, dancing to some unheard song.
I’m about to tell him to stop, that I was just teasing him, but then he pulls back his shirt, and my mouth goes dry.
I don’t know if it’s the liquor, or my connection to my dragon, but the room suddenly feels really hot, and all I can see are the ripples of muscles across his stomach and belly.
“This is bullshit,” Sevrin mutters, then stands from beside me and moves to the front, beside Lucien, and begins to undo his shirt.
I drink more and more as all four men come to stand in front of me, and the temperature in the room continues to rise as their shirts come off, and a display of perfect muscles pops up in front of me.
Trying to drink more, I discover that I’ve finished what was left of the bottle.
I set it down on the floor and keep staring as they somehow manage to make removing their shoes and socks sexy.
The fact that this “fantasy” of mine was supposed to be a joke teases at the back of my mind.
It’s super funny until I realize that I’m wet as hell.
My mind is going to places I never fully went before this moment.
Their hands reach for their pants, and my mouth goes dry.
I wish I had more to drink, but instead I’m just left panting over the very erotic display in front of me that’s one hundred percent my fault.
All four of their pants come off at nearly the same time, and my cheeks heat, as I see four hard dicks hidden behind tight pairs of underwear. My heart pounds in my chest. My palms feel damp. When had they gotten aroused and what was the reason behind it?
And was this dance leading to something?
Fuck. This dance is definitely leading to something.
It’s the first time it occurs to me that this night spent together would end in sex, but now it’s the only thing I can think about.
And as I’m thinking about it, I start to picture how exactly these four men would end up inside of me.
The pictures I concoct should probably scare me. But for some reason, they don’t.