Chapter 64
Fern
Take him… Kael’s words echoed inside my head, getting louder and louder with each iteration. He’s yours.
The truth of what he said was apparent. Lorien’s eyes followed the every movement of my hand, but it was the flex of his stomach muscles that caught my attention. Lean, hard, they tensed as my hand trailed lower, forcing me to pull away.
“You’re hurt.”
“Not in the way you’re thinking, lass.” Lorien’s hand was scalding hot as it covered mine. He pressed it back against his stomach. “There’s an ache, but its not there.” My palm slid across his skin until it came to rest over his heart. “It’s right here.”
“Because you got injured…” His smile softened and then I shook my head. “Oh.”
“Oh.” His lips pursed, then he nodded. “You always say that when someone does something kind or pays you some attention.” With a tilt of his head Kael’s way, he continued.
“Except with that idiot, because he spends all his time riling you up.” The man in question looked completely unrepentant.
“When are you going to realise we’re all here for you?
I’ll leap onto a hundred balconies, break into the king’s palace, if that’s what it takes to make it clear to you. ”
I looked down because my cheeks were burning and what swelled inside me felt too big to contain. Lorien wouldn’t allow me a moment, tilting my chin back up so I was forced to meet his eyes.
“When I first met you, all I thought was thank the gods, she’s beautiful,” he said. My teeth sunk into my bottom lip. “I was arrogant and stupid.”
“Kael still is.”
Dain crossed his arms, but did he just wink at me? Before I could interrogate that, Lorien went on.
“Figured fate had decided we were to be together, and I didn’t need to try to impress you.
But a male dragon must pursue a female, outfly and outwit her before he can mate her.
I needed to do every damn thing I could to impress you.
I’ll get you those books. I’ll build a bookshelf a wall wide and fill it up with them.
” His arm gestured how big it would be. “Gods, I’ll even…
” He shook his head in revulsion. “I’ll even sit and read them with you. ”
“If you knew how big a promise that is,” Kael said with a smile.
“But I do.” My voice failed and I was forced to clear my throat before I went on. “In the library, you hated every minute of reading through those books.”
“Not hated.” His head dropped lower. “Couldn’t, not when I was with you, because you’ve got to see it.
I was prepared to read every damn book on dragons, if that’s what it took.
That’s why I sat there in the library, eyes burning from lack of sleep.
It’s why I went into the damn tomb and why I confronted the general.
I just needed you to look at me, like you are now. ”
My tongue flicked over my bottom lip, my mouth suddenly dry. I needed a drink.
No, this.
My hand slid up and around his neck and I could feel the tension thrumming there, right before my hands sank into all that silky black hair. For a moment, all I could do was stroke the skin at Lorien’s nape.
That male wants to mate with you very badly. Auren’s comment came as a surprise. When I left her, she seemed utterly engrossed by Drathnor’s nest. And I think you should let him.
With a gasp, I came back to the room and found I was tugging Lorien’s head down. His mouth hovered over mine as his arms wrapped around me, holding me tight.
“Whatever it takes, Fern. I’ll do it. Whatever you need.”
His voice was a hoarse whisper now, but I was about to silence it.
“Right now, I think it’s this.”
In my books, the heroines swooned when they kissed the hero but that wasn’t what happened to me.
If anything, my senses became painfully acute.
Lorien’s lips and how soft they were beneath my own, only to grow harder and more demanding.
The sharp intake of breath that whistled through his nose, replaced swiftly by a little moan.
That sound, that expression of vulnerability, unlocked something in me.
My mouth moved of its own accord, matching him kiss for kiss.
Hands slid down his chest, his skin feeling so hot.
I couldn’t seem to keep still, my nails raking across his skin.
“I need…” Gods, I was burning up. Clammy as if I was running a fever, I pulled back and put the back of my hand to my forehead. “I need…”
“All you have to do is say the word and we’ll give you whatever you want,” Kael growled. “I was prepared to go to war with the general for having the temerity of plotting against you and Auren. Would’ve handed you his head on a platter, right after we tore the keep down, stone by stone.”
“Not that…” I hissed, frowning because right now I didn’t want to remember anything that happened before this moment.
“I think I know what you need.” Had Lance’s voice ever been that deep? His hands went to my shoulders, then he turned me around to face the other three. “Gods, how I’ve waited to do this.”
Pins were pulled free, and when my hair tumbled down, a groan went through the lot of them. How could these men respond so to such a simple thing?
“Running my fingers through your hair,” Lance said, doing just that, but right as my eyes fell half closed, he twisted it up into a loose bun. “And doing this.”
Lips pressed to the back of my neck did have my eyes closing, if only to luxuriate in the sensation.
His fingers digging into my shoulders as another kiss, then another followed it.
A swirl of pleasure had the flames flickering inside me flaring to life, burning through me and forcing me to gasp when Lance pulled away.
Hands went to the clasp of my tunic, but they paused there.
“Nothing will happen here other than what you want.” There was a desperate tension in Lance’s voice. “We’ll sit down and have a very nice bowl of porridge if you want to stop now.”
“Porridge…?” Lorien snorted, then shook his head. “But he’s right. Perhaps we should just eat. It’s been a horribly long day and—”
“Is that what you want?” Kael seemed to see everything far too clearly, making me aware of my flushed cheeks, my heaving chest. “I might be a pushy bastard—”
“Gods, what an understatement,” Dain said, rolling his eyes.
“But I’d never push you about this.”
We were all tired, overwrought by the events of the day, so having something to eat, then sleeping for hours would’ve been the best plan.
Just not what I wanted.
I started by shaking my head, slowly, then getting faster.
“Not this. Got it.”
The muscle in Kael’s jaw jumped, right as he went to pull away. Reaching out to grab his hand? Part of me was aghast I’d dare, and the other was wondering what the hell I was thinking. He was the most insufferable, annoying…
Brave, wonderful man.
They all were. Finding Drathnor’s nest, getting free of the keep, I suddenly felt so much lighter.
“I left my father’s house with Auren to be free, but it’s only now I actually feel that way,” I told them.
“I want…” Gods, to have one man hang on my every word would’ve intoxicated the woman I was before I tried on the damn dress of Mother’s, but four?
“You brought down the general.” Lorien’s chest puffed up most distractingly at my words, right before I turned to Lance.
“You became a lieutenant to keep me safe.”
He flushed with pride.
“Of course.”
“You.” I shifted my focus to Kael. “Have been the most irritating, frustrating man.” Nothing seemed to faze him. That impudent grin was back and twice as bright. “Every time I think you can’t annoy me more, you do something else to top it.”
“If you didn’t respond so intensely—” he started to say.
“But you made me feel wanted, desirable, when you made me dance with you. Travelling to the tomb, seeing you with your family, I saw another man. One who cares deeply for those he is bonded with.” The smile faded and something unfathomable rose to replace it.
“You would do anything for your family, including go to war with the Royal Riders of Nevermere.”
“They’re all a bunch of idiots in uniform,” he croaked out. “Pretty sure they wouldn’t have made it through the first clash with our beasts. But yes.” edging closer, he took my jaw in his hands. “I’d do anything for you, Fern. Name it and it will be done.”
“Kiss me?”
“You don’t have to command me to do that.” His head drew down far too slowly, ensuring I caught the way his eyes flared brighter and brighter blue as he drew closer. “When it’s taken all of my will to stop from kissing those pretty lips since the moment I met you.”
Before I could say another word, his mouth crashed down on mine.
Where Lorien was far more gentle, Kael claimed.
Not content to passively allow myself to be ravished, my hands sank into his hair as I kissed him right back.
He wanted more, didn’t want to let up for a second, but I turned in his arms to look upon a very pale Dain.
His eyes were everywhere but on me, though finally they settled on meeting my gaze.
“You saw me, have always seen me.”
My focus shifted to his jacket pocket where that journal had to be.
“Will always see you,” he croaked out. “Didn’t anticipate this, though. How the hell I missed…” Reaching into his tunic, I thought he would draw forth the sketchbook, but instead he produced a thick gold signet ring. “A lady doesn’t lay with men of her acquaintance, but her husbands?”
“I’ll be damned,” Kael said. “A gold ring.”
“Become our wife,” Dain said, blinking furiously. “We’ll get a better ring, one more suited to a woman, but—”
“It’s perfect.”
My eyes burned as I took the band from his finger.
The thick band and a raven crest emblazoned across the top made clear it was a man’s signet ring, and yet I couldn’t have loved it more.
My so-called suitors would’ve presented me with a pretty diamond solitaire if I’d agreed to marry them, and what kind of life would’ve I enjoyed?
“Well, then…” Dain slid it onto my ring finger where it was hopelessly loose, then as I let out a little giggle, he tried a few others, finally settling on my thumb. My hand closed around the band, around his hand, to keep both of them in place. “Will you become our wife?”
I had longed to hear those words because it was expected of me, so my lips moved, ready to say yes. Pausing for just a moment, I considered what that would mean.
“To stay at home, keep your house and raise your children?” The look of hope burning in all their eyes made me want to stay silent, but I couldn’t.
“No, not that.” Dain’s face fell, starting to become a familiar smooth mask.
“But adventures? Flying high and far, seeing the breadth and width of Nevermere? Discovering new tombs, libraries, investigating ruins…” Suddenly I could see it clearly.
All five of us scrambling over the remains of some long-forgotten city, our dragons resting in the sunlight beyond. “If that’s what you had in mind, then—”
“Whatever you need, remember?” Kael smiled and then glanced at the others. “Someone has to come along and keep the females out of trouble.”
“Females—?” I spluttered.
“I’ll get a map from that university professor,” Lorien said. “Work out where to go next.”
“You’ll have my sword to protect you from any monsters we might find,” Lance said with a wink.
“And I will master my gift, foresee any danger we might face to keep you safe.” My hand gripped Dain’s and he returned the pressure as he pulled me closer. “So, yes?”
I sucked in a breath and smiled.
“Yes. Of course, my answer is yes.”