Chapter 65
Lorien
“Well, then…” I had Fern up in my arms within seconds, then was carrying her over to the bed.
“Lorien, what are you doing!” she cried as I tossed her onto the mattress. Following her moments later, I had my answer.
“Making you my wife.”
For a minute, I could see it. All the theoretical knowledge my sisters had instilled in me put into practise until my girl was gasping.
“I’m going to get the bed rolls from our packs,” Dain announced, right before he made for the door. His abrupt exit had Fern’s head popping up off the bed.
“I think I’ll join him.” Kael shot me a wink. “Care to give us a hand, Lieutenant?”
“You know I don’t hold that rank anymore,” Lance said. “I tossed my insignias at the general.”
“Did you? I’d like to have seen that…”
The door closed, and suddenly the strange room seemed all too quiet. What I was about to say, it went against the grain of me, but I’d say it anyway.
“We don’t have to do anything.” Her eyes went wide.
“I mean we need to eat and drink and I definitely need some sleep.” Snuggling down beside her, I threw an arm around Fern’s waist and then pressed my nose into her hair.
Breathing deep that ozone and roses perfume had something settling inside me. “We could do that now, if you like.”
“That’s not what you want.”
She rolled over, her smile helping ease some of the tension in my chest, but when her finger trailed down my sternum, a different kind was back.
Gods, how I needed her.
“I have what I’ve always wanted.” Pressing a kiss to her forehead, then I pulled back. “You. As long as we’re together, Fern, I’m happy.”
“So I shouldn’t touch the big, brave man who saved me and my dragon from slavery.” Her hand slid lower. “I was told a wife was supposed to please her husband.”
“Gods, woman.” I rolled on top of her, pinning her wrists above her head, and wasn’t that distracting.
“I’m trying to behave here. My body would very much like you to please me, but much to my dismay, I’m finding I’m an honourable man.
” For a few seconds, all I could do was stare.
I’d had so many fantasies about just this moment, I couldn’t believe what I was about to say.
“But don’t you want some fancy wedding? A white dress and a church where all your friends and family are in attendance?
” I flicked my hair back over my shoulders.
“Each one stunned at how handsome your husband is.”
“He is,” she said, returning my smile, “and I’m supposed to. Stay chaste until marriage, because that’s what my husband expects.”
“Well…” I released her hands, unable to stop mine from sliding down her cheek, then collaring her throat. “Virginity?” With a shrug, I forged on. “Not quite all it’s cracked up to be.” With a swallow, I sat back. “Never touched a woman before now myself.”
“What?” She rolled up onto her elbows and I admit, I was very distracted by the bob of her breasts. It took me a second to recover, but I shook my head and dragged my eyes upwards.
“Our dragons were never going to allow us to dally with some woman,” I said. “The fact ‘Fang isn’t beating down the door means he is convinced you’re the one for us.”
I like Fern, he said in sleepy tones. She’s nice and she makes you happy.
So, so very much, brother, I replied.
“So if you want your big day,” I continued. “We’ll make it happen. Elsie and the girls would love to help make you a dress, and they’d make sure the lot of us scrub up right. Not sure what your family would make of us, but I’ll do my best to win them over with my tales of bravery.”
Her giggle when I flexed my biceps was everything. Whatever it took to make her laugh, I’d do it, I vowed. But she grew serious, watching me with heavy lidded eyes.
“Before I left home, I read so many stories about heroes and their heroines,” she said.
“Back then, it was all her swooning into his arms. What came next was described in very vague terms.” Fern tilted her head slightly to the left as she regarded me steadily.
“I think I’d like to know more about that. ”
“About what happens to the fair maiden once the knight has rescued her from certain peril?” I leaned down, placing my hands either side of her head. “Whatever she wants.”
“Whatever they want,” she corrected.
“Now you’ve done it.” That came out in a low growl, because I had been trying so damn hard to hold it all down. “An ache started in me the moment we met and it hasn’t let up for a second.”
“Well, that sounds painful.” Her gentle smile made me hopeful. “What could be done about that?”
“Well, this for starters.”
I was always quick fingered, a good skill for a thief to have. A better one for a lover. The clasps of her tunic were popping open in seconds. I was too caught up in the idea of finally seeing the body I’d fantasised about to see her smile had faded.
“Wait.” Her hands circled my wrists, and while her grip was gentle, I froze on the spot. “I…” Her lungs filled with air, then she let it back out again with a hiss. “The last time a man looked at me as a potential wife, he likened me to a farm animal.”
“I will kill him and his stupid friends,” I said between clenched teeth. “Call them out, challenge them to duel, or whatever posh people do to resolve conflict. Dead, all of them and a warning to any other man who dare say a thing against you. It will be done.”
“I just…” Her attempts to master herself were apparent. “I don’t want the past in the bed with us, but I think we just need to take things slow.”
This I knew something about. My sisters had made clear that every woman was different and pouncing on her to get what I needed was very poor form.
My fingers moved far more slowly. I looked up, checking in with Fern’s responses after each one.
A final quick nod had me smoothing the tunic back, revealing a thin, cotton, short chemise.
“You’re beautiful, Fern.” With shaking hands, I traced the rounds of her shoulders, then let my fingers trail downwards. “If you knew how often I fantasised about just this moment.”
“Really?” Her smile was a little tremulous. “You hid that well in the library.”
“I must confess, I was only pretending to read the books.” Her tunic was pushed off and then my hands went to the hem of her chemise. Sliding a finger underneath, I stroked the hot satin of her skin. “Because it gave me an excuse to get closer to you.”
“You entered into the library…” She gasped as my other hand traced the slope of her breast. The nipple was poking through the thin cotton, begging for me to touch it. “On false pretences.”
“The books were boring, but sitting across from you at the table, itching to slip down to the floor and under it, before burying my face in your skirts?” I nodded as her back began to arch.
My fingers gave her nipples an experimental little tug, which had her mouth falling open.
The noisy rasp of her breath was music to my ears. “It had me aching, Fern.”
“Where…?” Her eyes roamed across my body, then slid down. My cock was straining against the leather of my pants like a dog on a leash. “Here?”
That curious combination of coy and bold was damn near undoing me. Well, that and her hand wrapping around my dick. Even through the leather, her touch branded me, claiming me as hers. My hips flexed, forcing my length into her palm, before I got a hold of myself.
“I didn’t dive onto that balcony just so you’d touch me, Fern.” My teeth ground together as her grip tightened. “Just knowing you’re safe is all I need.”
With a hiss of breath, I took a moment to pull it together when she pulled her hand away.
“When my sister walked down the aisle in a dress that took days to make,” she said, “I thought she looked like a fairy princess. All the things I was told about marriage and courtship and men came together on that day. Rose was the queen and Bryce was her king, so in my mind, they lived happily ever after.”
“But they didn’t.” I searched her face for clues. “They didn’t, right?”
“I left white dresses and being given by my father into the arms of another man behind the day I went off with Auren. I became a dragon queen, not a fairy princess. That means I make my own decisions about what happens.”
My eyes dropped down as she tugged at the lacing on my pants. The leather parted, almost with a sigh, eager to reveal me beneath. My eyes rolled backwards the moment her palm touched my shaft.
“Gods, Fern… Fuck… Fuck…”
Just a second more, I told myself, glorying in the feel of her caresses. But I was boiling, ready to erupt and that meant I had to knock her hands away.
“If we’re going to do this, it has to be skin to skin.” My words came out in a great tumble. “There can’t be anything between us. We need…”
She paused, then nodded, undoing the clasp of her pants, but that was when I took over. I had the fastenings opened, then was sliding them and her underwear down her legs. My own clothes followed suit, then I froze as I climbed back onto the bed.
“What?” Her tone was too sharp, her voice wary. “Lorien, what?”
It was her hands moving to cover herself that prompted me to act. Pinning by the wrists again, but now for a completely different reason.
“You are so beautiful,” I said. My voice was ragged, the words forced past my teeth.
“I can’t help but stare at you, wanting to remember every detail of this moment.
” Our eyes met, and I felt like I was sinking into those pretty blue depths.
“Something might happen. You might get snatched away from me, but this… I’ll remember this. ”
“Lorien.”
She sighed my name rather than said it, which was music to my ears.
“But I’m told our memory improves when we engage more than one of our senses…”