Chapter 27
Mind groggy, Carwyn rubbed her nose against bumpy scales, taking in his rich, mind-fogging scent and his body-easing heat. She hummed her enjoyment, wishing her bladder didn’t throb so she could go back to sleep.
Weight rested over her waist – probably his arm – and an inhuman-shaped leg was nestled between her thighs. She wiggled her toes to confirm that his tail had coiled around her calf and foot. Clawed fingers brushed over her sleep-tangled curls, careful not to tug on the strands.
A soft sigh fell from her when claw tips trailed along the sensitive arch of her nape, and she tilted her head in welcome.
“Finally she wakes,” he grated out, husky from sleep.
It’s not a dream.
Her eyes flashed open, and she absentmindedly shoved at Kier’s chest to separate them. He held on strong, and she barely gained an inch. She quickly gave in when he brought her in tighter than before, taking her movements as surprise and not rejection.
“You fell asleep with me?” she whispered, flicking her gaze over his scaled chest before darting it up to the underside of his snout.
Pulling his head back to meet her gaze, he cocked a spiked brow at her with his eyelids lowered. “What else did you think when I said lie with you?” he asked pointedly.
She opened her mouth and nothing came out.
I thought he only meant until I fell asleep. He’d never done this before – not even after they’d been intimate. He usually crawled off somewhere deeper within his cave, nestled away from her safely and securely.
Her heart fluttered, going a thousand beats per minute, and the strength of it rattled her. She looked back down to gawk at his chest and the way her hands – bare, naked, and ungloved – were against him. Her eyes eventually crinkled as she leaned into him and ghosted her palm over his side.
I’ve always wanted to lie with someone like this.
Her cotton shift had ridden so high that cold air kissed her bare arse cheek, but the rest of her was contentedly warmed by him. Her fingertips plucked the spikes going up his back, their nubs hard and firm, while she basked in this moment just a little longer.
Because deep down inside, she knew this needed to end. This was too close, too intimate. Not in body, but in soul, and that was dangerous for Carwyn.
She wanted to walk out of this cave unbroken, and something tender and beautiful like this could see her heart being wounded in ways she might not be able to recover from.
Sex could be meaningless, but to be embraced like this... it no doubt had meaning.
And Carwyn had to ignore it. They both did.
Sometimes two people can be wrong and right for each other at the same time.
They fit, but there were reasons they wouldn’t work, such as his dislike of her kind, his rejection of a witch as a mate, and the fact that he’d already made it known that he’d rather keep this a secret.
Not to mention her fear of touch and how, if they connected while he was human, he could accidentally betray her with a glimpse of a wrong emotion she might not forgive him for.
Feeling one’s innermost self wasn’t something she could see past. It was the truth, no matter how pleasant or ugly.
She wanted lies. To pretend that her feelings were reciprocated. That she was perfect, lovable, and worthy in any and all ways.
Yet two men had ensured she felt the utter opposite. Their desires had been born of utter selfishness for a moment of gratification and hadn’t been entirely pure.
I need to leave. This had become her mantra over the past few days, and it only grew stronger the more her heart ached with longing. He doesn’t want me, not really. Not permanently.
And... I don’t want to know his truths.
She didn’t want to touch his human skin, even if she craved his touch all the same.
I hate my abilities. She’d never be complete with them.
Once she greedily soaked all that she could bear without her chest ripping apart, she made him release her.
He will let me go. All this is... meaningless.
Like the others, a moment. Because she was convenient and because she was allowing herself to be available. Because she was an easy target for men who could say and do the right things, since she was so desperately, pathetically... lonely.
She stood from the bed, from the place he’d curled around to encase her, and knelt next to her belongings. She dug into her bag and all it contained, wondering if she’d ever be able to find her bow, quiver, and sword.
Hopefully they’re still where he took me from.
“We should wake your sister,” Carwyn murmured, keeping her gaze away from his furrowed brow. “I should bathe first to rid your scent from me. You should do the same.”
“That’s wise,” he answered dully, standing on all fours and shaking his body into alertness. “I only need to shift to do that.”
His tone was colder than she liked, radiating displeasure at her readiness for this to end. But it was time for her to return to her journey. To go home.
To get everything she truly wanted.
A forlorn chill crept over her skull and down her spine as he left. Yes, she thought with a saddened smile. Let’s pretend already.
With a long, thin, yet deep wound throbbing his wrist, Kier dipped his human forefinger into the shallow bowl of his own blood. The crimson liquid still held warmth as he copied the insignia Carwyn had drawn upon the ground onto his sister’s bare abdomen.
He eyed the witch cautiously as she peeked down at the floor to check, yet again, that it was correct. He would never be careless to make a mistake at such a time as this.
She immediately withdrew from me. Well, not immediately, but he was still rather sour that she’d rolled away so easily and had quickly thrown a barrier between them.
He’d actually been hoping that waking in his arms would stir her into wanting more.
Some touches and caresses, maybe even a taste.
Dear heavens, preferably even a fuck finally.
He thought their last free chance might have spurred need in her, and they could have both given into their cravings while they’d still been alone.
But no, Carwyn left his embrace and coldly reminded them of this necessity. The whole reason he’d brought her in the first place.
She wants to leave.
She wanted this done and over with. He couldn’t do this without her. She’d fulfilled her promises, and he’d have to honour his own. Selene would have a blood debt to her. He knew where his sister would lean in her decision, although it might require some coaxing on his part.
So why does this anger me so?
Why did Carwyn’s cold shoulder infuriate him like nothing else?
I laid with her. Showed her I trusted her fully. He’d fallen asleep by her side – and rather quickly. He’d been surprised by that, and by how rested he’d been when he awoke. It was the first time in over a month... and perhaps longer.
Something about her body, her softness, her very scent, called to him. Her breaths and heartbeat had been lulling in a way he’d never known. He’d curled around her protectively with his entire body, sheltering the fragile thing, until he’d thrown a wing over her to blanket her.
He’d had a deep, unbearable need to bring her closer until she meshed against every inch of him possible. Am I the only one who feels this? Surely not.
Once Kier was done writing the witchcraft spell in his own blood, he stepped back. He glared at it, how foul it was, and how it marred Selene’s skin. Abhorrent.
But the true cut of his glare came from his next thought. It annoys me that she wishes to leave so much. Shouldn’t it be him who wanted to shoo this witch from his lair?
“I still think we should clothe her,” Carwyn stated with a sigh, staring at his sister’s naked torso.
Kier couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “She’d question why I felt the need to.”
“After what happened to her...”
“She won’t even register it,” he insisted, shaking his head. “This is customary for dragons and is our way.”
She looked off to the wall as she clutched her forearm unsurely. “I thought it might be more comforting.”
“It’s only humans and witches that find nudity off-putting.
The fact that your kind wear clothing is what makes your nakedness obscene.
” Despite everything, he couldn’t help the light chuckle that built in his chest at her reddening cheeks.
“Carwyn, had you strutted about my home unclothed from the moment you found yourself in it, I may not have found what lies beneath it so teasing or tantalising.”
She gawked up at him, and his eyes crinkled in humour.
But it was true. The fact that she’d hidden it from him had him itching to discover what secrets lay beneath her dresses. What she was hiding. And when he’d been rewarded with the visual, it’d made his cock unbearably hard at knowing he’d finally sated the curiosity because he’d earned it.
Humans, with their modesty, inadvertently made their bodies erotic.
Her eyes dipped to his covered groin, and the blush staining her cheeks deepened. He couldn’t help it; he found her reaction cute.
They both knew he was naked, and his trousers were nothing but an illusion for her benefit only. To protect her innocent little eyes from... nothing. Truly, his cock was just another part of him, and no different to his arm or his torso, which he purposely kept bare to her gaze.
He wanted her appreciative stare on his chest, the muscles of his back, and the lines of his hips, even if she tried to hide it.
Carwyn clapped her hands in readiness. “Alright, let’s do this.”
When she raised her hands over the circle of his blood, he walked over to her.
She immediately backed up with her hands bundled protectively against her chest, evading his human form as always.
Yet her eyes tightened into a confused glare at his nearness, especially when he bent forward to close the distance even more.
His eyes flicked between her mesmerising near-black ones, taking in the way the angled firelight made one a little browner than the other.