Chapter 65
Daegan lifts me into his arms, his rough hands squeezing my ass as his fingers dig into my skin.
“Finally,” I breathe into his mouth as he lays claim to mine at last. The kiss isn’t gentle, nor is it patient.
It’s a frenzy of love, lust, a hint of the hate that used to exist between us, and a lot of desperation.
Everything I had suppressed in the time we were separated is coming to the surface, pouring out of me through my hands, my mouth, my entire body.
I whisper his name against his lips, causing him to groan into my mouth as he swipes his tongue inside, reminding me just what he can do with that tongue.
Then he pulls back, giving me a surprisingly tender look, and he lays me down on the bed gently, running his fingers through my hair as he studies me. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
My cheeks warm and my stomach flutters as I look up at him. Mine. All mine.
He reaches up my dress and between my legs as he holds eye contact, then groans in satisfaction at how ready he finds me. Then we’re both moving with such desperation, like today might be our only chance to do this. He starts to move lower down my body, but I shake my head. “No.”
“No what?” he asks with dark, wild eyes, pausing.
“I’ve had your tongue. I need you inside of me. All of you. Now,” I say through desperate breaths. Luckily, I gifted him that fertility potion the other day, and he took it with a devious glint in his eye.
He smirks, not wasting any time as he stands, towering over me and nudging my thighs farther apart. The massive, hard outline in his pants is directly in front of me, and it makes me squirm, makes my body pulse with a desperate need for him.
I reach out and undo his belt in a frenzy, surprising myself at how efficiently I unbuckle it.
He rips his shirt off, showing me the deep lines in his abs that lead straight down and underneath his pants.
I run my hands along his hard stomach, taking in the new scattered tattoos that decorate his perfect body.
My mind is too distracted to study them closely right now, though.
He rips his pants down to his thighs, and I gasp at the sight of him coming free.
He leans over and rips the top of my dress open, exposing my breasts.
I can’t help but smile as he takes me in with his heavy gaze, on display just for him.
He leans down and kisses me hungrily while lifting me up with ease.
I wrap my legs around his waist, my arms around his strong shoulders that feel like my anchors, and he walks to the wall, placing my back against it.
“Tell me again what you want,” he mumbles against my lips as he presses his hips against me, making me moan again. The fabric of my dress is between us, and I need it gone.
“I need you inside of me. Now. Hard. Fast. Desperate. Like you’ve been waiting to do this for an eternity, and you can’t wait a moment longer.”
“I have, love. I fucking have.” He places kisses along my neck and up to my ear. “But I need to be gentle just for a few moments, okay?”
He pulls his hips back just enough to lift my dress up, then he lines his warm tip up against me and presses in slowly. There’s definitely a hint of pain as he stretches me, but having him inside of me feels so fucking right I don’t care.
“More,” I moan impatiently.
He pushes a little more. I feel so completely full and stretched already, but then I realize he’s not even halfway in. It turns me on even more.
He pulls out and presses in again, taking his time, studying my face. He repeats it a few more times, and I adjust to the pinch of pain mixed with pleasure. I like it. I want more.
Our lips meet again, messy and desperate. “Fuck me already,” I demand.
He chuckles darkly against my lips as he pulls all the way out. Then his fingers dig into my skin, and he thrusts into me, fully and completely, and I cry out, tilting my head back as I see stars.
He holds me against the wall with one arm, placing his other hand over my mouth. “Shhh. Not too loud. As much as I would love to hear you scream just for me, if we get interrupted, I’m fucking murdering someone.”
I laugh and nod, and then he looks deep in my eyes as he pulls back and thrusts all the way into me again. So deep and full, but the pain is lessening and the pressure that promises release is building.
He holds himself there for a moment, filling me completely as I adjust to him, our eyes locked on each other. This is what I’ve been craving. Being close to him on a whole new level. I can’t believe I waited so damn long to do this.
“Are you okay?” he asks tenderly as he runs his hand through my hair. “Does it hurt?”
I shake my head. I mean, it does, but I like it. I don’t know what that says about me.
“Don’t lie to me,” he whispers against my lips, breathing into me. “I’ll go slow.”
“No. I meant what I said. Give me the pleasure and the pain. I want all of you.”
His eyes become dark and stormy as he slowly pulls himself almost all the way out, then thrusts right back in. Hard.
I smile through the moan I let out. “More.”
His gaze travels all over me as if I’m something to be worshipped, and it sets my body on fire.
He begins to set a ravenous, unrelenting pace.
With my arms wrapped tightly around him, I pull his mouth to mine for a kiss that’s impossible to control with how wildly our bodies are moving, but so perfect anyway.
He’s still holding me up with ease, holding my body open to him at the perfect angle.
I feel that distinct pleasure building every time his body rubs against my clit as his impossible length pumps in and out of me.
With every thrust I feel myself edging closer and closer.
Everything feels like it’s coiled up so tight, it could snap at any moment.
He slows his pace for a moment, both of us breathing heavily as he looks into my eyes.
Hooking one arm around my lower back and using the wall to help hold me up, he reaches his other hand down and slowly rubs that sensitive spot between my legs with his thumb.
His rhythm is slow and deep. It’s fucking perfect.
Suddenly, the combination is just enough to send me over the edge. My vision goes blurry as the first powerful wave drowns me in pleasure, and his hand immediately finds my mouth again. I moan against it as he continues to pump into me, wave after wave sending me deeper into the abyss.
I recover for a moment, and then it feels like he somehow gets even harder. When I feel the warmth of him spilling himself into me, I explode around him again. This time he doesn’t cover my mouth, so I bite hard into his shoulder as he thrusts as far as he can go a few more times.
We finally slow to a stop, sweaty and breathing heavily, then he wraps both arms around my waist tightly and leans his damp forehead against mine.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you too.”
I run my hand along his back, then freeze. My breathing halts.
He senses the change immediately, pulling back to look at me with a knowing look.
“What did they do to you?” I whisper with horror. His upper back is lined with long, protruding scars. I’m terrified to see how bad the extent of it really is.
“I’m fine.” His expression softens slightly. “I promise.”
“Can I see?” I whisper.
His chest expands as he inhales deeply. “All of me is yours so… yes.”
He sets me on the floor, pulling the skirt of my dress down, even though the chest is ripped wide open. He lies face down on the bed as he tucks his arms under a pillow, his back fully exposed to me now. And his perfect, muscular ass.
I take a scared, tentative step forward, and then another.
Climbing on the bed next to him, I realize why he has so many new tattoos.
To cover the devastating map of scars that paint his back.
I reach out a hand and slowly run my finger along some of the lines.
He tenses, but then quickly relaxes. I slowly trace my hand along his scarred skin.
It’s like a beautiful old painting with its lines and textures.
I want to touch every mark. I want to somehow take away all the pain he’s endured.
Finally, I pull my hand back. “Who did this to you?”
He turns over, leaning back against the pillow and pulling a soft sheet up to his waist. “Sometimes him, sometimes one of his guards. They could never get me to talk, though. No matter how hard they tried.”
Anguish. That’s what I feel. “I’m s—”
“Stop. Don’t you dare apologize again. None of it is your fault. You got me through it.”
When I look at him with a pained, pleading look, he reaches for me, and I let him to pull me against him. I melt against him. “Okay?” he says when I still don’t respond.
“Okay,” I whisper against his chest. I’m curled up between his legs with the sheet between us, and it feels so perfect that I can’t help but close my eyes and nearly drift off as he runs a gentle hand through my hair.
“Where did you get the tattoos?”
“Everywhere. When we were trying so hard to find you, I couldn’t sleep, so I’d go find someone at a bar or tavern to tattoo me while everyone else rested.”
I trace a finger mindlessly down his thigh. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“It’s not your fault. Do not be sorry.”
I shut my eyes and exhale. “So, you were trying to cover every mark?”
I feel his chest rise below me. “After my father, I told myself I’d never let anyone leave their mark on me again.” He pauses, and I can hear a playful grin in his voice. “Besides you, of course. You can do whatever you want to me.”
Lying in silence together like this, feeling close to him on a completely different level, is the part I didn’t expect about being intimate.
It’s almost just as perfect. I enjoy the steady rhythm of his heartbeat while he continues to mindlessly play with my hair, and I think about how someone tried to take him from me.
“I’ll kill him,” I whisper.
He takes a deep breath before he responds. “You’ll have to fight your sister for that honor.”
“Shit. You’re right. Do you think I can take her?”
His chest rumbles with a low, deep chuckle. “Probably. She’s a great fighter, but… you’re a fearsome thing to behold. I wouldn’t want to go up against you. And she doesn’t wield magic.”
“Well, maybe she’ll let me share the honors.”
He doesn’t laugh this time. Instead, his voice takes on a more serious note. “You said yourself you’re not a killer. I don’t want you to murder someone, let alone your father, just to get revenge for me. I promise you, I’m okay. And he’ll get what’s coming either way.”
I lean back and look at him in all his post-sex glory, running my hand through his messy hair. “My tough, unbreakable dragon. Does anything scare you?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Losing you. Again.”
Who knew this grumpy, seemingly unfeeling dragon would be able to crack my chest open with just a glance and a few silly words? I wouldn’t have guessed it.
“Do you remember the first time we met?”
He closes his eyes, shaking his head as his jaw ticks. “Yes. I’d say please don’t remind me, but I need to be reminded so I can spend every day I have making it up to you.”
This close, I can see the tiny flecks of green in his smoky blue eyes. I can see the stubble dotting his chin. I want to memorize every detail. “You hated me.”
“A little,” he admits. “I didn’t know you.
I was an idiot. It didn’t take me long to start falling for you, though.
It probably started that day at the ball, when you were drunk on pink wine, without a care in the world.
I watched you dance like no one was watching, watched you with that… asshole. You were mesmerizing.”
I lean in and press my lips to his. This time it’s slow and delicate, like there’s something precious between us that we don’t want to break. We share breaths as he explores my mouth with his. “You hated me too,” he mutters against my mouth.
I pull back just a little, wrapping my arms around his neck and straddling him. “Nah. I never had much room in my heart to truly hate someone. That is until…”
“Your father?”
I nod. “Meela’s father even more so, actually. And… Adrian. I hate him.”
He nods in understanding.
“My list is growing.” I laugh, but he doesn’t. Instead, he looks at me with that quiet intensity that he’s so skilled at.
He grabs me at the waist and pulls me down more firmly against him, looking up at me with a completely different expression now.
One that makes my body hum. He’s hard against me again, and I can feel the moisture gathering between my legs.
“We have a little more time… I don’t feel nearly satisfied with you yet,” I say, rubbing myself against him with a slow move of my hips.
I run my hands slowly down his hard chest muscles, then down his chiseled stomach that has just a tiny trail of hair.
He groans as he lightly thrusts his hips against me, his hard length showing me how much he wants me too. I moan at the contact. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you, but we can try.”
I lean down to kiss him slowly, sensually, and he grips my ass with his rough palms. I lean back, smiling down at him.
“I want you to sit right there and put me inside of you. Take your time so I can enjoy watching every moment. I want to see every look on your face, every bounce of those perky tits as you take your pleasure from me.”
My face heats at his words, at the thought of being the one in control as he watches me closely. But between my thighs I’m dripping and throbbing at the idea.
I push the sheet away and do as he says, extending my thighs and pushing myself against his tip. I pause, looking down at him as he watches with rapt attention, taking in every bit of me as he cups one breast with his hand and the other hooks at my hip.
His eyes flick to mine, swimming with such intensity it steals my breath. “I wish I could stay in this moment forever,” he murmurs. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I hold his stare as I slowly sink down onto him, feeling him stretch me out an impossible amount. My mouth parts as a gasp escapes me, and he grins.
“Just like that,” he says.
And then I ride him, wild and uninhibited, like the fucking dragon that he is.