A Destiny of Dragons (Tales From Verania #2)(48)

And that was all well and good. He didn’t let it go to his head (well, not too much, anyway—he was still a cocky bastard, after all). He’d worked hard to get where he was, gave up a lot to become a Knight Commander. And it’d almost doomed us, given the oaths he’d made.

But a funny thing happened after all that was said and done.

I learned that I, Sam of Wilds, was a sex god.

And that’s meant to be as humble as possible. You see, Ryan was in charge in most things of his life. As the Knight Commander for the Eighth Battalion, he oversaw a hundred knights as part of the Castle Guard. He ran their training sessions. He was their teacher, their instructor, their therapist, their punching bag, their bro, their dude, the man. He was calm, assertive.

He was also a big fucking bottom who liked it when I took charge in the bedroom.

“Holy shit,” I’d said after the fourth time we’d had sex (which turned out to be the day after he was an asshole and almost got married but waited until the last second to confess his undying love for me). “I’m a sex god.”

“Oh my gods,” he’d muttered. “That’s not—”

“I’m so good at this. You like it when I tell you what to do, and I’m so good at that.”

“It’s good, yeah, but we have to—”

“And I’m just a natural at being in charge. Right? Like, you’re all grr rawr swinging dick when you’re with the knights, but in here, you’re all, take me up against the wall, you savage brute.”

“That’s not what I said—”

“Not that I have a problem with that,” I’d assured him, just in case he was worried. “I’m finding that I rather enjoy being in charge. I was doing some research, and it’s come to my attention that I’m probably a power top.”

“Research? When the hell would you have had time to do research? We haven’t even left the room!”

“Obviously the sex we just had counted as research.”

“Obviously.”

I’d turned over on my side to face him, reaching over to trace a finger over his eyebrows. He’d hummed a little and leaned into the touch, and I thought, I can’t believe this is mine, I can’t believe I get to have this. “It’s okay, you know,” I’d said lightly.

“What is?”

“That we do this here. You and me?”

He’d flushed, refusing to look at me. “It’s not… I don’t… I just.” He’d bitten his bottom lip. “I just like it, is all,” he’d finally said quietly. “I don’t have to think. With you. I know it’ll be okay. That you’ll take care of me. I don’t have to worry about anything else.”

I’d grinned at him. “Ergo, sex god.”

He’d rolled his eyes, but he’d also been fighting a smile, and that was pretty much my undoing. The fifth time had been spectacular.

And we’d refined it over the last year, turning it into something more. Sure, I was still a sex god and said sex was hot. But there was a familiarity to it now. I knew him as well as he knew me. I knew what made him tick, the little things he liked. I knew what it meant when his eyes glazed over as he panted below me. And he knew what it meant when I started trembling, how close I was. I had something that he never gave to anyone else, something to call my own, and I protected it at all costs. It wasn’t something I even really talked about with Gary and Tiggy. For all the bluster, for all the shit I could talk, there were some things that needed to be protected.

I figured I’d given him enough time. I made my way to our room, the door cracked, candlelight flickering inside. I took a breath and pushed it open.

And promptly lost said breath like I’d been punched in the stomach.

Ryan Foxheart was on our bed on his back, trousers discarded and forgotten on the floor. His hand was shiny with oil as he jerked himself off, head rocking back. But it was his other hand that caught my attention. That hand was between his legs, moving slowly as he fingered himself, stretching himself open as he pressed his feet flat against the bed, pushing up to try and get a better angle. From where I stood, it looked like he was already two or three fingers deep. It normally took longer than that; I’d only been in the hall a few minutes or so. Ruv must have really gotten under his skin if he was this worked up.

I watched his toes curl into the comforter as he arched his back slightly, bowing up and off the bed. He groaned my name, long and drawn-out, and it was all I could do to keep from running over and pouncing on him. This was going to be fast and messy, and I wanted to let it build just a little bit more before I took him.

My magic was singing underneath my skin, rushing through my blood. The thousands of tiny little strands that connected us, the facets of the cornerstone we’d built so far, were thrumming. It was a heady thing. Not just the sight of him, even though that was enough to almost knock me off my feet. But the threads that built between us, the little offshoots of green and gold and blue that sparked off in the corner of my eyes, just out of reach. It made me feel more powerful than I’d ever felt before. Sex didn’t always need to be a component for cornerstones; Morgan was proof of that. But it was for Ryan and me, and I had no problem with that whatsoever.

“You ready?” I asked him in a low voice as I locked the door behind me. His hips jerked a little at the sound of the lock clicking.