I Married A Dragon (Prime Mating Agency)(38)

I remained speechless, feeling both shamed and aroused by this assertive side of Cedros I’d never fully experienced before. As much as I hated getting called out, in this instance, I couldn’t even counter any of his statements. I was being ridiculously prudish. But you didn’t shed a lifetime of habits overnight.

“Your arousal woke me. You moaned my name. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”

I could have tried to imagine if his words, and the almost growling way in which he had spoken them hadn’t increased the throbbing between my thighs. As if sensing their effect on me, Cedros turned to look at my crotch, his nostrils flaring. His teeth clenched, almost with anger. To my shock, he leaned down and licked my left nipple. The scratchy feel of his tongue on my hard nub had a bolt of fire exploding in the pit of my stomach. A strangled moan escaped me, and my toes curled while a shiver ran through me.

Cedros lifted his head to glower at me. “I am your Shadow Lord, and you are my Ejaya. There is nothing we can’t say to each other or do together. Shed your irrational human constraints. They have no place between us. If you want something, just say it.”

Before I could come up with an appropriate response, Cedros flapped his wings, just enough to fly out of the bed and to the entrance of the hygiene room. He cast a glance at me over his shoulder.

“I must prepare and head out to the black gate. You should find all the sustenance you require in the cooling unit. Trinit will come by in a couple of hours. Let her know if you need anything.”

With that, he entered the hygiene room. The sound of the shower reached my ears moments later. But all I could think about was how wet he’d gotten me. My hand found its way inside my panties. I rubbed my clit while listening to the raining water in the other room. I could see how it was caressing his scales, trickling between the deep grooves of his muscular body, imagining it was my hands and tongue on him instead.

I bit on my tongue to silence the moans that wanted to rise from my throat as pleasure steadily built within me. My free hand pinched and caressed the nipple he had licked, trying to rekindle the intense sensation he had provoked with that single swipe of his tongue. Imagining how it would feel between my thighs had me toppling over the edge. I barely managed to bury my face in my pillow to muffle the sound of my shout of ecstasy.

I continued riding my hand until the tidal wave of pleasure began receding. The whole time, I hoped Cedros would walk back inside the room, find me in this compromising position, and ravage me. But as was his wont, as soon as he finished showering, he flew out of the house through the opening ceiling of the hygiene room, and vanished inside the portal he summoned mid-air.

Dejected, and annoyed with myself and this misery of my own making, I forced myself out of bed. After a quick shower, I got dressed. While I was working my way up to baring it all in front of Cedros, I wasn’t there yet with complete strangers, female or otherwise.

I settled at the kitchen table to eat breakfast while sending a detailed request to Tedrick. Those other incidents Cedros had spoken of would give me a place to start. Many of these files were likely classified, and well above my pay grade. But there was no way the UPO hadn’t documented each one of them. If they wanted me to solve this mess, they had better loosen their tongues and release a few files my way.

While waiting for a response, I tapped into the Dramnac knowledge network and read up everything I could about shadow obsidian, both in stone and dust form. The mines also held a particular fascination for me. I couldn’t wait to take a gander there in person. I silently thanked the powers above that I should be a Shadow Lord’s Ejaya. That alone opened countless doors for me. As a regular civilian, I would have needed to request a time slot to be allowed inside the premises and to be able to mine.

Every citizen of Dramnac could mine for four hours, once every two weeks. As this only applied to the legal bloodlines of the planet, I doubted I would even qualify for a slot. I considered submitting a request to the Oddran municipal authorities, but decided against it. I didn’t want to risk an overzealous bureaucrat barring me entry until things could get sorted out.

These restrictions aimed at controlling the shadow obsidian market, and to prevent people from trying to raise their plateau level too quickly. From what I could read, carving shadow obsidian was a slow and painstaking process to avoid burning its energy by triggering accidental portals. With great care and patience, the miner excised small stones that could fit in the palm of a child’s hand.

A professional miner could extract an average of ten stones in their four-hour window along with a small pouch of shadow obsidian dust. A regular civilian doing the work himself would get about half. Therefore, the wealthy usually hired a professional miner to work the mines in their stead during their slot. But like Cedros had explained, considering how much more obsidian was required to make their plateaus float even higher, it made sense they would try to maximize their extraction potential in the mines.

A shadow at the edge of my vision drew my attention. My lips parted in surprise at the sight of a beautiful emerald-green Derakeen landing on the terrace outside. She looked rather petite—by Derakeen standards—which put her at a height with me. Her golden eyes sparkled with warmth when I went to welcome her.

“Greetings, my sister,” the female said, extending both of her hands towards me.

“Hello! You must be Trinit?” I said, instantly liking her.

I took her hands and, although surprised, didn’t resist when she drew me in for a hug. Apparently, Cedros had done a good job of training me on that front. Thankfully, she didn’t rub her face all over me. That would have been extremely awkward. However, her throat glowed, sending the most amazing warmth through my chest while she gave me a sisterly hug. It was insane how soothing and affectionate that felt.