Light My Fire (Dragon Kin #7)(70)

“Now? We sleep.”

“Out here? There are barely any trees. It’s just empty space and grass.”

“It is the Steppes. There is little else.”

“There’s no town nearby where we can get a hot meal . . . and a warm bed?”

“We have warm bed.” She lifted up her bedroll. “See?”

“And the horses?”

“There is creek over there. Can you not hear it? And it is the Steppes. There is more than enough grass for them. Snow has barely touched most of it.”

“And if we decide to have sex again?”

Elina shrugged. “We f*ck right here.”

“In front of everybody?”

“We will be like animals.”

“Except that we’re not animals.” He thought on that a moment. “Well . . . I’m not. I’m a dragon. I like shelter.”

“What is different from here than where we f*ck before?”

“Trees. Dense, shielding trees.”

“You are spoiled.”

“Elina—”

“If you want shelter”—she pointed at the mountains far off in the distance—“you can go there and get shelter. Fight for space among the dragons of the Outerplains. I am sure they like company.”

“We both know that Outerplains dragons do not like company. They’re antisocial miscreants.”

“I do not know what that means, but you are probably right.”

Elina got a small campfire started first. Once that was done, she set out her bedroll and retrieved fresh water from the creek. Her horse, now back on its own territory, drank from the creek and began to indulge in the grass without any prompting from Elina.

Retrieving dried pork and bread from her saddlebag, she sat down on her bedroll and began to eat. That was when she noticed that Celyn was still on his horse.

Both horse and rider looked so out of place, she couldn’t help but smile.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Trying to come up with other options.”

“There are other options but none that make sense.” She shrugged. “You might as well get used to this, Dolt. This will be our life until we reach tribes. A life without big, shielding trees.”

“Aren’t you worried, though?”

“Worried? About what?”

“An attack.”

“Is that what has you looking so fussy?”

“I’m not a human baby.”

“Look around you, Celyn.”

“I have been. There’s no protection for us if we’re set upon.”

“And we cannot be set upon without seeing them first. And hearing them.” She pressed her hand against the ground. “Even their footsteps will come through the ground of the Steppes, and we will feel their approach.” She took a bite of her pork. “By the time any warriors get near us, we can be ready to fight or, if necessary, you can fly us away or burn them to embers with your flame.”

She again patted the ground beside her. “Now come. Sit beside me. I will play with your cock while we eat.”

Elina hadn’t even finished chewing the second bite of her food before the dragon suddenly dove into place next to her. A smile on his handsome face, his eyebrows wiggling in anticipation.

He was adorably pathetic.

“Take care of your horse first, Dolt.”

“Take care of him?”

“He cannot spend all night wearing saddle and equipment.”

“Aye, but—”

“I am not going anywhere. My hands will still be here to play with cock when you get back.”

“Promise?”

Elina looked out into the dark night of the thousands of leagues of Steppes lands and asked, “Where in all hells would I go?”

Celyn led his horse to the creek before stripping off his saddle and bridle. He carried the equipment over to where Elina had placed her extremely simple saddle and dumped the whole lot there.

Then he sort of . . . dove at her again.

It wasn’t pretty. Or elegant. Just kind of desperate.

When he’d woken up that morning, he honestly hadn’t thought he’d have the energy for anything after their long day of riding. But his body had different plans once she’d said the word “cock.”

No euphemisms for Elina of the Too Long Name. She was as straightforward and brutal about sex as she was about words. Something he was minding less and less these days. He liked her open honesty. Her strange turn of phrase that had nothing to do with the common language of the Southlander not being her first language.

But what he really liked was how, when he tackled her in his wild dive, she simply rolled with him until she had him on his back. They’d rolled away from their small campsite and their warm bedrolls, but neither seemed to care as they began to wrestle in the dirt and snow.

Nothing violent or angry. But their clothes did manage to go flying until they were both naked and Celyn was buried deep inside her. He had her pinned to the ground, his hands holding her arms over her head.

He leaned down and kissed her, but abruptly pulled back and accused, “You faithless cow, you have ale! And you’ve shared none with me!”

Elina hiked one leg up high on his hip and then lifted and turned until Celyn was flat on his back, but still buried deep inside her.