A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales #2)(70)

I tried to pull away from him a little, but he held me firmly, his cock still deeply inside me, his body glued to mine.

“In heat? Okay, I know we’re shifters, but using terms like ‘breeding’ and ‘in heat’ is crossing the line.”

He laughed softly. “It wouldn’t be if you’d grown up around such talk. The animal parts of us can be…”

“Gross? Pushy dickheads?”

“Intense. Anyway, yes, there is a heat cycle, basically, where the female isn’t satisfied unless she’s getting the male’s seed in her constantly. I’ve only ever heard of a couple of dragon true mates, and apparently the men were not complaining about being needed constantly. The ones I’ve heard about walked around with tired smiles. Growing up, everyone thought it was an urban legend, but everyone wanted to be the guy to experience it. It almost always results in a young one, though, I’ve heard. Otherwise dragons don’t produce as much as some of the other shifters. Wolves, for example. They have numbers, and we have more power. It balances out in the long run.”

He rolled to the side, laying me on my back, pressing me into the mattress. He kissed me languidly.

“Our animals are feeding off each other, I think,” I said before nipping at his lips. “Yours seems like a headstrong jackass, and mine is eager for him to get his way. They don’t really give a shit about logic. They just want to bang.”

He chuckled. “I think you’re right.” His mood sobered. “I worry about you going out at night without me. It’s why I act the way I do. I’ve never been good at dealing with vulnerability, and you are my greatest weakness. I don’t want to lose you.”

I ran my fingers across his muscled arms, utterly spent in the best of ways. An aftershock shivered across my skin, and I let my eyes drift shut.

“You can’t watch me all the time, Nyfain. You can’t be everywhere at once.”

“I know,” he whispered. “But…can we compromise? Clearly I can’t force you to my will. But I can’t handle making another mad flight across the Royal Wood because I think you’re in trouble. It rips my heart out. I’m a strong man, but I’m not strong enough for that. It’s a danger to me as much as to you, if you care about that. I’m never focused on my surroundings when I’m running to you.”

“Of course I care about that.”

“So meet me halfway. Please. Tell me what you plan and let me try to at least be close by in case something goes wrong.”

I opened my eyes and took in his golden gaze—his expression, open and expressive, imploring me to see sense, or his version of it. I kissed his soft lips and slid my knees a little farther up his sides.

“Fine. But if you’re in one of your moods, you might need to settle for finding out in a letter.”

“A letter is fine. Send Hadriel if you need. Whatever.”

“I wouldn’t do that to the poor guy.”

He smiled, his gaze roaming my face. “Did you harvest?”

“Yes, but I didn’t get a chance to put them in water to keep them from drying. I also didn’t get a chance to pick from any of the crowded plants.”

“We’ll pick from them tomorrow.”

“I thought you were just going to stay close.”

“I will. Very close.” He pushed off me with a smirk, quickly bending to run his tongue up my folds and then flick my clit. It was so decadently filthy that I couldn’t help getting turned on again.

In that mood now, wanting to see where it would go, I reached down and ran my fingers through my deliciously used pussy, biting my lip. I moved the wetness up to my clit and stroked lazily.

“Fuck me,” he whispered, grabbing the bedpost. His eyes flashed with heat, and his cock started to rise. He glanced at the bared pink flesh between my spread knees and groaned.

“Maybe just come back and spend what’s left of the night…”

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he murmured, and shook his head. “I do want to stay, but there are still a few things I have to do.”

He leaned down over me and kissed me, long and slow, rubbing his fingers over my clit and down, dipping them inside me.

“Pleasure yourself when I leave,” he whispered, his lips against mine. “I want to feel it through the bond. Think of me licking your pussy when you do. I want to hear all about your filthy daydreams when I see you next.”

His fingers pumped a little faster, and I arched, my breath hitching.

He swore softly and pulled his fingers away. “I do have to go. I’ll put those leaves in water. Sleep, princess. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Will you ever spend the night with me? Or, you know, what’s left of it?”

He paused next to the bed. He ran his hand up the side of my thigh, over a hip…and then his touch skimmed my stomach, longing ringing through the bond again. Our gazes locked, our connection so deep that I fell in and lost track of the world around me. My heart squeezed at the warmth I saw.

I wrapped my fingers around his muscled forearm just to have that connection. To ground myself in him. I knew then that he felt the same way as me. Wanted the same things. Was equally cockblocked by the difference in our situations and maybe fate itself.

“I wish things were different,” he whispered, his thumb stroking across my belly.