I can be the patient predator. I will be.
No matter how delicate her taste on my tongue or how sweet her cries of release.
There’s no saving her dress, but she seems the type to be bothered by public nudity, even in the keep. I scoop her into my arms, careful to tuck the torn dress around her. I like how neatly she fits. I more than like how she melts against me and presses her cheek to my chest.
“Warm,” Briar murmurs.
It’s difficult to walk with my cocks hard enough to make me dizzy, but I manage. I can sense several of the staff waiting at the perimeter of the garden, but they wait until I’ve left the table to approach. It’s just as well. I don’t stand on ceremony, but right now I’m feeling…strange.
Is this the mating frenzy?
I’ve never experienced it before. I never got the chance to with Anika, for all that we were having plenty of sex during the official courtship. They were never mine in a way Briar is as my wife. I was never theirs in the way their husband is now. We were simply enjoying each other and testing out the idea of forever.
I didn’t think that distinction would make a difference. I thought our precautions were a bit over the top when Aldis first insisted on them, but now I’m grateful for her stubbornness. I don’t know what I’d do if I saw another dragon while feeling like this.
I tighten my hold on Briar and lean down to inhale the scent of her. Mine. I pick up my pace. I will carry her back to her rooms—our rooms, really—and leave her there. The memory of her cumming around my tongue and the knowledge that she’s sleeping in my bed, even if I’m not there to share it, will have to be enough to keep my control tightly leashed.
I will not spook her.
I refuse to.
But when I set Briar gently on her feet in front of the door and move to take a step back, she hooks her fingers into the waistband of my pants. “Wait. Don’t go.”
Pure lust surges, and it’s everything I can do to keep it locked down. “You’ve had enough.”
She looks up at me, her expression settling into something I don’t recognize. It’s hard and almost furious. She tugs on my waistband. “You don’t get to decide that. I do.”
My cocks go harder yet, and I clench my jaw. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“Don’t I?” She takes an almost tentative step closer and presses her free hand to the front of my pants. She traces a line down one cock and then cups the other. “Please, Sol. I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to do this again if we don’t finish it tonight.”
Another indication that I’m taking advantage. If I were half as honorable as everyone claims dragons are, I’d brush off her hold and walk away. It doesn’t happen. Instead, my body moves almost of its own accord, and I reach past her to open the door.
Briar’s brilliant smile is a reward in and of itself.
She steps back through the door, tugging me behind her. I follow, an obedient little pup fighting not to turn into a full predator and ravish her. I kick the door shut behind me. The room is too quiet, filled only with our mingled harsh breathing.
“I can’t take both,” she rushes to say. “But what we did before…That felt really good.” Her hand trembles against my length. “Maybe this could feel good, too.”
I try to slow down. To parse out her words. To come up with a suitable response that won’t scare her silly.
It doesn’t work. My brain has taken a back seat to desire. The only thing I can do is follow her lead, allowing her to pull me toward the bed. “I think I would like to meet this person who made you think sex shouldn’t feel good.” I can’t help flexing my fists at my sides, my claws sliding out.
Briar glances down and raises her brows. “I don’t think you’d like him much, but it’s a moot point. He’s dead.”
Azazel’s work, no doubt. I’ll have to press the demon for details when I encounter him next. Details like how he spilled the bastard’s guts all over the floor. He better have made Briar’s ex suffer. It’s the least he could do.
“All the same,” I manage.
“I don’t want to talk about him.” She gives me one last tug, and I have the presence of mind to hook her around the waist as she tips back, rotating so I land on my back with Briar straddling my stomach. She blinks down at me. “You’re so fast when you want to be.”
“I’m trying not to frighten you,” I grit out.
Briar tentatively runs her hands over my chest. “You…don’t.” She says it slowly, almost seeming to marvel over the revelation. “That’s strange, isn’t it? Even when I don’t like what you’re saying or what your goals are, I’m not really scared of you.” She shakes her head, her red hair shining in the low light of the lamp by the desk. “I think I might really be a fool. I have no reason to trust you.”