Breath of Innocence

by Ophelia Bell

  Geva let out an exaggerated sigh at the sight of her bare, luminescent ass.

  Jesus, the man was already sporting a huge erection just from looking at her. The sight aroused Eben just a little, but mostly he was still amused at the dragon’s reaction. Then he just fervently hoped they wouldn’t succumb to fucking right in front of him. They were glowing enough from the last round as it was.

  When Erika turned to face them, Eben turned away, not wanting to see yet again the reminder of how much Erika had changed since becoming the red dragon’s mate. The steady, pulsing glow of the red mark that graced her lower abdomen was as telling as his own dormant one. The sense of betrayal had surprised him with its intensity when he first saw it weeks earlier, but now it just lingered like a persistent itch he couldn’t scratch so had given up trying. His half-aroused cock grew limp, and his conflicted interest in perhaps joining them in some fun for once disappeared from his mind completely.

  Erika wanted it, too. There was no lying where the magic was concerned. The mark told all.

  He sat silent while she climbed into the pool with a satisfied groan that made his balls clench at the familiarity of the sound. He tilted his head back as if he were enjoying the water, and kept his eyes fixed outside one of the windows. He tried to ignore the pummeling thoughts that invaded his mind every night. The worry that he was being an ass to Camille for not giving her what she wanted. Erika was supposed to be his ally, but how could she be if she was already primed for mating?

  Mating. Jesus, he was already thinking like them, too. He’d heard Roka say the word a thousand times in his explanations of a dragon’s imperative to reproduce. It always perplexed Eben why their political bullshit had forced them to throttle back when that seemed to be their sole purpose. It hadn’t been until Roka showed him historical accounts of mass murder that were the result of dragon politics and their lack of control over breeding. “We did this to ourselves, but we’d like to undo it because the world is different now. Dragons have evolved.”

  Eben wasn’t so sure, but he went along with it. If anything it was because of Camille. He wanted more than anything to make her happy, and she wanted more than anything to have his baby.

  He tilted his head back against the cold stone of the bath and sighed.

  “Eben, what the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been a mess for weeks.”

  His head jerked up and he stared at Erika.

  Her dark brows lowered suspiciously.

  “Nothing.”

  “Bullshit.” She glowered at him and he reflexively glanced at Geva for support, but the Red only seemed amused by Erika’s persistence.

  She sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees, completely nonchalant about her heavy breasts hanging between her arms. “I know you better than I know myself. You’re beat up over something and judging from Camille’s lack of appearance yet again, I have a good idea what’s wrong. You just need to confirm it.”

  “Nothing’s…” He only started to get out the word “wrong” when she dove across the pool and gripped his cock in her hand. Her other hand went to his balls and squeezed. The pressure was more arousing than threatening, but her voice against his ear told a different story.

  “You tell me the truth. So help me God or I will rip your balls off. If you’ve hurt her, you better believe me, you deserve it.”

  The venom in her voice took him completely off guard. He had no idea she was so protective of Camille. Maybe they had talked? But Jesus…

  “Holy fuck, Erika, no! I love her. It’s this fucking Verdanith that’s gotten into her head. She’s baby crazy. Like you, I guess. I have no idea what the fuck I’m supposed to do with that.”

  The grip on his balls loosened and drifted away, leaving him more aroused than he’d been before, particularly since Erika’s luscious breasts had been pretty much cradling his chin during the ordeal.

  “The Verdanith is our best chance if we don’t want to be raising kids in our fifties, or later,” Erika said. She shared a glance with Geva that seemed oddly conspiratorial and raised alarm bells. Eben was sure he caught a subtle shake of Geva’s head. It wasn’t like Erika to hide something from him, but they weren’t as close as they once were.

  “You don’t want a baby?” Geva’s deep and slightly accented voice startled him, but the Red’s scrutiny made him even more uncomfortable.

  “No. I want her. At least for now. I’m just not ready for a kid. Fuck, I love her more than life and I’m not ready to share even more of her.” He took a breath and in a pathetic tone that disgusted even him, he added. “I just want more time with her before it all goes away.”

  The Red’s eyes narrowed as he looked Eben over. Eben hated the look, but knew beyond a doubt he deserved it. He was an immature pussy. A self-centered manwhore. Unable to admit even to himself that he had lucked out with this arrangement. He didn’t deserve them.

  But he needed them. He needed Roka for his unwavering understanding of their shared masculine plight in the presence of the perfectly unassuming sexual presence Camille possessed. She had no idea how she affected them both. She could do the most benign things and Eben would hear Roka respond at the same time he felt his own heart thud in his chest. She had no idea how beautiful she was and her innocence astounded them both. It was one of the things that he shared with the dragon that had brought them closer in those dark moments when Camille was asleep and he worried that he’d never be enough for her as long as Roka was around. But the dragon had sensed it and drawn him out, eliciting his darkest secrets in the quiet corners of their apartment or their yacht while Camille slept. Whispers and white breath convincing Eben that there could have been no other choice to make that night but to let Roka mark them. Camille still didn’t know the things he’d shared with their dragon. His little proprietary quirk of thought surprised him. Roka was theirs, true, but mostly they were his, body and soul.

  He and Camille were Roka’s just like Erika was Geva’s, as evidenced by the glowing red mark beneath her navel.

  Erika sat down beside him, tactfully avoiding any more intimate contact. “Is that why you’ve been a broody mess since you got here? I know you, sweetie. You’re the light of the world in my mind. You don’t brood.”

  Eben gave in finally. Confession would be good, he decided. He scrubbed his face with wet hands and combed his fingers back through his long hair.

  “She wants a baby. Is it a dragon thing?” He shot a pleading look at Geva who sat on the edge of the bath beside him, elbows casually resting on his knees.

  “Maybe,” Geva said. “Maybe our influence just brings that aspect out in women?” Geva winked at Erika.

  Erika patted Geva in a slightly condescending fashion that still smacked of deep love. “Sweetie, my decision had nothing to do with you. I just remembered how great my dad was and wanted to be that to my own flesh and blood. But bottom line, I had a reason.”

  “You guys aren’t helping,” Eben said.

  “Sorry,” Erika said, shifting to focus directly on Eben. “Have you actually told her this?”

  “Would it matter? She wants a baby. I don’t. How the fuck do I tell the woman I love that I don’t want what she wants?”

  He glanced at Geva, who was looking at him with a peculiar expression.

  “How do you not want a baby?”

  Eben was dumbstruck. He stuttered out a reply. “Because I like my life without distraction?” He felt like a total shit as a result. Jesus, if he’d known dragons were so baby crazy he’d have never signed on.

  Erika’s nudge turned him back to her. “Talk to her, dumbass. Now go. Go, go, go!” She smacked his ass as he raised himself out of the pool, resolute in his mission. Talk to her and hope she still loved him afterward. She already knew how he felt about kids though. She’d said as much. So why should he bother?

  He glanced back at Erika and hustled. It didn’t matter, he’d talk to her. Talking was the goal here, regardless of the outcome. No pressure.

  ***
<
br />   Camille was too peaceful to disturb when he found her in the vaults, her blonde head resting on a pile of ancient tomes and her hand still holding her automatic pencil pressed against her notebook. He remembered nights like that when he was too wrapped up in the research to care about anything else. Except he knew tonight and every night for the past few weeks were as much an escape for her as his nights sitting in the bath. She might have been focused on the work, but if they hadn’t pushed each other away that first night, she might have spared more time to talk to him.

  Eben pulled a heavy wooden chair closer, making an effort not to make a sound. She still wore the ridiculous robes they’d given them, but the drapes of dyed linen had slid down her bare shoulder, leaving her bosom almost bare. She hadn’t bothered with the thin undergarments today.

  She had a tendency to pass out when she was faced with intense emotion. He knew this about her, yet it still amazed him when he witnessed it. Maybe she was just tired now. He couldn’t imagine her work eliciting a panic attack. And she did just appear to be sleeping.

  It was all he could do to avoid touching her, so he just watched for a time, settling back and enjoying her amusing little sounds. Soft snores that shifted in tone as the frequency of movement under her eyelids changed. What he wouldn’t give to be in her head right now, to see what she dreamed. Would he find himself there? Or some fantastic universe he couldn’t even imagine.

  He was chuckling to himself over the idea when she sat up abruptly. “Eben? What are you doing here?”

  “Watching you sleep, dummy.” He couldn’t help but smile a little at her bewildered, sleepy expression.

  “Oh.” She fidgeted with her pencil and notebook, making a show of reading. Her eyelids blinked rapidly. She was still avoiding him.

  “Camille, we need to talk. We should’ve talked a hundred times already, but I guess I was too stubborn to make the first move.”

  Her expression drew in at that and she hunched over her notebook.

  Eben placed a hand on her shoulder, letting his thumb caress the bare skin of her neck.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  Her eyes clenched shut, and that subtle barrier between them broke his heart.

  “Do you, really?” she whispered back, her voice barely audible even in the near dead silence of the place they were in. Before he could answer she said, “Because you seem pretty intent on making me miserable lately.”

  He blanched at that. She didn’t understand, but it was his fault. He decided to lay it all out.

  “I don’t want kids. Never did. We never got a chance to talk that detail out, so there it is.”

  “So you hate children”

  “I never said that.”

  “You just did!”

  He grimaced and hung his head. “I don’t hate kids… I just…Jesus, Camille, I know you want them so I want to make you happy, and I will gladly do that, but I fucking hate the idea of losing you to more needy souls. I still need you. Christ, I hate to admit it, too.”

  She reached up and caressed his cheek, the touch almost reflexive. He gripped her hand and leaned into it.

  “I don’t even know you, Eben. I never realized it until now, though. I mean, I know you intimately, but you’ve held back, haven’t you?

  He could only nod against the soft brush of her hand.

  “Tell me.”

  So he did. He told her everything. He told her about his early life, the child of a single mother in a small town. One he did everything to get out of as quickly as possible. He told her about his experiences afterward, his failures in college before he’d met Erika and she’d inspired him to turn things around. It all seemed completely natural and somehow cathartic to let it all out. So much that he wondered why he hadn’t already. None of his past had seemed remotely relevant to what he shared with Roka and Camille now. But it felt so good in the telling that he knew he had to sit down with Roka when they were reunited and talk.

  His chest tightened with a pang of longing when he thought of Roka. As private as this exchange had been with Camille, it still felt like an element was missing. The big white dragon was the missing piece of their puzzle. He had no idea how his conflict with Camille would resolve, but he knew without a doubt that Roka’s presence would have made a difference.

  “You don’t want kids because you had a crappy childhood?” Camille asked, tentatively.

  Eben thought about it, but the true answer was obvious.

  “I don’t want kids because I want you more. The laws of physics say that two bodies can’t occupy the same space simultaneously. You two fill my heart. That doesn’t leave enough room for anyone else. You and Roka are my world right now. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I’m just not ready to give that up.”

  Surprisingly, she smiled and leaned in to kiss him. “You have room, trust me,” she said. “But we can wait.”

  Chapter 6

  Eben collapsed to his knees and buried his face in Camille’s linen-covered lap. His arms snaked around her hips and gripped her tightly. The warm weight of his embrace sent a surge of tenderness through her. She brushed her palm over the silky blond hair on his head, still damp from the bath. Her fingertips were sore from writing and the cool softness of his hair felt good against the abused skin. He held her a little tighter and inhaled sharply when she dug her fingernails into the back of his neck and scratched along the contours of his skull the way she knew he liked.

  “I love you so much,” he murmured into her belly, then turned his head to rest his cheek on her thigh.

  She gazed down at the dark blond shape of his head, the beautiful profile with clenched brows, sharp cheekbones and long, straight nose. He was just like a child, seeking comfort from whatever tiny yet insurmountable turmoil he had encountered. For him it had been her desire to replace him. At least that’s what she realized he had seen it as. It had never occurred to her that either of her lovers might see a child as competition for her love. They were partners, the three of them. On the same side in all decisions. Or so she had believed. Now she saw a different angle. This did change things. Roka might be disappointed, but he would understand. And they had time.

  Eben sighed and arched his shoulders up into the steady, soft scratch of her nails down over his bare skin. His head pressed tighter against her belly and she reflexively spread her legs. Her previously dormant sex drive resurged in full force. And hadn’t she fantasized about the two of them in precisely this position countless times before? They had never been in this particular situation before, however. Not outside of her dreams.

  Without even opening his eyes, Eben pressed his face into the folds of soft linen that concealed her from him. He inhaled deeply, then opened his mouth and bit at the cloth that bunched between her thighs. The increased pressure against her core shouldn’t have been enough to even register with her—it was no more intense than the tightest jeans she’d worn, digging into her flesh. Yet it made her gasp and shift her hips toward him.

  His hands gripped her hips with deliberate force and pulled her even closer. He burrowed through the folds of her voluminous robes, panting in frustration at not finding what he sought.

  Finally he gave in and reached up to her neckline, tugged at the drapes of linen until they fell away, exposing her breasts.

  Eben gazed with feverish longing at her breasts. He latched onto one pink tip and sucked, drawing her into him as though she were his sole source of sustenance. He took her other breast a moment later with as much zeal, until her nipple began to ache from his desperate attention. He switched back to the other breast, kneading both in time with his sucking, and his hands tore at her clothing, finally pulling the robes apart and pulling her hips closer.

  Her pussy ached almost as painfully in the absence of his touch as her nipples tingled from his constant abuse. God, if he would only transfer that intensity a little lower…

  That sweet dream came back to her as he pushed her thighs apart, bent his head, and slid his tongue between her
slick and ready lips. The heat of his mouth was just as startling as it had been in her fantasies. Even though she’d had him like this before, this time the experience was so profound as to be transcendent. She rested her hands atop his head, one foot draped across the pile of books on the table beside her, the other foot resting on Eben’s bare shoulder. Her head tilted back against the chair and she sighed with pleasure.

  We can wait, she thought, and was about to say out loud again when the steady swirls of his tongue over her clit sent her spinning. Every thought that had been in her head became a cyclonic mess as she cried out and clutched his head against her throbbing flesh. The only thought left in her head was that first one. She would wait for centuries, if that’s what it took, as long as she had him.

  ***

  Roka leaned against the stone wall of the corridor, listening while Camille came to pieces under Eben’s expert tongue. His own arousal was almost unbearable. He had missed them, but as much as he wanted to be with them now, their ordeal was only just being resolved, even after weeks away from him.

  He had considered leaving again, letting the pair bask in their reunion without his interference, but after so long apart he craved them the way a dormant seedling craves the sun. Instead he climbed back to the moonlit breezeway above and waited.

  Rafe’s silent, shadowy presence became gradually apparent, though there had been no signal that he had arrived. Without looking away from the glow of the silvery disc in the sky, Roka greeted him wordlessly. His friend broke the silence first.

  “Rowan was here,” Rafe said. “Barely two days past. Darius confirmed it, though it was tricky enough to get the details out of him. He’s sure none of the others saw her was and she only interacted with him and Zak long enough to replenish enough to fly again. Darius said he believed she was a Court dragon at first, based on her size and remaining reserves of energy. She’d been flying for more than a week and only just stopped to rest.”