Eventually, we had to part so we could get our shirts pulled over our heads. I’d seen Nyx naked from the waist up before, but that didn’t stop me from drinking in the sight now. He was lovely. As different from the other men with whom we shared this valley as one could imagine, but absolutely stunning in his own right.
Eldris was a massive, dark-skinned mountain of a man. Aristede was a perfectly proportioned work of art, his smoothly muscular form marred by a lifetime of battle scars that did nothing to detract from his beauty. I tried not to think of Rayth as anything other than the prickly, drunken asshole who drove me insane on a regular basis, but the guy was made of steel and sinew and very little else—honed to sharp edges by a lifetime of bitterness, as far as I could gather.
As for Nyx, the word lithe might have been coined solely to describe his graceful lines. Broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped, he carried muscles borne of hard work in the king’s stables, but he was not bulky. When he wasn’t over-thinking things—which sadly, happened often—his movements were fluid and easy.
The contrast with his jerkiness and self-effacement when he was nervous spoke of a depth of damage from something buried in his past. Part of it, I already knew about. He’d been ripped from his village at the tender age of nine, his family killed and his innocence destroyed by the warlords who kidnapped him.
They’d wanted children to use as foot soldiers—sending groups of young boys into the villages they planned to raid, armed with bows and blades. The horror of someone forcing children to kill strangers—children who would face death themselves at the hands of their captors if they didn’t obey—was something I still struggled to wrap my mind around. The horror of being one of those children…
That, I didn’t dare think about too closely.
The worst part was, I was certain there was more that Nyx still wasn’t telling us. And I was afraid that if he ever did, it might break me completely.
But right now, I needed to put all that aside. Nyx wanted me. And by the gods, if I had anything to say about it, he was going to have me before some unwanted demon from his past reared its head and ruined things for him.
Silently, I thanked Aristede for his gift of medicinal herbs, which, made into a tea, prevented a woman from becoming pregnant. I hopped around in a clumsy half-circle, toeing off my boots and pulling my breeches down… probably looking like a damned fool the whole time. Nyx, meanwhile, appeared to have stalled out after removing his loose tunic. He was staring at me in exactly the same way he’d stared at me on that fateful afternoon at the lake, when he’d come upon me sunning naked on a rock and I’d told him not to let fear win.
My own clothing dealt with, I stepped up to him and reached for the laces holding his trousers closed. He drew in a sharp breath and shied away like an unbroken colt presented with a saddle blanket for the first time. We both froze for a long moment, and I lowered my hands as I tried to decipher his expression. Embarrassment? Fear? Or something more complicated?
“Sorry,” I said quietly, schooling my voice to calmness. “You… uh… don’t need to take those off if you don’t want to, but you’ll at least need the laces open.”
I watched as he battled himself for a moment, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when he consciously relaxed his shoulders and finished the job I’d tried to start.
“No,” he said softly, not meeting my eyes. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I… really have no idea what I’m doing here.”
I tried on a smile for him, even though he wasn’t looking at me.
“Having sex with me, I hope,” I told him, letting the humor come through in my voice. It worked, and he glanced up to confirm that I wasn’t angry, or disappointed, or whatever else he was worried might be showing on my face.
I tried to catch his eye as I continued, “Seriously—don’t worry, Nyx. For future reference, what we’re doing right now falls under a category called, ‘just-rode-a-dragon-sex.’ It’s supposed to be artless and rushed. There’s plenty of time to worry about long, involved love-play later.”
“Right.” He let out a slow breath and shook his head, as though consciously dismissing his earlier thoughts. Then he blinked at me. “Frella… holy god. I just rode a dragon.”
I laughed, suddenly giddy. My clothes lay scattered around me in the grass, but I grabbed the cloak and shook it out, laying it flat on the ground like a blanket. Then I flopped onto it, sprawling back on my elbows and letting my legs fall open.
“I saw,” I teased. “And the best part was, you didn’t even crash into the lake afterward. Now, why don’t you come down here and kiss me some more, before I start to get cold?”
His chest rose and fell on a deep breath, but he joined me with surprisingly little hesitation. “You’re beautiful, Frella. Whenever I see you naked like this, I’m afraid I must be dreaming.”
I shrugged a shoulder, still smiling. “Nothing wrong with a good sex dream every now and again,” I told him. “But as far as I’m aware, this isn’t one. Oh—and just to be clear about things up front, you can touch me anywhere you want. You can put your cock in me anytime you’re ready, because I’ve been ready since you took your shirt off. And you can come inside me.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “That tea I make every morning? Aristede bought it for me,” I explained. “It prevents pregnancy. Apparently, the prostitutes in Utrea use it all the time. And, hey—when it comes to stuff like that, always trust the professionals, right?”
I grinned at him, wide and stupid. He shook his head in evident amazement again, but this time an answering smile quirked one corner of his mouth.
“If you say so…”
I figured that was enough talking for now, so I hooked a hand around his nape and pulled him down to meet my lips again. The breeze was cool, but the ground beneath the cloak had absorbed the sun’s warming rays, and Nyx’s mouth was hot on mine. He kissed me until everything else fell away except the distant sound of dragon cries—one high-pitched, and one deeper. Male and female, together.
When Nyx’s mouth fell to my breast, I arched, pushing the soft mound into the contact. He was quiet as he explored my flesh with lips and tongue, apparently not prone to either Aristede’s shameless moaning or Eldris’ low-pitched dirty talk. I liked that. I liked how different they all were… how they all needed different things from me, and gave me different things in return.
A hard length rubbed against the crease of my thigh, Nyx’s erection having sprung free of his open breeches and smallclothes at some point in the proceedings. I was already slick and ready for him—desperate to watch his face as he sank into me for the first time. A bit of wriggling around on my part, and he was positioned at my entrance.
He pulled away from my breast with a short gasp as my folds slid along his length, the angle not quite right for him to enter me. I smiled and did it again, enjoying the shocked look flitting over his finely sculpted features.
“It gets even better, believe me,” I promised, canting my hips at just the right instant for him to slip inside.
His green-ringed eyes went dark and deep, boring into me with unaccustomed heat as his length pressed into me in one slow, delicious slide. He was not as thick as either Eldris or Aristede, but I thought he might have a bit of length on Aristede, at least. Whatever the case, he felt divine inside of me.
“Frella,” he whispered, my name on his lips sounding almost worshipful.
I smiled up at him with what was probably a dopey expression. “Told you it got better.”
Rather than continuing to babble on at him, I grasped his narrow hips with both hands and showed him how to move, knowing full well that this was unlikely to last long. And that was all right; I wasn’t in it for my own release today. I was getting exactly what I wanted as I held eye contact, drinking in that extraordinary multi-colored gaze.
As I watched, dragon-green kindled in the depths of his eyes, growing brighter with each thrust until the viridity swallowed
the natural hazel color. I couldn’t lie—the idea that I might be indirectly making an innocent female dragon horny by fucking her rider was… a bit odd. But, hey, a lot of things in my life were a bit odd these days. And at least she had a handy outlet for her sexual frustration in the form of the white male.
Nyx looked down at me with an adorable expression of concentration, his dark hair haloed by the sun. I arched up, meeting him thrust for thrust as he fell into a rhythm as old as time. His face had always fascinated me, with its mercurial expressions usually sliding past too fleetingly for me to identify them individually. That was still the case, even with his flesh penetrating mine.
Already, his breathing was starting to go ragged as his body chased its release. His eyes slipped closed, and I lifted one hand from his hips to cup his cheek in my palm.
“Look at me, Nyx,” I ordered gently. “I want to watch you.”
His eyelids blinked open, though the gaze behind them was dazed.
“That’s it,” I crooned, arching my hips with a little twist at the end. “Let me feel you. Give me all of it.”
His lips parted, his breath stuttering as we rocked together. I thought he might try to look away again, but he managed to hold my gaze, a flush darkening the golden skin of his chest and neck before rising to color his cheeks. I felt his muscles shudder. His hips lost their rhythm, giving three ragged thrusts before he arched and came inside me, fighting desperately to hold my gaze as I’d told him to.
Gods.
He looked so… lost. Like he expected the world to end because he was taking his pleasure inside me. My throat tried to close as I lifted my other hand to cradle his face between my palms.
“Nyx,” I said hoarsely. “It’s all right. Let go, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”
His eyes did close, then, and he curled forward until his forehead rested against the side of my neck. I slid my hands away from his cheeks in favor of wrapping my arms around his shoulders and holding him to me.
He was still coming, his body giving little jerks as he emptied himself into me. I murmured soothing nonsense in his ear, ignoring the slow build of heat that had been kindling in my belly as we fucked. The warmth in my chest as he relaxed against me by degrees was far more important.
When he was finally spent, his slender weight settled onto me fully, and I welcomed it. We were still joined, though I could feel him softening after his release. His chest rose and fell as though he’d been running for hours.
In almost no time at all, I felt his shoulder muscles flex as he prepared to roll off of me.
“S-sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean to—”
I tightened my arms, and hooked my ankles around his thighs for good measure. “Nyx. Stay.”
The words were already out when I realized they sounded like I was talking to a hound rather than a man. Fortunately, after an uncertain beat, Nyx relaxed against me again—though he did get his elbows under him enough to take a bit of his upper body weight off me.
“Sorry,” he whispered again.
I huffed out a quiet snort, caught between amusement and exasperation. “Really?” I asked. “Because I’m not. Though I’m starting to think I’ll need to make you come again, because you still seem pretty twitchy after the first one.”
He went still for a moment before a breath escaped him. This time when he spoke, there was a hint of self-deprecating humor behind the words. “Well, you know—I’d apologize again, but you’d only tell me not to.”
I laughed softly, the movement enough to make his prick slip out of me. He shivered, but didn’t try to bolt this time. “Yeah… no more apologizing,” I told him. “How about kissing instead? It’s a lot more fun, in my opinion.”
To his credit, he didn’t argue. He just pushed up on his arms enough so he could look down at me. Then, he kissed me exactly as I’d asked.
And, oh yes—now we were getting somewhere. Nyx’s body was a warm and grounding weight, making me feel surrounded and protected as his lips teased mine. This time, it felt like he was exploring my mouth deliberately, trying to learn what pleased me. Honestly, the fact that we were doing this at all pleased me, but I made a point of reacting with moans and hums of encouragement whenever he found something that banked the low fire of my arousal.
I didn’t realize that I was grinding my hips against him until he groaned into my mouth and pulled back. A faint furrow appeared between his brows.
“You didn’t finish,” he said slowly. “When we were… you know…”
I raised my eyebrows. “Fucking?” I offered wryly.
He blushed again. It was kind of fascinating to watch, for some reason.
“Yes. That.”
I shrugged. “Told you already. That was ‘just-rode-a-dragon’ sex. But if you want to dive straight into the long, involved love-play…” I gestured around the empty valley. “I’ve got nothing else pressing on my schedule right now.”
Chapter 3: Alone Together
Frella
THE SUN WAS LOW in the sky when Lisha plopped down in the grass near us. We were still tangled together on my cloak when she laid her head on the ground, eyeing Nyx in a way that I could only describe as pointed. I was a bit impressed by the fact that a dragon could look debauched, but somehow the little green female managed it.
Possibly it was the way her saddle sat a few degrees off-kilter on her back, the saddle blanket hanging halfway out from beneath it with a small rip decorating one corner and the edges faintly singed. I couldn’t help it—I burst out laughing.
The dragon’s emerald eyes narrowed at me, and I lifted my hands in a fending-off gesture. “Sorry… sorry,” I said quickly. “Nyx, please don’t let her roast me. But even you have to admit, she had this coming.”
Nyx’s lips were pressed tightly together as though, he, too, was fighting back laughter. Lisha’s narrowed eyes fell on him, and he relented. “All right—yes. I apologize, girl. I should at least have taken your saddle off first.”
He shot me a rueful glance and rolled upright, tugging his breeches up from where they’d fallen down around his lean hips. Lisha puffed a cloud of steam in his face, but submitted meekly enough as he unfastened the figure-eight pattern of straps and cinches holding the tack in place. As soon as he was done, she shook herself from head to tail and flapped off in a huff.
“That’s me told, I guess,” Nyx observed, watching her fly off toward the cave on the other end of the valley.
I snickered. “I’d say so. But I still maintain you were overdue for some payback.”
To my delight, he wandered over to where I remained sprawled on the cloak and lay down on his back next to me, not even flinching when I rolled onto my side to rest my head on his shoulder and throw a leg across him. Before long, it would grow chilly enough to drive me back into my clothing and across the valley, to the cave and a warm fire. But until then, I was going to milk this stretch of peace and calm shared with Nyx for all it was worth.
My body was humming pleasantly following an afternoon spent tutoring a willing student in the art of making a woman come. As I’d hoped, spending himself inside my passage a second time had helped take the edge off Nyx’s twitchiness. An hour or so after that, coming a third time beneath my hand and mouth had reduced him to a state that might almost have been mistaken for relaxation.
Ever since the day at the lake a few weeks ago, I’d suspected that Nyx would benefit immensely from having his brain sucked out through his prick on a regular basis. Now, I was sure of it.
“Can I ask you something?” Nyx murmured, surprising me.
“Anything,” I replied without hesitation.
He paused, as though choosing his words. “Who… taught you about all of these things? About… men, and women?”
Whatever question I’d expected, it wasn’t that one. I craned up to look at his face, but he was staring at the turquoise sky above us. I took a moment to contemplate the question before drawing breath to speak.
“About sex, you me
an? That’s a bit hard to answer,” I said honestly. “It’s just a part of life where I come from. We could always go to the temple and ask the priests about anything we wanted to know. And I guess it doesn’t hurt that my bond-brother, Ithric, is a shameless hedonist who was never shy about explaining things to me if I asked. My bond-sister was a prostitute for nearly a decade… though to be fair, she always told me that made her one of the worst people to ask about sex for the sake of pleasure. Other than that, I mostly just messed around with a bunch of boys and a couple of girls, and we learned from each other. Why?”
He went still, as though I’d caught him out by asking. “Just…” He cleared his throat. “Just curious.”
I let it go, not wanting to push. “Well, if you ever want a real expert, talk to Eldris. That man’s a menace to humanity—male and female both,” I said without thought.
With my head resting against him, I felt Nyx’s breath catch and his muscles stiffen. Rolling onto an elbow, I looked down at him, wondering what about the words had set him off.
“Hey. Nyx. What’s up? Are you worried that Eldris will be upset about us sleeping together? Or… that I’m comparing you somehow?” I asked. “Because he won’t be, and I’m not. Or is it something else?”
He ducked away from me, getting to his feet and searching around for his tunic—not looking in my direction.
“No,” he said. “It’s just… you’re far better off with him than me. Him and—” He swallowed. “—and Aristede.”
I frowned at him, feeling gooseflesh prickle over my skin as a gust of wind chilled me. “Yeah… sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with you there. What’s bringing this on, anyway? What I said about Eldris, I mostly meant as a joke.” I paused. “Though I’m sure if you did want to ask him something, he’d be more than happy to answer.”
Nyx shook his head sharply. “It’s not that. Frella, you have to know that I’m… not right. Inside, I mean. Parts of me are… broken. Ruined.”
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