by Ophelia Bell
“Cool and wet,” he said. “But better, mostly. Are you coming in?”
“No need for me,” she said, standing. “You should swim as often as you can stand to while we’re here. The water will ease your physical discomfort. It draws the built-up energy from your body that your partner would normally be the conduit for. However, you should also take care of your own physical needs. The build-up of semen will be almost as uncomfortable if it isn’t seen to.”
As much as she tried to keep her instructions clinical, and her delivery to the point, the image flashed through her mind of him taking his cock in hand and bringing himself to Nirvana. Her heart beat a little harder at the thought.
He raised one wet eyebrow. “I thought you were supposed to help me?” He rested both arms on the edge of the island, staring up at her with mock innocence.
“I’m here for your deeper emotional pain, Nicholas. Something you shouldn’t have to deal with if this were a normal pheronesis. The physical aspect of it is an excess of power that needs to be released regularly. If you don’t have a female mate, a male partner is …”
“I know how the fuck my body works,” he said, cutting her off.
“I don’t think you know how your heart works, though,” she said, striving for patience. “The symptoms you experience would be expected of an ursa male with a committed bond to another—the kind of bond you have when you are mated. When you enter your pheronesis with such a bond, if your mate isn’t available, you experience debilitating emotional loss, similar to the grief over the death of a loved one.”
His brow furrowed and his upper lip curled into a sneer. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spy on my feelings, all right?”
She leaned toward him and touched his cheek lightly, unsurprised when he flinched and jerked away. “I don’t need to use my powers to put two and two together. There’s really only one explanation—you are in love with Calder, not as a friend, but as a mate.”
Nicholas shut his eyes and clenched his fists. Aurum’s chest tightened at the glimmer of fresh moisture that gathered beneath his eyelids.
She rested a hand on his shoulder. “I can’t begin to claim I understand what you’re going through, but if you let me, I can ease the burden. It’s the least I can do for you.”
“Why are you suddenly being so kind to me?” he asked, opening his eyes and glaring at her. “Bringing me here … offering to help. I already promised you I’d take you to the Source.”
“It isn’t completely selfless. I am incredibly sensitive to the emotions of others. When we saved you and Calder left, yes, I was devastated, but my emotions alone I could have dealt with. Knowing I could eventually find him would have been enough. But I’m not immune to your heartbreak, and it tears me apart. I can deal with despair, Nicholas. You don’t get to live as long as I have, and be as empathic a dragon as I am, without becoming very familiar with every emotion out there. Your pain hurts me deeply because of your connection to Calder. I can’t believe he didn’t also love you in some fashion. What kind of mate would I be to him if I couldn’t find a way to help you?”
He swam away from her with a slow backstroke. “Well, you’ve brought me here and I feel much better, so why don’t you just go? I’ve got this pool to help now, and my hand is plenty adept at seeing to the other part. Why the hell should you stay?”
Aurum stood up, letting out a little huff of annoyance. “So you’re feeling no pain now? No emotional hurt whatsoever?”
He shook his head. “Nope, nothing. Numb is what I feel, and that’s just fine.”
“Bullshit! I can see it in your aura. I can feel what you’re denying. Prove to me that you’re not hurting and I’ll leave. Or tell me where it hurts and I can help ease that for you.”
Nicholas turned and aimed for the outer shore. When he reached it and stood knee-deep in the water, Aurum manifested her wings and flew across, meeting him there. She landed in front of him, and he gave her a weary look shot through with pain.
“You’re right. My heart hurts. It physically hurts whenever I think about him. Whenever I look at you.” He pressed a fist into the center of his chest and grimaced, then dropped his hand to his side and shrugged. “I forgive you for not being a miracle worker. It’d be ridiculous to expect to be rid of these feelings instantly, wouldn’t it?”
She lifted a shoulder and nodded. “If you let me, I can help. But yes, it will take time. At the very least, let yourself enjoy being here. It really is a lovely place. Come …” She reached out a hand and he took it, letting her lead him away toward a nearby stone path that wound its way up in a hill, and then up a steep stone staircase carved into the side of a mountain.
“Where are we going?”
“To my perch,” she said.
An unexpected excitement filled her as she drew nearer to the cliffside that was the outer bounds of the Glade. For so long she’d resided here alone, her only visitors her siblings whose perches were each situated on their own cliffs. Nicholas would be the first outsider who had ever seen her home. The first outsider to even be inside the Glade in thousands of years.
Soon the structure came into view, a rambling, open-air residence built into the rocks. It virtually had no walls, but it did have a roof whose only purpose was to provide shade. It never rained in the Glade, and there were no other creatures living here.
She led him up the staircase into her private home. It was her own little sanctuary, where she’d mostly slept over the last three millennia in between flying and dining with her siblings, or magically communing with the Catalyst, who helped carry their instructions to the Dragon Court on the outside.
Nicholas let out a whistle of admiration when they walked in. He let go of her hand and wandered across the wood floor, gazing around in wonder. Halfway into the room, he stopped, his eyes widening and his already fair skin paling. He began to shake, blindly reached out a hand and grabbed at her, clutching tightly to her arm.
“What is it?” she asked, following the direction of his gaze. His eyes were fixed on the sky past the ledge of her wide veranda, which was more of a landing pad for her than anything else. Nothing existed past the edge but blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds.
Nicholas swallowed and slowly sank down to the floor, then crawled to the gold-hued woven carpet at the center of her living space that was covered with an assortment of blue cushions. He grabbed one of the pillows and curled up, hugging it and shutting his eyes.
The entire display startled Aurum and she had no idea how to react at first, but the fear that flooded Nicholas was so palpable it had almost completely obliterated his other emotional pain. She crouched down beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Nicholas, are you afraid of heights? Is that it? Tell me what it is so I can help.”
“Don’t let me fall, please!” His rough-voiced fear made her heart clench with concern.
“Oh, honey, you won’t. Don’t forget what I am. As long as I’m with you, you will never fall, all right? I promise.” She rubbed her hand up and down his back in an effort to calm him. With a wave of her other hand, a series of wooden panels slid across the edge of her veranda, blocking out the beautiful view of the sky. Her sky. She sighed regretfully as it disappeared. “You can open your eyes now. It’s gone.”
“What the fuck is this place?” he asked, opening his eyes and staring at her.
She raised her eyebrows. She’d never actually been asked that question. The Glade was just … what it was. Her home, her race’s most sacred place, and the least accessible home of all the races. Even the nymphaea’s Haven was once easier to access, and the fact that they weren’t already there was evidence enough of how tricky the Haven was to get into.
But the dragons preferred to live among humans—they always had. Humans were their preferred mates, after all, and so only Aurum and her siblings ever really resided inside the Glade. But how should she answer his question? Finally, she decided to give him the literal explanation.
&
nbsp; “The Glade is a manifestation of all the elements, ranked by order of importance to the dragons. The sky is our domain, so the Glade simply provides us with the bit of Earth we need to rest when we aren’t flying.”
“The sky, huh?” Nicholas lay flat on his back, holding the big cushion against his chest with one arm while digging the fingers of his other hand into the carpet like he was hanging on. “Not a huge fan of that place. When your brother brought me out of my cell, I felt so dizzy looking up into it, I thought I might fall. That’s completely crazy, isn’t it?” He gave her a sheepish smile.
“No, I suppose it isn’t crazy. Not when you’ve lived your entire life inside a prison cell. It isn’t your nature to be concerned with the sky, as an ursa. Your race is bound to the Earth. But don’t worry, the only danger in falling is when you hit the ground, and there’s nothing out there but endless sky. Either way, I’ll keep the screens closed while you’re here.”
“Thank you,” he said, rolling over and propping his head on one hand. He looked around the place in wonder, his gaze growing wary as it passed across the screens that blocked his view now.
Aurum was filled with a strange surge of pride at his admiration of her home. She’d spent thousands of years practically alone here and was giddy at the opportunity to share it with someone other than her siblings.
At the edge of the expansive golden rug was a deep, cushioned chaise covered with more huge pillows. At intervals near the supporting posts, huge, flowering plants sprouted from cutout planters in the floor, some with luscious fruits hanging from their branches, all illuminated by skylights in the ceiling above. Through another set of sliding screens was a large bed, draped with luxurious fabrics and covered with more cushions, similarly illuminated by the sun streaming through a large skylight.
Nicholas’s gaze lingered on the bed for a moment before he hopped up and strode to one of the plants.
“These edible?” he asked, tapping one shining, golden, pear-like fruit.
“Yes,” she said, enjoying his wonder as his gaze continued to scan the rest of her home. “But there’s other food here, too. Whatever you enjoy eating most, you can have.”
Nicholas laughed. “I have no idea, honestly. Remember, I’ve lived on prison food my whole life. The food at the monastery the last couple days has been the best I’ve ever tasted, but I get the feeling even that stuff’s nothing special.”
Aurum’s eyes brightened. “Zhrihiva, if there’s one thing I love as much as sex, it’s food. You’re in for a treat. Grab one of those for a snack and follow me.”
On the opposite end of the house from the bedroom was her kitchen, the room that had evolved the most over the years as she watched the human world through the reflecting pool in her garden. She had no electricity, but with magic she’d succeeded in replicating the configuration of modern appliances, right down to the little lights that came on inside her refrigerator and oven when she opened them.
She surveyed her supplies for a moment while Nicholas bit into the ripe fruit with a crunch. His groan of enjoyment reverberated through the air between them.
“Fuck, this is good,” he said.
She turned to find him mere inches from her, his eyes glazed with pleasure and his chin dripping with golden juice. The pungent scent of the fruit made her own stomach rumble, but the sight of his lips coated with the sweet liquid caused her body to heat with desire for more than food.
Aurum licked her lips and swallowed, her mouth watering for a taste of his lips. His tongue darted out to lick and for a moment she was frozen, unable to do anything but watch and imagine leaning in and tracing her own tongue along the juice-coated curve of his mouth.
“You okay?” he said in a low, rough tone.
She jerked her gaze back to his eyes, her face heating suddenly from his scrutiny.
“I … I’m just hungry too,” she said, shaking her head and tamping down the overwhelming craving to kiss him. Her energy was low, so it was to be expected, but she couldn’t allow herself to confuse matters by giving into that urge. The fact that he was naked and beautiful and constantly half-hard didn’t help matters any. His aura pulsed with his pheronesis, a near-constant need that wouldn’t subside for at least a week, if not longer—even if he had a suitable partner to expend the energy with.
Aurum expelled a quick breath that she mentally directed to his hips, and a second later a golden sarong wrapped itself around him, tying neatly beneath his navel.
Nicholas glanced down with a furrowed brow, then up at her questioningly, his mouth still full of a bite of the fruit.
“Sorry,” she said with a shrug. “You’re a little distracting.”
Ignoring his chuckle, she redirected her focus to thoughts of all her favorite recipes, trying to decide which of them Nicholas might enjoy most. Serving herself up for him was not an option, no matter how often thoughts of doing just that crossed her mind.
Settling on one of her personal favorites, she reached into the fridge and grabbed the necessary supplies. Nicholas retrieved a second piece of fruit and came to perch on her dining table to watch while she cooked.
As it was easily one of her all-time favorite activities, she soon lost herself to her creative impulses, slicing, chopping, and mixing, choosing the right spices, and setting the heat under the pan to cook.
Sensing his eyes on her, she finally looked up when her concoction went in the oven to see Nicholas watching her with a smile on his face.
“Cooking turns you on, doesn’t it, Sunshine?” he asked. “You smell better than whatever it is you just put in the oven, and that smelled fucking fantastic.”
Her body flushed again. Nicholas’ cocky demeanor was back, which she should have been grateful for—it meant being in the Glade was helping him. But his lusty gaze made her far too self-conscious for her own good. It just drew her attention to the ache between her legs and the fact that she would soon need to go for a cold swim herself to banish that craving.
“I enjoy cooking more than most things,” she said, not quite answering his question. His presence was what had her worked up more than anything, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him. “Besides, when you’re locked up for as long as my siblings and I were, there are only so many activities to occupy yourself. The Glade was our prison for pretty much the last three thousand years. I’m sure it’s like heaven compared to where you were, but we were still isolated. So … I cooked.”
Nicholas crossed his arms and frowned. “But I thought dragons needed sex to survive just like the ursa do. Don’t tell me you were fucking your brothers and sisters that whole time.”
Laughter burst uncontrollably from her. “Oh, Sweet Mother, no. I mean, when we were younger and didn’t know better, we had our moments of temptation.” Under her breath, she added, “Some of us more than others.” Giving him an amused look, she said, “What would you know of dragons, anyway?”
Nicholas shrugged. “Calder wasn’t just a friend; he was my tutor. We didn’t have the luxury of cooking for fun, so we mostly talked. He made it his mission to teach me everything he knew about the higher races and their ancient lore. I may not have been the best student at first, but after two centuries, most of it finally stuck. He was a good teacher.” He trailed off, a hint of sadness returning to his voice.
“Well, he was right about our requirement for sex, but he probably wasn’t aware of how the magic in the Glade works. We have very little need for sex while we’re here, and when the need arose, the Catalyst would attend us.”
“You mean Kris?”
“Him and his predecessors, yes. Prismatic dragons were the only kind who could pass through the locked portal to the Glade while we were confined here. No one else could go in or out. Now that the Verdanith is back in place, we can easily travel in and out, but the magic is also less plentiful inside than it was when we were locked in. Sort of like a sieve whose holes have been enlarged—the substance inside doesn’t fill the vessel the way it used to. But don’t worry,
being here will still help ease the course of your pheronesis. There is more than enough magic for that.”
“So, you don’t need sex while you’re in here?” His voice deepened suggestively. He was goading her, she realized, and had the strongest urge to tease him. Need and want were two very different things, after all.
“We can live on wind and good food if we need to, Zhrihiva, the same way an ursa can subsist on only water and sunlight. There are always two of the other elements that are required for the mortal members of each race to stay alive. The magic itself merely helps keep us sane. We wouldn’t die without it. We’d just devolve into wild animals.”
She’d been tidying her kitchen while explaining and glanced up to see a distinctly wild look on Nicholas’s face. His predatory gaze tracked her movements, the sarong she’d conjured for him doing nothing to obscure his arousal.
In a low, rumbling voice, he said, “But you can live on sex too, can’t you…?”
She felt naked under his gaze, her nipples pricking against the thin, golden fabric of the flowing gown she wore. Her core heated, a pulsing ache taking up residence there, reminding her that she could indeed live on sex and would happily forego eating right now to have it. To have him for dinner instead of the lasagna she’d just put in the oven.
She sensed a wickedly dangerous curiosity in him that likely surpassed her own interest in his huge, fit, and visibly virile body. He may have had an expert tutor for two centuries, but she had to remind herself that his sexual experiences were likely as limited as his culinary exposure.
Right now, she needed his beautiful body with its giant erection to disappear before she made the mistake of taking advantage of that curiosity.
“Dinner will be a little while. Why don’t you go for another swim?” she asked, pointedly focusing on cleanup and only glancing at him long enough to see if he’d heard her.
Nicholas tore his gaze away from her breasts, giving her a slightly glazed look. Blinking, he nodded and cleared his throat. “Ah … right. Good idea.”