by Ophelia Bell
Silas’s mouth found hers, and before she knew it, he’d lifted her in his arms as he kissed her and carried her back inside toward her bed. His light touches continued, lips sliding down her neck as his fingers tugged at the cords that held her gown closed.
“Need to see you naked,” he murmured and hovered above her, slowly unlacing the closure until the front of her gown fell open. “This thing hides nothing and everything. It’s maddening to see you in it, knowing you don’t even wear panties or a bra, but somehow every time I think I’ll catch a glimpse, the light changes and I don’t see a damn thing.”
Assana let out a husky laugh. “That’s the beauty of nymph gowns. They’re far more utilitarian than they look at first glance. But now you get to see.”
His dark eyes blazed as he stared down at her, not touching, though the slow graze of his eyes made her skin tingle as they trailed over her torso down to the apex of her thighs. Silas licked his lips and seemed to force his gaze back to her face.
“You’re so beautiful, Asana. Every inch of you is perfect. I never imagined I’d be so lucky.”
He lay down beside her and rested his hand on her stomach, his breath sweltering against the side of her face. Slowly he resumed his stroking, up her belly to cup her breast and roll her nipple between thumb and forefinger. The touch sent a spike of pleasure through her and she turned to face him, craving the feel of him under her own hands.
“Silas, let me touch you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m all about making you feel good.”
“But I want to … touching you makes me feel good. I didn’t get to touch you enough before.”
He pulled back enough to look down into her eyes. “My dick in your mouth wasn’t enough?”
“You weren’t naked. I want to look at you too.” She tugged at the hem of his loose green shirt, then pushed it up to reveal his tight, brown stomach. She also revealed the huge bulge of his cock inside the front of his trousers and her breath caught. “You’re hard again.”
“It’s a perpetual state around you and Gavra. Especially since you reminded me how amazing it felt to have your lips wrapped around me.”
A pleased smile tugged at her lips. “You liked that? I wasn’t sure if I got it right.”
“I doubt you could do anything wrong when it comes to making me feel good.”
“Can I undress you?” she asked, already reaching for his button to unfasten it. He seemed about to protest, but her attention fixated on the tightness in his pants and the way his zipper closure parted as she pulled the tab all the way down. His familiar scent washed over her, and she reverently brushed the backs of her fingers up along his hard length, reveling in the hot, smooth silk of him.
Silas let out a groan and rolled onto his back. “You can do whatever you want to me. Please do whatever you want to me. I’m all yours.”
Swallowing, she gave him a grateful look and then sat up, shedding her own dress completely before straddling his thighs. She gripped the waist of his pants and tugged them down, slipping lower along his legs as she went until she yanked them off his ankles. He sat up and hurriedly pulled his shirt off over his head, tossing it aside.
He was magnificent naked, with his broad shoulders and tawny skin gleaming in the dim pixie lights that twinkled like a canopy over her bed. The little sprites liked watching and would continue to glow like that as long as there was activity to observe. His jet-black hair hung in tangled waves just brushing his shoulders and his dark eyes, slightly slanted, drank her in where she knelt at his feet.
But his cock was the thing that caught her eye the longest, its hard, throbbing length almost begging for her attention. It reminded her what that glorious tool was intended for, and she suddenly was awash in guilt.
“I’m sorry we can’t make love,” she said. “I mean, that I’m not ready to.”
Within a breath, Silas was on his knees in front of her, sliding his hands from her shoulders to her cheeks.
“Assana, you don’t need to apologize for that. I already told you I’m happy simply pleasing you.”
“But I can tell how much you want it. You’re a fertile ursa male, ready to share your seed with me. I’m depriving you of something you must be used to having.”
He let out a soft snort of laughter that made her stare at him in confusion.
“Baby, you’re not depriving me of anything. You’re naked and I get to touch you. What more could any male want? And it’s not like I’ve got any more experience fucking women than you do fucking men. Ursa males aren’t allowed to stick their dicks in any ursa female who isn’t his mate. Since you’re my mate, you’ll be my first … but not until you’re ready.”
She shook her head, confused. “But you lived … outside … before. My sisters played with human men. Surely you had human women?”
He shrugged. “Never had any interest. I had my partner at the time. Raj and I were close once, believe it or not. Though our relationship never had much depth, we were very well-matched, physically. And where we were stationed, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of females to tempt us. Other ursa guardian pairs have different experiences, but we were both content waiting for our mate, until we got tired of each other. That’s when Gavra came along and everything suddenly started making sense for me for the first time in my life.”
She blinked up at him in astonishment, her entire perception turned on its head. “You’ve only made love to other males?” A little surprised laugh escaped her.
Silas raised his eyebrows. “Is that funny?”
“No … it’s just … I never realized how much we had in common. I’ve barely been in contact with males I wasn’t related to since I came of age. My sister nymphs and I would play together frequently, though. It was an enjoyable necessity.”
“I can imagine,” Silas said, his smile growing suggestive. “But I do have extensive knowledge of how to please a female. I’ve never made love to one, but I’ve pleasured dozens in between my guardian duties. Now my skills are all yours.”
Her body warmed, her core tingling as she recalled the deftness with which he’d pleasured her before. Twice he’d taken her to orgasm, easing that unbearable ache inside her more than any other self-administered release, or even orgasms she’d had at the hands of her Thiasoi sisters.
“I’d like to pleasure you first … I need to learn how your body works, what you like. I already know my mouth pleases you …” She pressed her hands against his broad, warm chest and pushed him back. His gaze grew hooded and he eased down onto her bed again, watching her as she moved to hover over him.
“Like I said, I doubt there’s a single thing you could do that I wouldn’t like,” he said.
“Do you like this?” She traced her fingertips along the contours of his jaw, his cheeks, his brows, touched his forehead and drew a line down along the straight bridge of his nose. She’d never had the opportunity to touch a male so freely before, and having Silas—one of her two destined mates—naked and willing was a rare treat she intended to take advantage of. She doubted she would have this much self-control if it were Gavra lying in front of her.
She grazed her fingertips over Silas’s lips, warm and silken-soft. His pink tongue darted out and met her skin, wetting one fingertip. Experimentally she pushed her finger in between his lips and his mouth opened, capturing her slender digit and sucking into the warm wetness.
Assana gasped and a flood of warmth heated her core as his tongue swirled around and around the tip of her finger. One of Silas’s hands brushed her thigh, sliding up the outside until it rested right on top with his thumb brushing the inside close to her aching center. He didn’t move it more, but the presence of his touch made her moan.
She withdrew her finger from his mouth, drawing a wet line over his lower lip before touching lower, over the rough stubble of his chin where there was a slightly brushier patch of hair rig
ht beneath his lip. Impulsively, she bent and darted her tongue out, pressing it against the coarse bristles and enjoying the spark of sensation of the roughness of him there.
He held perfectly still, as though he were holding his breath. When she pulled back again, he watched her intently.
“I liked that,” he said in a deep voice that verged on a growl. “I especially like how obvious it is that you’re enjoying this. I want to touch you so bad, but I don’t want you to stop what you’re doing.”
“You like being touched? I almost feel like I am making love to you, even though you aren’t inside me.”
His expression changed, grew more intense. “Assana, it will always be making love between us, whether we’re fucking or not. Your touch is heaven. My body is yours to do with as you wish.”
“How can you say that so soon? It isn’t always Fate’s choice for all of us, I know this. The turul are different, but we can choose. How can you be so sure? Maybe you and I are only meant to share him, not each other.”
The sudden self-doubt made her pull back, but Silas gripped her hand and placed it back in the center of his chest. He was warm and solid, and his heart beat beneath her palm in a strong percussive rhythm that matched her own pounding pulse.
“I didn’t know at first. All I knew was what he promised me. That we would have a female we would share, and I knew without meeting you that I would love you because he said it was meant to be. The dragons and turul are children of Fate. They don’t get the choices our kind get, and when we are captured in their nets, there’s no escaping either. I love you, Assana, because not loving you is beyond the realm of reason.”
She let out a shuddering breath and flattened her hand against his breastbone. “What about him?”
He chuckled wryly. “He doesn’t make it easy, but yeah, I love him too.”
“I wish I could touch him like this without losing my mind.” She slid her hand across Silas’s chest, drawing small circles around his nipples, mesmerized by how hard and pebbled they became under her touch.
He took in a slow breath. “I have a feeling he may not be as patient with you. He’s not the kind of man to lie back and let you have control.”
Assana smiled as her gaze drifted down to settle on his thick shaft. “No, but that’s good. I want to be wild with him, like he said, and I want no less from him. With you … this is what I want.”
His stomach tightened when she slid her hand down the center, bumping over the ridges of his abdominals. She was fascinated by the shapes of his muscles, where they bulged and tapered to his groin, as though pointing toward the magnificent tower of flesh that jutted from the dark nest of curls between his legs. She deliberately avoided contact with his cock, sliding her hand down over the top of one massive thigh, then back up the other.
She shifted slightly, angling her body so she could indulge herself and take in the beauty of his virile length and the heavy sack that hung beneath. When she moved, his hand dislodged from her thigh, but returned to rest on her hip instead.
Silas let out a little hum of contentment, his fingers sliding down the curve of her ass and squeezing slightly. She felt the tightening of his fingertips into her flesh and the way her ass parted from his touch. Glancing behind her, she saw his gaze fixed on her nethers, his mouth slightly open. His hungry look made her core heat more.
“Touch me,” she said. “I can tell you want to.”
“Fuck yes,” he breathed and his fingertips slid closer to her core, then grazed up along the outside, tracing a circle around her slick, hot opening.
Assana’s attention wavered under his touch, but she refocused on the impressive specimen of fertile male in front of her, sliding her hand between his thighs and cupping his balls.
Silas spread his thighs and tilted his hips up, giving her a closer view of the pair of heavy orbs in her hand. They seemed to heat against her palm as though filled with power that made her skin tingle as she stroked them. She bent to kiss each one, pleased by the soft, low growl he made when she darted her tongue out and laved both with a long, slow lick.
She proceeded to trail her tongue up along his length to the sound of a sigh from him. At the same time, the fingers between her legs grew bolder, pushed her folds open and stroked through her channel to her aching clit.
“I want you on my tongue, Assana. Now.”
He’d lain there so quietly compliant, the urgent command shot a jolt of excitement through her. She moved, eagerly placing her knees on either side of his head. She was no stranger to this position, but wasn’t accustomed to the huge column of flesh in front of her. In the past she’d have faced the smooth, wet snatch of one of her fellow nymphs.
All she knew was that he enjoyed her mouth on him, and she most definitely enjoyed his mouth on her. He gripped her ass and pulled her down, then his hot tongue went at her, dipping in deep before finding her clit and teasing it in maddening little circles. She couldn’t help but wriggle her hips so her pussy rubbed harder against his mouth.
Silas’s hips jacked up against her absentminded stroking and she forced herself to redirect her focus to the fascinating and delicious cock in front of her. She took him between her lips and slid her mouth down as far as she could go, then farther when he pushed up into her throat. Startled by the invasion, she closed her eyes and breathed through her nose, but soon realized she’d simply have to endure not breathing while she sucked him, if she intended to do it properly. She could live for a time without air if she was prepared for it, and knew this would only take a few minutes, though with the intensity of the pleasure of his tongue teasing her clit she didn’t want it to end anytime soon.
Finding a swift rhythm that matched his fingers pumping into her opening, Assana lost herself to the taste and feel of his shaft sliding between her lips. Their earlier melding had faded and she only had the barest glimmer of his pleasure from what was left, but that was enough to push her closer to the edge.
Silas’s tongue continued working avidly at her clit, each stroke sending waves of fresh pleasure through her body. When he let out a long, deep snarl and pushed his hips up into her stroking fists and sucking mouth, the awareness of his pleasure made the threatening storm of her orgasm break suddenly. Her entire body convulsed, and it was all she could do to keep her mouth wrapped around the head of his cock as the exquisite sensations rocketed through her.
Silas gripped both her hips hard, holding her tight against his mouth while he consumed her orgasm, just as she held onto his cock and drank in the hot, salty-sweet jets of his.
Tremors coursed through both their bodies as their orgasms slowly subsided. His hands gradually relaxed and he reached to tug at her arm. Assana twisted around and collapsed against his chest, gazing into his eyes. She brushed a palm down the side of his enraptured face and leaned in to press her lips against his.
Silas’s mouth was still tangy and slick from her juices, and her tongue still tingled from the rush of his seed across it. The flavors mingled when their tongues slid together, and they both let out mirrored sounds of contentment. As they kissed, she reached out with her mind, pressing her fingers tighter against his temples. Immediately she sensed him opening up, inviting her in, and then the meld was complete, their minds curling around each other, entwined and sated as their bodies were.
They slept, their dreams synchronized and both featuring a beautiful caged man with vivid red hair and a gaze that could incite lust. Though Assana had yet to meld the dragon, she’d tasted remnants of his power in Silas’s climax and longed to taste more.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gavra
Gavra gave up pacing his cage and forced himself to try to relax. After more futile attempts to burn through the bars of his cage with his fire, he accepted that there was no straightforward way out of his situation, so he decided he may as well try to enjoy himself however he could. He was as hedonistic as the next
dragon, so it wasn’t too far a stretch once he headed back to the luxurious bathroom of his prison, though calling it a “room” was being generous. Despite the lack of privacy, the nymphaea at least treated their captives well.
When he shed his clothes and slid into the deep, heated tub, he felt the eyes of his Thiasoi guards through the latticework walls that surrounded him. Without turning to look, he said, “Fantasizing about all the babies I’ll fill you with, girls?”
The pointed silence made him turn his head. He lifted his brows at the lovely pair of nymphs leaning against the low stone wall outside his cage. Neither one was smiling.
“Not looking forward to being bedded by a dragon?” he asked.
One of the girls—the darker-skinned one he’d heard Assana call Clio earlier—said, “They won’t be ours when it’s done, so no.”
Gavra frowned. “Well, whose will they be? I don’t intend to keep them myself, unless you want me hanging around playing daddy. Not that I wouldn’t be thrilled to claim them all. I make perfect babies.”
“The blood meld with Nyx means they’ll be hers. We don’t get to choose our own mates until we’ve done our duty to the Haven and our mistress.”
“And you are all willing participants in this scheme?” he asked, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the side of the tub.
When neither female answered him, he opened his eyes again.
“We are,” Clio said when he raised an eyebrow at her.
He glanced at the other nymph—Ephyra—who turned haunted eyes to her Thiasoi sister before facing him again and nodding. Gavra didn’t need his brother’s clarifying white breath to know they weren’t being entirely truthful.
“Well, I have no doubt Nyx has her reasons. She was always pragmatic, for a nymph. I haven’t seen her in ages, though. Is she as beautiful as I remember? When we were young, I often wished my kind weren’t restricted to mating with humans. We all had our rules to follow, though. Even we immortals aren’t above the law.”