by Selena Scott
Lucy stayed quiet, totally unsure of what to say. She was pretty sure that Zara would never rat her out. But Amos’s life hung in the balance. Pretty sure was not good enough.
“I would never tell anyone, Lucy.” Zara whispered, her eyes serious.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Zara.” Lucy kept her eyes on the sky above her.
“He’s a good man, Lucy. I’ve known him my whole life. He’s gonna get you out of here. I just know it. I just wish I could come with you.” Zara’s voice was almost a whisper at the end.
Lucy’s heart broke cleanly in two and she gripped Zara’s hand.
“Couldn’t you?” Lucy knew she was blowing her cover, but the weight of Zara’s situation fell on her all at once. This poor girl was just waiting, ticking away the days until she became old enough for the King to consummate.
Zara’s eyes were sad as she shook her head. “I can’t go through the portal until I’m 20. The portal only allows dragon shifters in their human forms to go through in either direction. So I wouldn’t make it.”
Lucy cocked her head to one side. “But you’re in your human form right now.”
Zara blushed and shook her head. “Not everywhere.”
“Um. What?” Lucy was more confused than ever.
Zara blushed even further. “Dragon girls keep scales… down there. Until they are about 20, when they disappear on their own. It’s to keep men away from us. To keep us from procreating while we’re too young to be mothers. But it also means we’re in a constant state of half shift. And can’t go through the portal.”
Lucy tried to school her face into a reasonable expression, to not make Zara feel bad. But whoa. “Scales on your hoo-ha, huh? Welp, that’ll definitely keep your virginity intact.”
Zara burst into giggles and Lucy followed, relieved she hadn’t offended her.
“I’ll miss you, Lucy,” Zara said, her eyes sad again.
Lucy just gripped her hand, her brain churning a mile a minute. They stayed like that for a long time until the afternoon light lengthened across the roof. Neither of them wanted their King-less Sunday to end, but they knew it was time to head back to their separate chambers. Lucy felt even more reluctant than usual to let Zara out of her sight. She was just so young and sweet.
Zara needed somebody to look after her. And that night as she brushed her hair, Lucy decided that she was the perfect person to do that. She took a deep breath and knew what she needed to do. Amos was not going to like this. Lucy heard the door to her chamber slide open and knew Amos was there. She paused in brushing her hair and held up a hand to stop him as he slid down to give her a kiss.
“I want to stay in the realm for four more years,” she said.
Amos stepped back as if she’d slapped him. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t want to leave until we can take Zara with us.”
Understanding lit his eyes. “And she can’t go through the portal until she’s twenty.”
Lucy nodded. “So if we make just a few minor tweaks to our plan-,” she started.
“Minor tweaks! Hatchling, four additional years are not minor tweaks to the plan.”
“Well, why don’t we go hide someplace in the Kingdom for four years?” She threw her arms out wide. “It’s a big place, we can find someplace where the King won’t be able to find us.”
Amos pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hatchling, do you understand the resources the King has at his disposal? He has an Oracle for god sakes. And a 15,000 man army that’s ready to march tomorrow. He’s the most powerful being in the dragon realm. There is no hiding from him.”
“Ok, fine. If we can’t hide from him in the dragon realm somewhere, then we stay here. In the castle, and just tough it out for four years.” She turned back to face the mirror and brush her hair, unwilling to look at his face as she said those words.
He was stone silent and she could feel the tension rolling of him.
“Tough what out, hatchling?”
Lucy said nothing. He could fill in the blanks by himself.
He came up behind her and took the brush out of her hand. Studied her in the mirror of the vanity. His gaze was fiery and she couldn’t look away from the fury she saw there.
“I said, ‘tough what out’? Tough out us hiding our relationship? Tough out him pushing you to the ground and making you do his bidding? Tough out him fucking you whenever he feels like it for the next four years? Tough out him impregnating you? Tough out the fact that I fucking hate him now? That I was born to protect him but I want to rip his fucking throat out whenever he looks at you? Is that what you want to tough out for the next four years?”
“Amos,” she started, but she didn’t get to finish talking. He reached down and ripped her dress off over her head. He stared at her in the mirror. He was clothed and hulking behind her completely naked body. He roughly cupped one of her breasts. Her eyes dropped to the sight in the mirror.
“You think we can keep hiding this?” His other hand dropped to her pussy, cupping her. She knew he could feel how wet she was when his eyes dilated in the mirror.
“How long do you think we can keep pretending that you don’t come on my cock every night of the week?” Every muscle in Lucy’s abdomen clamped down at those words and she felt a rush of heat start to slide down her thighs. She looked up at his chiseled face. He was looking at her with so much intensity in his brown eyes. His lips were set with desire for her. She reached back to touch him and was delighted when he leaned into it like an overgrown cat.
But he wasn’t waylaid by her touch for long. He tugged on one nipple and then the next, making them stand up at full attention. She could feel his cock pressing into her back.
“This thing between us just keeps getting stronger. How long do you think we can hide it? The Oracle knows, the wives are starting to suspect. It won’t be long before the King knows. The way you make me feel, I know it’s written all over me.” He leaned down and said the words into her neck as he nipped and sucked at her pulse point. “The way I feel about you, I might as well just go down on you in front of him tomorrow.”
She moaned and pushed her ass back into him. She needed him. She needed more of him now.
“I can’t hide it much longer, Lucy. How much longer can we pretend that this pussy is his? When we both know exactly whose it is.” He finally slid his middle finger into her and she sank down on it gratefully. His thumb stroked across her clit at the same time his finger curled inside her and Lucy’s head fell back on his shoulder.
“No. Watch,” he said, gently pushing her head back up. Her eyes zeroed in on his hand, slowly pumping into her. “Watch while I remind you whose it is.”
She had to blink to focus her eyes through the lust but she was heavily rewarded when she did. She saw a woman with flushed cheeks, eyes heavy, plump lips parted and panting. She saw her full breasts spilling over his arm, one of her nipples peeking out between his fingers. Her curvy waist and full hips pressed back into his hardness as his fingers disappeared inside of her.
His thumb began stroking her in earnest and pleasure came spiraling toward her, just out of reach. He could make her come in fifteen seconds flat, they’d timed it before, but tonight he was intentionally holding her release away, prolonging it.
“Please,” she begged, locking eyes with him in the mirror. “Please make me come.”
He tipped her forward, placing her palms on the vanity in front of her, bending her over it. Her breasts spilled forward. He jerked out of his pants and shirt and stood there, gloriously naked, behind her. The night shadows of her room puddled in the definition of his muscles. He was so goddamn bulky, almost twice the size of her. It still amazed her that they fit together, that she could take a man of his size.
His eyes broke from hers and in the mirror she watched him study her pussy from behind. His breath came ragged and he shook his head in wonder, assuring her, as always, how much he liked what he saw. He grabbed the base of his cock and
dragged the head along her opening, circling her clit and moving back to press into her just an inch. His eyes dragged up and caught hers in the mirror.
“He never gets this, Lucy. This is mine,” he said and plunged into her all the way. Lucy kept her eyes open, because she knew he’d want to see it. But her eyes were unseeing as she came. She was spinning through the universe. Every feeling of pleasure he’d ever called out of her rushed back through her, condensed and racing. It was like every orgasm she’d ever had all came to the party at once. She clamped down on him so hard his teeth gritted against it. Her fingers curled into fists as her entire world was just one feeling, one moment. She wasn’t a human anymore, she wasn’t Lucy, she was just this feeling, this pleasure.
She heard animal, wanton moans in her ears and barely even recognized them as her own. Her muscles felt frozen, locked in place by the ecstasy, but really she was working herself on his cock. Fucking him from the front, she rode out her own orgasm with such sexual energy that he held still behind her, let her work herself through it.
When the feeling finally began to recede, she sagged against the vanity. Resting on her elbows. But this just provided a new angle for him. He gripped her hips so tightly she thought she might bruise, but it felt good. It felt safe and secure. He pulled out almost to the tip and fed himself back into her. Drawing groans from both of them.
“Mine,” he ground out through gritted teeth and she turned her cheek to the cool wooden top of the vanity and nodded her head. She pushed her ass back onto him and was pleased at the slapping sound of skin on skin.
“Yes,” she moaned. “It’s yours, Amos.”
The second she said his name, he found his rhythm. He slammed into her over and over, knocking the piece of furniture she leaned on into the wall. Their pants came out in tandem, rough and ragged.
She looked up into the mirror again and saw him staring hard at the place where he entered her. Like he was hypnotized. He was as under the spell of their love making as she was. She dropped her hand to her clit and he pounded into her even faster. He liked it when she played with herself. He always had.
“Oh, you’re close, baby. I can tell when you squeeze me like that,” he panted as he gripped her hips and rode her faster. And she was close. Watching him rut her like an animal in the mirror had turned her on more than almost anything in her entire life. His face was tight with lust and concentration, the skin over his bulging muscles was damp and glistening. His body pumped into her with feral ferocity.
“Come on it, baby. Come on it,” he commanded and she did, just as hard as last time. This time her eyes clamped closed so that nothing would distract her from permanently remembering the feeling of him exploding inside her at the same second. His warmth flooded her womb. She clamped down on him like a fist. He pumped into her fast and deep. Halfway through coming he fell forward, her back to his chest, and he kept pumping into her. His mouth opened on her shoulder and his teeth clamped firmly down. The pain shot to her nipples, and down to her clit which she pinched between her fingers. She was coming from somewhere deep inside her body. Where she didn’t even know she could come.
They sagged against one another and the vanity. Completely spent. He picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. He flicked on the taps and put them both in the tub while it was still filling up. She lay on top of him, her back to his front, and looked at the ceiling. She was completely dazed by what just happened. She’d never in her life felt pleasure like that. She hadn’t even known it existed.
He reached up and turned off the rushing water after it filled the tub, delightfully warm.
“I’m in love with you,” he said. And she was immediately tossed out of her lazy stupor. She tried to turn in his arms to look at him but he pinned her to him so she couldn’t move. “I’m so in love with you, Lucy. I’ll give you anything you want, hatchling. Anything. You want to find a way to stay here four more years, well I guess I’ll figure it out. I’m not crazy about leaving Zara behind either. I’ll give you anything you want. But please don’t make me share you with him.” He pressed his nose into her wet hair and nuzzled her. “It’ll kill me dead.”
“No one else but you for the rest of my life,” she said to the air. This time he let her turn. The deep, moved expression on his face was her undoing. “I’m in love with you too. We’ll find a way to keep Zara safe. But not at the expense of him touching me. No one else but you gets to do that for the rest of my life.”
He pulled her against him and kissed the breath out of her. Her breasts crushed against his chest as he held her. Her legs floated to either side of his. He dragged her up his body a little further and kissed and sucked her neck.
“I love you,” he said, almost tentatively, as if he were experimenting with saying it out loud. He insinuated himself between her legs and thrust into her and at the same second he pushed her down on his cock.
She cried out in pleasure. How was it possible that he just kept making her feel better and better? “I love you,” she moaned into his mouth, and started riding him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Lovebirds. Oh, darling lovebirds,” a voice sang.
Lucy felt sleep loosen its grip on her. But she sat up the second she felt Amos’s warmth leave her side. She had to blink her eyes at the sight she was seeing. She wasn’t sure it was real.
A completely naked Amos stood over the top of someone, his foot crushing the man’s windpipe. It was the blonde man she’d often seen in the King’s chambers. He’d joined them for part of the day.
“Dude,” the blonde man choked out. “I can see your junk.”
Amos seemed to press harder on his neck. “What the fuck are you doing here, Oracle.”
Ah. So that’s who that was. Zara had mentioned something about an oracle here and there, but Lucy would never in a million years have thought this guy was it. He had wavy blonde hair and a kind of surfer vibe about him. He was the only one who hadn’t treated the King with complete reverence. He usually seemed as bored by all the proceedings as she was.
The Oracle made a strangled little noise. His face was turning red.
“Amos, you’re gonna kill him!” Lucy called from the bed, reaching over to get her robe. She slid it on and came to stand beside him, picking up Amos’s pants along the way.
Amos removed his foot from the Oracle’s neck and took the pants from Lucy, tugging them on.
“Answer me,” Amos bit out. “What the fuck are you doing here.”
The Oracle was coughing and holding his throat, but he came to stand. He gestured toward the tousled bed where Amos and Lucy had made love twice more the night before. “I see you’ve really made your choice then, huh?”
“That’s none of your goddamn business,” Amos growled, pushing Lucy a little bit behind him.
The Oracle rolled his eyes. “I’m an Oracle, Amos. Everything is my business.” He went and flopped down in the armchair on the corner. “Whether I like it or not.”
“You mean you can see the future? Our future?” Lucy asked, and stepped forward. Amos reached out and grabbed the back of her robe, tugging her back to his front.
“Not exactly. There isn’t one future.” The Oracle examined his fingernails as he spoke. “There’s lots of possibilities, depending on the decisions people make. But I gotta say you two have really made your decision.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucy snapped. Something about the Oracle was kind of annoying. Amos stroked a hand over her shoulder as if he were saying, just ignore it, I know this guy’s a douche.
“It means you fanned the flames, you dirty lovebirds.” The Oracle flashed a lascivious grin and bit at a hangnail. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of this. I never wanted the King to have you, Lucy.”
“You’re the one who tracked her down and brought her here!” Amos growled.
The Oracle rolled his eyes. “If she had simply been a perfect genetic match for the King, I never would have brought her here. I would have lied. I’d
never condemn a woman to a fate as unthinkable as that.”
“Then why the fuck did you bring her here?” Amos’s voice was almost unrecognizable with anger.
The Oracle leaned his head on one of his palms. Outwardly he looked bored, but Lucy could see nerves lick across his face. “I don’t serve the King, Amos.”
Amos stepped around Lucy so fast she couldn’t even follow it with her eyes. His hands shot out and his dragon claws appeared. Amos raised one arm to swipe across the Oracle’s neck. But the Oracle raised his hand and spoke.
“And neither do you anymore, Amos. Remember that.”
Amos froze. Lucy froze. The Oracle froze.
“Will somebody please explain this to me?” Lucy yelled. “I’m a little in the dark over here.”
Amos snicked his claws closed and tore a hand through his hair.
“Who the fuck do you serve then, Oracle.”
“You know who I’m talking about.” The Oracle said, biting his fingernail again.
“Fuck,” Amos growled. “FUCK.”
“Who?” Lucy exclaimed, still totally confused.
“Solar,” Amos bit out, beyond agitated.
“Who the hell is Solar?” Lucy was just as agitated as he was right about then.
Amos paced back and forth. The Oracle leaned around him so that he could see Lucy. “Well, pretty much in a nutshell, Solar is a kid Amos grew up with. They were best friends until Solar decided to head up a rebel alliance that’s trying to overthrow the King.”
Lucy’s jaw dropped open. Holy shit. And he’d never even mentioned it?
“He’s still my best friend.” There was murder in Amos’s eyes but Lucy had no idea who it was even for, the Oracle, this Solar guy, or himself. Amos turned to Lucy. “He’s like a brother to me. But when he decided that he couldn’t live under the King’s rule, we had to part ways.” He brought his hand roughly through his hair. “Or risk having to kill one another.”
“Wow, stunner,” the Oracle said in such a way that Lucy knew he already knew that whole story. He leaned back around to see Lucy.