Chapter Thirty-six

ARCHER

"All this Arthurian stuff is amazing," Mark said over tea and biscuits. "Don't tell me you have the Lady of the Lake in your moat."

"No unclad women have been seen there in recent times," I told him. "And sorry to disappoint you, but the only swords in my forge are brand new ones, so Excalibur isn't lurking around here somewhere."

"You have swords? Can I see them?" Mark leaned forward eagerly, surprisingly bloodthirsty for a theologian.

"Mark." Rufus's voice was soft and apologetic. "We should probably do a bit more transcribing first."

"Oh, right, sorry. It's just, this house is incredible."

"Wait till you see the maze," Ollie told him.

As Mark's eyes lit up, and Rufus looked intrigued, I realised that, although we weren't doing it quite the way Margaret Teague had suggested, we were forging new connections with other dragons and making friends.

To my surprise, I liked it.

OLLIE

Rufus and Mark worked hard on transcribing the family tree. Afterwards, Rufus went through a fair bit of the bible looking for what he called marginalia. He didn't find anything.

"Do you want us to keep this to ourselves?" Rufus asked Archer when they'd finished their work.

Archer shook his head. "I've no time for people who hoard knowledge for power. Feel free to tell anyone. I think Evelyn's going to be turning up on our doorstep before much longer, in any case."

They spent some time delightedly exploring the library and looking around the forge, the gardens and the maze, before having supper with us. After we saw them off in the dusk, I turned to Archer.

"So the valuable thing was this big bit of dragon history that everyone had forgotten?"

"Looks that way," Archer agreed. "Valuable in a way that Mark would appreciate, but why would Chris have been after it?"

"Maybe he assumed valuable meant money."

Archer heaved a sigh. "I'm going to sort out the Chris situation tomorrow. It's just as well I made better progress on the swords than I expected, or I'd be running behind."

He'd had an entire afternoon when he hadn't thought once about work and his responsibilities. I determined not to let him slide back into that rut.

"Well," I said, moving the couple of paces that separated us and tucking my fingers through his belt loops to tug him closer still. "It seems Mia's away again tonight, so what could we possibly do?"

His eyes darkened as he looked down at me. "Have anything particular in mind?" This teasing was new in him, and I liked it.

"I seem to remember mentioning something about walls," I mused.

So I only had myself to blame when I ended up face first against the bedroom wall, where he'd put me as if I weighed nothing, my legs apart and jeans around my knees as he opened me up with his tongue.

" Archer." My sexy groan turned into a yelp as his tongue speared inside me. " Fuck. "

By the time he began to finger me with those broad, clever fingers, I was shaking. It was everything I'd fantasised about from the first instant I'd seen him, only so much better because it was Archer holding me open to ease his cock inside me.

I whimpered as he slid all the way home. His hands covered mine where they were spread against the wall.

"Don't move," he said, his low voice vibrating against my ear with that hint of a growl that always got me going. For him to use it when he was fucking me… I had to brace my knees because they wanted to buckle with how turned on I was.

Obediently, I kept my hands on the wall, and then my nails practically gouged into the plaster because he moved those big hands of his over my body while he fucked me. He pinched my nipples as he thrust inside me, his cock hitting the right spot over and over.

He was big, he was powerful, and he was in control, leaving me unable to do anything except take every thrust of his cock and make sounds at a pitch that hadn't yet been discovered.

I came almost as soon as he touched my cock. While I was still shuddering around him, he came deep inside me. " Mine," he growled, and I almost came all over again.

I wasn't sure if it was the thorough pounding I'd just received or what he'd said that left my knees so unsteady as he helped me kick off my jeans and stumble towards his bed. I collapsed face down, and he started exploring my arse, stroking me, fingers dipping inside.

God, I loved this. I loved him. Later, when my brain wasn't actual mush, maybe I could get him talking about what he most liked. He was still shy when it came to talking about sex. Not about doing it, obviously.

I groaned under his touch, which was getting me excited all over again, even though it was way too soon.

"How's your shoulder?" he asked.

At first, it had been discombobulating, having a conversation while he was fingering me so thoroughly, but I'd grown used to it with him. He was a multi-tasker.

"Great," I moaned into his pillow, pushing my arse up in invitation. If this was how he was going to react whenever we had a strange dragon visit the house, I was going to invite every dragon family in the country.

ARCHER

Later, when Ollie fell asleep in my arms, my mind drifted to what I'd need to do tomorrow.

Chris and June had some close allies in the family, and I wondered if throwing the two of them out would lead to the family split I'd been trying to avoid. It didn't matter if it did. They had to go. He'd hurt Ollie, and they'd tried to take Tim and Mia away from me. Both were unforgivable.

I'd had a text from Tim earlier, letting me know he'd done well in his exams. I wasn't surprised, and I told him as much—he was a bright kid. Adult, not a kid. God, that was going to be an adjustment. I was so used to being in charge and telling them what to do. I'd always ultimately be in charge—the entire family was my responsibility—but I had to treat them like the adults they were. Even so, I had no intention of preparing Tim to become head of family in his turn until he was out of uni and settled in whatever he chose to do. I would do so gradually, not dump it on his unprepared shoulders all at once, the way it had been done to me.

A thought hit me, and I stiffened, obviously enough for Ollie to murmur my name sleepily. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I pressed a kiss to his blond curls and willed him back to sleep. For the first time, I wondered if Dad had been as crappy a head of family as I'd always thought him. Perhaps he'd been protecting me by not grooming me for headship when I was so young. I'd always thought it was because he hadn't cared about either the headship or me.

If I were to drop dead tomorrow, Tim might be left believing I hadn't involved him because I didn't rate his abilities or because I wanted to hoard the headship to myself, not because I was protecting him from the burden it was.

I needed to talk to him and let him know. And if he didn't want to wait to start learning the ropes, I'd need to respect that.

Hell's teeth. Ollie had upended everything with his talk of compromise. But he was right.

He was fast asleep again, about the only time he was ever still and silent. I drew him closer to me, breathing in his scent, thankful beyond words that he was here with me.