20

Kyreagan looks more handsome than ever, in a dark blue suit with a ruffled collar that frames the deep V of his tanned chest. Foamy lace falls from his cuffs, and his sleek black hair is tied with a blue ribbon. When I spotted him in the hallway, it was as if my primal feminine self took over—leaped from some ancient, instinctive part of my soul and claimed control of my body and mind. I had to touch him. Had to feel him, to remind myself that despite how close I came to death, I'm here , I'm alive, and so is he. My body has learned to equate him with security, with wholeness, with home, and I need him now, with a ferocious hunger that won't be denied over such paltry objections as reason and caution .

This morning I was beaten almost to death by the man I wouldn't kill. Rows of soldiers watched him pummel me, without so much as twitching a finger in my defense. I wanted to scream for mercy, and it was all I could do not to resort to abject pleading. But the worst part of it was the helplessness I felt, the utter lack of choice .

Right now, Kyreagan is my choice. I choose boldness. I choose pleasure. I choose his skin, and his hair, and his soft dark eyes and his sweet, hot mouth.

This alcove once housed an ancestor's portrait, which has since been removed and probably destroyed by the Vohrainians. The curtains concealing us could be yanked back at any second, dooming us both. I know it distantly, grudgingly, and I don't care. I only care that I'm helplessly wet for him, that his bare, warm cock is slipping against my soaked pussy, that his hands are in my hair and my legs are locked around him, my ankles pressed against his firm ass.

Kyreagan moves one hand down, swirls his thumb over my clit. It's so exquisitely sensitive that I almost whine aloud, but he kisses me hard, drowning the sound with his tongue.

One of my arms is wrapped around his neck, but my other hand dives between us, my fingers curling around his cock, guiding its thick, smooth hardness into my pussy. Kyreagan tenses as he enters me, joins me, his huge length gliding deep, filling me whole.

This is how he and I were always meant to be, frenzied and panting and out of our minds, fucking desperately, reason blurred by reckless passion.

"Make me come," I pant against Kyreagan's ear. "Make me come, dragon. I need to come."

He growls low in his throat, and his beautiful body surges with power as he obeys my command, as he fucks me furiously. He finds the angle we had last night, where his body rubs my clit just right with each thrust. The slick pumping of his long cock, the strength of his arms, the hectic danger of what we're doing—all of it drives my body to screaming heights of ecstasy, and I break with a hoarse little shriek.

I muffle my cries against Kyreagan's mouth, and I keep kissing him while he comes inside me. My brain is screaming fuck, fuck, fuck , but I'm nearly silent as we convulse together, as he bucks his hips into me for a last deep thrust, giving me every drop of cum.

"We have to go," I gasp. "You need to go. Your meeting."

"Yes. Shit… yes." He pulls out of me, his chest heaving. But I lace my arms around his neck for one more second and whisper to him, "Your cum will be dripping down my thighs when I walk away from here."

"By the Bone-Builder," he breathes. "Now I won't be able to stop thinking about it."

"Be careful, be smart, be safe. Now go."

He's getting better at straightening his clothes quickly. As he does so, he whispers, "Meridian found out that Parma visited the King while you were being kept in the Harlowe mansion."

"What does that mean? I never saw her there. Why would she—"

"I don't know what it means, but we have to think about the possibility that the Royal Poisoner is from Elekstan."

"That's not possible." I frown. "Parma has no magic. She never met the King before the invasion of the Capital. And she would never—"

"I'm not saying she's involved. Only that she was with the King for unknown reasons. Just be careful, Serylla."

"But I spoke with Rahzien's healer. She says the poisoner is one of the lords. The one who doesn't fit in, the one with the viper's eye, she said."

"Interesting." His dark brows bend. "I will see what I can observe during my meeting with Rahzien. Meridian said there will be Vohrainian lords present. Until we know more, trust no one."

"Except you."

"That goes without saying, my Queen." His lips find mine in the dark, the spiced heat of his breath making me weak and needy again.

"Go, before I decide to keep you here," I tell him .

With a soft laugh, he disappears through the curtains.

I slump against the wall of the alcove, feeling the sore, delicious warmth of the orgasm between my legs, and the drip of his cum along my inner thigh. I came hard, but I'm nowhere near satisfied, physically or emotionally. My body and my heart crave him more than I ever imagined needing anyone.

But I can't have him like I want to. Not yet.

My dragon is gone.

And he has my damp underwear in his pocket.