Page 78 of Beautiful Beast

My skin burned with embarrassment and something else. Something deeper that shouldn’t have been pride, but felt like possession.

My dragon groaned. “I’m getting you out of here. If I have to scent one more breath of your fresh arousal, I won’t be able to keep my promise about the bed.”

Tugging me after him down the once-more-abandoned stairs, I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe I would unlearn this shyness once and for all.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

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KATALENA

Sirrus pulled wet sand up over my feet, waiting until the next wave swept in before he did it again. The heavy substance weighed them down. He did it with intention, like he meant to bury me on the beach where the four of us lingered.

Once Zovai and I returned from the library, Endre and Sirrus had found their way back to their chambers, sweating and exhausted. Endre had no words but to listen to Zovai’s account of bringing me to orgasm on his fingers and trying it himself. He seemed desperate, burying his face in my neck as he made me writhe beneath him.

Not one word was spoken by him, even when I went to sleep, limp and sated and overwhelmed with their attention. Still, they hadn’t let me explore them with my curiosity, though I longed to do so.

But Endre seemed tired, and so we had not left their apartments that day. Or the next. And now, on the beach, staring out at the glittering waves, I was entranced by more than the infinite water. As I had been for the entire day.

Varí was happily ensconced in the laboratory with Mesene, sleeping in that damn mortar bowl. I would have to find him one to keep in whatever room I lived in because he liked it so much.

Sirrus scooped beneath my feet and allowed them to sink deeper. “Will you bury me up to my neck?” I asked him.

“No.” Pale blue eyes glittered. “In fact, I should have begun with only one foot, so you were open for me.”

I flushed. “I am innocent, but not entirely.”

Tilting his head, he looked at me and ran a hand up my calf to the back of my knee, pulling my leg from the sand and lifting it to his shoulder. “And what does that mean, Princess?”

“That you cannot possibly be satisfied by one-sided pleasure.”

My back hit the sand as he pounced, body lining up with mine. He wore nothing, and one glance downward showed the shifting colors of his skin into shimmering glitter and the long, hard length of him. But he made no move further than that, dragging his mouth up between my breasts before taking my lips. “Is that so? Because I think I could happily spend a century between your legs and call it true happiness. These nights have not been long enough. Especially sharing.”

They’d pleasured me to pieces again, and despite less sleep, I felt rested in a way I never truly had before.

“I hope you don’t wait a century,” I told him, “because I want more.”

He laughed softly, glancing to our left. “If you’re that tempted, perhaps you should rouse Endre.”

Following his gaze, I saw where he looked. Endre was stretched out on the dark sand, his opal skin shifting colors in the sun. One arm was slung over his eyes to block out the light and his chest both rose and fell in slow, even breaths. “He’s sleeping?”

“He is.”

“And he won’t mind?”

Sirrus leaned down and pressed a kiss beneath my ear. “No, he will not.”

I rolled out from beneath Sirrus, savoring the feeling of the sun and the water on my bare skin. It was the first time I’d ever been bare outside, and it felt as wonderful as it did indecent. They assured me that no one from the city would see me, and I believed them. The very suggestion made smoke pour from their mouths.

Endre was beautiful up close. Still as he was, the way his skin sparkled made it look like he was mid-movement. His fiery and jewel-like black scales were gorgeous, but this was entirely different. It was more.

I didn’t want to wake him, but I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to touch him. Zovai lurked in the shallows, watching with an amused smile on his face.

Slowly, I lowered my mouth to his skin. Right along the place where it began to shine. He was warm. A little thrill went through me. They’d kissed me, and I’d kissed them. But the difference was stark. This felt tender and intimate in a way I’d never experienced.

This felt powerful.

Endre sucked in a breath, and I looked up to meet dark eyes, looking at me from where he’d lifted his arm.

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