Page 32 of The Brothers Bane

“Only a few moments?” she asks, smirking. “What if I want to go back to the style oftrainingVesh wanted to subject me to? We can spend all day right here.”

Her soft curves beckon, her breasts loose and full beneath a tight black tank top, her hips clad only in thin black cotton. I indulge in one quick glance before looking toward the door.

“Alcides!” I call.

The door swings open before I’ve uttered the last syllable of his name, his bulk filling the entire frame.

“What is it?” he blurts, holding his club in front of him. When he sees Nemea kneeling at my side, her hand resting on my shoulder, his gaze heats. He lowers his weapon and places a hand at his waistband, gaze darting between us both as if waiting for the confirmation that this is an invitation. I shake my head.

“We agreed that it’s best for Nemea to bond with me now. Please keep watch.” When he frowns, I add, “Outside.”

He lets out a snort only mildly tinged with disappointment, then retreats, closing the door behind him.

Nemea chuckles. “What could it hurt to invite him too? It isn’t like I can’t take you both.”

“I know you can,” I tell her, turning to face her more fully now. I reach up and comb my fingers into her hair and stare into her eyes. “But I want you to myself. Is that so bad?”

“Only if that’s the only way you’ll ever have me. I won’t lock them out forever. Well, I might lock Vesh out forever, but not the rest of you.”

She tugs the hem of her top up and peels it off, then lifts and pushes her underwear off her hips, falling back against the pillows to shimmy out of them. I’m too busy enjoying the view to fully react when she rises again and swings a leg across my lap.

“Can I undress you?” she asks, fingering the leather laces at either side of my breastplate.

My hands fall to her hips like moths to a flame. She’s warm and soft, her full breasts a decadent temptation right in front of me. Her aura’s pulsing with arousal even though I’ve barely touched her.

“Not just yet,” I say.

“We need to taste each other to bond, don’t we?”

“For a dragon, that isn’t necessary, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. All I need to do is mark you. Why do you look disappointed?”

She frowns down at my armor, then toys with the end of my braid, secured by black twine. She works the twine loose and begins unraveling the plait.

Apprehension blooms like a chilly fog inside me, a sense of being undone along with the carefully secured braid I always wear. The only times my hair hangs loose is when I bathe, before it’s quickly bound up again.

It would feel safer to let her undress me.

Before she can get halfway up my braid, I grab her wrist and spin her, pressing her back against the pillows with her wrist over her head. I snag her other wrist and pin it too, enjoying the wide-eyed look of surprise she gives me.

She twists her body, trying to free herself, her supple curves undulating enticingly beneath me. My own pussy pulses hotly between my legs.

“Don’t move,” I command, exhaling a measure of dark smoke that winds itself down to my unraveled strands of hair and resecures them.

“You’re touchy about your hair. Got it,” she says. “So what am I allowed to do? Just lie here and let you have your way with me?”

“Pretty much.” I exhale a thicker cloud of smoke that trails up her arms and wraps itself around her wrists, then around the sturdy horizontal log that serves as a headboard. It solidifies into ropes.

“You’re no fun,” she quips, staring up at her bound wrists. But there is humor there, particularly when she smirks back at me, making it clear she’s indeed having fun. “Just don’t tell me I can leave whenever I want unless you actually mean it.”

That makes me pause, and I briefly reconsider tying her up. She laughs.

“I’m joking. I’ll tell you if I don’t like what you’re doing.”

I place both hands on the bed to either side of her arms and hover over her. “You can tell me if you like it too. Positive feedback is just as welcome.”

Before she can answer, I kiss her again, savoring her mouth as I would one of the sweetest, most decadent treats. I’ve never tasted a kiss so sweet, and it quickly goes to my head, my pulse quickening, the throb growing even more insistent between my legs.

She lets out a moan and hooks one leg around my thighs, tilting her hips up. I glance down her body, mouth watering as much over the brightening pulse of her aura as the way I know she will taste.

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