Page 30 of The Dragon King

I just stared at him, and that was enough.

I fell asleep again at some point, and when I woke up again, it was early morning. Talon was still asleep, still hadn’t moved, his body recuperating. I watched him take a breath to reassure myself that he was still with me.

I wanted to lie with him forever, but if I didn’t pee soon, my bladder would burst. I slowly left the branches of his arms and made it to the edge of the bed without waking him. Then I did my business down the hall and looked out the window, listening to the birds singing their song to the morning light. The forest had changed after the battle, but the wildlife continued to make it a peaceful place.

“Baby.” His voice was deeper than usual, his throat still asleep.

I returned down the hallway and found him on his back, the sheets to his waist, the outline of his hard dick visible under the material. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He pulled back the sheets and patted the spot beside him.

I came back to the bed and snuggled into his side.

But he wanted to do more than snuggle. He immediately moved over me, grabbed on to my panties, and yanked them off. My shirt was spared, and he moved to his boxers next and pulled them free before he made himself at home between my legs,folding me underneath him and pinning me into the mattress before he invaded my lands.

He sank inside as he took in a slow breath, filling me with his size. He went as deep as my body would allow before his hand slid into my hair the way a man gripped the reins of his favorite horse. Every touch was possessive, every stare captured my mind, body, and soul. He made me his in every way possible, made it clear in no uncertain terms that I was his woman, his only woman, and he belonged to me as much as I belonged to him.

I started to cry, not because he hurt me or because he made me come, but because it’d all been too much. “I was so scared…”

He hadn’t thrust into me yet, just taking the moment to savor my body. His dark eyes deepened in their intensity, his hand loosening in my hair to cup my cheek instead.

“They took you away from me.”

He stilled at my words, his intensity pausing just for a moment, sorrow replacing that stare.

“I was so scared.” Life had been hard and unkind. I’d stopped crying a long time ago, choosing to accept my fate. But then life started to get better when I met him, and all those fears came to the surface. While he might be the one responsible for the hardship, he was also the one who had spared me from it. I could never go back to that life.

His thumb caught one of my tears. “I’m here, baby. Right here.”

Up in that tree house, it was easy to forget the battle and the aftermath. Once we’d caught up on sleep, we spent the rest of our time in bed, locked in the throes of passion and an intimacy that we’d never really had before.

Talon was always on top, always deep between my legs, eyes locked on mine like he couldn’t look away or he would die.

Even when I grew sore, I didn’t complain because I wanted him despite the pain, wanted him even if my body couldn’t tolerate it anymore. Because this connection was bliss. It was stronger than it’d ever been, more passionate, deeper.

It was so deep, it hurt my heart.

When I lay beside him, my fingers traced his jawline, touched his hard chest, rested over his heart to feel it beat. I memorized every piece of him, from the cuts in the muscles of his arms to the cords of veins that popped in his neck. I even counted them.

He did the same with me, kissed my old scars to make them disappear, worshipped my body like it was a statue dedicated to the Riviana, the God of Caelum.

It was easy to forget the world outside that tree house—even Khazmuda.

I lay beside him, both of us sunbathing in the light that spilled through the window. My thigh was hiked over his hip, and we were face-to-face. “I’m so proud of you.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, like he didn’t know what that meant.

“Alaric offered you everything you wanted, but you still said no. Lesser men would have taken the deal, but I knew you wouldn’t. I realize now how much I misjudged your character when we first met.”

“You didn’t misjudge me.” His dark eyes were packed with sorrow and self-loathing.

My hand moved back to his heart, the beat strong. “I disagree.”

“I won’t pretend it wasn’t a hard decision—because it was.”

“If you were tempted, then that makes your decision even more impressive.”

“A greater man wouldn’t have been tempted in the first place. But Alaric’s kind are the reason I lost my family. If they have the ability to subjugate the minds of immortals, then that means they have the power to control the remaining free dragons—including Khazmuda. Perhaps, at some point, they would have taken the free dragons for themselves and history would repeat itself—but someone else would be the victim instead of me. I had to destroy them. I had to protect Khazmuda and his kind.”

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