Page 149 of The Dryad Storm

She traces a trembling finger over one of the serpents, her breathing growingerratic as the muscles of Viger’s stomach tighten against her touch and she continues to trail her finger lower and lower...

... then slides her fingertip just under the edge of his pants, the desire to consumehimgaining serious ground.

What do you want, Asrai?Viger asks again, the possibility-fraught words shivering through her.

Reckless hunger rising, Tierney blinks, and the rest of Viger’s clothing vanishes.

A hotter rush of desire courses through her widened eyes as she drinks in his entire body, his dark horns rising.

Viger’s hands slide to her hips, pulling her insistently closer before he stills, clearly waiting for her to voice her consent.

I want to know what this is, she thinks through their bond in a sudden blaze of emotion, shocked to find her words easily sliding into him via their strengthening linkage. Her breath hitches as she decides to delve deep and bare her whole heart to him.I want to know what this is before the Shadow War comes. Even if it’s just a dream.

Viger studies her, the whole world stilling, his entire thrall receding. She can sense his desire burning in it like a dark star, yearning to collide with both her power and her heart.

“Sweep me up in your thrall, Viger,” she demands. “I want you to.”

Viger’s question shivers through her.Are you sure, Asrai?

In answer, she reaches up to grab hold of one of his horns and pulls him into an intense, tongue-twining kiss, the deepest recesses of her water power coursing out to ripple through him.

Viger groans, his thrall sweeping them into its spiraling power as he breaks the kiss and slides his mouth down to the edge of her shoulder once more, tongue flickering as his sharpened teeth bear down...

... then lightly pierce her skin.

Tierney cries out as a wild rush of pleasure courses through her. Brazenly pivoting herself toward Viger, their movements dream-blurred, he thrusts forward and they join.

A gasp of pure excitement breaks from Tierney’s throat as she grips his strong body, the dream-amplified pleasure more intense than anything she’s ever experienced, surging through her, eddying through her magic as she eagerly firms her hold on him, urging him on, and Viger responds with feral vigor.

A groan tears from Viger’s throat that vibrates through both their bodies and Nature itself as their joint rhythm takes on a more frenzied pace, a growl working its way out from the base of Viger’s throat, his claws biting into her skin.

A spiraling, magic-exploding rush of ecstasy shatters through Tierney, followed by a rapids-strong, cascading shudder of pleasure that widens her eyes and blasts her power into a swirl of molten steam.

Viger snarls her name, pressing himself pulsatingly deep as he floods her with his Darkness, his lips and teeth clamping down on her shoulder. The sting of his bite prompts one last, wild lash of ecstasy that’s so strong it catches the Natural Matrix surrounding them in it, and Tierney is overcome by a sudden awareness of a sea of Darkness forming on all sides and rushing toward them as the Balance around them begins to careen off-kilter...

Viger’s silvery thrall flashes to life and blasts outward as their eyes meet, bright with urgency. A look of intense emotional pain tightens Viger’s gaze as three words shiver to life in the center of all his fears, bright as beacons. He blinks once, and snaps out of existence, and Tierney is pulled, rapids-fast, into the tunneling Darkness.

The departure of Viger’s Deathkin energy dampens the aura whirling around Tierney as her dream-self dissolves into her water form. The Darkness fades, a vivid blue flashing to life all around Tierney as her dream morphs into a completely different scene.

Fyordin’s water form wrapped around hers.

“My Asrai’ir love,” he murmurs as they both begin to solidify, liquid warmth shifting to strong hands running along her back with fluid finesse, Fyordin’s Vo-blue lips catching hers in a kiss shot through with the River’s embracing power.

Am I truly daring to dream this too?Tierney questions as she lets her dream-blurred self fall into Fyordin’s enticingly fluid kiss, waving away her distant sense of confusion.

Swept up in Fyordin’s vortex of desire, they roll through the warming water, the surrounding Vo rippling every glorious shade of dream-heightened blue.

“Tierney’a’lin ruuushh muu Asrai’mir...”Fyordin murmurs against her lips, the magic he’s swirling around and through her turning tidal as theymerge.

Caught in the current of their Vo’s power, Tierney throws her head back, opens her mouth and draws in a stream of water, arching against Fyordin as his hunger gains ground and she matches his fluid rhythm.

Fyordin’s Vo-blue eyes lock with hers, his gaze sharpening into what seems like a more vivid, astonished awareness as a faraway edge of Tierney’s mind startles against their outrageous joining.

It’s just a dream, she thinks, as Fyordin catches her up in another kiss and Tierney brazenly gives in to the pleasure of it, thrilling to the cresting-wave feel of his body’s motion, the Vo’s full power coursing through their joining like a tsunami about to break...

A hard flash of purple light suddenly overtakes the surrounding blue, casting Tierney into a fuller confusion.

Fyordin grips her harder, his arms flexing around her back with covetous force, hands splayed out in what feels like a desperate attempt to hold on to her as he murmurs to her in a passionate stream of Asrai.

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