Page 78 of Gemini Kings
“We cannot.” His mouth is hard and cruel, but his smile is soft and wistful. “But it will grow easier to bear. When your beautiful belly is round and full with our eggs—”
“Oureggs?” I burst out. “You telling me I’m gonna layeggsnow like a fucking chicken? Well, that’s a hard no.Hellto the no on that plan, buddy. I’m not a goddamn incubator. I got a degree to finish and a throne to claim. Not to mention four endangered arcane species I’m literally supposed to save from extinction.”
“Yes, I know all of this. It is your destiny. I do not oppose it.” He sounds so calm he maddens me. “You are Zarina Mikhailovna.”
I push up straighter. “I’m who now?”
“Zarina, daughter of Michael, said in the Russian way. You are the dragon queen.”
He dips his head, all sleek and silver in the moonlight, like in an old-fashioned bow. This heat must be frying my brain cells or something, because for a second there, this scoundrel actually comes off as respectful.
Even… kinda… reverent?
I hitch myself higher on the pool deck by my elbows and his eyes veer to my boobs, which are definitely on display in my soaked black lace push-up. Those vertical slits he has for pupils dilate wide.
For some damn reason (like, you know, this fucking superheat) my tits feel swollen and bigger than usual. My nipples are definitely tight and tingly and extremely ready to be suckled.Hard.I want his mouth on them so bad I’m aching.
I clear my throat and try not to think about my nipples.
C’mon, brain. Focus.
“How… how would that even work anyway?” I blurt out. “I mean the whole, uh, egg thing. For one thing, I’m massively on birth control.”
His head tilts, like the notion of birth control is a foreign concept. “You take the pills?”
Thank fuck he doesn’t sound judgy. Just curious.
“IUD,” I say shortly. I can hardly believe I’m talking about my birth control with this dragon, like he actually has the right to be consulted. But I’m seriously deficient in my knowledge of dragon biology, and the books in the library don’t go there, so he’s the only one I can really ask. “At least, Ihadan IUD until the, uh, shifting. I don’t know how this whole dragon thing works. Do I still have it?”
“Silver in the body survives the shift. All other implants are… dislodged and… discarded by the transformation.” He unfolds to his full height, water sliding down his shoulders and chest. Like I noticed before, his nipples are pierced with silver. The same way mine are. And he just explained why my shift didn’t change that.
I wonder if he likes having his piercings played with, the way I do. If he likes it rough, right on the edge of pain, the way I do.
Not that I’m planning to find out or anything.
A soft rumble rises from his chest that sounds like dragon laughter. I can almost sense that other presence inside him, the way I’m starting to do with Lucius and his wolf. That presence is ancient and crafty and remorseless.
But it… he…welcomesme.
He welcomes me in a way that makes my own inner dragon stir and uncoil inside my skin.
Stop,I whisper to her, that Lady Mothra inside me who breathes lightning.Not yet.
He is ours, Zara.A sleek feminine voice unspools like a silk ribbon through my thoughts.We should claim our mate.
Shit. Now my inner dragon’s, like, talking to me?
Fuck.
I shove down a spurt of panic. I’m in control here. I’m definitely in control.
“I can help you,” Maxim breathes. “I can help you control your beast. As I have learned to control mine.”
I can’t seem to stop looking at him. The water laps at the tight ripple of his ribs and the sinewy plane of his abs like a tongue. And there’s enough greenish light sneaking up from underneath that I can clearly see he’s naked.
Heat streaks through me like a missile and lights up my clit in a nuclear flash of need.
My eyes veer away before I get a good gander at that unique peen he’s rocking.
