Page 75 of Earth Dragon
She scoffed. “You don’t know that yet,” she said. “Give it a year.”
He laughed. “A year?” he exclaimed. “Does it feel like I do not love you?” he added, sinking down on top of her as he entered her with one hard thrust.
She gave a yell despite her best efforts to not send gossip through the castle, biting his shoulder instead of her finger as he picked up his pace. His thrusts were hard, and he was already grunting with held back pleasure, his eyes on her face as though challenging her to tell him again that he did not love her.
“This is not…” She moaned.
He dragged his mouth down her neck, biting softly along the way until she thought she was going to lose her mind completely. His cock slid into her at such a perfect rhythm that the orgasm was already climbing. She came, clenching around the length of him, and he stopped his movements, following her with a groan against her collar bone.
“This is not love?” he asked with a cheeky smile as he raised his head to meet her gaze.
“What is it you love about me then?” she wondered, following his movement as he tumbled over to the side, placing his head on the pillow next to hers.
“Your humor,” he said. “You are very funny.”
“Oh, I am, am I?”
“Hilarious,” he assured. “I mean, the fact that you do not think that I love you and now are asking me to prove that I do by listing all the things about you that I find loveable is tickling me all over.”
“Is it?” she asked and at his self-contented smile she threw herself over him, fingers tickling any part of him she could reach until he finally got her wrists in a hold that made it impossible for her to continue, even though her inner dragon flared blue in protest.
His inner dragon responded in green and for a moment their colors mingled.
She smiled then.
“I love that,” she said.
“I am trying to tell you,” he exclaimed, letting her go so that she could lie down next to him again. “We are true mates. Even our inner dragons say so.”
She sighed, cheek against his chest. “Okay,” she said. “I guess we must be.”
There was silence from him before he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her up so that he could kiss her. “I love you,” he repeated.
She relaxed into the truth of it. Of him. He was there. He was not going anywhere, and he was never letting her go.
“I love you too,” she said.
***
The green dress she was wearing was softer than anything she had ever owned. The velvet was like water between her fingers when she lifted the skirts to walk on the wooden boards that had been placed to create a gangway from the castle terrace to the entrance of the Pavilion.
It was fully lit up with candles again and within it she could see the outline of King Ellard’s dragon shape. She had been right in assuming the lifting of the spell that prevented unwanted dragon intrusions was so that the king could greet his guests in the traditional way, his dragon’s breath blessing them as they entered the festivities.
He no longer possessed the earthmagic as it had passed to his son, but he would wear the crown for a little while longer.
Word had spread of how close the kingdoms had gotten to being rent asunder, and as the one remaining monarch of the old guard Ewan had asked him to keep the crown on his head until the people had calmed.
She could tell he was smiling at her when she stepped through the doors because his gaze softened and he parted his jaws, breathing warm air all over her.
It brought a smile to her face, and she curtseyed low.
“My liege,” she said, and he offered her a nod in return.
A week ago, the thought of entering a gathering such as this alone would have brought on a dismissive, haughty need to lift her chin in defiance. While on the inside she would have been trembling at the knowledge of the rejection she was certain to face for the hours that the function lasted.
Now, she felt relaxed in the knowledge that she had someone waiting for her. All she cared about was his good opinion, and she had it. The fact that she also had that of his father was a mere bonus.
“Lady Shannon,” Queen Blair said, threading her arm through his. “Are you ready for the bell of the ball?”
