Page 57 of Destined By Dragonblood
Vanni had touched me.
A much more enjoyable moment to think on rather than confusing explanations.
I relived my time on the bench, the pain of his hand, and the soothing caress of his palm. The fingers he’d teased through my soaked folds. The one he had pushed into my body, bringing me to my first climax without pain since I’d been a teenager and had realized what happened when the clit was given attention while aroused.
I had found release through Master Vanni’s gentle touch alone. No pain. I’d already been turned on prior to arriving at the lounge, and the scent and closeness of my master had intensified what Dolyn’s presence had roused to life once I’d left work.
The feelings were the same type of tension, sexually charged, that had landed me in my abuser’s hold all those years ago. The urge, the driving need to get off, had cuffed me to a lumpy mattress I could still feel beneath my backside when the dark memories built in my head. The lashes of his belt, the buckle still attached…
I shivered, all trace of desire ripped from me. The scars he’d left on my body had faded, but those inside me remained regardless of the gains I had made toward healing.
Tears pricked my eyelids, and I rolled, stuffing my face in my pillow, but memories and fears continued to haunt me, refusing me rest.
Morning found me bleary-eyed and exhausted. I couldn’t rouse myself from bed but stared at my ceiling, cursing the sun filtering through my blinds.
Who could I go to for answers?
Vanni had seemed horrified by what would sound like bullshit to any other rational thinking human. Doctor Hasslet might finally start to question my sanity when he hadn’t earlier in the week. Dolyn would only spew more of his nonsense?—
Truth.
I swallowed hard, eyes clenching shut at the whispered suggestion coming from deep inside me. It was almost like I’d finally located my soul, and that part of me was a separate being.
Dragon shifter, Dolyn had claimed.
He’d also told me other things I hadn’t thought to check into.
I grabbed my cell off my bed stand.
It wasn’t yet nine in the morning, but I doubted my boss would mind me calling. It’d been weeks since he’d been in the office, and although I had communicated with him via email while he worked remotely from his home in the White Mountains, I’d never before brought my personal life up to my employer.
“Ashley?” Elijah answered, his deep voice easing some of the tightness in my chest.
I sank back into my pillow. “I’m sorry for using your private number.”
“You don’t have to apologize when I offered you the ability to contact me whenever you had need.”
Closing my eyes, I breathed out slowly. “Who is Dolyn Kemmerly, and how do you know him?”
The sound of a door closing reached over the line. “Are you all right, Ashley?” he asked rather than answering me.
“I’m…yes. Physically, at least.” I huffed a small laugh that had nothing to do with amusement. “Mentally, not so much?”
“Talk to me—tell me what is bothering you.”
Exactly as a caring older brother would do, Elijah listened without interruption as I explained what I had felt, seen, and heard since he’d last been in the office. I tried to verbalize the sense of being watched. Followed. I shared about seeing Dolyn for the first time outside the cafe. How talking to him and being in close proximity assured me of a connection between us, yet the feeling of something being off that made me question his intentions.
I even opened up about my past so Elijah might understand why I spent time with a dominant. I withheld speaking of the sexual intimacy I experienced, but I did admit to feeling desire for Dolyn and my master both. At my telling Elijah about how Dolyn had punched Master Vanni the night before, he chuckled.
“I hope your alpha makes him pay,” Elijah murmured, still laughing lightly.
“Alpha—he threw out that word along with beta.” Seated against my headboard, I wrapped my free arm around my drawn-up knees.
“Of course he would.” Elijah sighed heavily. “Are you questioning Dolyn’s intentions toward you or his explanation of his existence?”
“Both,” I whispered, for some reason, my throat growing tight and eyes stinging.
“Dolyn has never listened to his instinctive side, which a royal Blood Born is supposed to be in complete harmony with. For him, there is a constant push and pull that exhausts his human half. He has no trust in who he is.”
