Page 15 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
Lumbering footsteps clanked down the hallway, announcing at least two guards. They mumbled among themselves, but too quietly for me to make out what they were talking about. Something about the dragon.
We waited a long while for their footsteps to retreat. When they did, Zariah continued to hold me to him.
“Were you looking for me? That is brave. No one has tried to do that before.” he said, sounding pleased about the prospect. The hand on my waist slowly drifted across my belly, tracing my hip through the thin shift. His head descended to nuzzle my neck and shoulder. It tickled, but I’d be damned if I would move now.
“No, but it’s good to see you again,” I answered.
His brow furrowed at that, confused. But then a soft touch, wet and heated, replaced the sensation of his skin on mine.
His lips.
I’m sure I stopped breathing as his lips dragged down my shoulder, then back up and lingering at the side of my neck.
His hand at my hip ghosted lower, and lower, and I found myself not caring as his tongue tasted my skin, languidly leaving a glistening trail on the back of my neck. This wasn’t the same as what the men in the mud quarter tried to do. They were fast and rough—this was slow and gentle.
And I liked it.
I sucked in a breath as the hand questing lower found the edge of my shift and lifted, his fingers skimming the hot, naked flesh of my thighs. My hips. My stomach.
He paused and circled my belly button, then spread his fingers wide as if to touch as much of me as he could.
Higher.
Goosebumps erupted on my skin as he skimmed my ribs, feeling every indentation and bone that stuck out from a lifetime of poor nutrition and partial starvation. He moved on quickly and for that I was grateful.
His fingers skimmed the underside of one breast, palming it in his hand without actually grasping it. I pushed my body back against him as if that would spur him forward to touch what needed to be touched.
Zariah chuckled darkly in my ear.
“So trusting. Why?”
“I’m not,” I bit back. I could feel the vibrations from his voice against my flesh. I couldn’t help it; I shivered with anticipation and need. He kept one hand tantalizingly close to my breast, and the other went to my hips and pulled me tighter against his pelvis. I felt him behind me, hard as a rock.
I wanted to tell him how I trusted him because of what he’d done as a fireguard. That he’d tried to save us when he could.
Words wouldn’t come. All I could focus on was the hand on my breast, and how he moved behind me, hips gently moving against my backside.
A second hand went under my dress at the same moment he bit down on the back of my neck.
I moaned even though it hurt a little. What was it about a bit of pain that heightened the pleasure?
“Good girl,” he praised, licking where he’d bitten. “You like it rough. You long to be owned, don’t you? To have someone take care of you for the rest of your days? That’s why you’re here with the others, after all.”
Yes.Yes.
The second hand hovered around my core. I stiffened slightly, unsure of what he was going to do. Two fingers grasped my nipple and pinched at the same moment his other hand dipped inside of me.
My knees buckled, and he held me up.
“I dare you to scream,” he taunted me, rolling my right nipple between his fingers like a bit of clay. In my core, one finger stroked a sinfully slow path in and out of my heat. I couldn’t explain it, but I needed more there.
“Make me,” I bit back, exhilarated and not caring what the consequences of our actions were.
His grip on my breast became possessive and borderline painful.
I loved it.
“Don’t tempt me, flower. You don’t know what you’re playing with.” He added another finger inside me, no doubt trying to discourage me. I ground down on his hand harder.
