Page 28 of Dragon Fight

Again, she announced. I could feel the adrenalin rush through our bond.

Her claws dug into my shoulders as she used them to haul herself up and out of my grip, before throwing herself at the nearest dragon. Wraith jerked his head forward just in time to catch her. She scrambled up onto his back, clinging tight as he launched himself upwards and back to the top of the cliff so she could fling herself off again.

This time, she seemed to understand the movement of the wind. She hovered with greater confidence until she found an updraft, then beat her wings to work with the momentum, letting it boost her higher.

“Well, she’s certainly determined,” Draven said, from where he stood with his arms folded across his chest, watching her. For once, that sardonic mask was set aside. “And she’s got good instincts. Some young dragons drop like stones and have no idea how to ride the winds until we show them.” I turned my head to look at him, and he spared me a sidelong glance. When our eyes met, his held mine with a purposeful look. “But she’ll need to be strong. Stronger, better, faster than all the other dragons.”

“Faster than Zafira,” I said, grimly. “Faster than her mother, or your father’s dragon. Fast enough to outstrip anyone who might want to hurt her.”

“Zafira will have laid a clutch by the time you get back to Wyrmpeak,” he told me. “And there will be a queen egg. So—”

“Glimmer needs to be able to fly.”

I looked back up just in time to see my dragon flapping her wings, spiralling with the wind to aim herself more or less directly at me. As soon as she was near, she tucked her wings behind her. This time I reached out and she landed in my arms, and I shared the feeling of relief that I sensed from her. She didn’t rest on her laurels, though, immediately launching herself at another of her mates.

Again?I asked.

Again, she agreed, determination throbbing in her voice.

18

Glimmer continued to throw herself off the cliff, over and over. It got to the point where I could feel the ache in her bones and muscles and she was taking a little longer each time to rest in my arms at the end of her descent. Finally, after allowing me to croon over her and scratch between her eye ridges to give her a little extra recovery time, she lifted her body in my arms again. She looked to the male dragons and bunched her muscles to leap at her next means of ascending the cliff, when Darkspire shouldered his way forward and lowered his head beside us. She crawled from my arms onto his muzzle so as to better stare into his eyes as she chittered at him, but the prince’s dragon just huffed in response to what she had to say and turned towards the water.

Glacier was already in there, surfing the waves and sucking in great mouthfuls of water to shoot out spikes of ice into the ocean. The sun had finally come out and I tugged open my leather jacket to cool off.

“Are you going to swim?” Flynn asked, as I stood watching Darkspire strike out into the shallows. Glimmer’s little noises of protest stopped as she tilted her head to look at the water with interest.

“I guess I am, otherwise, the prince’s dragon might drown mine,” I said, kicking off my boots and trousers, throwing everything onto the sand but for my shirt.

“‘Spire wouldn’t dare. Each of the dragons knows what the others are thinking. The big thoughts anyway. It creates a kind of community between them that we can’t rival,” Flynn said, grabbing my hand and tugging me after him. I felt so free with the sun on my bare legs and the wind tearing at my shirt. And then my legs hit the chill water right before Flynn pulled me to dive in with him.

“Gods, that’s cold!” I spluttered when I surfaced.

“Bracing is what it is,” he insisted with a grin. “Straight off the northern pole.” He slapped his hand across the surface of the water towards me, sending a great splash right into my face.

“Oh, so that’s how it is!” I laughed before splashing him back.

“Swimming’s excellent conditioning for a young dragon.” Interrupting our stupid antics, Soren nodded to where Glimmer now awkwardly struck out across the water. Darkspire stood between her and the swell of the tide, instinctively creating a calmer space for her to swim. “We should bring her down here each day. The water keeps her buoyant and the weight off her wings, but the resistance from the waves will help her muscles strengthen.”

“Two weeks of this?” Flynn’s voice dropped deeper, huskier. When I looked at him, I saw that his eyes were trained on my breasts, making me realise that my thin, sodden shirt was probably doing nothing to hide them. When I looked down, I saw that my nipples were on full display, and I yelped and ducked down into the water. Flynn reached down and swept me up, positioning me so my legs locked around his waist, making it clear just how much he enjoyed the sight. “I damn near bit off my tongue the minute Pippin got in the water at the quarry. I don’t know how Ged did it, showing her how to clean Cloudy while her shirt plastered to her body.”

“I thought she was the prince’s,” the man himself answered, wading closer. “But I took on the lesson just to torture myself. To smell her scent in my nose, to feel her body brush against mine, to see exactly how sweet those little nipples looked pressing through the thin cotton.”

“I didn’t think you were looking!” I said with a gasp.

“A man always looks,” Soren said, with a rough smile that only spread as I glared at him. “Even if he knows his infatuation is doomed.”

“But it's not doomed now.” Flynn’s hands shifted, pressing me harder against his body. My hips moved on instinct, rubbing against him. “You’re ours, not his, and I don’t see anyone else about.”

“Here?” Soren dropped back into his military strategist mode, his eagle eyes scanning out to sea, then the beach and the cliffs beyond.

“Here,” Flynn confirmed, easily lifting me with just one arm, while he reached down between us. My back arched as his fingers began to work.

I’d never heard women speak of experiencing such pleasures, so I didn’t know if this perpetual readiness for more, that seemed to thrum through my body, was what every woman felt. Because, despite the swaying waves, or perhaps because of them, I gasped as soon as Flynn’s fingers slid through my folds, the wetness there from more than the sea water. My pearl felt especially sensitive to the touch and I was arching up into his caresses within seconds, gripping his neck as I began to move. This was disgraceful, lewd, but somehow the reassurance of their presence and the empty beach had me feeling so much bolder than I would’ve normally dared.

“I want to string this out, lass,” Flynn told me. “But I’m on edge from last night.”

We’d gotten to talking about the ruins, leaving him unsatisfied, but that was an oversight that was about to be corrected. He pulled his fingers free, just as I began to throb but, before I could complain, they were replaced by something far bigger and blunter. I bit back a groan as I felt him edge deeper inside me, the process hampered a little by the waves. The friction was far more intense, my own salty lubrication replaced by the sea, but even that slight sting wasn’t enough to stop me. The waves rocked us against each other, setting our pace until Flynn held tighter to my hips and started to plough into me faster.

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