12
The celebration when we returned home was massive. For the first time since ever, every dragon that saw me was glad that I was there. There were no arguments, no accusations of treason, only gratitude.
But I couldn’t enjoy it.
I spent every moment of every day by Gael’s side as he recovered. Dwyllverys promised that he would be fine, and that his dragon anatomy would heal much faster than my own, but that didn’t matter.
I sat by him as she stitched up his wound. I watched as his bruises faded from a deep purple, to a range of shades, to light yellow. I slept by his side each and every night.
If Myrik thought anything of it, he didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure where things were with him, but I couldn’t really worry myself with that while Gael slept.
If that was one thing that was truly infuriating, it was the dragon’s hibernation. Apparently, that was how his kind healed, and I had never known it. They stayed unconscious through the entire healing process until they were basically almost better. I’m sure it was great for managing pain and shock, but it was terrible for conversation.
Most of the time I sat alone in the silence, nausea from worry coming and going. I didn’t mind the reprieve though; I felt exhausted all the way down to my bones. Even if the Prince was up, I wasn’t sure I would have enough energy to do much.
“If there was not such a deep frown on your face, I might think you were an angel.”
I looked up from Abuela’s journal, my heart soaring to see two lavender eyes gazing at me. I gasped audibly, and my hands flew to one of his.
“Gael!” It was hard not to shout at full volume, but I contained myself. Barely. “You’re finally awake, thank god.”
“And did you think I wouldn’t? Surely, after you worked so hard to find me, it would be terribly rude of me not to thank you profusely. Not that mere words will ever be enough to compare to what you have done for me, but I am content with searching through all of them until I find ones that seem like they might suffice.”
Tears welled in my eyes, I was just so happy to see and talk to him again. For a few days there, I had been sure that we were never going to meet again, that I could never tell him how much he meant to me as a friend and guardian.
“Come,” the golden-haired man murmured, holding his arms out. “After the trials we have been through, I would very much like to hold you again.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I mumbled, barely resisting his offer.
To that, he laughed. “As you have seen, it would take far worse than a little bit of pressure to harm me. I promise, I am basically fully healed. It will be fine.”
I eyed him suspiciously. Sure, I knew dragons had some mountain-blessed healing abilities, but returning from the edge of death in less than two weeks seemed a little too ideal.
“Come now,” the Prince wheedled, his voice low enough to practically be a purr. “After everything I’ve survived, you’re not going to make me beg, are you?”
I sighed, so thoroughly wrapped around his finger. How could I say no, after all? I knew what he had been about to say in those dungeons. He was going to sacrifice his people just to save me. And while that was definitely idiotic, it certainly had a way of making me feel special.
“Alright, well if you’re going to be a brat about it.”
I rose and sat on the edge of the mattress as the Prince sat up, only to have him pull me onto his lap. His arms wrapped around me, strong and sure, and he gently pressed me to his chest.
I could hear his heartbeat, and it was as strong and sure as I could have hoped for. My eyes fluttered closed, and I let myself sink into the contentment for a moment.
Was this what happiness felt like?
For so much of my life I had felt like some sort of video game character, going from objective to objective to objective with no real purpose or drive beyond survival. But here…here I had purpose. I had a mission. What I did mattered intrinsically to hundreds—if not thousands—of people. My decisions had weight, and often took a physical toll on me. It was difficult, and often harmful, but I had never felt so complete.
“Every morning I will thank the gods that they sent you to such unworthy folk.”
I looked up dreamily just as Gael pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. It was soft, and warm, and filled with so much devotion that it was hard not to cry again.
“You’re not unworthy. Just stubborn.”
He smiled against my cooler skin, before continuing down my face. Like the faintest whisper of a kiss, he planted little touches of affection on each eyelid, then the tip of my nose, then each cheek.
And finally, my lips.
It was so unlike what few other kisses we had shared. The desire was still there, but there was a gentle sort of reverence to it. Like just being there, in the moment with me, able to touch slowly and tenderly, was enough.
It was beautiful, and it was healing. We didn’t have to rush. We didn’t have to get swept up in a torrid ball in our desire. All we had to do was feel.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting my fingers playfully flit through his long hair. He continued to lavish my face, neck and shoulders with adoration. Was this what it was like to feel worshipped? Because I was definitely feeling pretty worshipped.
We stayed that way for quite a while, enthralled in each other, before Gael’s hands began to move across my body. Seeking, stroking, caressing. Slowly, he lowered me to the bed and posted himself over me. If I wasn’t a selfish person, I would remind him that he had only recently come back from the very precipice of mortality and scoot him back into bed with only cuddles as an extracurricular activity.
Too bad I was a very selfish person.
His kisses continued down my body, pausing only at the collar of my tunic. I had taken to keeping my men’s clothing since my return, and I think the Dragon Prince was only just now noticing it.
A smile on his face, he pulled at the lacings and gently tugged the fabric down my shoulders. Eyes hooded with a type of devotion I had never experienced before, he loosened the breastbands Dwyllverys had provided to me, and laved his adoration on one of the pastel peaks.
I gasped my appreciation, and arched up into him. He rolled and flicked that tender point with an expertise I didn’t know he had. My mind began to lift from my body, and I happily let it go.
He took his time with that breast, before dutifully returning his attention to its sister. I felt myself growing wet for him to touch my core, and tried to rise to grind against him.
“Please,” I begged breathily, anxious for something to soothe the growing torrent within me.
“Patience,” he murmured, finishing his ministrations and continuing downwards. “I want to feel all of you.”
And he did. Licking and laving attention down my middle, until he came to my hose. With another slightly sardonic smirk, he yanked them down and threw them to the far side of the room.
When he settled back down to me, he devoutly continued down my hip, then to my inner thigh, to the back of my knee. It was as blissful as it was torturous, but I loved every second of it.
He gave the other side the same treatment. Slow, and sensuous, and driving me absolutely bat shit crazy. It was cruel. It was perfect.
It was everything.
And when he finally did turn his attention to my core, I physically lifted from the mattress. With every ministration, he raised me to another level of ecstasy that I didn’t know was possible.
I finished much more quickly than I ever had, the blinding wall of light enveloping me with absolutely no mercy. Every neuron of my brain was electrified and I drowned in the rapture of it all.
When I came to, I was breathing hard, and Gael looked quite satisfied. But I wasn’t content yet, and pulled him to me. “Please,” I begged again. “I need you.”
That was the straw that broke the incredibly patient camel’s back, because then Gael was freeing himself from his own trousers and aligning with my very needy entrance. And when he slid in, I couldn’t help but feel like everything was right in the world. Sure, plenty of bad things could and would happen, but we would always have this little slice of haven in each other.
He thrust against me, powerful and wanton and heated, and I lost myself in his rhythm. It was like a long hit from the purest drug there was, and I was definitely high on his euphoria.
I can’t say how long we moved against each other. Giving and taking, gasping and panting, crying each other’s names and proclamations of unadulterated pleasure. But when the golden dragon reached his completion, letting out a bellowing roar that shook me to my very bones, I felt thoroughly satisfied.
“Thank you,” I whispered as we settled beside each other, tangled in the sheets but having no desire to extricate ourselves.
“Thank you,” Gael returned, placing one last kiss to my sweaty brow. “And thank you for all the times to come.”
“Oh, is that a promise now?”
“Of course,” he murmured, his eyes closing in exhaustion. “Anything for you. Always.”
*
“You overzealous little bitch!”
I sighed as I heard something crash just beside me. Even without opening my eyes, I knew exactly where I was and who was yelling at me.
“I just had what was possibly the best sex in my life. Could you not ruin the afterglow for me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I intrude on your little fairy tale? Well pardon me then, I’ll just slip right back to the real world where I’m currently being hunted by the Prince’s forces!”
I guessed I wasn’t getting back to real sleep anytime soon, so I opened my eyes to find that sure enough, I was back in the same barren room, and Perin was standing across from me. “If you’re going to be such a sore loser, maybe you shouldn’t play games with people’s lives.”
“Sore loser?!” He ripped up another piece of floor and chucked it at me. Thankfully, his aim was off, and it sailed into the wall behind me. “It took me four hundred years here to get the dragon numbers so dismally low, and they should have been wiped out by now. But no! You had to go down the hero’s path and ruin all of that!”
I rolled my eyes, completely over his tantrum. “Dude, you were either a tailor or a cook in the palace. You cannot tell me that was a fulfilling role for someone with your abilities.”
He straightened up at that, and seemed to consider my words. “You may have a point. Menial labor has never been quite suited for me.”
“See? I basically did you a favor.”
He let out an unattractive snort. “I had to kill almost a dozen of Julian’s guards to escape. Do you have any idea how much reconfiguring that alone will cause?”
I shrugged. I really couldn’t care less about whatever problems this strange, faceless man had. I had beaten him at his own game time and time again, and if he ever got back up, I’d knock him right back down.
“I’m guessing a lot,” I answered instead.
He sighed, and jumped up so he was sitting on the counter of the bar across from me. I could tell he was regarding me with those twitching, jumping eyes that I could never quite distinguish, but I tried hard to hold his fuzzy gaze.
“What are we going to do with you, Miss Mercedes?”
“I was leaning heavily towards ‘leave me the hell alone.’”
He laughed, before shrugging and leaning back. “You know what, why not? I’ve got to regroup anyways. It might take me another hundred years to put this world back where I want it, but that’s fine. I doubt you’re willing to stick around that long.”
“What, really? You’re going to leave me alone?” There was no way I could believe that. “No more secret attempts to kill me, no more trades, no more visions of doom?”
“For at least a moon or so, yeah.” He hopped down from the bar and extended his hand. Every cell in my body screamed that this was a trap. That I couldn’t trust him and he was about to yank me down into hell with him.
But for some reason, I reached out and shook it.
“To a momentary peace,” I murmured, still incredulous and definitely a little bit in shock.
“To a momentary peace. At least for seven months or so.”
“Seven months? That’s an oddly specific amount of time.”
“Well yeah,” he responded as if it was obvious. “I don’t like to fight with pregnant women. Even that seems a little low blow for me.”
“Pregnant? What do you…” I trailed off as I realized exactly what he meant.
Perin, of course, seemed to think it was hilarious. “You didn’t know!” He cawed in excitement. “Hah! How ironic that I was the one to tell you. Congratulations, little girl, you’re in the family way!”
His laughter echoed all around us, enveloping me even as the room faded from existence.
I sat bolt upright in bed, ripping myself from Gael’s arms. A wave of nausea rolled through me, and I had to lean over the side of the bed to wretch onto the floor.
“What is goin—Mercedes, are you alright?”
I nodded and rode out the heaving wave before sitting up and looking into the lavender eyes of my lover.
“I think I need to see Dwyllverys,” I murmured. “Right now.”
TO BE CONCLUDED...
* * *
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