Chapter Six
Haden
The celebration wore on and within just a few minutes of Sarra disappearing into private chambers with Zaphira, she emerged, ready to leave the party.
I wondered what the two had spoken of and if it had anything to do with her sudden desire to leave, or her sudden desires period. But I thought it was best not to press the topic. Either she would share with me when she felt comfortable enough to do so, or I would employ other means of finding out what was spoken of.
We arrived back in our suite, and I made my way to the kitchen to grab us some water when suddenly she grabbed my hand and raised her brows suggestively.
“I liked what you said,” she said with throaty tone. With her fingers still intertwined with mine, she began to lead me down the hallway to my master bedroom.
“I thought you might,” I said huskily. “But that’s not why I said it, just so you know.”
“I believe you,” she smiled dismissively and touched her nose against mine before making her way to my lips in what felt like slow motion. We stayed basked in one another’s warmth for just a moment before an intensity began to surge through me.
I pressed her against the wall and kissed her softly, running my hands up her body on both sides. I could feel the curve of her against my palms and I instinctively reached for more. She leaned into my gesture and pushed her pelvis against mine. I could feel myself growing hard as her breaths became more vocal.
I flicked my tongue into her mouth and caught her sticky lips against mine, eager and hungry for the next step but too caught up in her beauty to leave the moment. It was too soon.
My kisses moved from her mouth and around her neck, her short hair tickling my face as I buried myself in her nape. My hands caressed her breasts, and she took her own opportunity
“Aren’t people wonderful?” I said hoarsely, encouraging her hand before lifting her up against the wall and staring into her almond-shaped eyes. “Just when you think you know everything there is to know about a person, another layer is peeled back and you get something like this.”
“Mindless kissing?” she said with a voice that was so overcome with lust, it barely sounded like her.
“No,” I breathed hastily. “Passion. Your passion for intrigue, your passion for…this. Here I thought it was your beauty and intellect that shone brightest about you; now it seems there are even more skills within your repertoire.”
“Stop talking,” she whispered and began to moan as my scales lit up.
For dragons, this was a sign of passion, connection. While others found this to be a show of strength and dominance, it had only ever made me feel vulnerable – embarrassed, even. Yet at this moment, it had never mattered less.
Sarra peeled her dress down and then removed my shirt in a seemingly fluid motion. She ran her hands along my glowing scales, causing them to burst with heat before kissing them softly.
I took her from the wall and made our way over to the bed where I lay her down and finished removing her clothes. The sight of her was so overwhelming, I had to take a step back to marvel at her canvas. I swallowed hard and tried to catch my breath. My pause in our interaction made her sit up with concern.
“Everything alright?”
“Everything is perfect,” I assured her quietly, still gazing down at the peaks of her breasts. I leaned back in and began to kiss them as our bodies connected. She trembled beneath me as I moved in and out of her. I came to wonder whether she’d been with a shifter before and suddenly my statement that I wasn’t the jealous type seemed to come back to crush me.
I pushed the thoughts from my mind and returned my lips to hers, reaching my hand down her stomach and into the most forbidden parts of her as I came in and out of her. Her breaths sped up just as I felt I couldn’t take any more, and suddenly her fear and ecstasy washed over her in a burst of moans and shivers.
When it was over, I collapsed on top of her in the sweaty mess that we had created and showered her with kisses. I couldn’t bear to move from over top of her. Instead, I moved the damp hair from her face and kissed along her jawline and whispered anything I could to her to make her feel special.
It wasn’t that I was being insincere. But I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to do it if she didn’t tell me that she would need the reassurance. I wanted everything to be perfect for her.
She pushed me off with a giggle, and I rolled onto my side to meet her eyes.
“I love you,” I whispered as I touched her face.
She looked startled at the comment, and she seemed to prickle beneath my touch. “That wasn’t love,” she said with a heady laugh. “But it was amazing.”
My eyes bore into her, and I couldn’t help but feel rejected somehow. I knew human feelings weren’t as intense as those for Weredragons, but I was expecting at least some bonding to have happened between us. “It was for me,” I reaffirmed in a somewhat offended tone.
“You barely know me,” she said with some surprise.
“I told you at the party…” I trailed off. “This isn’t a game to me, Sarra.”
She stared at me with studious eyes, and suddenly she softened; she leaned in and kissed me. I wanted to argue the point, but I couldn’t exactly force her to return the sentiment. She curled into the crook of my neck and I wrapped my free wing around us as we lay face to face. “You don’t have to say it back,” I whispered, then smirked. “But one day you will.”
Sarra blushed at the comment, and she traced her fingers along the hair on my chest. “I like you a lot,” she finally offered.
I scoffed in jest and wrinkled my nose at the sentiment. It may have been better if she didn’t say anything at all, I thought. “I like what you’re saying. But it scares me.”
“Why?”
“Because… I really like you. I never dreamed it would be this easy to like someone or feel connected to them. You…” She trailed off, lost in her breathing for several moments before she decided to return to her sentence. “You make me really happy. Which makes me wonder if this was, something else.”
Lines appeared between my brows, and I tilted her chin up to face me. “Like what?”
She pursed her lips in frustration and then shrugged. “I don’t know, Haden. I just feel uneasy about this.”
“Like we’re being played?” I offered.
She gave a single nod and looked up at me once more to see my reaction; to see whether I would judge her. “I thought the same thing,” was all I said.
“I had a weird conversation tonight,” she began, but seemed to think better of it, and her lips snapped shut.
“You’ve got my interest,” I said with a bemused laugh. It looked like she would be telling me about Zaphira after all. I traced my fingers along her arm to tickle it lightly, hoping to put her at ease with me. She thinned her lips and closed her eyes, thinking on it. When her eyes opened, she was ready to talk.
“At first I thought this was a random choosing,” she started slowly.
“It was,” I said honestly. “I was never told to choose you. I wasn’t lying when I said–”
“The connection, right,” she interrupted in a hushed tone. “But see, I was told to get your attention.”
My heart sank.
“I see.”
“By Zaphira,” she offered genuinely, then shrugged. “Usually she’ll tell the girls to try and seem approachable, blah, blah, blah. You know, try and make the choosings go smoothly and put the best matches together. I thought that’s what she was doing. Then after tonight, I thought maybe…” She paused and then hastily corrected, “I mean, obviously this was a political move.”
“Right,” I agreed. “But?”
“But it was brought to my attention that… there’s something I’m supposed to be looking into? I think it might be what you had mentioned earlier. The mystery I was going to love?”
“Rerdig,” I confirmed.
So Zaphira was onto me. I smiled internally at this and couldn’t believe my luck. It looked like I would be able to get Sarra to look into this, after all. This way I would be able to send back whatever information I chose to Riddell. This was, in fact, much easier than I thought it was going to be.
“I think you’re right. I’m a little surprised she knows about him, though. Not even all of the Koth know what happened.” It was true. While her knowledge of the situation, or of a situation, certainly worked in my favor, I was still surprised she had wind of it at all. “Zaphira is nothing if not perceptive, I suppose.”
“I’m not sure she even knows, really,” she offered genuinely. “She just gets these hunches and just sort of rolls with it.”
“Or makes you roll with it,” I teased.
“Right?” She giggled. “It seems brilliant to outsiders, but really she just tends to stumble into these things.”
“Still, if that’s her hunch, then she has amazing instincts. So…” I started, my brows rising ever so slightly. “You want to meet him?”
“I think I have to.”
“Tomorrow then, late. And don’t tell anyone you’re going, not even Zaphira.”
She peered at me shyly for a moment and then leaned in for one last soft kiss for the evening. “That I can do.”