Immediately, my attention tugged back to the conversation between Micah and Salvar.
It didn’t take a genius to realize Salvar was up to no good. I strode past portraits of the princes, and one of Micah reminded me of just how gentle he was.
A conniver pulled the strings behind all this flaring political drama. Micah would not be so silly to fall for his tricks, right?
I walked toward Rylan’s room, situated next to mine. The door hung open, its smooth, inside surface reflecting the fires from the fireplace. Should I talk to Rylan? Tell him of this? It would irreparably break the camaraderie between the brothers and I didn’t want that. A headache crept up my neck.
I turned my gaze to the bedpost. I needed a nap. But it didn’t look like I was getting one anytime soon because the four brothers were already there.
They were . . . playing?
Tossing around a ring.
My eyes widened. Gisiroth’s ring! Had Micah been found out? And if so, wouldn’t the princes be more furious? Instead, they laughed and drank wine, lounging and standing next to the fireplace, shooting jokes back and forth between each other.
Micah smiled at something Kael had said. Kael pulled a muscular arm around his brother and chuckled, patting Micah on the back. He’d heard me entering and glanced my way. “Sera! How nice of you to join us.”
“I sleep here,” I told him. I’d been staring for too long, gaping like a fool.
“Do you? I haven’t noticed.” Kael slipped his arm from Micah and ambled toward me. He clasped a hand around my shoulder and dragged me in. “Want some?” he asked, lifting a wine bottle to my face. He hadn’t bothered to pour the wine into a glass, taking huge swigs from it. Each bottle probably costed a fortune.
“Are you sure that’s good for your liver?” I asked, pointing to his drink.
He tipped an eyebrow at me. “I have a dragon’s liver.”
“You drink obscene amounts of alcohol. I worry for your health.”
“Maybe I’m trying to shorten my lifespan so when Aereala comes and take you from me, I won’t have to suffer for long.” He winked and grinned.
I couldn’t smile back.
“You don’t want any?” he asked again, offering the wine bottle to me.
“No, thank you,” I said, raising a hand to decline.
I looked at Micah. Did I show too much of my befuddlement?
“Have you heard the news?” Kael asked. “Micah’s about to be our next rebel king.”
I raised my brow, more surprised that Kael knew and was teasing about it than by the information itself. “No,” I lied. “How is that?”
Rylan sipped from a wine glass, sitting on a furred couch next to the window. He wore an earring on his ear. The ruby glinted and reflected the orange glow of the fireplace. The accessory complimented his angled jaw. Wearing an amused expression, he explained, “Elder Salvar tried to recruit dear brother here into a rebellion, but he underestimates our bond.”
I frowned. “But Micah said yes.”
“How do you know that, Sera-kit?” Kael asked.
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance, but my cheeks flared with heat. “I guessed.”
“And now we have a mole,” Gaius said, seeming both pleased and grumpy at the same time, which was really an expression only Gaius could wear.
“We have a tool for mischief,” Kael said.
Micah shook his head. “This isn’t a game, Kael.”
I lit up with embarrassment. It’d actually spent an entire day doubting Micah, thinking he might turn his back on us. Oh, how wrong I was. I went up to him, feeling the need to hide in a hole in shame, and hugged my arms around his waist. “I’m sorry,” I said.
He didn’t quite know how to react, except to hug me back and smooth the side of my hair down. “Sorry for what?”
“Doubting you.”
“Why?”
I didn’t know if I should spit out the truth. “I overheard you and Salvar talking earlier, at the corridor, and I really thought that you’d go against Rylan.”
I spun my gaze around, gauging their reactions. They gaped at me, and then I was truly afraid I had offended them by lacking enough trust.
They all erupted in laughter. Kael drew one more large gulp of wine through his lips. “You must have been worried sick!”
“It’s not funny,” I said.
“In retrospect, it is,” Micah said. He chuckled, and I saw through his gentle expression that he had already forgiven me. Kael calmed, but amusement continued to glitter through his expression.
“You think too much of the littlest of things. It’s cute,” Micah said, brushing a hand over my heated cheeks.
“Little?” I said. “This isn’t little. It was immense. Colossal. We’re talking high treason here.”
Micah raised a brow.
I scrunched my nose up. “It wasn’t entirely my fault for doubting you. You admitted to it in your conversation with Salvar. I heard it. You’re a really good actor.”
Kael pried me from Micah. His eyes were bright with the need to aggravate my embarrassment. He loved to tease me. “Now, Sera, for failing Micah so miserably, how do you wish to be punished, hmmm?” He tilted his head in question, and for a second, he reminded me of a sly fox.
Punished? “Um . . .” I wrinkled my nose, nervous because of his impish smirk. He clasped my arms with his iron grip, giving me no room for escape. “I didn’t mean to. Micah would have anybody fooled.”
He tossed me onto the bed, making sure I fell at an angle so I wouldn’t get hurt. I yelped a little when I reached my hands out in front of me to break my fall. “That’s not fair,” I said. When I flipped around, Kael was already on top of me as a towering, statuesque figure. My stomach plummeted and my vision clouded with lust. His hips were over mine, pushing me down against the soft sheets with his muscled weight.
“Kael,” Rylan said. “Now is no time for this. We need to discuss the next course of action.”
Kael waved off Rylan’s comment. “Then discuss. I, for one, am busy with more important things.”
“Tormenting Sera is not what I’d deem as important,” Micah said, although he smiled. He was likely reveling in whatever Kael intended to do to me.
Kael lowered his face so his warm breath hovered over my forehead. I thought he’d kiss me, but he just let his mouth linger over my skin, not giving me the pleasure of contact. I reached up to run my fingers through his hair, but he circled his fingers over my wrist and pressed them against the bed. “No, naughty girls don’t get to touch,” he said.
“Fine,” I said. “It’s just a game, isn’t it?”
My stubbornness made challenge gleam through Kael’s features. “Is that so?”
He brushed the hem of my robe up and reached for my folds. He knew the exact spots to send me spiraling, so he lingered his fingers there, only gifting me with a light graze. The gentle touches sent sparks through me but were unable to satisfy.
“Just a game,” he purred into my ear.
“You’re an asshole,” I said, reaching for him, but he darted out of the way before I grabbed him.
My pulse stuttered. Rylan and the others discussed politics in the background, acting as if Kael wasn’t right beside them doing unspeaking things to me. The soft tickling of his breath set my nerves on fire.
“Should we order an arrest for Salvar?” Gaius asked.
“No.” The wine glass clinked on the table as Rylan placed it down. “That’ll be rushing into it. They’ve come to Micah for an allegiance, so we give it to them. Micah needs to earn their trust and find out who else is planning for grievances between the royal family. With this opportunity, we weed out as many of our opponents as we can.”
Kael spread my knees open and lowered his head between them. He nipped the insides of my thighs. I was wet and ready for him, but he refused to give me what he teased.
“So I accept?” Micah said. The weight of their gazes warmed my skin.
Holy Aereala. I wasn’t going to live th
rough this.
“You accept,” Rylan replied. “And you try and win them over. We need to test how they trust you, too. See if they’ll listen to your orders. Salvar did say they wanted you to be their monarch, but that might just be part of his game.”
Kael pressed his finger at the skin above my nub, refusing to touch it. I growled and yanked his head down. Laughter shook from him, but he still wouldn’t give me what I wanted.
“It’s working” he said, beaming at me.
I glared at him. “I hate you.”
“I have just the thing planned for Salvar,” Kael said, turning to Rylan. He stood up, leaving my emotions high and my folds terribly wet. I scrambled to a seating position the moment he released me. My whole body fizzled, aching, and someone had to do something about it. I lunged at Micah, who was the person closest to me, and took his lips.
He let me do as I wished, perhaps stunned by how aggressive I was. He moaned, and I knew he enjoyed this as much as I did. I hardly initiated sex; I didn’t have to because there were four dragon princes around me who couldn’t seem to have enough. My reaction was an unexpected change in the tides.
Kael chuckled. “If this is the outcome, then we should tease Sera more.”
“Oh, go to hell,” I told Kael. Then I took Micah’s hand from my hip and placed it on my breast.
Micah growled. “We should.” He massaged my mounds and pushed me against the bed, laying me on my back. I took in the angelic sight of Micah—his cool eyes, the crimson of his hair… but a blindfold came over my eyes, blocking my view. The fabric was silky against my skin.
My breath hitched. “W-what?”
I groaned and reached to peel off the blindfold, but Rylan pulled my wrist away. “We can’t let you off so easily.”
“Excellent thinking, my dear king,” Kael said.
I shook my head. “No. Please. Please let me see you guys.”
Micah pushed my legs open, and just like Kael, he understood which parts of me were most sensitive. He shoved my panties aside and sucked and nipped my nub. I bucked my hips and arched my back. Kael had withheld pleasure from me and now that Micah gave it, stars exploded through my vision. I cried out when Micah rolled his tongue around my clit.
My climax shook through me, almost too suddenly.
“I-I want to see you guys,” I said.
“And I want you to be blindfolded,” Kael said in a raspy tone. “We can’t all win.” He was right next to my ear, grazing his teeth across my earlobe. Their hands explored my body—so many of them, I couldn’t tell who was which. The blindfold gave me sensory overload, and someone had my arms held over my head. They could do anything to me, but I couldn’t even touch them. The warm, electric sensation that occurred every time our skin met swelled.
And then it wasn’t Micah’s lips on my center, but something hard and throbbing.
“She looks beautiful,” Micah said. He wasn’t the one between my legs because his voice was coming from up above.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“That’d ruin the fun, wouldn’t it?” Gaius said, the sound of him traveling from beside Micah.
So it wasn’t him, either.
I gritted my teeth. “This isn’t fair.” I realized I only acted out my frustration and secretly loved that they played with me like this.
Lips, warm and inviting, enveloped mine. A groan vibrated from the person who kissed me. The blindfold left me disorientated, but perhaps that was why my heart beat so quickly, and my thighs clenched harder than they often did.
A hard length entered me, spreading me open. I reached out, grasping for them, when someone led my fingers onto their cock. I circled my fingers around it and began a pumping motion.
“P-please,” I gasped.
“Say please a little more, Sera-kit,” Rylan murmured beside me. “And you’re going to make me explode.”
“Have we tortured her enough?” Kael said. There was no more mischief in his words, but pure, unadulterated lust. “Fuck, Sera. You’re making my dragon need . . .”
“Ease up,” Micah said softly. He sounded possessive. “Should we take off the blindfold?”
I nodded my head eagerly. The person inside me shifted, leaving me empty. I reached for them, any of them, needing more of their touch against me. Someone hooked their hands beneath my arms. He tugged me upward, and then I was no longer on my back, but being pressed up against another’s torso, his form hard and prickling with warmth. Rylan? He smelled like earth. Or was it ash and fire? My senses ran on high.
Hands untied the blindfold from my head. My eyes met Gaius’s blue ones. He wore a devilish grin, and his expression filled with both desire and joy.
His member was positioned beneath me, and without warning, he thrusted himself into my center. His body temperature increased at once, until he was hot to the touch. I tossed my head back and unleashed a choked cry. He didn’t even give me time to adjust to the size of his length when he began rocking his hips. I gripped his shoulders, grounding myself to him. My mind was turning to liquid, and Gaius’s smirking expression quickly morphed into a hazy one.
We moved in a synchronized motion, until the second knot that had gathered between my legs unraveled, and I turned to putty under his arms.
The night was still young, and the princes took turns having their way with me. It was utter bliss and more than any human girl should take. And when we were done, I fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted.
It was all I could do.
Chapter Fourteen
Kael needed to take things more slowly when with me sometimes. He’d failed to notice my thighs aching from what happened last night, and I struggled to walk with a straight gait.
He clasped a hand over my wrist as he led me down gravelly steps. I strained to keep up with his strides.
“You must see this,” Kael said, dragging me from the Council of Fortitude. He’d invited Frederick along as well. Frederick and I were supposed to run through the grain rations of the Jura region today. Not to mention, the education regime was getting an overhaul because of the recent droughts, and the education department needed some guidance from the both of us.
“This is starting to become a terrible habit,” I said. “Can’t you wait until after work hours?”
Frederick caught up to us and grinned. “I don’t mind. It’s rice to have a break once in a while.”
“This taking me away from work thing isn’t occasional.” I scrunched my nose. “This happens every other day.”
Kael swept me into his broad arms and summoned his white wings from his back. “Not this. I don’t think you’ll get to see things like this often.”
“And what exactly is going on?” Frederick asked.
“Gold. That’s what happening. Just pure gold.” Kael took off, levitating from the ground.
Frederick shook his fist and stomped his foot. “You can’t bloody well share the gold if you’re just going to fly off, you stinkin’ hoarding dragon!” Frederick had joked about the princes carrying him around so much that he’d gotten tired of it. They’d never decided to follow through with it.
“We’ll be at the eastern wing. Third block!” Kael shouted back, leaving poor Frederick behind.
I saw Frederick beneath us, his stocky form growing smaller as the distance between us widened. He paced back and forth, huffing. He turned around, glared at the council building, then stalked off in the direction of the eastern wing. He’d rather walk a long distance than go back to paperwork.
I furrowed my brows. “What has you all excited and eager?”
Kael was all smiles when he replied, “Micah convinced the councils to prove their worth to him. And they’re going to do what I planned.”
“And what did you have planned, master plotter?” I assumed it’d just be silly. Really, Kael just loved looking at ridiculous things. Sometimes I worried that he liked me for my occasional vapid appearance—especially when I just woke up. Maybe he fell in love with me due to how stupid my h
air looked in the morning.
I’d heard of people falling in love for less.
“Why do you love me, Kael?” I blurted, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. A blush warmed my cheeks the moment those words rushed out. What a silly thing to ask. But then that was Kael—I loved him because he could make me feel and be silly, and what was life without being crazy and stupid every so often?
He soared through the air as he peered at me questioningly. The sun was bright today, warming my skin. He raced past the royal buildings beneath us, flying across the rivers that flowed through the palace and the intricate network of hallways and corridors. “Isn’t it obvious?” He dipped his gaze down to my breasts.
Lightly, and while laughing, I slapped him over the face. I forced his head so that he looked at me directly. “No, seriously, Kael. Why?”
“Do I need a reason for liking to spend time with someone? We click well together. That’s a given. You make me want to protect you.”
I tilted my head, musing over whether I should press for a better answer. Love couldn’t be explained. It was a foreign concept, like how Aereala or Gaean worked, or like why Gaius couldn’t stop looking pissed even if he tried to smile.
Kael hummed as he considered my question. “I suppose if you really need me to say why . . . it’s because you never give up.”
“I give up all the time,” I said. “I couldn’t finish breakfast this morning. It was too much and I keep asking the servants to cut down the portions. The country isn’t exactly having an abundance of grain. That’s why we have to work so hard at the council.” I rambled since Kael’s compliments made me feel all funny inside. I was being contradictory. I had fished for compliments for Aereala’s sake, and now that they came, I fumbled with them?
Kael shook his head. “Not like that. With the curse and the whole country hating you, I thought you’d give up on Constanria and move on with your life. I would. But you stayed and you’re still trying to save the people. It’s mind-boggling to me. You keep trying and trying and I’m the kind of person who doesn’t try for the slightest of things, especially once the going gets this tough. If it doesn’t make me happy, why bother?”
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