Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet Book 2): 50 Loving States, North Dakota Pt. 2

by Theodora Taylor

  So that happened.

  A few moments later I find out that Damianos has a whole living room inside his suite. A couch and two armchairs made out of the same black velvet as his thrones, but with regular gold framing, no dragons. There’s also a chandelier hanging overhead and a low coffee table. And two Greek statues, standing against the closest wall, like attendants waiting to serve us.

  I have a lot of time to check out all the finer details of the place because Damianos doesn’t say anything for a very long while.

  And when he does, it’s only three words. “He told you.”

  “No,” I answer. “He talked. A lot—especially compared to you, but he didn’t tell me any of that.

  “Then how did you know?”

  I think about it and decide to tell him the truth. “My sister had this weird story about Xenon. It never quite added up. He got really, really mad at her and refused to have sex with her for like a year. And get this, he stayed in his dragon form the whole time. I thought that was strange because for the few days he was living stateside with us, he never said no to her. Even when she asked if I could come visit them in their top-secret hideaway, he didn’t say no. But the thing is I could tell he wanted to.

  “And then there was the first time we had sex. And the second. Both times I told you to do something, and you just did it. Also, you said I was your prisoner one moment and unspoke Agda the next. And when I asked you to go against how you were raised and allow me to co-parent, you just let me. No questions asked. Like you were mine to command. I chalked it up to progress in the beginning, but then that night on the beach when you stopped throwing Bazzi into the ocean just because I told you to, it hit me.”

  He nods, as if remembering right along with me. “Your head flame burned bright all of a sudden, but not with your idea to help Basileios feel his dragon as I assumed.”

  “No, that’s a totally old trick,” I admitted. “But that night I did stop to wonder why sometimes it felt like you hated me and sometimes it felt like you’d do anything I asked. Reverence…”

  I dip my head and consider the full meaning of that word, how I always linked it to worship of a deity before Other Damianos came along. “I once read this thing that all humans are wired for religion. It’s like we were designed to believe in a higher power. I’m not sure if it’s like that for you or if it’s just cultural. But after I told you to calm down and you did that, too, I began wondering if there wasn’t something inside of you that makes it hard to impossible for you to deny me. Like, you’re not advertising it, but that’s what Reverence really is. At least for male dragons. Am I right?”

  Instead of answering in the affirmative, he cuts his eyes away. “So you have been toying with me since our return,” he says. “Now that you’ve revealed what you know, how will you use your newfound power upon me?”

  “I’m not.” I shake my head at him. “You only owed your father reverence for thousands of years, then I came along and messed everything up because once you mated me your natural instinct was to pay me reverence too. I can’t imagine how hard that was for you. But that’s why I came up here. You think I want to tell you what to do? I don’t. I mean, at least not outside of bed—real facts 100, reversing that domination was kinda fun.”

  His expression softens, but only a little. “You are not going to command me to not seek revenge against your fathers? Or to pay you total Reverence like the alternative timeline version of me did?”

  I shrug. “If I was going to pull that card, I would have done it downstairs—you know, before I called off the wedding. Baby, I’m not in this because I want to command you. I’m in this because I want to be with you. And because your throne room is bad fucking ass. But mostly because I want to be with you.”

  Now he shakes his head at me. “You expect me to believe you will not use Reverence against me in any way at all?”

  “Oh, Damianos….” I move over to the couch and take his hands. Then I fix him with my most sympathetic look as I assure him. “Of course, I’m going to use Reverence against you. I am going to tease you about this for the rest of my life. I doubt a week will go by when I don’t point out that at least the males of my species don’t literally have to do whatever their mates say. When I’m on my death bed, I’ll pretend to die, then wake up and say, ‘Who’s the poorly designed bitch now?’ And then I’ll really die. That’s how bad I’m going to ride you about this.”

  He looks down at me, his expression completely stunned.

  And I answer his stunned silence with “You think I’m kidding, but I totally n—”

  That’s as far as I get before he pulls me off the couch and hauls me across the room to a four-poster bed with red curtains that looks like it was designed by whoever decorated Caligula’s digs.

  But this time, I don’t get a chance to appreciate all the fine detail work. Damianos throws me back on the bed. And good thing this nightgown’s on the easily replicated list because he tears it off my body and the next thing I see is his large head between my thighs.

  Did I say that his fingers were even better than Licky Town? I totally take that back. He’s also better at this than Other Damianos. Aggressive, not afraid of hurting me. Maybe trying to hurt me? I don’t know and I don’t care. Whatever his intention, it feels so good.

  His forked tongue plunges in deep. Deeper than his fingers could ever go. And then he adds in those magical curling fingers of his anyway.

  No, playing it cool after that. “Reverence!” I cry out, before exploding into his mouth.

  He pulls his tongue out of me and hisses and screeches something in that dragon language of his.

  I have no idea what he’s saying, but my wolf thrills when he flips me over and puts his foot in my thigh before pushing into me on one hard stroke. I whimper happily when he braces himself above me and starts pumping into my still quivering pussy.

  The sex at the North Dakota house had been hot, but this is something all-together different. He takes me roughly, screeching and hissing his harsh language in my ear.

  And this time…. Oh God, this time…there’s no numbness over our mate bond, just raw, blazing hot hunger.

  His mate bond. It is wide open.

  I can now feel how wrong I was before when I came to the door.

  He wants me. He wants me so bad, he’s taking me faster and faster, his strokes become unhinged and sloppy. “You are mine, not his. For as long as the both of us shall live,” he roars inside my head.

  “Yours,” I agree, a yearning ache to be that exactly burns inside of my chest. And I can’t tell if the ache belongs to him or me. It has become impossible to separate our emotions out anymore.

  All I know is the hunger. The fire. Then…the all-consuming orgasm, that flames through both of us.

  “Reverence….” I sigh out loud as we both float down to earth.

  He doesn’t answer. Just rests his forehead against the back of my braids for several moments, before pulling out.

  He flops down onto his back and throws his arm across his eyes. Then his mate bond abruptly goes silent on me again. Okay, I guess that wasn’t as much of a breakthrough as I thought it was.

  And cue the confusion.

  I’m not sure what to do now. Say, “Haha, I knew you wanted this, no matter how cold you were acting before!” Or pick up the remnants of my ruined nightgown and try to figure out how to get back downstairs without any wandering party guests or servants seeing me.

  Feeling embarrassed and stupid, I go for the nightgown option. But then his arm catches my wrist when I try to slink out of bed.

  “Is that the proper way to bid a reverent good night?”

  I turn to find Damianos staring back at me. His arm lowered, his glowing eyes blazing.

  “Um, probably no?” I guess.

  “No, it is not.”

  A huge smile breaks out across my face. “Maybe you should teach me, so I don’t make that mistake again.”

  “Maybe,” he repeats. “You have said t
his word often since that night at the beach. So as not to make me do anything I did not wish?”

  I nod, liking that he gets it now. Loving that we both understand what my new “maybe” habit means. What I’m holding back, what I’m promising to never do.

  He eyes me thoughtfully. “No, I don’t believe I will. Not this eve. Since you decided to invade my private sanctuary, you will pass the night here.”

  And just in case I thought I had a choice in the matter, I soon find out I don’t. He pulls me down to his side.

  And suddenly, here we are. Sleeping in a bed like a normal couple…who happen to live in a castle that apparently doesn’t show up on bio-maps. The lights must be on some sort of timer. The room sinks into sudden darkness a few minutes later. But neither of us fall asleep.

  His side of the mate bond is still blank. I don’t understand why. But we’ll figure it out. I have faith in him. Faith in us.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  When I wake in the dim light of early morning, I freeze at the sight of Damianos lying beside me. No chest heaving and I can’t hear the sound of air moving through his nose. His body, which burned so hot the night before is now cold. Like a corpse.

  I rise up on one elbow, my heart contracting with fear.

  But then déjà vu swoops in to remind me. This happened before.

  Toward the end of the three months with Other Damianos. I woke up in the middle of the night to find him a similar kind of dead. I panicked then, too. To the point of shaking him, then gasping when he immediately opened his eyes.

  When he felt my fear radiating over my mate bond, he drew me into his arms and broke-down dragons on a quantum level for me. This was merely just a shell, he told me. One that did not require oxygen or respiratory functions. And so it became a sort of hibernation chamber when its dragon slept, relaying all power to repairs and more necessary functions.

  “Please accept my apologies, Reverence. I would never wish to cause you fear. But you honor me with your care for my life.”

  Neither of us said it, but I suspect he knew I was there to stay when I woke him in a panic instead of trying to run again, and that my flame was starting to burn yellow for him. Forever.

  I still haven’t run.

  But does that make me an idiot?

  I look down at Damianos, his features as cold as his shell.

  I can’t imagine him apologizing to me for anything. Much less thanking me for honoring him with my fear.

  But I know what I felt last night was true. The reverent dragon is in there. I just know he is. But how to get him to come out again? Open his mate bond back up?

  Maybe with a kiss?

  Feeling like a fairytale in reverse, I lean over and press a kiss into his cold mouth.

  “Ola…”

  I look down to find his eyes now open, his golden gaze staring back at me. “You honor me with this kiss.”

  Oh, Fenrir wolf….

  Kissing him even more fervently, I climb on top of him before either of us can break the spell.

  Maybe he understands what I need in this moment. What both of us need. He sits up with me in his lap, and pulls me into his arms, hugging me tight as his cocks find their way into both of my holes.

  There are no words after that. No fucked up power games. We move together. Neither of us in control. Neither of us learning or submitting. We’re both free to touch each other wherever we want. And that’s what we do, our hands roaming everywhere as our hips undulate to the same beat.

  This sex is vanilla in comparison to everything we did back in North Dakota. But somehow way more intense. The fire builds faster than it ever has before and the hum from last night becomes louder and louder until the world bursts apart.

  I don’t let the orgasm take me away this time. Instead, I stay there, my arms tight around his shoulders, my legs locked around his waist. He cups his hand around the back of my head to bring me in even closer, and I comply. Burying my face into the side of his neck, I silently beg him to join me where I am as I fall apart, not to mute me out.

  He lets out a sound above my head, a roar somewhere between pleasure and pain. Then he releases inside of me.

  And the mute button flips back off. Suddenly, I’m flooded with an emotion, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

  “Yellow.” Damianos drops the word into my mind like an answer for a question I didn’t know I was asking.

  Yes, yellow…I realize. Yellow is the emotion washing over me. Like sunshine and happiness all wrapped up in a cozy blanket.

  “Open your eyes,” he tells me. “Gaze upon our flames in the mirror.”

  I do as he says to find him already staring at our reflection in the huge gold framed mirror beside his bed. And though I can’t see our “flames” as he does, my heart stutters when I follow the direction of his gaze.

  The image of us in the mirror, it’s so intense. The way we’re clinging to each other, the hunger still blazing in our eyes. We’re passion incarnate. The most sensual thing I’ve ever seen.

  “I wish you could see what I am seeing now,” he murmurs. “How your flame burns yellow for me. And how…” Damianos turns his head to look me straight in the eye as he says. “And how my flame burns yellow for you.”

  My eyes widen when I realize what he’s saying…what I’m feeling. Not only my love but his.

  “Reverence…” The word I feared I’d never hear from him again feels like both a revelation and a sigh inside my mind. “You honor me with your confession, with your vow to never use my weakness against me. But do you understand that I wasn’t only scared of you? I was scared of myself. Because I would do anything. Anything to keep you. Anything you asked.”

  My breath catches at his words. And the way he’s looking at me. It’s just as tender as Other Damianos. But so much more intense. “The answer to your question, to all your questions from here on out is yes. Yes, I will revere you from now on. You honor me with your reverence, and I will spend the rest of my life honoring you with mine. I love you, Reverence. Here and now and until the day my flame extinguishes.”

  In that moment I recognize that Damianos was right. He could never be the dragon I fell in love with at the gatehouse. That dragon made his proclamation of reverence out of grief. I was the she-wolf he lost too soon.

  But this Damianos chose to love me. To pay me the reverence I’d so longed for since losing the other version of him.

  Other Damianos told me I honored him often and without fail.

  This Damianos makes me understand the meaning of the word.

  “You honor me with your Reverence,” I whisper to him. “You honor me with your love. Thank you, baby. Thank you so much.”

  No, it’s not the wedding he planned. But as he rolls me over and starts stroking into me again, it feels like we’ve made a pledge to each other even stronger than wedding vows.

  It’s a beautiful morning.

  And as I fall asleep in the arms of my dragon with the sun rising beyond the open balcony doors, more beautiful visions dance through my head.

  Reconciliation…the return of my sister…a time of peace both inner and external that neither of us has ever known.

  But when I wake up the next morning, the bed is cold.

  And this time I do panic because I can’t feel anything at all. No warm love. No buzzing consternation. Not even the cold numb. Only the total and palpable absence of our mate bond.

  Damianos…

  He’s not just gone from the bed. He’s so far away, I can no longer feel our bond. Which means he’s gone from the property, maybe the whole island.

  My morning fear is confirmed when I go to the nursery next door to his suite and discover Bazzi all the way awake and hovering over his crib. He squawks at me pitifully, his dragon wings flapping furiously and human tears running down his face.

  As developed as he already is, he still can’t speak in any language a human would understand. But he doesn’t have to. I know he’s upset and confused over his fath
er’s disappearance after having him as a constant presence in his life for the past few days.

  Just like me.

  With a whole lot of effort, I get him dressed in one of his wing covering morning suits and carry him downstairs.

  “We need breakfast stat,” I say as I come into the kitchen with Bazzi still furiously crying. “The baby’s…”

  I stop short when I find the kitchen empty. No Agda. No hustle and bustle like yesterday. The only indication that yesterday even happened is a stack of catering trays left drying on top of the sink.

  I sniff the air and…nothing.

  Listen, last night was some kind of party, and I’m all for giving everyone on staff the day off.

  But this sudden disappearance of all staff doesn’t feel like Damianos decided to do something decent. It feels ominous.

  Really, really ominous.

  I remember what he said to me at the North Dakota kingdom house…

  I will free myself from these chains…and when I do, I will no longer be afraid of hurting you.

  And then I see the envelope on the table.

  White and still. But ticking with threat.

  Like a bomb.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  MAX

  “I’m sorry. I tried. I really, really tried. But I just can’t marry you. The trust is gone, and I don’t believe we’ll ever be able to get it back.”

  Max’s heart seized, then cracked at Dyana’s words.

  He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised.

  He’d skipped out on her, just like his father did his mother. Worse than that even. Colby had at least left a note and money for Max’s schooling. In contrast, Max had pulled his runner the very same night he’d proposed to Dyana, during their Ibiza holiday—which she’d paid for!

  Their relationship had always been lopsided. Him the earnest but poor son with the missing father. Her the glamorous daughter of two well-known London reality stars. She’d had millions of biomedia followers prior to her birth. Meanwhile, he only had a couple of thousand in his twenties. And at least eighteen hundred of those were people who’d heard he was dating Dyana.