by Bianca D’Arc
Darian had never fallen in love before—never felt such immediate, stirring desire for a woman in his life before—but he knew this was the real thing. With a conviction in his heart, he made plans to make her his own. He knew he could no longer be complete without Adora, and only Adora. No other would do ever again.
He moved back up her trembling body, plying her with kisses as he went, bringing her back up to an even higher peak of desire before claiming her mouth and rolling so she was on top of him. He positioned her beautiful, slender but muscular legs onto either side of his hips, encouraging her to cocoon his aching cock in her tender folds. Her eyes met his as she gasped and pulled slightly away.
He dragged the satiny robe down her back, throwing it across the chamber to join his sleep shirt. She was beautiful in the dim light of the chamber, gorgeous to him in all her feminine glory.
“Take me this first time, my sweet Adora.” He cradled her head in his hands, stroking her hair as he looked deep into her mesmerizing green eyes. “I know it’s been a long time for you. Take me at your own pace.”
She smiled down at him, repositioning herself with slow movements that drove him wild. She was so soft and wet for him. He wanted her badly, but didn’t want to hurt her with his eagerness, so this was the only solution for this first time. Later he would take her the way he needed to, claiming her and pounding into her without mercy, without restraint.
She moved on his cock so tentatively it was killing him, but this time was for her. She would be tight and tender from so many years of denial. It was like taking her virginity, in a way, and he felt like a king that she would give such a gift to him.
Adora rose up and positioned him with her small, trembling hands, nearly making him come right there, but Darian held on, gritting his teeth as he watched them join for the first time. Adora sank down on him by slow degrees, taking him a little way, then bouncing back up, only to go a little lower the next time. Within a few agonizing strokes, she was seated fully upon him and Darian was well on his way to heaven.
He placed his hands on her hips, stroking upward to pull at her hard little nipples. She shivered in response, her wet pussy tightening on his cock and driving him higher. He pinched her nipples harder and was rewarded with another little spasm of her inner muscles around him.
“Do you like it a little rough, Adora?” His eyes dared her to tell the truth he could read from her responses.
“I don’t know.” Her eyes were wide with surprise, and he tugged again, just a little more harshly this time on her nipples, testing.
“I do.” His grin widened as he brought one hand down to slap her ass. She jumped, yelping breathlessly as her pussy spasmed and creamed around him. “You’ve got an adventurous soul, my little love.”
She sighed and shivered as she began to move on his hard cock. “I never did before.” She gasped as he used his hands to pinch her bottom. “It must be the company.”
“Are you saying I’m a bad influence on you?” His hands encouraged her to speed her pace with gentle slaps to the fleshy part of her ass. He knew she liked it from the way she smiled and squirmed in delight on his cock, sending him higher as well. “If so, I’ll have to remember to influence you more often.” Darian emphasized his statement with a gentle but firm slap right over her straining clit and she took off for the stars, coming around him and gripping his cock so tight with her inner muscles he thought he would go off with her.
But he had bigger plans for his adventurous little love. As she came down from her peak, he rolled her beneath him again, never leaving her body for one moment. He couldn’t bear to part from her even for a second.
“Are you back with me, sweetheart?”
“I’m with you, Dar.” Her voice was breathy and divine. It fired his senses.
He dipped down to capture her smiling lips with his own. He had plans to tire her out and ride her until she couldn’t walk straight tomorrow, but he wouldn’t take her any further if she had gone as far as she could go. He measured her response to his kiss, the tightening around his still hard cock and slippery wetness telling him she was ready for more.
“Hang on,” he warned, bringing his hips down forcefully into the warm cradle of her thighs. Her eyes jolted open, but her sexy lips curled with delight, reassuring him it wasn’t too rough. He would rather die than hurt her.
Darian kept careful track of Adora’s responses and pounded more heavily into her tight sheath, reveling in her closeness, her warm body, and her heavenly scent. She was all woman and all his. He loosed the need raging within him and brought himself hard into her again and again, feeling at last her pulsing pleasure as he too was overcome. That final blast of pleasure just went on and on and on.
Darian stiffened above her, tensing in every muscle as his come shot deep within the only woman he would ever love. The idea was startling, but oddly comfortable. She felt so right in his arms, in his heart. He loved her truly and deeply, he knew in that moment. And he would never love another.
When it was over and he could move once more, Darian kissed her thankfully as she began to relax into a boneless, trusting, exhausted sleep beneath him. He rolled off her, tucking her close to his side as he lovingly arranged the blanket over her luscious, bare body.
A movement near the door caught his eye and Darian looked up to find Jared staring back at him. The devastation in Jared’s lonely gaze chilled Darian to his core. He opened his mouth to speak, but Jared was gone before he could find the right words.
Darian looked back at the bed and realized Adora was fast asleep. She didn’t know Jared had seen them together. She didn’t realize how deeply they had hurt him. Perhaps that was for the best. Darian would find the right thing to say to Jared tomorrow. He hoped.
Chapter Five
The next morning Adora was up and out of bed before Darian even woke. He dressed and stepped out of the small chamber, leaning just a bit on the walking stick Adora had left for him, in search of breakfast. He found Jared sipping strong, dark tea, standing over the cooking fire in the small kitchen area.
Jared eyed him hostilely but said nothing. Still, the tension was thick between the two men as Darian poured out a mug of tea for himself and found an apple to munch.
“Jared.” Darian tried to find the words to broach the subject that was clearly standing between them. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I couldn’t help myself. When I first saw Adora I realized very quickly that she’s different from any woman I’ve ever met before.”
“You’re damn right she’s different.” Jared was going to be belligerent about this, Darian realized. “She’s royalty, Dar.”
“She’s also a warm, mature woman with a woman’s needs. She needs love, Jared.” Darian tried to speak gently, not wanting to rile his old friend.
“Love? Is that what you call it? Because all I saw last night was you nailing a willing wench.” He shot Darian a look of disgust. “How could you?” Jared’s deep voice was hoarse with emotion, accusatory and gruff as he glared at Darian. If looks could kill, he’d surely be dead.
“Look Jared, don’t jump all over me for this. If you wanted the woman, you’ve more than had your chance. She cares for you. Don’t you think I saw that right away? But I also saw you, in denial, ignoring her. You were hurting her with your indifference, man. Don’t fault me for stepping in and making her happy where you’ve only made her miserable, longing for things you won’t give her. She needs someone to care for her and make her feel wanted, cherished, and loved. She’s lost her home, Jared.” He shook his head. “That’s something I have a little experience with as it happens. She needs someone to hold her and make her feel safe and needed.”
Jared rocked back on his heels, deflated. “Damn it all to hell and back.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and sat hard on the sofa. “You’re right, Darian. I’m an ass.”
Darian sat down in the nearby chair, watching his old friend closely. Jared sighed hard and shut his eyes tight for a quick mome
nt, the pain of the past hours clear on his face. Darian sensed a break in the wall surrounding his old friend and took the chance to get everything out in the open.
As gently as possible, Darian spoke into the heavy silence. “Ana and James are gone, Jared.”
Jared sucked in a sharp breath as every muscle in his body tensed. Darian’s heart went out to the man, but this needed to be said. Jared was living in a world of hurt, much different from the carefree, jovial man Darian had once known. He owed Jared his support and help in becoming that man once again. No one should live with the kind of burden Jared kept firmly planted on his shoulders.
“I know that, Dar. I don’t need to be reminded. I live with the guilt of their deaths every day of my life.”
“Guilt?” Darian was truly puzzled. Jared opened his eyes and ran a hand over his rough face.
“I should have been with them, Dar. I should have protected them. Instead I was off serving my king while they were murdered in their beds by greedy thieves in the night.”
Darian was silent a long moment. Could that be what Jared really believed about the attack on his family? How could the man not know the truth of those dreadful days? No wonder he was so changed. Jared blamed himself for something over which he’d had no control or responsibility.
Darian knew he could relieve some of that guilt and perhaps focus the anger of this brave man on something more productive than wallowing in his imagined sins of the past. Darian weighed his words carefully, then finally spoke, albeit a bit hesitantly.
“Those were no simple thieves, Jared.” He leaned forward as Jared listened intently. “I found out not long ago that your family was targeted by Lucan. Even back then, he had designs on the throne of Skithdron and worked to throw your country into chaos. You were too close to King Jon and his sons. Too protective. Too smart. Lucan needed you out of the way. He succeeded when he ordered his assassins to kill your family. You left the king’s service and his way was clear.”
Jared was as near to tears as he’d come since that day he had learned his wife and young son were dead. To learn finally who was responsible was both a terrible shock and, oddly, a relief. Jared felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. It focused him. As did his anger.
Jared’s anger was slow to build, slow to burn, but once it got going, it was an unstoppable inferno. He felt the fire rising in his veins, but he needed to have all the facts before he would decide on a course of action. The wisdom of his years had taught him to think before loosing the rage within him. While it was still possible to reason somewhat clearly, he needed to hear everything Darian knew.
“Are you sure? The Lucan I met years ago was a sweet child.”
Darian scoffed, “He’s a maniac, Jared. I believe he killed his own father. Do you think ordering the deaths of an innocent woman and child would bother such a demon?”
“Sweet Mother of All.”
Jared staggered to his feet, emotion overwhelming him. He fought down the sizzling anger, but it bubbled up from within, threatening to break him into a million pieces, never to be reassembled. All the years he’d wasted, blaming himself for something perpetrated by an enemy.
Certainly, he still felt remorse over not being there to defend his family when Lucan’s assassins came to call, but knowing their deaths hadn’t been random violence somehow made it easier to bear his own guilt. The assassins would have waited until he was gone from home to hit their targets, no matter if he were down the road or in another country. When Skithdronian assassins targeted a person, they didn’t miss.
Now that Jared knew where to place the blame for his family’s demise, the anger and shock of it boiled through his veins like acid. Lucan had won. He’d succeeded in taking Jared from the work he loved for his king and his land, and nearly succeeded in taking Jared’s life too. If not for Kelzy, he would have killed himself in his grief long ago. Only the dragon had saved him, bringing him a new purpose.
But Jared’s family wasn’t the only one to pay the price for Lucan’s political designs. No, the old king and his wife had been murdered too. Not long after Jared left the court because of the tragedy in his life, King Jon and his Queen had been killed, forcing young Roland to assume the throne long before his time.
Like patterns in the sand, the lines of deceit were becoming clear. Jared’s mind spun as he realized the depths of Lucan’s treachery. His family’s destruction was just the beginning of the devastation Lucan had visited upon the people of Draconia. Jared had felt terrible guilt at the deaths of the king and queen, thinking if he’d only stayed at court, he might somehow have prevented their murders.
But Jared had been in too much pain at the time. He’d carried his grief with him every day—for his wife and son—but also for the king he had served and loved as a brother. So much death. So much treachery!
Jared’s hands balled into fists, his thoughts boiling up until he thought he might explode. Blindly, he moved toward the door. He didn’t know where he was going, but he had to do something. He had to loose the anger, grief, sorrow and overwhelming pain in his soul for all that had been lost. So damn much destroyed! So much pain. So much waste.
Suddenly, Kelzy was there, her warm breath bathing him in comfort as the years of sorrow engulfed him. He reached out to the one living being he’d allowed himself to care for and wrapped his arms around her neck. Jared buried his face against her gleaming hide as the emotion welled up and over, pouring out of him with the tears he’d never allowed himself to shed before. He cried for the family he’d lost. For the king. For the years of desolation and pain.
Darian came up behind him and put a strong arm around his shoulders as Jared wept for the first time in many, many years. Jared barely registered his old friend’s presence, but he felt the warm support of Kelzy and Darian, needing it as never before.
Adora found them like that when she walked into the suite a few minutes later. Darian caught her eye and motioned her over, his expression solemn as he supported his old friend with a brotherly arm around his wide shoulders. She looked up into Kelzy’s aquamarine eyes and the dragon explained what had happened in her silent way.
Adora felt tears well in her own eyes as she thought of how badly this news had affected the strong man who held a piece of her heart. She reached out, coming up on his other side to offer what comfort she could. Her healing gift reached out to his pain as she put her arm around his waist and snuggled into his side.
A moment later, she was whirled around and grasped tightly in his embrace as he let go of Kelzy, only to cling to her instead. She was shocked, surprised, and so touched she gave freely of her healing energy, wishing only that she could heal his shattered heart. She looked up into Darian’s sad eyes as Jared choked out broken, nearly silent sobs, his face hidden in her neck as his strong arms engulfed her. She saw sorrow, love, and approval in the eyes of her new lover as she held the other man. It was confusing, but it felt right.
“It’s as it should be.” Kelzy’s voice was gentle in her mind as her breath puffed over them with comforting heat. “Do not fear your feelings for either of these men. They are your destiny.”
“Both of them? But how?”
The idea of her daughter having two knights as husbands was still uncomfortable, but she sort of understood the necessity with the way the men were bonded to mated dragons. This, however, was something else altogether. Only Jared was bonded to a dragon and Kelzy was unmated. If Adora was mated to Jared, she would eventually be expected to take the knight of Kelzy’s dragon mate as her second husband, if such a thing ever occurred.
Because of the bond dragon and knight shared, when dragons mated, their human partners were inevitably caught up in the sensual frenzy. It was a sacred rule that fighting dragons never mated while their knight partners had no mate. The frenzy as the dragons joined would drive an unmated knight insane and a casual sex partner just would not do. The depth of feeling—the love—had to be there for the mating frenzy to be sated, for
it was deeply emotional as well as intensely physical for both the dragons and the humans involved.
“Don’t ask how, child,” Kelzy counseled her, still sending warm breaths of cinnamon-scented air over them to offer what comfort she could to her heartbroken knight. “Just accept it will be so. The Mother and we will make it so. We see the way both these men feel about you and how you feel about them. This is the turning point, I think.”
“Who is ‘we’?” She had a sneaking suspicion, but the idea was too wild to even contemplate.
“Leave that to us, child. See to Jared now. This storm was a long time in coming and he will feel shame for his actions if you give him half a chance. Best to take him to your bed now and take his mind beyond the grief of the moment. Give him something much more pleasant to focus on.”
“You want me to sleep with him?”
“Isn’t that what you’ve wanted for weeks now?” Kelzy’s voice was sly with the knowledge only another female could understand.
“Well…yes, I suppose so. But he doesn’t want me. Not really.”
“Nonsense! The man loves you.”
Adora gasped. “Are you sure?”
“I know my knight. He’s stubborn, but he loves deeply and true. He has a good heart that has been badly hurt and he takes too much responsibility on his solitary shoulders. He needs you, Adora. He needs your strength and your love.”
“But what about Darian?”
“Child, the Mother of All knows what She is about. Look at Darian. I think he understands. He knows how much Jared loves you and needs you. He loves Jared like a brother and hates to see him hurt like this. I think he’ll understand. He will help, I think. Take him with you and see where it leads.”
“But he’s not a knight. He doesn’t expect to have to share a woman with another knight.”
“He’s a man, child. I don’t know of too many human males who would turn down a threesome when offered the chance.”
