Arysteon could not hold back a rumbling growl that had him squeezing his shaft harder still and slightly arching his back, as though to mate with his own hand.
Leyloni stirred with a soft hum. She stretched her limbs, pressing her body more fully against his side, and smoothed her palm across his chest. Her hand came to rest over his heart. “Arysteon?”
Frustration lent a hard edge to his arousal. He’d disturbed her slumber, had woken her because he lacked the willpower to simply go back to sleep, to resist the comet’s insidious influence. And yet he could not ignore the feel of her body flush against his. He could not ignore the feel of her hand on his chest. He could not stop himself from imagining how it would feel if she shifted that hand lower, if she were holding his stem instead of him.
“I am sorry,” he grated through his teeth.
She raised her head and looked down at him with worried, unfocused eyes. Her tangled mass of curls was swept to one side, baring her pale, delicate throat to his gaze. She frowned, blinking the sleep from her eyes as her brows creased. “What is wrong? Your heart is racing.”
The comet’s Heat coursed through his veins, threatening to overtake his thoughts. He clenched his jaw, released a slow breath through his nose, and fought for control. He’d seen what the Heat had driven other dragons to do in their need to rut. He would not allow himself to become like that, would not subject Leyloni to it.
“The Crimson Comet is in the sky,” he said once he dared to breathe again. “The air is already thick with its power, and it is already exerting its will over me.”
“What?” she breathed, suddenly alert. She tilted her head back to look up. Wonder took over her features, and the moon’s reflection shone as a red gleam in each of her eyes—another image from his dream.
“It is real,” she said. “My people have told stories of it, but I never thought such a thing was real, much less that I would see it.” She smiled. “Though I never thought I would see a dragon, either.”
Her amazement granted Arysteon a brief respite from his discomfort and need, offering him a glimpse of how that comet—the very thing that may well have triggered the doom of dragons and humans alike—must have appeared to someone who’d never seen it before. There had to be some sort of beauty in it, that was plain enough in her expression, but he could not perceive that beauty himself. Not with the Heat having so thoroughly invaded his body.
His eyes remained fixed on her face. She was all the beauty he would ever need, all the beauty that mattered in the world. Those wide, green eyes, those soft, pink lips…
Arysteon’s stem strained in his grasp, and he shuddered.
She looked back down at Arysteon, her wonder reverting to concern. “What is it doing to you?”
“It is…making me need.”
Leyloni searched his eyes for a moment before glancing over her shoulder. Arysteon followed her gaze with his own, settling it on Serek, who was sleeping soundly in the little nest Leyloni had made for him earlier despite her exhaustion. When she faced Arysteon again, the corners of her lips were upturned.
“What do you need?” She slowly slid the hand on his chest down his abdomen.
His scales tingled beneath her touch, giving him another taste of sweet agony. He made no attempt to stifle his groan. “You, Leyloni, my heartsong. All of you.”
Smile widening, she pressed her lips to his shoulder. Her fingers circled his stem just above his own. Her hand was small, delicate, and soft compared to his, but her grip was firm and confident. Fire pooled in his loins, and Arysteon dropped his free hand to the ground, clutching the blanket beneath him. His shaft pulsed, leaking seed from its tip.
Leyloni used her thumb to swipe away the moisture before stroking downward, forcing Arysteon’s hand to fall away. “I am no longer bleeding, Arysteon. If you need me, I am yours to take.”
Arysteon gritted his teeth as another violent shudder, ignited by her touch and amplified by her words, wracked him.
She is mine.
He caught her wrist to halt the motion of her hand. The sensation in his stem pitched toward outright pain rather than a pleasurable blend, and his lips peeled back in a snarl. He needed her touch, yes, but he needed to be inside her more than anything. He needed to feel the soft, slick heat of her sex wrapped around him.
He needed to assuage the comet’s heat by taking freely of Leyloni’s.
Tugging her hand away from his shaft, he rolled over, forcing Leyloni onto her back and propping himself over her with his hips between her thighs. She spread them wide, and he settled into the cradle of her legs. His stem lay along her wet, welcoming heat.
Battling the inferno of his desire—which demanded he take her now, fast, hard, and without mercy—Arysteon took both of her hands in his and twined their fingers together. He guided her hands to either side of her head and stared down at her.
The crimson light remained in her eyes, enhancing the hunger he’d spied in her gaze so often as of late. He released a growl and lowered his head, nuzzling the spot between her neck and shoulder, breathing in her sweet scent, tasting her flesh with his tongue. Leyloni’s breath hitched, and she tilted her head to grant him more access.
Her taste and smell only further stoked the flames inside him. His heart constricted, and his ragged breaths came short. The comet’s power was primal, unforgiving, and single-minded. It cared not about Leyloni’s wellbeing, only about rutting.
“I do not want to harm you, Leyloni,” he rumbled against her skin.
“You will not.”
“You do not know that.” His voice was raw now, his willpower split between holding himself back and stomping down old, haunting memories. “The Heat does not make us gentle. The things I have seen it drive my kind to do…”
Leyloni tugged on her hands, and Arysteon relinquished them after a moment’s hesitation. She cupped his face, angled his head so he was looking down at her, and stroked his cheeks with her thumbs.
“I want you, Arysteon. I have wanted you again and again for days, in any way I could have you, even if it was to only provide you pleasure. I want this with you, too. I trust you.” She lifted her head and grazed her lips across his in a tender kiss without looking away from him. “I have always trusted you, my dragon, my heart”—she smoothed one of her hands up to trail her fingers along his horns—“my love.”
My love.
The strength and conviction in those words made his heart ache in the best of ways, and the pressure in his chest quickly rivaled that in his loins.
Love. His mate loved him.
Though he’d never experienced love of this sort before, he knew that he loved her too—it was distinct from the love he’d felt for his clanmates, his kin. It was different from the love he felt for Serek.
This belonged to Arysteon and Leyloni alone. No one else was privy to it, no one else would share in it, no one else could taste it or feel it.
Arysteon closed the remaining distance between them—for as small as it was, it would always be too much to tolerate—and covered her mouth with his.
He claimed her lips hungrily, and she yielded to him, opening her mouth to allow his tongue the entry it demanded. She moaned and wrapped her fingers around his horns. He captured her sound, devoured it, and gave it back to her in a growl as her desirous scent flooded his senses. His stem, trapped between their bodies, so close to her entrance, jolted, spilling more droplets of seed onto her skin.
Need. Need her. Now.
Arysteon drew his hips back. His shaft glided over her sex until its tip was poised at her entrance.
Leyloni shivered, spread her thighs wider, and rasped against his mouth, “Now, Arysteon. Make me yours again.”
His tail lashed behind him. “You are and will always be mine.”
He thrust his hips forward, plunging into her wet, hot depths. Her breath caught, and her body tensed, but Arysteon could not stop now that he was inside her, now that her sex was tightening around him. He needed to be deeper, ne
eded to keep moving, needed to spill his scalding seed in her womb and mark her as his again and again.
Arysteon curled his fingers, claws pricking through the blanket to catch the ground beneath, and anchored himself in place as he pumped his hips. His harsh breaths, her panting moans, and the meeting of his scales and her flesh became their new song, each note of which pushed him on faster, harder.
The already impossible, unbearable pressure within him only heightened, clouding his vision with crimson that hid all the world from his sight but for Leyloni.
Need deeper.
He pulled back, withdrawing from her body, and hissed as the cool air touched his stem. Leyloni’s gaze met his just before he caught her by the hips, flipped her onto her belly, and raised her backside. He thrust forward even as he pulled her back with his hands, burying himself in her sex.
Leyloni cried out, grasping fistfuls of the blanket and pressing her cheek down atop it. Her quivering sex clenched around his shaft, creating a burst of pleasure in Arysteon that was so immense it made his limbs weak and his lungs seize.
More. Need more.
He forced his body into motion, defying that pleasure, chasing it, dominating it, pumping his hips in a fierce rhythm that left him unable to distinguish pleasure from pain. Snarls, grunts, and growls escaped him unbidden, but it was Leyloni’s gasping pleas—and her ragged invocations of his name—that drove him on harder. His toe claws dug into the ground, adding to his momentum.
Leyloni suddenly tensed, and her cries rose in pitch for an instant before she cut them off by pressing her mouth to her forearm. Her sex clamped even tighter, and liquid heat, as scalding as the fire inside Arysteon, flowed around his shaft.
Her climax was the catalyst the sent him over the edge. The internal pressure, that raging firestorm, which had already been empowered by her scent, her feel, and the sensations racing through him, could no longer be contained.
Arysteon’s every muscle flexed, and for a moment he could not breathe, see, or hear—he could only feel the crushing pain centered on his stem. Then a wave of pleasure crashed down on him, obliterating his conscious thought. Somehow, he kept his lips pressed together, reducing the roar that threatened to rise from his throat to a strained sound somewhere between a growl and a rough groan.
His seed poured into Leyloni, intensifying their mutual heat, and his hips bucked erratically. She would take all of it. He would give until he was dry; he needed to fill her completely. She was his. He was hers.
Arysteon’s spark danced and thrummed, and he knew somehow that part of it was within her, responding in turn. He sensed that they weren’t merely connected by it—they were intertwined by it, two made into one, neither complete without the other and together so much greater than the sum of their parts.
When finally there was nothing more to give, he ceased his thrusts and bent forward, wrapping an arm around her middle. He pressed his cheek to her back and closed his eyes, taking in her scent anew as his breathing eased. The Heat lingered all around him, inside him, just as it would for the next several weeks, but this had been enough for now.
At some point, he guided Leyloni down, lying on his side while keeping her tucked against him. His stem was where it belonged—sheathed in her heat. He was content to leave it there.
She nestled back and released a contented purr when he placed a kiss on her tousled hair. Where there had been only fire and unbearable pressure within him moments before was now a soothing, blossoming warmth. There was contentment.
It was almost more surreal than the dream that had awoken him, but could that not be said about his entire relationship with her from the moment they’d met?
He would never have imagined himself lying with a human this way. He would never have imagined himself being human—or whatever it was his current form could be called. And after his clan had fallen apart, he would never have imagined himself finding true happiness and companionship again.
He would never have imagined himself finding this love.
“Thank you. You have made this Heat tolerable for the first time in all my life,” he said, holding Leyloni a little tighter. “I did not hurt you?”
She hummed and turned her face toward him, her lips curled into a smile. “No. And if I were not so exhausted, I would ask that you do that again. Though”—she pressed back against him, pushing his stem deeper inside her—“I still might.”
Arysteon groaned, drawing his knees up against the backs of her thighs and tightening his arm around her middle to pin her in place. Her small movement had already rekindled the fire in his loins.
“You should sleep, my heartsong. I will be in Heat as long as the comet is in the sky.” He kissed her shoulder. “We will have many more opportunities.”
Leyloni sighed morosely, but it ended with a yawn. She chuckled. “Okay. You are right.” She laid her head down upon his arm and covered his other hand with hers, lacing their fingers together.
Though he’d been the one to deny her, Arysteon was hit by a pang of disappointment. He’d not had nearly enough of her—and he knew he never would. But there would be time aplenty in the coming days, in the coming years. They had a lifetime to share.
“Rest well, my love,” he said softly, closing his eyes and willing his body to relax around his mate.
“Goodnight, my dragon.”
17
Leyloni woke with a soft cry as pleasure speared her dreams and returned her to reality. Heat flooded her fluttering sex, slicking her inner thighs, and she bit down on her bottom lip to quiet her moans as she arched against the hard body behind her. The movement only pushed her mate’s cock deeper.
Arysteon’s arms were around her. One of his hands had slipped under her top and was caressing her breast, pinching and teasing her aching nipple. The other was over her pelvis, and his strong, deft fingers were stroking her pleasure bud. The overwhelming pleasure of his touch was heightened by his hot breath fanning over her shoulder, by the feel of his tongue running from the base of her neck all the way up to her ear, which he nipped gently with his sharp teeth.
But none of those sensations compared to the slide of his cock as he pumped his hips. His hand over her sex kept her pinned in place, forcing her to take every bit of him. At this angle, she felt every one of the ridges along his shaft, and they struck her in all the right places.
“My heartsong,” Arysteon growled, his rhythm gaining urgency. That extra speed, combined with the stimulation against her sensitive inner flesh, made her combust.
Leyloni came again as his seed, hot and forceful, filled her. She covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut as she convulsed, the powerful sensations locking her muscles and stealing her breath. Though his rhythm faltered, Arysteon did not relent in his motions. His every thrust pushed her higher and higher until the ecstasy was so immense that her consciousness shattered.
When the shards of her mind finally pieced themselves back together, Arysteon’s ministrations had become tender and soothing—though his touch remained pleasurable and arousing. He brought her down from that impossible peak slowly with his fingertips, lips, and tongue, and the press of his hard body against her back grounded her.
“I could not wait,” he rumbled apologetically.
Leyloni’s lips spread into a slow, contented smile. “I thought it was a good way to wake up. A very good way.” She opened her eyes. Early dawn light was creeping through the leaves overhead, silhouetting them against a gray sky.
Arysteon chuckled, and his shaft throbbed within her, creating another burst of pleasure. “I shall remember that always, my heartsong.”
He lifted his hand away from her sex. His fingertips glistened with her essence, but she glimpsed them for only an instant before he slipped them into his mouth. Her eyes flared. He moaned appreciatively, his tongue emerging to run across his lips once he’d withdrawn his fingers.
“I have waited an eternity to taste you directly, Leyloni.” His voice was even lower than before.
“But your seed,” Leyloni said. “You just—”
He cut her off with a snarl. “Nothing will keep me from tasting you, my heartsong. I hunger.”
Anticipation thrummed through Leyloni as his gaze trailed down to focus on her sex.
His tail lashed behind him. The sensual heat and hunger in his eyes burned brighter than ever, and her core clenched as a fresh wave of need swept through her.
“You are so beautiful,” Arysteon said reverently. He settled his hands on her knees and slid them up her thighs, making her legs tremble. Even as his hands moved, he shifted his body backward, his head dipping toward her pelvis—his mouth dipping toward her sex.
He looked up to meet her gaze as he extended his tongue, his movements so slow and deliberate that she couldn’t help but catch her lower lip between her teeth and clench the blanket in her fists.
A happy squeal broke the early morning silence, and Arysteon froze with his tongue a hair’s breadth from Leyloni’s pleasure nub.
Serek’s squeal was followed by the wet sound of the baby blowing through his lips, which in turn was followed by his self-amused giggles.
Arysteon released a heavy breath through his nostrils. As slowly as he’d been extending it, he drew his tongue back into his mouth and pressed his lips into a tight line. His brow fell low, and his fingers flexed, claws prickling her thighs.
A thrill coursed through Leyloni, but it could not stop her from laughing at the frustration on her mate’s face. “I suppose we found the one thing that can deny you your taste, dragon.”
He lifted his gaze to meet hers again, narrowing his eyes. “You find humor in my suffering, human?”
She laughed a little harder. “You are not the only one currently suffering, but yes, I do.”
Hooking his hands around her thighs, Arysteon dragged her suddenly closer, eliciting another laugh from her in the process. He dropped his mouth to her belly to press a heated kiss to her skin. “Mark my words, Leyloni—I will lap your essence directly from its source before the day’s end. But for now…” He moved his hand between her thighs and slid the pad of his finger over her sex, gathering his dripping seed and carefully pushing it back into her. The possessiveness in his eyes was commanding. “My seed will take root, and you will carry my youngling.”
To Love A Dragon; Venys Needs Men Page 16
