by Imogen Sera
Why was she hanging onto her anger? What he’d said hadn’t been so very bad, had even been a reasonable question, had she not been exhausted and overwhelmed and ready to lash out at anything that pushed at her. Perhaps she was just hanging onto it because she could, she thought. She could be mad as long as she wanted, and she knew without a doubt that whenever she was over it he would be right there, waiting for her.
Just like he was, right now, across the hall. She sighed at herself, kissed her mother’s forehead, and went to him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
She knocked on his door, feeling awkward, but the awkwardness disappeared when he opened it and beamed down at her. She wasn’t sure what to say so she stepped in, shut the door behind her, and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, allowing him to crush her against him. “I know I’m being silly, but I couldn’t stop, and I was mean to you.”
“You weren’t mean to me,” he said against her halo of hair. “And don’t be sorry. You weren’t being silly, you were mad. That’s okay. You can be mad at me.”
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, realizing how much she’d missed his touch over the last day.
“I didn’t mean what you thought I meant, Maggie. I know you didn’t use me to get out of there, that’s not what I was worried about. I just meant that I don’t want you to feel… stuck with me. You’re welcome here, whatever I am to you. This is your home, you can do whatever you wish here. You’re not indebted to me in any way.”
She leaned back to look up at him. “That’s an odd feeling,” she said quietly. “It’s freeing.”
“It’s why I wanted to tell you.”
“And I yelled at you and avoided you all day.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m the worst, Caelian.”
He leaned to kiss the tip of her nose. “I was glad. I know you’re still nervous around me sometimes. You’ll get there, we’ll get there, but you being mad at me felt like a good thing.”
She grinned at him, her arms wrapped around his broad torso, his hands resting easily on the small of her back. “I love you, you know,” she said.
He grinned back at her. “I know now.”
She stretched up to kiss him, her hands rising to the back of his neck. She pulled him against her, pressed her lips against his, then ran her hands up and down the hard expanse of his chest. She reached down then and unlaced his pants, wrapping her slender fingers around his length. He didn’t take his eyes from hers, but his brow furrowed when she touched him, and that was enough to spur her on.
“Maggie,” he said, “you don’t have to do this, I—”
“You said I get to choose what I do here,” she interrupted him. “Don’t go back on your word. I choose this.”
He swallowed thickly and nodded.
She knelt in front of him and tugged his pants from his hips, letting them fall to the floor. He was hard already, and she hadn’t ever seen anything she wanted more.
“I’m doing this because I want to,” she continued, leaning forward and pressing a small kiss to the head of his cock. “This isn’t because I was mad, or to keep you from being angry with me.”
She looked up at him, and he stared back at her, his eyes burning.
“I just want you.”
She leaned forward again and took him into her mouth, letting her hand drop to gently rub against his sac. She swirled her tongue around his head, lapping up the saltiness that had collected there, then took him deeper, flicking and rubbing her tongue down the length of him. She couldn’t fit much of him in her mouth, but it didn’t seem to bother him. She watched him all the while, her eyes trained up on him while she bobbed her head up and down his cock.
His breathing became ragged and his eyes shut, so she released him from her mouth. When his eyes opened again and found hers, her courage grew, although her heart was beating out of her chest.
“I love you, Caelian,” she said simply, and then something changed in him.
He knelt in front of her and pulled her against him, both of them on their knees.
“Oh, Maggie,” he breathed. “Sweet, lovely Maggie.”
And then he kissed her. He kissed her like she’d never been kissed in her life, like he needed her, like she was the only thing in the world that he would ever need again. His tongue tangled with hers, his hands in her hair and on her back and wrapped around her so tightly she felt like she couldn’t breathe. His hard cock was pressed against her belly, but they both ignored it, instead letting their mouths explore.
He pulled away from her, breathless, and held her face between his hands. “I’ve loved you since I met you, you know that, right?” he asked urgently.
He seemed to be able to breathe again when she nodded.
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
She nodded vigorously. Her pants were dispatched quickly, and a moment later he had a big finger exploring her folds, running along her entrance, circling around her clit. Her breath hitched as he plunged it inside her, finding her slick with need. He fucked her with one finger, then two, and before long she was calling for him, pleading with him, begging him for his cock.
He withdrew his fingers and licked them thoroughly, his eyes blazing as he watched her. He positioned himself on the floor, and then pulled her onto his lap, facing him. She reached down and rubbed his enormous head against herself a few times, then pulled him to her entrance.
She lowered herself slowly, unable to control a moan, still not taking her eyes from his. He watched her intently, his nostrils flared, his hands running down her back to caress her ass, and then back up to tangle in her hair. Once he was finally fully inside of her, she paused, adjusting to the fullness. He was enormous and delicious and just what she needed.
“I love you,” he said, and then, “you’re mine.”
She shivered at that, then rocked her hips slightly, keeping him fully inside her. His pubic bone put delicious pressure on her clit, so she did it again and again, until she fell into a rhythm, and before long the combination of the friction and the fullness inside of her she was hurtling over the edge.
He watched her all the while, not moving, letting her take what she needed from him. He held her close to him as she trembled and came down, and then he stood, still deep inside her, and carried her across the room to his bed.
He climbed on top of her and then entered her in one long thrust, then fucked her hard. Her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck, clinging to him as he pumped into her, his strokes quick and powerful. She came again, harder than before, calling his name and clenching around him, helpless to stop herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Maggie sat next to a fountain in the front garden with a large group of women. Her mother was there, sitting up without support. She wasn’t quite speaking yet, but she had begun to respond nonverbally, and she’d nodded vehemently when Maggie asked her about getting some sun.
The weather was sunny and perfect, the first time in a week that the rain had stopped. Overhead there were nearly a dozen dragons circling, for no reason other than to enjoy the warmth on their wings. Caelian was up there, somewhere, but Maggie was focused on the card game that Mira was trying to teach them. Maggie was quite bad at it so far, and laughed at herself as she lost quickly, then turned her attention to the sky. It was a surreal sight, seeing them flying as plain as day, and she was surprised at how accustomed she’d become to it in the month since she’d returned to the palace.
It was a lovely, lazy day, and Maggie mused over how many of those she’d already had since arriving here. If she thought back through her life she couldn’t remember a single day like this, not a single day without worries or cares or anyone to please. She’d please Caelian later, she thought, but then that was more for herself. She’d been totally selfish in their relationship so far, and when she’d tried to apologize and make things right he’d waved her off and insisted she continue however she wished. He was content, he’d said, to just
be with her, in whatever way she pleased, in whatever capacity worked for her.
She was still healing, and it was a relief to her that he seemed to understand that. She’d tiptoed through life, avoiding first her father’s wrath and then her husband’s. It was strange now to have someone who seemed to take joy in just making her happy. She glanced skyward, looking for him, but didn’t see the familiar flash of blue. She wondered at that briefly, but then he walked toward her, calling her name. She grinned and stood.
“Sorry, Mira,” she said, laying her cards face up. “I was losing anyway.” She flashed a bright smile around and then turned and strode to Caelian’s side.
His arm found its way around her shoulders, as it always did, and he grinned down at her and kissed her nose.
“Walk with me?” he asked quietly, so she nodded and they set off at a leisurely pace toward the lake. He talked to her as they did, telling her about everything that he’d done, everyone that he’d spoken to since they’d parted that morning. He seemed to want her to know every detail about him, to pour out everything he’d collected while they were apart. It was sweet, occasionally tiresome, but always reassuring. He wanted her to know him.
“I was thinking about your husband,” he said as they walked along the edge of the lake, and she was so surprised she turned to look at him. “And I was thinking about how he’s not your husband, how he never really was.”
Maggie nodded, her arm tucked safely in his solid one, unsure where he was going.
He paused, then guided her to the water’s edge, to a place where they’d come before to sit with their feet in the water. He knelt in front of her and removed her shoes, steadying her with one big hand gripping her hip. He pulled off her stockings next, and then pulled her down next to him, into him. She dipped her toes into the cold water, making her want to take them out again but enjoying the contrast between the warm air.
She turned to look up at him. “What about my husband?” she asked.
“Not your husband,” he corrected, smiling mischievously at her. “I was thinking about how you don’t have one.”
She nodded again.
“But if you wanted to have one,” he continued, his face serious, his fingers brushing lightly across her cheek, “I think you should consider me.”
She laughed at that, loud and long and clear. He watched her steadily as she did, a small smile on his lips, until she was finished and just grinning at him. “Are you saying you want to marry me?” she asked.
He nodded. “Very much.”
She continued to grin as she kissed him, hard but sweet, tenderly but passionately. “Alright, then,” she said. “Let’s get married.”
They stayed there until it was dark and there was a chill in the air, talking and kissing quietly and laying back to feel the sun on their faces. He helped her up when it was time to leave, and she held her shoes so they wouldn’t get wet from her feet.
She walked with her arm in his, her bare feet sinking into the mud, content and relaxed and free.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
A note from me:
Thanks as always for reading! This is the longest book of the series by quite a bit, believe it or not, but I managed to write it in less time than the others. I struggled with knowing where to end Caelian and Maggie’s story, and it seems likely that I’ll return to them in the future.
Book IV will be out in February and will focus on Tarquin. I’ve seriously been writing random scenes from this since I started the first book in November, and I’m dying to be able to focus on it. I got the cover already and I’m in love, scroll down to see it.
Side note: My father-in-law’s name is Bradley. Guess how friendly we are?
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Dragongrove Series:
Book 1: Mated to the Dragon King
Book 2: Becoming the Dragon Queen
Book 3: The Dragon’s Mate’s Awakening (this one!)
Book 4: Title TBA
Tarquin’s book, finally!
