The Dragon Mistress: Book 1 (The Eburosi Chronicles 8)

by R. A. Steffan

  I liked it a lot.

  Eldris had made himself comfortable on one of the bedrolls and unlaced his breeches, freeing his rather impressive length. He lounged on an elbow, amusement tugging at his features. “Well, go on,” he said. “Kiss him again. Muss ’im up a bit—we both know you want to.”

  Maybe I’d spoken too soon when I failed to lump Eldris in with the others as dangerous. He saw too much. He also had good ideas, though, so my reassessment of his character could probably wait for some time when my sex wasn’t throbbing and dripping down my inner thighs.

  I kissed Aristede. I also gave into the urge to run my hands through that silky hair. Aristede hadn’t exactly been shy about returning the gesture before, but this time he wound my tangled mass of curls around his fingers and used it to tug my head back, exposing the column of my throat to his lips and teeth.

  My thighs got wetter. My nipples got harder, but at least I could rub those against his chest to get some relief.

  “Is she dripping for you yet, Ari?” Eldris asked.

  The hand not fisted in my hair skimmed down my ribs and over my hip, leaving heat in its wake. Aristede brushed fingertips over the globe of my ass and stroked down the length of the valley running between my buttocks, delving low to find the evidence of my arousal.

  “Completely soaked,” Aristede confirmed. “Though I’m not sure it’s just for me.”

  “It’s not,” I admitted breathlessly. “Eldris, you’re secretly evil and I think I love you.”

  Eldris chuckled. “Tell me that again after we’re both done with you tonight.”

  “Nngh,” I managed, as Aristede’s fingers appeared to seek more detailed information about the source of my slickness.

  “Oh, yeah,” Eldris said. “This is gonna be fun.”

  Aristede smiled through the final kiss he pressed to my lips before letting his hands slide out of my hair and my sex. My scalp tingled from his grip—but then, so did everything else. He drew me down on the other bedroll, lying on his back and urging me to straddle his chest. I wasn’t sure what he was after until he nudged me higher up his body and stretched his arms over his head, out of the way of my knees.

  Heart pounding, I brushed the lips of my sex across the bow of his mouth, like it was another kiss. Mostly, I’d gravitated toward the tough boys back in Eburos. Apprentice warriors, and the like. Many of them had been happy to lay me down on my back, spread my legs, and eat me out. Several had even been good at it. But the feeling of kneeling over a prone lover in my leather boots and… using him like this, especially while another man watched…

  I really, really liked it.

  “Don’t let her come,” Eldris said. I jerked my head around to pin him with a glare of disbelief, but he only smirked at me. “What’s that look for, Trouble? The anticipation’s half the fun.”

  I drew a breath to tell him what I thought of that opinion, but Aristede was taking control of my sex the same way he’d taken control of the kiss earlier. All that came out was a pathetic little whining noise.

  “Yeah… I thought so,” Eldris said with satisfaction. I clamped my lips together and settled for glaring at him some more.

  Aristede’s tongue was diabolical, and not just for its facile way with words. I decided that no one had any right to know my body this well without any prior sexual history with me. He lapped and delved, circling sensitive flesh, teasing with the promise of more but never quite delivering.

  My breath was coming in ragged pants when Eldris asked, “You enjoy sucking a man’s cock, sweet thing?”

  “Love it,” I gasped, shivering as Aristede’s tongue flicked over my most sensitive place, only to retreat.

  “Why don’t you turn around and get your revenge on him while he’s working on you?” he suggested. “See how close to the edge you can get him without letting him come.”

  Revenge—yeah, I liked the sound of that. I clambered around on shaky knees, happy for the excuse to fall forward and brace myself on all fours. Balance was a lot easier when your head wasn’t spinning from frustrated lust.

  Aristede’s cock was a beautiful as the rest of him, jutting hard and proud, leaking milky seed from the tip in a thin stream. I hadn’t touched him yet; this was all from kissing me and letting me ride his talented mouth. Was it also from Eldris? From his eyes on us, and the fond, lazy amusement behind his orders? Were they lovers, or merely close friends?

  My moment of coherent thought was interrupted by another slow flick of Aristede’s tongue. He nuzzled at me, a low, male noise vibrating against sensitive flesh. I had to fight the urge to swallow down that pretty cock and hollow my cheeks until he spilled down my throat, but what he was doing to me definitely deserved some payback first.

  I contented myself with light kisses and licks, lapping up the mess he was making of himself… following the trail to its source and delving into the slit in pursuit of that salty bitterness. We silently dared each other to get closer to release without slipping over the edge, our noises growing more desperate… hungrier.

  I drew more of him into my mouth. He retaliated by curling his tongue inside my passage. I sucked. He nipped. I set up a slow rhythm, only to break it when his hips began to flex up beneath me. He drew back to blow cool air over my soaked folds.

  There was no telling how long we might have been able to keep it up, had I not made the mistake of throwing Eldris a sideways look that I’d intended to be sultry. He hadn’t moved from his relaxed slouch on the blankets, but now he was fisting his generous cock with unhurried strokes as he watched the show we were putting on. His eyes met mine, dark and heavy-lidded.

  I groaned around the slick flesh in my mouth and came hard, days of pent-up tension exploding in a blaze of sensation that wracked me to the bone. This was apparently too much for Aristede, who arched and spurted his release across my tongue. I swallowed and jerked against his mouth and swallowed some more, only vaguely aware of my surroundings beyond those two incandescent points of contact.

  When I came back to myself, I was still sprawled inelegantly on Aristede’s spent body—probably smothering him with my quivering sex. Not that he seemed to be complaining… though I had a moment’s worry that the lack of protest meant I’d already rendered him unconscious. To be safe, I slithered to one side, my body feeling as weak and uncoordinated as a newborn lamb’s.

  I ended up face-down in the blankets, and would have stayed that way if not for the strong hands that rearranged me onto my back with my head and shoulders resting on Aristede’s torso, my body lying perpendicular to his. My human pillow wrapped an arm around me loosely, his hand splayed over my left breast.

  “All warmed up now?” Eldris asked, making space for himself between my spread legs. His large, callused hand rested on my belly for a moment before sliding down to cup my sex.

  I shuddered as a little aftershock shot through me. “Uh-huh,” I said faintly, still floating happily in la-la land.

  “Glad to hear it,” Eldris said, clearly amused at my expense.

  I wrinkled my nose at him, but the witty rejoinder I was crafting dissolved into a moan of pleasure as two thick fingers slid inside me. Fucking gods. There was nothing quite like the first stretch of penetration. For that, a tongue just wasn’t enough.

  Aristede’s clever fingers worried my nipple, somehow intuiting my preference for an edge of pain at the turgid peak. I melted between them, letting the sensations flow through me.

  “Wrists?” Eldris said, and I was confused for a moment until Aristede gathered my hands, holding them stretched above my head in one of his. “Let us know if any of this isn’t doing it for you, sweet thing.”

  “Mmnh,” I groaned, melting anew as Aristede returned his free hand to torturing my erect nipples.

  Eldris crooked his fingers, sliding back and forth against the front wall of my passage. His thumb slid across my oversensitive nub with every stroke, while another finger tickled across my ass. I writhed, testing Aristede’s grip as my lethargic heart
dragged itself back to a thundering rhythm.

  “Utarr’s dripping tits,” I cursed as Eldris expertly pushed me to a second climax in almost no time at all. “What—ah! What happened to ‘anticipation is half of the fun?”

  Eldris grinned. “Well… that was as much for Ari’s benefit as yours.” His fingers slid over the place inside of me, picking up the same inexorable rhythm as before. “And besides… now you can anticipate the fact that I don’t plan on stopping this anytime soon.”

  Chapter 17: The Morning After

  ELDRIS, IT TURNED OUT, was a patient man. A patient, diabolical, unexpectedly sadistic man. Silly me, I had previously been unaware of the lengths to which my body could be pushed without breaking completely. I’d also never screamed during sex before.

  “Let us hear that voice, sweet thing,” Eldris said, at some point after I’d lost track of the number of climaxes he’d wrenched from me.

  I was pretty sure there was a finger inside my ass now, too, and Aristede had started splitting his time between teasing my breasts and sliding his long fingers between my lips, fucking my mouth with deep strokes.

  “No one around to hear if you do,” Aristede observed, trailing wet fingers back down to my breasts. “At least, not unless Rayth wanders back here at an inopportune moment.”

  Godsdamn my twisted, sex-drugged mind—somehow, the vision of Rayth walking in on me writhing between these two, every opening filled, was enough to tighten all the muscles in my body into immobility as a full-throated scream of release tore free of my lungs.

  I… might’ve blacked out afterward. Just, y’know, a bit.

  When I came back from the thing that… might’ve been a blackout, it was to the heavenly sensation of fingertips stroking my forehead and temple, while soft lips pressed butterfly kisses to the knuckles of my right hand.

  I smiled, not opening my eyes.

  “There she is,” Eldris said warmly. “All good, sweetheart?”

  “Really, really good,” I slurred. A thought struggled free of the morass in my brain, and I peeled open one eye to look up at him. “Did you come, too?”

  He smiled. “Not yet. I can finish myself, if you like. Or, if it’s all right, you can lie back right where you are and I’ll have the space between these two lovely flotation aides of yours.” He tweaked a nipple, sending a pleasant flush of warmth through me.

  “All yours,” I said sleepily, settling my head more comfortably against Aristede’s taut stomach.

  Lips brushed mine, fuller and softer than Aristede’s.

  “You’re just perfect, sweet thing,” Eldris said.

  “I thought I was trouble,” I teased.

  “Definitely that, too,” he agreed.

  Aristede gathered my hair and draped it across his stomach, presumably to keep it out of the way when Eldris spilled all over me. That was nice, I thought. There was something about a man spurting hot seed across my skin that did it for me, but it would be a mess to clean out of my hair afterward.

  Eldris mounted without so much as jostling me, muscular thighs bracketing my ribcage. I dragged heavy eyelids open, not wanting to miss the sight of him looming over me, his big cock throbbing as he kneaded and molded my breasts together to take his length between them.

  “Beautiful,” he said, as the slick head of his prick slid between the twin mounds.

  “You, too,” I said dreamily. “Both of you.”

  I slipped peacefully into the rhythm of his easy thrusts, enjoying the warm weight of his hands cupping my breasts together to make a hot, tight space for himself. He took his time, enjoying himself without drawing things out unnecessarily, and I hummed in satisfaction when ropes of hot seed slapped against my chest, neck, and chin.

  Eldris breathed raggedly, but didn’t let his weight sag down onto me. When his shudders stilled, he moved off of my body. I sighed in complete relaxation and swiped the smear of come off my chin with a finger, popping it into my mouth so I’d be able to say I’d tasted both of them.

  “Goddess,” Eldris breathed.

  “Towel,” Aristede said, his voice amused, and I might have laughed if that didn’t sound like far too much work.

  A moment later, the damp towel we’d used at the lake swiped at my chest and throat, then between my legs, where I’d made a truly epic—and thoroughly enjoyable—mess of myself. Afterward, strong arms shuffled me around, rearranging blankets and bed-mats until I was cradled between two warm bodies in a comfortable nest. A few heartbeats later, I was fast asleep, dead to the world.

  * * *

  When I awoke, it was light outside. Also, Rayth was standing next to the bedroll, staring down at the three of us with his arm out of its sling and an unimpressed expression gracing his haughty features. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable experience as my sex-addled mind had insisted last night that it would be.

  Eldris was awake, but hadn’t bothered to move from our pleasant tangle of limbs. “Problem?” he asked mildly, though I thought I detected an edge beneath the friendly tone.

  “Problem,” Rayth echoed in a flat voice. “Are you fucking joking with me right now?”

  He nudged Aristede awake with the toe of his boot—not gently. I bristled upon realizing that many hours had obviously passed, and Aristede had been peacefully asleep the whole time, evidently untroubled by nightmares until Rayth jammed a foot into his ribs and ruined it. He snorted awake, startled but not flailing, his expression groggy and his appearance pleasingly rumpled.

  All three of us were as naked as the day we’d been born… not that I liked to think too much about the day I’d been born, since that day had also marked my mother’s death. Still, my nakedness was all that kept me from leaping up to get in Rayth’s face and tell him not to be such an asshole.

  “What. The hell. Were you thinking?” Rayth growled as Aristede blinked up at him. “I’m aware that your first reaction to anything with a heartbeat is ‘can I have sex with it,’ but in what conceivable realm was this a good idea? You’re the one who claimed she’s bonding with the white dragon. If I’m to be saddled with this hellion, I sure as fuck don’t need her pining after you once she realizes what a shameless man-whore you are!”

  My mouth was hanging open. I snapped it shut and scrambled to my feet, heedless of my lack of clothing. Rayth’s eyes trailed down my body. I realized that I’d been wrong earlier—I wasn’t as naked as the day I’d been born. I still had the tall leather boots on.

  I poked Rayth in the chest. “Eyes up here, asshole,” I snapped. “Where the hell do you get off—”

  “Frella.” Aristede’s voice was firm. “Leave it. This is an old argument, and one that won’t be won today. Besides, he has a point. It may have been… unwise… for us to indulge as we did.”

  I whirled to stare at him instead of Rayth, hurt starting to bleed in around the outrage. Of course, that was enough to immediately put me on the offensive. “Excuse me? Maybe I just wanted a casual roll in the blankets, did you ever think of that? You have a pretty face, and you damn well know it. I’d been looking for an excuse to tumble you into bed since I first saw you. Last night was as good of one as any. That’s all it was, so get over yourself.”

  There was the strangest tangle of relief and disquiet in Aristede’s eyes, but I was too angry right now to parse it. Angry. Not hurt.

  Damn it.

  “I need to get out of here,” I muttered, scavenging for my discarded clothing and tugging my tunic on with sharp movements. I cast around for some excuse. “Maybe I’ll… go look for the white dragon again.”

  Eldris rose, unconcerned by his nudity. “I’ll come with you. We’ll take my horse.” He gathered his own clothing and straightened, turning to Rayth, who still looked incandescent with anger. “You an’ me… we’ll talk later.” The words emerged hard.

  “Yes,” Rayth said. “We will. Maybe we can talk about your obvious attempt at misdirection yesterday, which might have been more effective if the hellion hadn’t carved markings along the
trail as she went.”

  “Sure, we can talk about that,” Eldris agreed, not rising to the bait as he pulled on his trousers. “C’mon, sweet thing. Let’s go saddle up and take a ride.”

  “Wait.” I balked, a chill creeping in as I realized Rayth had found the right trail after all, rather than wandering around on a completely different part of the mountain than where Nyx had disappeared. “Nyx. Did you find him? Is he—”

  “No,” Rayth said flatly. “I didn’t find him. If there’s one thing young Leannyck has always been good at, it’s running away and hiding in the bushes like a frightened rabbit.”

  “Fuck you, Rayth,” I spat.

  He stared at me coldly. “I believe there’s been more than enough of that already.”

  I’m not… entirely sure what I would have said or done next, but—perhaps fortunately—Eldris’ hand closed around my upper arm before I could do anything but sputter.

  “Frella.” His rumbling voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “Let’s go.”

  I let him guide me outside, and didn’t speak to him as we dressed the rest of the way. The saddles were stored under a rocky overhang near the cave entrance, and he retrieved his tack, slinging it under a beefy arm. He allowed the silence to settle around us, taking a circuitous route through the valley that led past some berry bushes.

  The fruit was just starting to ripen, but there was enough for us to call it breakfast. I barely tasted the little red spheres, eating only because I knew I needed to keep my strength up. Afterward, we skirted the edge of the lake and drank from the clear spring that flowed into it. I tried not to think about the events of the previous afternoon as my eyes strayed over the sparkling body of water where we’d laughed and played like teenagers.

  Eldris retrieved his horse from the grassy field and tacked up the big chestnut gelding. He mounted and helped me swing up behind him. Only when we were wandering across the valley at a sedate walk, my arms wrapped around his waist, did he break the silence.