Page 97 of Firebird
“Do you know what that means among dragons?”
“What are you talking about?”
“When you bend your throat and bare your neck to me?”
“It means I want you to kiss it.”
He chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss to my sensitive skin. I shivered.
“It means you’re submitting to me. That you’re offering yourself to me.” He pressed his now hard cock against my bare backside. “Are you offering yourself to me, Malina?”
“You’ll take me anyway,” I snapped back, arching my back and rubbing my bottom against his hardness.
He hissed in a breath, his hand on my stomach rising to cup my breast. He rolled and pinched my nipple till I moaned.
“Tell me you’re giving yourself to me,” he demanded, pressing soft, light kisses up and down my throat.
“Always,” I breathed out softly, sincerely. “Always, Julian.”
On a groan, he sank inside me, my core sensitive and raw from our rough coupling before. He seemed to know, because this time he slid inside me with gentle, grinding pumps. He massaged my breast, pinching lightly, opening his mouth with feathery brushes along my neck. Then he began murmuring sweet, insane things that had my body clamoring for more of him.
“So beautiful, my firebird.” Kisses to the base of my throat where he lapped at my pulse. “I want to take you to a dark cave. Far away.” Gentle, deep strokes of his cock. “Where no one can find us. Where I can keep you forever. And fuck you over and over.” He pinched my nipple till I cried out at the sting, then he coasted his hand to my stomach. “I’d fill you up till you became round with my child.”
“Ourchild,” I corrected on a gasping breath.
A grating rumble of satisfaction vibrated from his chest. He gripped my thigh and lifted my leg. I let it drape back until my ankle wrapped behind his thigh. He slid his fingers into the slick that was left over from our first coupling.
“I want to make a mess of you,” he whispered, pinching my clitoris lightly.
I jumped and whimpered, reaching back to curl my fingers into his hip.
“I want you drenched with me so every dragon knows you’re mine.”
Arching my back, I angled so he could go deeper. “So drown me, Julian.”
He did. He drowned me in his desire, his adoration, and his love. When the tether pulled tight at the end, an overwhelming wash of that unconditional emotion poured into my body and soul. It was as real as my heart thudding erratically in my chest. It was a living, breathing entity. I was immersed, engulfed in love. And it was the finest moment of my life.
I remember weeping when we were done and his soft murmuring, soothing me with “Shh, I’m here” until I finally fell asleep.
XXVIII
JULIAN
A thunderous roar echoed from the crowds above the subterranean chamber where I stood and waited beneath the arena floor. There were men below me in the basement corridor, their hands on a giant wheel, ready to crank it and open a hatch, then raise me into the Colosseum.
I closed my eyes, trying to calm the tremor of fear that gripped me. Not at battling Ciprian, but at the dread of something I couldn’t see. That this fight was putting actions into motion that were out of my control, that Ciprian was becoming a problem I couldn’t remove without entirely removinghim. But if I dared to strike him dead onthe arena floor, Caesar wouldn’t be happy. Worse, he’d suspect and distrust me. Then it would all fall apart.
Suddenly, the floor opened up, sunlight spilling into the chamber where gladiators rose out of pits beneath the floor, like gods themselves. As I climbed the stairs, the roar of the people vibrated the air. Directly across from me, Ciprian climbed to the sand floor from another chamber.
We entered the Colosseum at the closest positions to the canopied box where the emperor and his lackeys would watch the spectacle. I didn’t even glance his way, my attention solely on Ciprian.
He grinned as if he knew exactly how badly I wanted to maim and mutilate him. We were both already in half-skin, dressed in leather skirts and nothing else, our gladii in hand. His black scales shimmered beneath the noonday sun directly above us. He was smaller than me, even in half-skin, which had my dragon chuffing, ready for violence and to stomp him down.
Attendants stood not far away, near the Colosseum wall where other weapons were available for us to use. My fist squeezed the handle of my gladius, my heart desiring to stab into his chest so profoundly.
He was a threat. Not simply to me. But to Malina. Ciprian had brought her to the attention of the emperor, and now my timeline grew short. We’d have to do it soon. I had only been able to get a hasty message off to Trajan before I had to report to the arena. I’d woken late and left Malina sleeping, hoping to be home before she roused. I’d kept her up far into the night, almost to morning.
Sweet nectar of life, my Malina. My mate.
