Page 48 of The Tanglewood Witches (The Three Sisters 1)
Tavyss snorted. “Centuries tending this garden and they’ve never taken a bite.”
“It’s forbidden! If they want to remain here, they have to follow Hera’s rules.”
“Hera is a narcissist who would rather her fruit rot on the ground than someone else enjoy it.”
Medea gasped and looked over both shoulders. “Shhh. You shouldn’t say such things. What if she’s listening?”
He leaned back on his elbows and stared up at the sky. “She never comes here.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know her.” He picked the side of his nail. “She gave me the job of guarding the gate after all.”
“Then if you know her, why doesn’t she ever come here?”
“This garden was a gift from Gaea on her wedding day to Zeus. He treats her like dirt. The god has never been faithful and largely ignores her now. This garden is a reminder of everything she was promised on the day she was wed that never came to fruition,” he said.
“How sad. Can’t she live her own life since he’s obviously living his?”
“Oh, she tries. The problem is no man, certainly no god, would risk angering Zeus by being with her. She’s a lonely, angry, and bitter goddess. Those nymphs are right to fear her, but the truth is that the apples are harmless.”
She mirrored his position, shoulder to shoulder with him. The sky was streaked with purple now, and she enjoyed the stretch of heat down her side that his presence created as she stared up at it in wonder. “You suspect the apples are harmless, but how can you know for sure? Just because they were a gift from a titan doesn’t mean they are safe for those who are not gods to consume. They could be like ambrosia, deadly to others than the gods.”
He chuckled, then stood in one smooth motion. Spreading his wings, he lifted off the ground and flew to the top of the tree, plucking a perfect gold apple from the branches. He landed and offered it to her. “Would you like to know for yourself?”
Shocked, Medea stared at the forbidden fruit cradled in the nest of his fingers. The apple was the same color as his eyes. She pushed it away with both hands. “Are you mad?” she whispered. “Be rid of it!”
“It’s fruit, Medea. Nothing more.” A talon sprang from the first knuckle of his right hand, and he sliced through the peel. The inside was strange, segmented like no fruit she’d had before, not like an apple at all. He pulled it apart and popped a segment into his mouth.
Medea gasped. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve had it before. It’s very good.” He took another step closer. “I’ve told you, Medea, the rules don’t apply to me. I can eat the sheep. I can eat the fruit. I can even leave the garden. The only question is, do you trust me enough to try it for yourself?”
He gave her a wicked smile that Medea thought must hold all the secrets of the universe. Her heart thudded in her throat. His gaze locked onto hers, and he held out a wedge, juice dripping from his fingers. Her throat turned dry as a stone. If she could just taste it, taste him… Was she really going to do this?
“But you are a dragon. An immortal! It may not hurt you, but what will it do to me?”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand exactly what you are Medea, but I know this fruit won’t hurt you. Do you trust me?”
She searched her heart and found she did. Tentatively, she sat up and opened her mouth like a baby bird. He placed the fruit on her tongue. Sweetness burst across her taste buds, and she sucked the juice from his fingers, rolling the slice against her cheek. The taste wasn’t metallic despite the gold outer appearance. It tasted like liquid sunshine. She closed her eyes and moaned as she chewed.
She opened them again when his lips met hers. The sweet fruit held no glory compared to the kiss. Swallowing, she gave herself over to the honeyed taste of his mouth melding with hers. If the fruit had any ill effects on her, she didn’t feel them. All she knew was the heat of his touch and a strange mounting pleasure. A heaviness formed between her legs, a throbbing ache that she instinctually knew only he could soothe.
Her hands smoothed over his short hair, down his neck, and over his shoulders. He pulled her into his lap, his fingers stroking the thin fabric over her breast and toying with her nipple. He broke away from the kiss and bowed his head to suckle the tip. When he lifted his head again, the sensation was exquisite, the warmth of his tongue replaced by a delicious cool nip from the wet material.
She stared at him, breathless. “Tavyss, I…” She ran a hand down her body. “I ache for you.”
He wrapped an arm around her and tangled his fingers in her hair, the long lashes of his eyelids lowering. The purr she’d heard him make before grew louder, and she placed her palm against his chest, feeling the vibration.
“Mine.”
“Your voice sounds strange.”
His hand found the bare skin of her ankle and stroked up her calf to her knee. “Say you are mine, Medea. Be my mate.”
His fingers explored higher, stroking along her inner thigh. She panted at the heat, the way the spot between her legs grew wet and ultrasensitive. She had the strongest urge to shift her hips against those fingers.
He squeezed her thigh and gripped the back of her hair. Medea’s lips parted at the feeling. She wanted him. Everything she’d read in the strange forbidden book she’d conjured about sex, she wanted to try with him.
