Dragon's Kiss Page 6

She was watching.

  Time and space seemed to no longer apply. He could see her clearly, as if she stood in front of him.

  She hadn’t returned to the cabin. She’d stayed to watch over him. And now that she’d seen him, seen what he was doing, she’d remained. Kei smiled. His prim little hostess was curious.

  No, he couldn’t come inside her tonight, but he could come for her. All thoughts of quick relief faded. He rested his shoulders against the rock and tilted his hips sideways to improve her view.

  He returned his hand to his cock and began to slowly stroke its length. He lingered, running his palm up and down his shaft, pausing to savor the tension, keeping the movements slow. If Lorran were touching him, he wouldn’t rush it. He’d want to enjoy each caress. She’d be soft, tentative, then grow bolder. Her eyes would lighten. Would she enjoy touching him? Something told him she would. She would love the power she had over him—the power to hold him in her spell.

  He closed his eyes and pictured her, kneeling beside him, her long lovely fingers stroking him. Knowing she watched, he spread his legs, and began to slowly pump upward, easing his cock into his hand. Soon. But now he wanted to hold off, to know she watched, to imagine her touch. Each stroke of his hand, he pictured Lorran, her full breasts filling his hands, her tight nipples straining for his mouth. He licked his lips. Her pussy, wet for him. She’d torture him with her hands before slowly slipping his shaft inside her cunt. He moaned and pumped his hips faster. She’d hold him tight, her walls clinging to him. And those hot little groans she’d made when he’d touched her. She’d scream when she came.

  “Lorran,” he whispered through tight teeth as he pumped harder, jacking his hand up and down. He was so close. Inside her. He needed to come inside her.

  The almost painful need spiraled out of control. There was nothing he could do. He licked his lips, the subtle flavor of her cunt melted on his tongue.

  He drove his cock deep into his fist and tensed as his seed poured from him.

  * * * * *

  Lorran stood in the shadows, just out of sight. She couldn’t leave him. Something wasn’t right. Though she hadn’t spent much time with Brennek during his transition, he hadn’t seemed afflicted the way Kei was. The tension that bound his broad shoulders had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with arousal.

  Kei was aroused. Around her. She considered the idea that it might be the dragon’s influence but it was too soon. He’d only woken from the healing trance that morning.

  Through the trees she could see him, his skin bright against the dark rocks, illuminated by the full moon’s shining. He dropped his head into his hands like all his energy was gone. Maybe he was looking for an escape—a willing body to lose himself in for a few moments, to forget the horror of the weeks ahead. That had to be it.

  Brennek had done the same but it hadn’t been her body he’d craved. She would have to find some way of helping Kei. Lorran chewed the edge of her lower lip. She could contact one of the women in the village. There were a few prostitutes that lived openly in town. She could bring one out for Kei.

  He shifted, leaning his back against the rock and staring up at the night sky. What was he thinking about? Lorran had only a moment to consider the idea before his movements distracted her. He straightened one leg and bent the other, then he reached down and curled his palm and fingers around the thick length of his cock.

  Her breath caught in her throat as he slowly began to slide his hand up the long staff. He was thick, long. And hard. A sudden hollow ache spread through her stomach. Her sex was still damp from Kei’s attentions and began to drip. Lorran whimpered.

  Kei tensed and for a moment, she was sure he’d heard her but then he relaxed. Surely, he would stop if he thought she was watching. But he continued the steady strokes, even seeming to slow down. The obvious pleasure marked his face as he shifted, twisting his hips until he was fully bared to her now. She could see every line and curve. His thighs strained as he punched his hips upward.

  Her breath moved with each thrust, matching his rhythm. He was straining, reaching for his climax. Her own hand curled into a fist. She wanted to touch him, wanted to watch his face as she did exactly what he was doing. His movements grew more frantic as he picked up speed. She couldn’t look away. It was beautiful. Her nipples ached. She ran her hand up her body and cupped her breast. She pinched the peak and felt the ache spike between her legs.

  He threw his head back. She could hear his groan and watched as white liquid spilled from his fingers.

  Alone in the woods, she watched and licked her lips.

  Chapter Four

  Lorran paced by the window, glancing out, looking for some sign of Kei. He hadn’t returned to the cabin last night. After watching him at the waterfall, she’d hurried home and waited, finally falling asleep early in the morning.

  The silence was strange. She’d grown used to his presence during his three days in the trance. And sleeping in the bed alone had been uncomfortable. She’d been chased through her sleep with dreams of Kei’s hands and lips on her skin. She gripped the edges of her skirt. It was so easy to remember, to re-create the physical memory of his touch. Her sex began to throb, as if preparing for him. She took a deep breath and let her mind drift through her memories—Kei’s hand between her legs, his mouth sucking on her pussy, his hand around his own shaft.

  She could only imagine what it would feel like—to feel his cock inside her. He’d been thick and long. Her chest grew tight as she struggled to breathe. She unconsciously rolled her hips, a surprising ache between her legs. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting the tension rise. Her nipples rubbed against the soft cotton of her bodice.

  She’d been willing last night. If he hadn’t pulled away, she would have accepted him into her body. Even now she felt empty, wondering what she had missed.

  Though she didn’t hear anything, she suddenly knew she was no longer alone. She opened her eyes. Kei waited in the doorway, watching her.

  “What were you thinking about, just then?”

  She felt a blush tinge her cheeks. “Uh, nothing.”

  The lines around his eyes deepened but he didn’t speak. It was almost as if he could see into her thoughts and knew she’d been daydreaming about him. His long hair was wet. He’d returned to the waterfall this morning. He stared at her for a long moment. She returned his gaze, startled by the wild emotion that flickered in his eyes.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, her voice no more than a whisper. He straightened and the strange vulnerability was gone. Something had happened to make him pull back at the waterfall. He’d wanted her. She wiped her damp hands on a dishtowel. “I didn’t know what happened to you last night,” she said briskly.

  “I walked the valley.”

  Lorran nodded. She didn’t know what else to say. “Would you like something to eat?” she asked, desperate for something to do to ease the unusual tension in the room. Kei agreed and within moments Lorran placed a hot meal in front of him. He watched her as she moved around the cabin, his eyes sending streams of heat through her body. She mentally braced herself and collected her parchments before sitting down across from him.

  He glanced up but quickly returned his attention to wolfing down his breakfast.

  “So, I think we should start.” She said opening the paper and inking her quill. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine.”

  The crisp answer was wholly unenlightening but Lorran noted it. “Do you sense any changes? Any strange thoughts you can’t account for?”

  His fork stopped halfway to his mouth, then continued. After he swallowed, he shook his head. “No.”

  Lorran marked down his answer but wasn’t sure he was telling the truth.

  “We’ll need to track your emotions.”

  “Why?” He finally met her gaze.

  “As the dragon’s awareness grows, that’s where you’ll notice changes. Your emotions will intensify. Hatred, anger, pain, humiliation.”
r />   “Arousal,” he added.

  She schooled her expression to show nothing. “Yes, I suppose arousal would be one of the emotions that would appeal to the dragon.” She cleared her throat. “Particularly given the dragons’ reputation. In that area. But no one has ever reported a transition, during, uh—” She wasn’t good at this sort of discussion. Her family hadn’t discussed relationships between men and women. Her wedding night had been quite a surprise. “Well, during intimate relations.”

  “Sex,” Kei supplied.

  She felt herself blush again. She had to get the conversation back under control. “Yes. Observers have reported that the human begins changing, at least mentally and in their behaviors, long before the dragon physically appears. The person’s emotions become very erratic.” She kept her voice distant and impersonal. It was strange. She’d never spoken with a man who was going through the process. He appeared so calm about the situation but she’d seen the rage inside. She had no way to ease his anxiety. Though she barely knew him, she dreaded the next weeks. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes.

  “What causes the final transition?” he asked. His emotionless voice matched hers. His ability to maintain control inspired hers and Lorran forced the tears to retreat. She sat up in her chair.

  “We don’t precisely know but it appears these emotions are the gateway. The human—” It helped if she thought of it in general terms instead of the specifics of Kei changing into a dragon. “Displays erratic emotions. Usually building up to an outburst that releases the dragon onto the world.”

  “And that’s when it becomes physically present?”

  She nodded. “You’ll probably notice the mental awareness much sooner.”

  “Once the dragon appears, is there any way to return to the human state?”

  Lorran was sure he knew the answer but she replied. “No. There has never been a case of a dragon reverting back to a human state.”

  Kei nodded and thought for a moment before tilting his head to the side. “If emotions are the key, can I keep the dragon away if I succeed in suppressing all emotions?”

  “Theoretically,” she agreed cautiously. But Lorran felt compelled to tell him the truth. “I’ve never heard of that working. As the dragon grows, the struggle for control will become more difficult. A few men have succeeded in delaying the transition. But they’ve been much more mild mannered than…” She let her words trail away.

  He put his fork on the table and stared into her eyes.

  “Than your average dragon slayer,” he said, finishing her sentence with just a touch of mockery.

  Lorran couldn’t look away. “Exactly.” The air between them grew heavy. With just a look, he took her back to the waterfall—the searing sensation of his tongue inside her passage. She shifted in her chair.

  Kei’s gaze dipped down to her chest, rising and falling with each struggling breath. He swallowed deeply.

  “I have to go.”

  He pushed back from the table and was out the door before Lorran could respond. She stared at his back for a moment before racing after him.

  “Kei!” she called. He didn’t stop. The moments of sympathy evaporated at his arrogance. He couldn’t keep disappearing like this. He’d agreed to her study. “Your Majesty, you can’t keep walking away.”

  He kept moving until he reached the woodpile. He bent and picked up the axe. She wasn’t frightened. The man might be a dragon slayer but he wouldn’t hurt her.

  Lorran followed and stopped between him and the splitting stump. She propped her hands on her hips and glared up at him. Kei stared back, his eyes blazing but with fury not lust. Lorran refused to be intimidated.

  “We have more to discuss. I need to get your initial information so we can track the changes.”

  “We’ll do it later.”

  “If we do it later, I won’t know where we started from,” she pointed out sensibly.

  Kei paused for a second. She watched the muscles along his jaw line tense, like he was holding back a growl.

  “We’ll do it later,” he insisted.

  “You’ve been out of the trance for almost a day and a half and I’ve been able to observe you for less than three hours.”

  He leaned on the axe handle and flashed her a smug smile. “But you got an eyeful last night, didn’t you? Did you stick around to watch in the name of ‘observation’?”

  So, he had known she was there. She had two choices. She could blush and stammer or she could respond to his arrogance in kind. She chose the latter.

  “It seemed like an opportunity to observe you in your natural state. But I can’t monitor your progress if you spend all your time in the forest or breaking logs into splinters! May I point out that you agreed to let me study you and to do that I have to physically see you?”

  “Well, may I point out that spending the night in the forest was the only option I saw to spending the night here fucking you until you couldn’t walk.”

  His words were like a vise around her throat. She took a short step back.

  “W-what?”

  “You heard me.” Kei let the axe fall to the ground. “You’ve been through this before. Is it normal? Is this what’s supposed to happen? That all I can think about is fucking you and licking your wet little cunt? My Gods help me. I can still taste you and I want more.” He stalked forward, stopping directly in front of her. For a moment she thought he would reach for her but he kept his hands clenched at his side. “So, tell me, is this normal?”

  Lorran had difficulty finding her voice. She knew his words should have repulsed her but they only succeeded in re-igniting the hunger between her legs. She wanted those things—wanted his cock and his mouth.

  “To some extent, yes. Brennek spent his last days in another town with the town women.”

  “Fucking anything that moved.”

  Lorran felt her cheeks redden but nodded. “Yes.”

  “Well then you know what I’m going through so while you might want to observe me, I somehow doubt you’re willing to fall into bed and spread your legs in the name of observation.” He turned around and picked up the axe. His long hair obscured his face as he stared at the ground. “So, until I get this thing under control, I suggest you let me work off some of this energy.”

  Lorran stared at him for a moment and then turned away.

  She had no answer for that.

  * * * * *

  Kei stalked back toward the cabin as the sun began to set. His long hair dripped uncomfortably down his back. He’d returned to the waterfall.

  Three baths in twenty-four hours. By the time the dragon appeared, Kei would be exhausted, crazed by sexual frustration, but very clean.

  Though it wasn’t much, bathing seemed to ease the ache for sex just a little. Nothing worked for long. Everything seemed to inspire thoughts of fucking. And Lorran.

  Staying in the forest away from her hadn’t helped. Even working himself to exhaustion chopping wood had only dulled the ache for a while. Then something—anything it seemed, a scent, a color, the shape of the axe handle which reminded him of the curve of Lorran’s back—would re-ignite the memory and he’d be back hard and desperate.

  And he wouldn’t find relief any time soon. At least not with Lorran. She’d all but flinched when he’d told her of his desire to fuck her. Unfortunately, while she’d pulled away, his body had leapt in agreement and that thought had occupied hours. Being inside her, riding her pussy until she whimpered with need, until she was totally open to him. Until she was bound to him by unbreakable ties.

  He stopped on the porch and waited, hoping his cock would calm down before he went inside. He could have masturbated again but while his body ached with need, the feel of his own hand did little to satisfy it. It only made it worse.

  The voice in his head repeated its plaintive cry. Mine.

  Kei ground his teeth together. The voice was growing in strength if not vocabulary. Even without the words, the beast was pushing him—filling his mind with crisp
clear memories of Lorran.

  He stared at the door and realized he had only one choice. He had to leave. Had to return to the Castle. Despite what Lorran had said, returning home was the only option now. There were women in the Castle who would welcome him, even eagerly. With a dragon’s legendary sexual appetites, there were bound to be a few women who would agree to occupy his bed for the next three weeks. It seemed like the only workable solution. He couldn’t stay, not without fucking someone. And the one person he wanted was Lorran.

  It had to be proximity. There could be no other reason he was craving her so much. Surely another woman would do.

  He opened the door and stopped. The smell of warm fresh bread filled the room making his belly rumble. He welcomed the gnawing pain. It was some feeling besides arousal.

  Lorran sat beside the fire, her hands clutching a book but her eyes stared at the flames. She turned as he entered. Concern marred her serene gaze. Dammit—he didn’t need her pity.

  She slowly rose from her chair.

  “Would you like some dinner, Your Majesty?” she asked primly, though she didn’t insert the sarcasm into his title this time. Her back was straight and stiff and she looked ready to snap. He waited, preparing himself for another reprimand. Lorran wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. He decided he liked that. In the past year, too many people had learned to agree with him—for no other reason than he was King. It was too bad he’d only met Lorran now, when he’d be dead in three weeks. She would have made a wise advisor.

  She moved with quick efficiency, brushing past him to the counter without saying a word. Kei wondered for a moment if she’d given up but the tense line of her spine told him she was simply storing up her words. Probably until after he’d eaten.

  Her delicious scent combined with the rich smell of the dinner she’d left warming in the oven.

  Kei followed her as she placed his dinner on the counter. His cock surged upward. In all the Hells, he’d never imagined a torture quite like this one. He wanted her. All of her. The smell of her pussy added spice to the room, subtle and seductive. He wanted to lick it, taste it. Drink from it. Pour himself into it until they blended into one being.