Once again, I find myself grateful for our size difference because it makes it easy not to meet his gaze while I tell the truth. “No,” I whisper. “It wasn’t too much.” And then, because he asked, I can’t help but do the same. “Was I too much?”
Sol trails a single claw down my spine. “Never.” He eases me off his cock and moves me up until our faces are even, erasing my ability to hide from him. His dark eyes are oh so serious as he studies me. “Bedroom games are what they are.” He drags one giant thumb along the underside of one breast. “I promised I won’t remove the pendant, and I won’t. But if you want to play pretend breeding games in the bedroom? I am more than happy to.” He circles my nipple with a claw, the touch featherlight. “Or the study. Or the library. If you need me to lead this, Briar, that I am all too happy to play with you.” He pauses. “At least as long as you want it.”
I swallow hard. “And if I want to stop?”
“Then we will stop.”
Again, I can’t help thinking that Sol is too good to be true. But then, he’s not, is he? No matter how much I’m starting to enjoy my time with him, that time has an end date in mind. Seven years. The thought almost makes me laugh. I haven’t even been here seven days, and I barely recognize myself. What will it be like in a few months? In a few years?
I thought for certain Sol wouldn’t have a chance to convince me to do what he wants, but I feel like another person when I’m having sex with him. Who will I be if we keep on like this?
Chapter 14
Briar
Sol palms me between my thighs. “Are you sore?”
“A little.” Possibly more than a little. He’s not small, and he wasn’t overly gentle toward the end. I try to close my legs, and I flinch. “Okay, yes. Very.”
He does that really cute nuzzling thing along my jaw, and then he’s up and moving. “Stay there.”
I couldn’t move if I wanted to. My legs won’t stop shaking, and the little tremors work north through my body. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s disconcerting in the extreme to have lost control of my limbs.
Sex has never been like this before.
I press my hand to my mouth to stifle a laugh. Of course, it’s never been like this before. I just had sex with a dragon. Except it’s more than that. Sol put my pleasure first. He didn’t use my loss of control to demean me. I’m pretty sure he could call me a dirty little slut, and I’d enjoy it because from him, it would sound like a compliment the same way bride does. I don’t understand it, but I’m too floaty to question it.
He returns and pauses at the edge of the bed, staring down at me. It’s then that I realize his penises are gone. I stare hard at his hips. Did the scales there split earlier? I can’t remember. I struggle up onto my elbows, but that’s about all I’m capable of right now. Better to look at his face than wonder where his cocks have gone. Safer, maybe. “I can’t read your expression. What are you thinking?”
He hesitates but finally gives himself a shake. “I’m thinking that you’re mine, Briar Rose.”
Okay, maybe not safer. I tense, waiting for the instinctive denial. I know what it is to be with a partner who thinks they can claim me as a possession instead of a person. It…doesn’t come. Still, I lift my chin. “I’m mine, Sol.”
“Yes.” He bends down and scoops me into his arms. “But you’re also mine.” He turns and carries me into the bathroom. The oversized tub is full of steaming water, and Sol just walks right into it. Suddenly, it’s not oversized at all. I tense, but he settles back against the edge and bands a forearm across my waist. “Relax. The hot water will help with soreness.”
The endorphins from the multiple orgasms are starting to wear off. Soreness might be the understatement of the century. Every muscle hurts as if I’ve run a marathon, but I don’t think marathon runners have a throbbing between their legs. Then again, what do I know?
I gingerly brush my fingers to the little cuts that line my lower stomach. I can feel a matching set on my ass. “You bit me.”
He hisses out something resembling a laugh. “If I truly bit you, I don’t think you’d survive it.”
“Probably not.” I relax back against him, letting the water buoy me even as Sol holds me steady. “What do you do for fun, Sol? When you’re not running this territory or visiting Azazel to fuck his humans?”