Quinn’s mouth landed on my nipple and sucked it in deeply. He pulled twice with his lips before releasing.
I arched off the bed, grabbing onto Ryan’s thick arm at my hip with one hand. I reached my other hand out and latched onto Quinn’s hair.
“Yes! Please,” I pleaded. Quinn put my other nipple between his teeth.
Ryan unsealed his mouth from my mound and slid a thick finger inside me. “Are you a naughty little princess, Bloss? Tell me,” he murmured.
I was moving, nearly incoherent with pleasure as I responded. “Yes. Yes. I’m a naughty little princess.”
“I’m gonna make you wear your crown and nothing else when I rut you,” Ryan said before bringing his teeth to drag over my hip bone. He started curling his fingers faster inside of me.
It was silk and fire and every sensation at once rocketing through my body.
Quinn pulled his mouth off my breast and came up for a kiss, swallowing my moans. He put his hands over my breasts, squeezing my nipple between his pointer and middle fingers. An amazing hot pulse of pleasure shot up my spine. My skull went hollow.
“You’re amazing,” I ripped my mouth away from Quinn and yelled out as I started to reach that peak.
But Ryan’s hand was yanked away. Then Quinn was thrown across the bed, landing flat on his back next to me, his dick tenting his pants skyward.
Declan leaned over me.
“What the hell? I said not until we’re married.”
Quinn responded silently.
Declan just snorted in reply. He snapped at Ryan. “You said you’d stop him.”
Ryan shrugged. “Look at her. Who could say no if they walked in and saw her spread-eagled, naked, moaning?”
Declan groaned but shook his head. “Let’s go, Bloss.”
He led me toward the dressing room, where he summoned a maid. Declan insisted on staying with me as my hair was done. When I was ready for the day, he grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall.
“Why are you so mad?”
“Because, we’re a team. We’re about to be a family. And we need to damn well act like one. Which means being considerate outranks being horny.”
I nodded. “You’re right.”
But then, the strangest sensation came over me. A very naughty thought rose in my chest like a bubble. The perfect revenge against Quinn and all of his hallucinations dawned on me. “But I’m not certain Quinn can help himself.”
“Well, he’ll have to!”
“You know, Declan, what might be fun … is if we tease Quinn a little.”
Declan cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
I pushed Declan into an alcove. “Don’t you think he deserves a bit of his own medicine? Shouldn’t we show him just how thoughtless he’s being?”
“What do you mean?”
“Quick. Picture me naked. Picture yourself running your hands all over me. Picture cupping my breasts. Squeezing them. Suck my nipple into your mouth!”
“What—”
“Just picture it!” I covered Declan’s eyes with my hand. Then I continued, “You unbuckle your belt. Drop your pants. Turn me to face the wall. Stare down at my naked ass. Do you like it, Declan? You like my ass.” I closed my eyes so I could better imagine it. “You kiss my neck and rub your hand along my mound. And then you line yourself up—”
What the sarding hell are you doing? Quinn burst into the alcove where Declan and I stood, fully clothed.
I opened my eyes and grinned. “Quinn-bear. Do you remember all those times you embarrassed me? When I promised you I’d get revenge?”
Quinn’s gaze roamed over a fully clothed Declan and me. His eyes narrowed.
Bitch.
I grinned.
Watching him stomp off was the highlight of my morning.
Chapter Nineteen
The next few days were a blur of preparation for Abbas’ visit.
First, I sat through lecture after lecture on Cheryn. The sultan, Raj, and his first-born son were both near immortal. The sultan was over a thousand years old and had wished himself an endless supply of wealth. So, despite Cheryn’s northern location, full of mountains and few resources, the palace itself was grand, and the royal family lived in luxury. Abbas was half-djinn; he had superior speed, could smell fear, and supposedly half-djinn could grant three wishes in their long lives.
“Has he already granted any?” I’d asked.
“No one knows,” Declan responded.
After we’d gone over the schedule, and Cheryn’s traditional greetings, and some basic arrangements for the suitor’s ball held a few days after Abbas settled in, I was finally free to do what I wanted to do.
I cornered Avia in her chambers when she was being fitted for dresses; I reamed her for scandalously consorting late at night with an ambassador’s son.
“Well, I like him!”
“That’s wonderful, but you can’t like him until we’ve formally rejected Abbas’ suit and the one coming from Macedon. So until then—”
“You got Connor in your contingent of knights, why can’t I—”
“You can. You most likely will,” I growled. “If you’ll just wait long enough. Sedara and Cheryn are chomping at the bit to get at one another. By the time you’re of age, this crown and whatever knights you choose—”
Avia covered my lips with her hand. “I didn’t mean it.” Her eyes were glossy.
I sighed and pulled her in for a hug. “I know. But that’s the reality. You probably can choose him. If you wish. But you have to be smart, Squack. You can’t make enemies of two countries before you take the throne.”
“I said I took it back. I don’t want him or the throne.”
I huffed. “Let’s move on from this, shall we? I love the golden gown. It’s perfect.”
Avia grumbled and stared at herself in the looking glass. “I wish I didn’t have to wear it for a stranger.”
“I know.”
“He probably has a snaggle tooth and horrid breath.”
“That’s true.”
Avia pulled a pin out of her dress and threw it at me. “You’re not supposed to agree! You’re supposed to reassure me.”
I shrugged. “Sorry. Connor’s the one who’s good at that.”
She sighed. “You’re right. How are the two of you?”
“Same.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
We were sharing a sisterly moment, that Ryan was studiously trying to ignore, when Declan barged in. “Did you hear?”
Everyone turned to face him. He shut the door and looked around surreptitiously. “Wyle tested the water and the land samples you brought back. Neither are contaminated with sulfur or sulfate salts. That’s not what’s killing the cattle. It’s dragon’s breath.”
The air was sucked out of the room.
Everyone became a statue.
“The beast …” I whispered. “The one I heard they’re sending after Avia …”
This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening, I told myself.
What’s happening?
I didn’t bother to respond to Quinn as I made my way to the bed and sat. Memories swirled through my head. Memories of shadows cast by huge wings. Of air so hot it hurt to walk outside. I gulped. Lewart, my birth father, ran through my thoughts. The hazel eyes I’d inherited had been his.
Sard. Sard. Sard.
Avia came to clutch at my hand. “It’s not going to happen, Bloss. It’s not going to happen to you.”
“What’s not going to happen?”
Avia’s mouth struggled with the geas. I’m not sure how she did it, but she managed to say, “Knight Lewart.”
Ryan and Declan exchanged a glance.
“Your father?” Declan looked at me.
I nodded.
“He passed during the last Fire War,” Ryan stated.
Again, I nodded.
“He and his team were cut down—”
I started to shake my head but the geas froze me.
Luckily Declan saw. “They weren’t cut down?” He turned to Ryan. “Tell me everything you know about what happened. She can’t talk again. Must be related to her magic.”
“Knight Lewart was the dragon-charmer. That’s what they called him. He could tame the wild beasts. It’s why everyone believed it when Queen Gela said Bloss had gone dragon-hunting. She’s his birth daughter. Everyone assumed she could charm the beasts as well.”
There was a long, pregnant pause.
Declan turned to stare me in the eyes. “Did you inherit your father’s power, Bloss?”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t breathe. Beside me, it seemed Avia’s body was locked just as tight.
Declan turned back to Ryan. “Tell me how he died.”
“He and his contingent were after one of the last dragons. In the mountains that border Cheryn. They’d traced a black flame creature there. But they were attacked. Some group, thought to be from Gitmore, cut them down. Hacked them to pieces with swords.”
Declan bit his lip. “And the dragon?”
Ryan shrugged. “No one knows.”
Declan turned and stared from me to Avia, and back again. “Avia knows,” he told Ryan. “Avia and the Queen.”