Page 67 of Guardian's Dilemma

We were both panting by then, our bodies starting to shine with a new layer of sweat. I’d never felt anything like it. Pleasure began to pulse inside me, filling me as I stroked my hand up and down our dicks. We were both so hard and close.

“Fuck, Glimmer, yes.” He gave a shout and I felt the burst of hot come on my fingers, the burn of it on my sensitive dick, smelled the salty tang of it blended with my mate’s arousal and pleasure, and I came hard across his abs, thrusting through my own fist and crying out his name.

By the time I came down from my high, our come was cold and Kingsley was half asleep beneath me.

I wanted to lay there forever, with my mate as my pillow and his softening dick in my hand.

That would get sticky and itchy, though. More than anything, I needed to take care of Kingsley. So I forced my legs to work and eased myself off his body, off the bed and into the small bathroom.

I wiped him down and then saw to myself and came back into the bedroom to find him looking at me, his eyelids fluttering as though he were struggling to stay awake.

“Come here,” he said.

I was across to him in an instant, sliding in beside him where he indicated. My head was resting on his shoulder and he had one arm around me. I wrapped my arm around him, and only just had time to think how nice it was, to hold my mate close to me, and be held, and then I was asleep.

Chapter 24: Kingsley

We spent days in the same routine. Glimmer would leave early in the morning and fly back to his clan’s territory to check on everyone, to inspect the boundary spells and begin to excavate the clan vault. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I had spent so long being told that dragons coveted their gold more than anything that I couldn’t shake the feeling that Glimmer was digging down to get to his family’s stash of gold.

I’d spend the day training, experimenting with using my magic now that I could no longer channel it through my armour, and slowly I felt I was getting stronger. Faster.

Then, in the evening, Glimmer would swoop into our garden and I’d feel his magic pressing against the protections I’d layered up around the place. I’d hurry outside to see him.

It was difficult to think of excuses to do that, but I really wanted to see him in his dragon form. He was magnificent. When I’d thought all dragons were evil, I’d hated them on principle. They’d been ugly to me because they killed and hurt innocent people. Now that I knew that wasn’t the case (at least for Glimmer), I could admire the sheer beauty of his form.

Whether he liked to stay in his dragon form after flying or whether he was giving me time to admire him, I was never sure. He always waited a few minutes before shifting back, though, and I saw his scales shimmer in the evening light, touched his long muzzle and stroked my hands along his neck.

A little part of me wanted to ride him again, but I didn’t dare to ask. I felt I was falling into something and it was too big and too fast, and that scared me. So I kept quiet.

Once Glimmer returned, we’d spar for a while, testing each other, showing each other our training. We fought outside in the cool evening until we were sweating with the effort and then we’d head inside and shower off.

Every day, I wanted to ask Glimmer to come into the shower with me. Every day I resisted.

He always made me go first and I always waited naked for him on the bed. When we were sated and clean, we’d lay together, touching, and I learned the feel of him. His skin was so soft and flawless that I couldn’t help but run my hands over it, touching him everywhere. He let me, a satisfied expression on his face every time I did something like that; touched him or pressed my nose to his neck to smell him or wrapped myself around him tightly.

It had been ten days since we’d arrived at the cottage, and I still didn’t know what we’d do long-term. It was starting to nag at the back of my mind all day and I couldn’t block it out. This happy little bubble we’d created couldn’t last and I didn’t know what we’d do when it burst.

I’d long ago accepted that I was going to live a life of danger. That was whatridiredid. We tracked and fought dragons, some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth. Of course we were in danger, almost every day of our lives. That was why so much of our training was about hiding, concealing ourselves, mastering defensive spells.

I was pretty confident that I could survive, even without my coven.

No, surviving wasn’t what worried me. It was the thought of doing it alone.

And I didn’t mean without my coven, either.

More than anything, I was frightened of losing Glimmer.

“What’s the matter?” he asked me. I looked down at him. His head was resting on my chest, right above my heart. I had grown used to the feel of him there. I found it difficult to sleep now without him laying across me. When he got up early in the morning, my body felt cold and I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.

“Nothing’s the matter,” I lied. “Are you comfortable?”

He lifted his head just enough to meet my eyes. “Yes. I like resting my head on your pecks. You’re strong.”

He always said the word ‘strong’ in a particular way that I couldn’t mimic. It was filled with admiration. I was proud to have such a strong body, even though I’d always honed my muscles for fighting before, never just to look good.

He dropped his head back onto my chest. I tightened my arms around him and ran one hand up and down the long planes of his back. For a fighter, his skin was so flawless. Totally unmarked. It never ceased to amaze me.

“Do you mind me laying on you like this?”

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