He had never imagined she would feel like this. So hot and wet and, gods, so tight!
Ghleanna brought her hands up, stroked his jaw, his neck and Bram kissed her. He pulled her tighter against him until he was buried balls deep. Until he knew nothing would be getting between them anytime soon.
Ghleanna surprised herself with a squeak. A sound she’d never made before. But she’d been unable to help herself once Bram filled her. She shuddered around him, kissed him harder and nearly wept when he began to move inside her. His strokes long, powerful, and as always it seemed, in complete control.
Knowing that for once she didn’t have to do anything but enjoy the ride was a rather heady experience for her. All day, every day, Ghleanna planned and plotted and executed. She led three hundred dragons into battle whenever they were called by their queen and every decision she made affected the lives of those dragons. But for once . . . for once she didn’t have to do anything. She didn’t have to think, question, or kill. She just had to enjoy. And enjoy she did.
Bram still had tight hold of her h*ps when he began to take her harder, faster. And she didn’t mind. Did her wound hurt? A bit. But it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Nothing she wouldn’t risk to experience the best bloody f**k of her entire life.
She came hard, her body stiffening in Bram’s arms, her cry of pleasure caught in her throat. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let the cli**x rip through her. When she gave that last gasp, Bram laid her back out on the desk and then he was pounding inside her, taking her brutally until he came, his body shaking over hers, his head dropping between her br**sts.
Ghleanna stroked Bram’s hair and let out a soul-deep breath. They didn’t speak. Perhaps there was nothing to say. Instead, after a few minutes, Bram picked her up and stumbled to the bed, dropping them both onto it. He pressed his hand to her wound and she patted it. As she’d predicted, the wound had not opened. She had not been further damaged. She was fine. More than fine in fact.
He stayed inside her, managing to get off his leggings and boots without moving away from her.
Once Bram was completely nak*d, he began kissing her neck, her jaw, her mouth, and slowly, taking his time, he began to thrust inside her again. This time, she knew, would again be on his very controlled terms.
And she had no problem with that.
Chapter 14
Bram woke and he knew Ghleanna was already awake too. He knew because he felt her sucking his c*ck into her mouth. She was under the fur cover, but he opened his eyes and watched as the fur rose and fell while she manipulated his c*ck the way she manipulated her damn battle axes.
One hand reached back and he gripped the headboard. Gods, her mouth! Her beautiful, wonderful mouth. Everything about Ghleanna was wonderful, beautiful, amazing, perfect . . . absolutely perfect. Perfect, perfect—
“I have been waiting over an hour for—” The Empress of all Sea Dragons in this region halted to a stop after walking into Bram and Ghleanna’s room unannounced.
Helena stopped. Ghleanna, however . . .
Helena’s mouth opened, closed, opened again. Then she rolled her eyes and snapped, “When you two cretins are done molesting each other, we are waiting for the next draft of your truce proposal, peacemaker. And I don’t like to wait!”
With Ghleanna turning him inside out, all Bram could manage was a, “Uh-huh” along with a thumbs-up.
Disgusted, Helena spun on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
“Barbarians!” he heard Helena yell from the hallway. “Every Land Dweller is a bloody barbarian!”
If she said anything after that, Bram didn’t hear it. He couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the rushing wave in his head as his body bowed and he came in Ghleanna’s mouth. She sucked and licked until she’d milked him dry and then she crawled back out from under the covers, licked her lips, and grinned at him.
“Did I hear something?” she asked, cheeky cow that she was. “A little earlier?”
Bram caught hold of her face between his hands and held her in place while he kissed her, tasting himself on her lips, knowing she’d taken all of him in.
“You are such a naughty She-dragon,” he laughingly accused her while he pushed her back on the bed. “What am I going to do with such a naughty She-dragon?”
Bram had left her alone so he could finish that stupid truce. And feeling remarkably well, Ghleanna headed back to the soldier’s training room. When she entered, the soldiers stepped back, bowed their heads in respect.
“Captain Ghleanna.”
“Captain.”
“Lady Captain.”
Ghleanna grinned. Oh, yes. She had all sorts of things to keep her busy until Bram was done.
She picked up a battle axe, gave it a few practice swings, feeling complete with a weapon back in her hand, then asked the roomful of soldier dragons, “Who’s first then?”
While the senators argued and debated about issues they had absolutely no control over—why did he need to be here again?—Bram stared off across the chamber and wondered when this would all be over so he could get back to Ghleanna. Get back inside Ghleanna.
They’d only spent a few hours together in the big scheme of things, but gods! That female. She turned out to be everything he’d ever dreamed of. In bed and out. And not everyone f**ked well while human—but she did. A good thing since it was one of his favorite pastimes.
“So,” the Empress asked over the shouting of the senators, “you and the Cadwaladr?”
Bram looked up at the dais she sat upon and replied, “Aye.”
“Shocking. I thought you’d find someone more . . . feminine.”
She smirked and returned her attention to the arguing senators but Bram asked, “Why?”
“What?”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you think that?”
Her eyes widened a bit and the Empress stammered, “Well, you are so . . . and she is so . . . and the two of you together are so . . .” She gazed at Bram a moment, forced a smile and a laugh and said, “Oh, nothing!”
Bram had focused on the arguing senators again when one of the royal pages rushed into the chamber. He stood in front of the Empress until she motioned him closer. He whispered something in her ear. And, while Bram watched, her pale human skin turned bright red with rage. Helena jumped to her feet and rushed from the chamber, her entourage scrambling to catch up with her.
Bram gazed at the page. “I’m sensing this isn’t good.”
The page shook his head. “No, sir. It’s not.”
Ghleanna was sitting on the bed, trying to pull off her boots, when the door slammed open. She looked up, expecting a foolish Kleitos—but it was the Empress.
“You,” the royal snarled. “You did this.”
“I did what, my Lady?”
“Don’t lie to me, barbarian!”
Slowly Ghleanna stood, and she towered over the monarch. “I don’t appreciate being called a liar by you or anyone else, my Lady. I’m not one of your subjects.”
The Empress didn’t let Ghleanna’s size overwhelm her. Far from it. “But you could easily become one of my victims, Cadwaladr. You’re in my territory.”
“Aye. I am. But I have what you need, my Lady.”
“Ghleanna.”
Ghleanna heard Bram’s voice, but she didn’t move her gaze from Helena’s until the Empress sniffed and stormed out, taking her suffering entourage with her. Gods, to do nothing all day but follow that viper around. Like a form of hell.
Bram closed the door once they were alone and that’s when he asked, “Do you want us to die here, among the Fins? Is that your purpose, Captain? To get us both killed?”
“ No.”
“Ghleanna . . .”
“It all happened so fast,” she explained. “One minute I was showing them how to fight with a battle axe and the next”—she shrugged—“revolution.”
Bram walked over to the bed and sat down. “Don’t use that word. Not if you want us to live through the night.”
Ghleanna sat on the edge of the bed. “The soldiers have no representation in her court. No one watching out for them. And no say in decisions that affect them directly. How is that fair?”
“Fair? Captain, we are hundreds and hundreds of miles under the ocean and at the whim of a dictator.”
“A dictator not nearly as powerful as her father. A dictator who needs her army, who needs our queen. A dictator whose tiny head I could easily crush between my big, meaty hands.” She smiled. “A dictator who needs you. And now . . . she needs me.”
“But why? Why do you want her to need you?”
Ghleanna leaned in, kissed Bram once, twice. “My reasons are my own.” She kissed him again. “But for now”—another kiss—“we’re going to let her stew.” And another.
“And while she’s stewing whatever will we do to fill the time?”
Ghleanna climbed into Bram’s lap, facing him. She put her arms around his shoulders and said, “Fucking, my Lord. We’ll be f**king.”
“Well . . . if we must.”
Laughing, Ghleanna nipped his throat. “We must, my Lord. We must.”
Chapter 15
Bram held Ghleanna’s hips, pulling her in tighter, gripping her hard with his hands while she gripped him hard with her p**sy.
Sweating and gasping, the pair rolled, Bram on top once again.
He dragged his tongue along the new scar Ghleanna had where the sword had torn through scale and flesh and bone.
Ghleanna’s legs wrapped around his hips, her head thrown back and Bram buried himself inside her body again and again.
She groaned, loud and long, her body shaking beneath his as she came hard, his name a whisper on her lips.
Bram, grateful she’d cli**xed because he was unsure he could hold on much longer, held Ghleanna against him as he came hard inside her.
Blindly, he lifted his head from her neck and sought her mouth, found it. They kissed, their tongues sliding, teasing, tasting—enjoying. And they’d been enjoying each other for hours.
Too bad nothing wonderful could last forever.
The bedroom door flew open.
“Are you two still at it?” the Empress snarled. “My empire is falling apart and you two are swallowing each other’s tongues—and other body parts?”
Bram pulled out of the kiss and asked, “Is there a problem, Empress?”
“You damn well know there’s a problem. She”—and the Empress pointed right at Ghleanna—“has turned my soldiers against me. Her death is mine for the betrayal.”
Bram kindly suggested, “It seems a foolhardy move since she is the only one who currently has control of your soldiers, my Lady.”
“I should have killed her when I had the chance.”
“But it’s too late for that now. We have to deal with what we have. Here. At this moment.”
Pointing at the door, the Empress ordered, “Get out, peacemaker.”
“Empress, I don’t think it’s—”