Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Midsummer Again

I kissed him first.

I want that said plainly, because I spent six years letting the world believe he took me.

I took the front of his sooty shirt in both fists and pulled his mouth down to mine.

He made a rough sound against my lips, and his hands came up and cupped my face, black with ash.

"Linnea," he said into the kiss. "I'm not stopping."

"Shut up," I said, "and close the door."

He kicked it shut behind him.

He backed me across the little room until my spine met the wall beside the window.

His mouth was hot, hotter than a man's has any right to be.

It tasted of smoke and iron, and it was exactly as I remembered it.

I hated that I remembered.

I bit his lower lip, hard, for the six years.

He growled, a deep sound that I felt in my own ribs, and he lifted me off the floor.

I wrapped my legs around his waist.

"My tower," he said. "Not here. Posy."

"Odo's at her door. He promised."

"Then hold on."

He carried me up a spiral stair with my face buried in his neck, kissing the pulse there.

His skin burned against my mouth.

I could feel his heart slamming through his shirt, and it was as fast as mine.

His chamber was black stone and firelight, with a bed hung in dark red velvet.

He set me on the edge of it and stood between my knees with his hands on my thighs.

For a moment neither of us moved.

His eyes had gone completely gold.

"I'm going to ruin this dress," he said hoarsely.

"It's the only one I own."

"I'll buy you a hundred."

"Then do it."

The laces down the front gave way in his big hands, and the fabric parted to my navel.

I wore nothing under it but a linen shift that had been washed too many times.

He pushed it off my shoulders and looked at me.

I am a size twelve with a soft belly and a mother's hips.

I have a scar on my ribs from a burst kettle, and I did not cover any of it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Deny Me, Dragon King from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.