Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
For a moment, I imagine myself trying to take that thick club inside me. He’s so big and I’m so small and tight—at least so my guilty, infrequent midnight explorations have taught me. Then I push the shocking thought away—I would never!
Valen is groaning steadily now.
“Fuck yeah, baby—keep stroking!” he says.
His hips are working, pumping his shaft into my fist, splashing water on the floor, but neither of us says anything about that. I don’t know why, but I like this, even though I know I shouldn’t. I like knowing that his most sensitive part is in my hand—that I’m the one making him groan and pump and beg. It makes me feel powerful in a way that even wearing the silver ring does not.
“Gonna come soon!” he groans.
He’s gripping the sides of the tub now, his knuckles white. His head is thrown back, showing his strong throat and the cruel silver collar. He is panting and all the muscles along his flat abdomen are bunched with tension.
I have to admit, I feel mesmerized—as though I can’t stop. I’m not sure what’s happening, but I have a feeling we’re building towards some kind of crescendo together. It’s the same sensation I had when he was biting me—like everything is coming to a peak somehow.
“Fuck, Princess, your little hands are so soft on me!” he groans. “Goddess-fucking-damnit, that feels so good! Stroke my cock—stroke it! Make me come for you.”
And that’s the exact moment when the door opens and Maud the innkeeper bustles in with a fully loaded tray.
17
IRENA
I stop stroking at once and stand quickly, putting myself between our innkeeper and the sight of Valen naked in the tub with his thighs splayed and his throbbing man parts on full display.
If she heard him moaning and groaning, she doesn’t say anything about it. Just narrows her eyes suspiciously as she places the heavy tray down on the small table on the other side of the hearth.
“I’ve brought you both breakfast,” she tells me. “I take it your man servant is feeling better?”
“Er, yes—much better.” I feel my cheeks getting hot with a blush, but I lift my chin, trying not to show how embarrassed I am.
“I brought him some clothes, too—seeing as how his got ate away by the sands.” She has a pair of trousers and a shirt over one arm, and she lays them over the back of one of the two chairs. “Hope they’ll fit. He’s a mighty big one, your man servant.” She raises her eyebrows knowingly at me, but I ignore her crass innuendo.
“Perhaps you could tell me a bit about Thornmere Forest?” I ask instead, lifting my own eyebrows. “I need to reach the center of it where the Sorceress lives.”
“Oh, is that where you’re headed? Off to seek a favor of the Lady of Thornmere, are you?” she says, raising her eyebrows again.
“So I am,” I say, though I have no intention of going through the great, dark forest we’re at the edge of. I’ll have Valen change to his dragon form and fly me to her stronghold instead.
But Maud’s next words destroy my plans.
“I’ve seen quite a few start out on that journey—though not many find their way back to us here at The Slaughtered Lamb,” she remarks.
“Oh? And why is that?” I ask.
“Because the only way to reach the Lady’s stronghold is to follow the path all the way through the forest,” she tells me. “No other way to get to her and yet, it seems that folks keep straying off the path. That’s a bad idea—there’s dark things in the forest—hungry things.”
“Wait—are you saying I can’t find her unless I follow the path to its end?” I ask, feeling dismayed.
Maud nods solemnly.
“Oh yes—for her fortress is hidden in amongst the trees. Some say it’s made to look like a tree—or she disguises it by magic—so no one who doesn’t follow the path can find it,” Maud informs me.
“But if it’s made to look like a tree, how can you tell it apart from every other tree?” I ask, thoroughly dismayed now.
“You’ll know it because it’s at the end of the path, of course,” Maud says, frowning. “How else? It’s like the old poem says—
“Follow the path to find her magic
Leave the path, the results are tragic
The Lady of Thornmere may grant your plea
If you stay on the path and find her tree.”
I want to ask if there’s any way to distinguish the right tree from the air—but that would be as good as admitting that Valen’s one of the Dragon People and I don’t think she’d like that. Most innkeepers are shy of hosting a male who can turn into a huge, fire-breathing beast. At least, they are in my land, where the Dragon People are our acknowledged enemies.
“Thank you for the food and hospitality and the clothes for my manservant,” I say instead, nodding at her. “Truly, I am indebted to you.”