The Dragon Prince's Consort

Thirteen

As if waking from sleep, lifting his head as though it weighed more than his whole body, the Drass prince opened his eyes. The ghost of the first Valen she'd met, the charming, sensual one who'd treated her to a wonderful night of sex, wine and luxury, looked out from them and Fang's body heated. Fang stroked her thumb over his cheek. A sound escaped him, soft and yearning; it pulled at Fang's heart and created an odd heaviness in her belly, hollow like hunger but hotter.

"So, about those benefits..." she started, "I was thinking, you've been at this desk for a while–" She broke off as Valen stood, a full head taller even without his horns, and as her hand slid from his cheek he took it and pressed it to his mouth. The gesture, simple as it was, sent a ripple of heat through Fang's belly and she stroked his face again until he pulled her hand away. He kept hold of it though, and drew her through the bedchamber door, under the red velvet drape and into the warm room with its massive bed littered with its excess of soft pillows and quilted silk bedcovers.

At the bedside, Fang reached for the wide silk belt at her waist and Valen laid his fingers across her wrist. "I never got to unwrap my gift the other night."

She pulled her hands away and held them up. "Oh, pardon me, Your Highness."

Valen snorted, but smiled even as he shook his head. "Please don't, I have enough to remind me who I am." With a smooth pull, the silk sliding over itself easily, he undid the simple tie at Fang's waist and the belt fluttered to the floor. Before he opened her robe, though, Valen bent and took his time brushing a kiss over Fang's mouth. Unlike hers earlier the Dragon Prince's kiss was lighter, more controlled, and it left Fang wanting so much more. He ran his fingertips over the robe's lapel, embroidered with forest-green flowers, laying over her collar-bones. He traced it down to the point of the deep V just between her breasts. "Can I take this off?"

Fang nodded eagerly; her body trembled, electric currents running from her fingertips to her ears, lightning in her belly. I don't think he has any idea how sexy he is. Valen hooked his thumbs under the silk and pulled it apart, widening the V until the heavy fabric slipped from Fang's shoulders and he let it drop. He took a moment to look, running his eyes over her like flames consuming strips of paper. Suddenly he grinned. "What?"

"It seems my brother has the same eye for human women as he does for Drass." Valen untied his own belt with one hand, lifting Fang's chin with the other. "He'd throw himself off of a cliff if he knew it, but I think he picked you because you're strikingly beautiful." Warmth flushed Fang's skin, her cheeks and chest turning pink and her nipples drawing up tight. For the first time in years, she felt awkward and flustered. I'm thirty-three years old, damn it, I shouldn't be blushing like a teenager! Valen commented on it as he slipped off his robe, "Do all human women turn colors when someone tells them they're beautiful?"

Fang looked at the floor, her heart pounding in her ears. She welcomed the distraction of Valen's body, the thin coin-sized scales on his belly, face and sides as well as the thicker scutes and plates on his chest, back and arms, and the dark tattoo etched over his shoulder. She'd noticed it the other night, and wondered how they got the needle through tough Drass scales. "How long have you had that? And how does that even work for you?"

"This?" Valen looked down at it. "A few years. You have to use acid to get through the scales to the actual skin, then they use a needle and ink."

Fang shuddered. "Eyah, doesn't that hurt?" She sat on the side of the bed when he did, watching him roll down his leggings.

"The needle didn't, but the acid fucking burned." He glanced at her and smiled when she did; most Drass knew what fuck meant and had adopted it into their vocabulary pretty quickly. "I passed out a few times. After a while they stopped trying to wake me up and just let me lie there until it was done, probably easier that way."