While the food was being made, the Riders tended to their horses. Taking them to a nearby lake, getting them fed, and checking them over for any injuries due to the hard ride.

The dinner itself was a surprisingly friendly affair, with stories of Outerplains tribes and dragon clans. The only one who didn’t offer anything was Aidan. He listened. He laughed. But considering they were heading toward his family for help, he’d said little about them.

That’s when, after spending eight months with the dragon, Gaius realized he knew little about Aidan the Divine. Instead, Aidan was brilliant at getting others to talk. At getting others to reveal much about themselves. Even Gaius, who’d learned early on in his life to keep things to himself or between him and his sister, had told stories about life with Thracius and some of his kin.

Yet Aidan revealed very little. And if his brother Mì-runach knew anything about him, they didn’t reveal it either. They talked of their own lives, but never about Aidan’s. Nor did they ask questions.

Gaius didn’t think Aidan was hiding anything bad about himself, though. His silence made Gaius worry about how difficult it would be to deal with the Southland royals maintaining that area. And about his chances of getting in to see and successfully negotiate with the Western Mountain Dwarves.

But they had at least another day’s ride before they even reached that territory. And Gaius didn’t want to spend all his time obsessing over what might or might not happen. He preferred to leave the fretting and obsessing to his twin and Aunt Lætitia. They were really good at it and Gaius was pretty certain they sort of enjoyed it.

After the meal was finished and the chatter died down while weapons were checked and sharpened and readied, the Khoruzhaya siblings took first watch. The pair separated and disappeared into the trees like the ghosts the rescued priests and priestesses called these Riders.

Gaius spread out his bedroll and quickly went to sleep until he was lightly kicked in the shoulder.

He might normally have woken up, ready for battle, but he was certain if someone wanted to hurt him, they’d have kicked him somewhere with more potential impact. So Gaius turned over and saw Kachka motion to him before fading into the trees. He quickly got to his feet and followed, already getting hard at the mere thought of Kachka Shestakova. A reaction he hadn’t had since he’d first begun to have sex and gone through a time that his father had called “The wind blows and you get hard” phase of male dragon growth.

Gaius stopped when he reached a boulder where Kachka’s armor and furs were neatly stacked. Not only did he stop moving, his heart kind of stopped. But it started again at a hard, rapid pace as soon as Kachka moved out into his line of sight. She was completely naked, walking past him and over to another, bigger boulder.

His mouth dried up as he watched her turn and, using only her arms, lift herself onto that boulder and brace her hands behind her. Then, slowly—gods, so very slowly—she opened her legs for him, inviting him into that wet pussy that was practically calling his name.

Attempting to swallow, Gaius walked over to her, gawking while he pulled off his fur cape and chest armor and chain-mail shirt. He tossed his gauntlets away and placed his weapons off to the side. Still within arm’s reach, but he really hoped he wouldn’t need them for quite a bit.

He left his leggings on for now, needing them to keep himself from immediately burying his cock inside Kachka and coming within seconds. He didn’t want to do that. Not yet. He wanted this to last.

Gaius stepped close to the boulder until his thighs pressed against the cold stone. As he stared Kachka in the eyes, he slid his index fingers from the base of her feet, up her calves, and down her thighs. He gently stroked his fingers against her pussy, watching it tremble under his touch and become wetter by the second.

Kachka’s breathing got deeper, but she never turned from him. She didn’t look away. There was no teasing. No insecurity. No pretending sex was something she needed to be drawn into. That was the way of human women in his Empire and some of the Southlands. But not for the Daughters of the Steppes. When they wanted something or someone, they just made those intentions known.

There didn’t need to be games between them, and Gaius couldn’t believe how knowing that made him harder still.

He dragged his fingers, now wet from her, back up Kachka’s thighs until he reached her knees. Slowly, he pressed her legs down, making her even wider for him.

Letting out a breath, his mouth no longer dry but watering at the thought of tasting her, he brought his mouth down and pressed it against her, licking her long and deep, using his tongue to explore every bit of her. And the more he enjoyed himself, the wetter she became.

Kachka finally lay back against the boulder, pressing her hands deep into his hair, holding his head against her.

Her hips began to move, making circles as she tried to follow his tongue, her breath now coming out in hard pants, her toes gripping the rock beneath her.

“Yes,” she growled beneath him. “Yessss.”

Gaius lowered his hands a bit, so they rested on the inside of her thighs and he gripped the strong muscle there, squeezing and releasing. Her buttocks tightened as she raised her hips like he was already inside her.

He finally snaked his way to her clit, circling his tongue around it. When her legs began to shake, he held her down harder and pressed the tip of his tongue right against her clit, moving it while at the same time releasing his hot dragon breath against it.

The sound that came out of her then was a cross between a growl and a stifled cry, her fingers gripping his hair tighter, her legs struggling against his hands to close. To control the strength of the sensations flooding through her.

Gaius didn’t stop until he was sure he’d made her come, and her entire body was shaking beneath him, her cries muffled as she pressed her mouth against her shoulder.

When he felt certain he’d wrung her dry and he knew he could no longer wait, he pulled back long enough to shove his leggings down past his knees and yanked her down so that he could push his cock into her while lifting her up into his arms. He heard Kachka scream against his neck, and he wished he could say he was dragon enough to stop and make sure she was okay. . . .

Sadly, at the moment, he was anything but an etiquette-minded dragon.

The dragon’s big cock pushed inside her and Kachka let out a scream of satisfaction against his neck. All she’d been thinking about, all day, while riding on her oversized horse, was having this dragon’s cock inside her.

And now that she did, she was unbelievably happy about it. It felt good. Right. Like she didn’t think it should be anywhere else but inside her.

She pushed against his shoulder. “On your back,” she ordered.

Without a word, the dragon complied, taking her place on the boulder, stretching out beneath her.

Kachka placed her knees on either side of the dragon and rode him as she’d ridden her horse. Rocking against him, squeezing his cock each time she did. Gaius reached up, his hands almost around her breasts—exactly where they belonged—when a voice behind Kachka announced, “Hello, my fucking friends! I am on watch now and wanted to make sure you are doing okay!”

Snarling, filled with rage, Kachka reached down and grabbed the small axe that Gaius had placed next to his other weapons. Grasping it, she turned and flung it at Zoya Kolesova.