Yes, they did, but he understood Éibhear’s desire to not get into a fight on such a lovely night as this.

Celyn picked up his empty chalice and went in search of more wine. But he’d barely passed the back door when a hand clamped down on his arm and dragged him down the hall.

“Elina?”

“I did not know you would spend all night dawdling with your family. You see them all day and night anyway.”

“But the feast isn’t over.”

She grabbed the chalice from his hand and, when they passed the kitchens, she tossed it to one of the servants, who had to dive to catch it since her aim . . . still a little off.

The woman, whose Rider strength continued to surprise him, pulled him out one of the back doors, past the nearly finished and ominous-looking tower, and into the woods until they reached a small creek. That’s when Elina caught hold of Celyn by his chain-mail shirt, spun him around, and pushed his back against a tree.

“I have need of you to lick my cunt,” she told him as she yanked off her boots and wiggled out of the leather leggings he’d chosen for her to wear this evening. “Think you can manage that, Dolt?”

“If you promise to wrap that sweet mouth around my cock later.”

“Daughters of Steppes do not make deals with men.”

“I am not a man, so you’ll make a deal with me. That is if you want my tongue licking out your pussy until you scream, you will.”

Naked from the waist down, Elina nodded. “Fine, but you must never tell.”

Chuckling, Celyn switched places with her, pressing her back into the tree. “Just shut up and spread your legs, Rider. I have work to do.”

Elina watched the big dragon in his human form drop to his knees in front of her. He lifted her leg and placed it over his shoulder, then eased his hands up until they cupped her ass.

“You’ll have to muffle your screams,” he warned her. “We don’t want to attract a crowd, now do we?”

Elina might have had a witty comeback to that, but it disappeared when Celyn pressed his mouth to her cunt and began to make long, delicious strokes over her with his tongue.

She dropped her head back against the tree and stared up through the branches at the sky above. Her world had changed so much in just a few days, but Elina couldn’t say for a second that she was unhappy. That she felt out of place or confused or lonely. How could she say any of that when, at least at this moment, she had Celyn the Charming circling her clit with the tip of his tongue? Slowly, too. Over and over again, while his fingers squeezed the cheeks of her ass.

Her breath shortened, her thigh muscles tightened. She laid her hand on the top of his head. She wanted him to go faster, to finish her off. But he refused. He took his time, moving from her clit to her cunt, sliding his tongue inside like a cock. He was playing with her in a way she wasn’t used to but was growing to love.

It felt like hours of torment as he took his time. It was so much that even though the Southland evening was quite cool, she was sweating, her hips moving as Elina tried to catch the elusive orgasm that Celyn kept just out of reach.

Her hand tightened in his hair, and she bit her lip to keep from snarling at him.

Then—finally!—he caught her clit between his lips and slid two fingers inside her cunt. He suckled her, his tongue managing to also tease at the same time. It was magnificent.

She came, like a wave crashing over her, her gasps of pleasure filling the air as her body shuddered and her cunt spasmed around his rough fingers. She managed not to cry out, but it wasn’t easy.

Another wave began to crash, but before it could finish, Celyn stopped. Elina was about to order him back to work when he stood, kept her left leg up so that it pressed against his chest, and thrust his cock inside her.

He thankfully kissed her at the same time, so that her scream of pleasure and that little bit of pain was lost inside his mouth.

She tasted herself on his lips and tongue, felt her stickiness as his hand pinned her arms above her head.

He was ruthless, the way he fucked her. Ruthless and hard and unrelenting. What every Daughter of the Steppes demanded of a husband.

Elina’s eye opened in shock and some panic. She’d just thought of Celyn as a husband. Her husband. The thought frightened her and she tried to pull away, but his grip just tightened and his thrusts became harder still.

The second wave that had started earlier finally crashed over her. The pleasure of what Celyn was doing to her washed away any fear she had.

She had no idea how he felt, and couldn’t really care about it at this moment as she gave up temporary control of her body to him.

And he took that control, fucking her hard until he’d ripped two more orgasms from her. Then, and only then, did he allow himself to come inside her, his entire body shuddering with the release as he held her tight.

When he was done, he gently lowered her left leg and brushed her hair from her face. He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her nose.

Then he removed her eye patch and kissed her scars and the lid that no longer had an eye behind it. They were soft, sweet kisses, and told Elina all she needed to know.

She pushed Celyn back, both of them gasping as his cock slipped out of her. She immediately noticed that, as always, he was still hard. A “dragon thing” he’d called it. A thing that Elina could easily live with.

She took his hand and led him toward the sound of moving water.

“What are we doing?” he asked.

She stopped, smiled up at him. “I have a cock to wash,” she said, going up on her toes to kiss his jaw and cheek. Then she whispered against his ear, “With my mouth.”