Fragile Beings: The New Protectorate Stories: Volume One by Abigail Kelly

Author:Abigail Kelly [Kelly, Abigail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Artem loved watching the way Paloma’s eyes widened when he laid her back in the nest. “Oh,” she breathed, glancing around like she was seeing the pillows and blankets and huge, dragon-grade mattress for the first time. “It’s so soft!”

He smiled crookedly down at her. “That’s the point. A nest should be the most comfortable place in the dwelling, so a mate never wants to leave it. Why do you think I kept trying to get you to feel the blankets?”

Paloma flushed. Her skin was a lovely reddish gold, and when she blushed it took on a luminous quality that made him sigh with pleasure. Like the sun shining through silk. He fleetingly hoped that their offspring would take her color, but he knew it was unlikely. Dragon genes were dominant in the extreme. No doubt their babies would take on the flashy colors of his line. Adapted to impress even at a glance, dragons were notoriously colorful.

“I thought you just really liked blankets,” she replied, wiggling a little. “I get it now.”

Artem dipped his head to smile against the curve of her naked shoulder. “So you’ll stay in the nest now? Always?”

A shadow passed over her expression. “Artem… As much as I want to, I’m not sure this is going to work.”

Undeterred, he skated one hand up her naked leg, gently urging it to bend up and to the side as he settled into the cradle of her thighs. His wings flexed outward once, stretching aching muscles, before they curled inward again, sealing them both in a comforting semi-darkness. “Why not?”

He pressed a soft kiss to the column of her throat and listened to her answer turn into a sigh. “Because we don’t even know each other.”

“Then let’s get to know one another.” He skimmed his hand up her thigh, tracing the curve of her side and upward, until he could curl his fingers around her jaw. Lifting his head to meet her searching gaze, he said, “I am Artem Aždaja, son of Constantin Aždaja and Valerie Sundström, first cousin to the Isand of the Draakonriik. I have a little sister named Alexandra, who is ten years my junior and a huge pain in my ass.”

Artem lowered his head to slide his lips over the swell of her cheekbone, the fringe of her lashes, the smooth plane of her brow. “I went to school for business and economics, but I ended up serving in the ’Riik air force immediately after school. I left fifteen years ago to help Taevas run the trade arm of the treasury.” He stopped for a moment to press his lips against hers. Slowly, with all the reverence he felt for the place she now held in his life, he lavished her with one kiss after another.

Gods, but he would never get used to the taste of her: the tart bite of orange with smoky vanilla, layers of rich flavor that made him want to run his tongue over every inch of her.

When she

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