Flint followed the Empress through the giant labyrinthine caverns of blue stone lit with red fire into her private chambers.
He felt like he was going to throw up.
Dragon-sized curved silver benches, tables carved from solid blocks of gemstone, and rotating holographs of the Empire’s planets adorned the open suite. The stark efficiency of the dragon aesthetic had banished any soft furnishings or human luxuries. Through one curved doorway, the bed chamber was carved into polished stone.
He swallowed.
Security rested his trunk of wonders at the doorway and, on the Empress’s signal, retreated from the chambers.
The Empress turned to Flint, waiting.
She had an open face and teasing readiness to smile, like she was waiting to hear the punchline of a joke. A heart-shaped face with soft, slightly iridescent black skin and dewy soft, kissable lips made his chest ache. She was so beautiful. A little older than him and so strong, so vital, and she had made it to the highest level of society all on her own power.
The Empress tilted her head. “Are you stunned?”
He lifted a palm in surrender. “I need a moment to catch my breath.”
Her features sobered. “You’re unwell?”
He shook his head. “It’s a human phrase, but it has never been so apt. You are so beautiful you take my breath away.”
Her smile returned. She tugged at the dress. “It is strange being in this form, isn’t it? But if it impacts your breathing…”
She flicked out a claw and sliced down the middle of her silk gown turning the shimmering metallic fabric into a robe and placing her nude feminine body on display.
“Better?”
His eyes filled with her deep gray skin, irises glimmering with a rich silver sheen; the soft bounce of silver streaks in her hair cascading over her lush hourglass figure. Full breasts topped with silver nipples, a dip that would be perfect to rest his hands, and fuller hips framed the shimmering dark curls at her feminine vee. The metallic fabric framed her body like a picture, and his brain short-circuited as the heat flowed lower to pool in his suddenly hard cock.
She tilted her head again. “No?”
“I…ah…was deciding the order in which to entertain you.” He turned abruptly and cracked the trunk, staring at the inventory for several long seconds.
He had a plan to seduce the Empress.
A brilliant plan.
The only problem was that he couldn’t remember any of it.
Flint unfolded different compartments, spreading the trunk open to unveil wardrobes and freezers, cabinets and furnishings.
He pulled out the wine cooler, selected a sweet white, uncorked it with a practiced claw, and poured it into two glasses, talking as he turned. “This white was fermented on a small island in the rain shadow of…”
The Empress stood right behind him, her generous breasts almost brushing his bicep. “Oh?”
“…a, uh, city.” He handed her the glass and then, to disguise the shaking of the liquid in his own, he tapped her rim with his. “Humans do this in celebration while they say cheers.”
“Cheers.” She sipped the sweet wine, then licked her lush lips. “It is an unusual flavor. Humans drink this often?”
“When they wish to relax, but of course dragons don’t feel any effects.”
“I can find it relaxing.” Her irises glowed. She drained the glass then returned it to him with a small, knowing smile. “Next?”
“These squares are a small, rich morsel called chocolate. While there are hundreds of types, there are three main varieties: white, milk, and dark…”
She closed her eyes and accepted the chocolate. Her lips closed over the dark square.
Soft wetness and a hint of teeth teased his fingertips.
“Mm.”
Her throaty sound of approval made a little tug in his groin. Heat flow into his cock.
She opened her eyes. Her skin seemed to glow and silver shimmered. “It’s delicious.”
“I…ah…have another…”
She stopped him by placing her index finger on his wrist. His dusting of dark hair contrasted with her smoothness. “I don’t need another taste of Earth food.”
The Empress stepped closer and tilted up her lips.
A wave of sensuality washed over him. His heart hammered in his chest.
“I want a taste of you.”
He breathed in her female scent, hard like the planet, fresh as the desert after a quenching rain. A distant but never forgotten memory of her like this stirred in his belly.
He sucked in a breath and committed, lowering his lips to cover hers.
She tasted like the wine’s sweetness and the chocolate’s richness, and as a male with a plan for everything, those two flavors slipped into his veins like fire and torched all of his plans to ash. He was blank in her presence, existing in this moment. She was female, and he was male, and there was no more.
She clung to his forearms and parted her lips with a soft murmur of acceptance.
He deepened the kiss, stroking her lips and teeth, plumbing the depths of her welcoming mouth. Her soft noises urged him on, to touch her sacred body, clench her, bury his cock in her feminine channel, claim her for all time.
Flint was a dragon with nothing to offer her but his mind, and in her presence, he lost even that.
The Empress broke the kiss first, leaving him bereft and aching with needful heat.
She licked her lips, her irises sparkling, and pulled him toward the carved sleeping den. “You’ve impressed me so far. And you do nothing by half measures. What other delights do you have for me in my bed chamber?”
Reality doused him like cold water.
He had no delights planned.
Correction. He had plenty of delights planned with meticulous detail, but the moment he yielded to her soft touch and sweet murmurs, he thought of nothing but himself. His wants, his hunger, his desire.
And she deserved so much more.
He stopped her. “Sheer rock isn’t comfortable in human form. Wait here.”
She released his forearms.
He unpacked and spread the fluffiest soft blankets and pillows across the carved chamber. She rested her shoulder against the outer wall, watching him with a knowing half-smile. He puffed the last blanket, stood, and made a sweeping gesture for her to enter.
She lay across the satins, velours, and silks.
“Have you ever experienced such softness?” he asked.
She closed her eyes and shivered. “Never.”
Her nude body twisted to display rounded thighs, powerful calves, shapely feet. He craved to skim his hands over her soft skin from her toes up to her hips and follow with kisses, and maybe even teeth.
He swallowed. Focus. “I have another gift just for you. Something that no dragon in the Empire has ever possessed.”
“Later.” She gestured for him to approach. “What is this?”
“Silk.” He dropped to his knees at a safe distance.
“Mm. It feels like a mystical substance.” She patted the bedding beside her. “Why don’t we have it in the Empire?”
“The treaty.” He eased on one elbow, lying flat but keeping a mound of fluff between their bodies. “Silk is produced from a kind of a worm on Earth. The treaty restricts us from over-exporting Earth resources and causing them shortages. We must build growing facilities off-planet, and the worms require the correct conditions to spin the cocoon which…”
She twirled locks of his dark hair between her fingers.
He broke off awkwardly. “I’m boring you with the mating habits of Earth worms.”
Her gaze traced down to his mouth again, and she smiled. “I was listening.”
“If it’s you, I’m never sure.”
“You always said that, but of all the Scholars who tutored me, I never found you boring, Flint.”
His name on her lips flushed heat into his cock.
And suddenly they were back five years ago in her father’s house. She’d been a tempestuous female who pretended to need tutoring, and he’d been the much younger—but sure he was too mature for her—tutor who’d burned down his chances of advancement within the Scholars for heretical thinking. Their spark-fueled first meeting had mellowed into mutual respect and then something more.
He’d once asked why she, a smart dragon and heir to the Empire, settled for the small role her father had assigned her. Why not do something more important with her life?
Five years later, they met once more in the Palace bed chambers. He was still a disgraced Scholar. But her?
“A lot has changed,” he murmured. “My Empress.”
“All according to your plan. And it’s Galena to you. Always Galena.”
“Galena,” he repeated. She nuzzled him, and this time, he fully sank into her kiss.
I hope you enjoyed this! I’m posting the first four chapters of Onyx Dragons: Flint leading up to its release into Kindle Unlimited on May 19, 2020.