Okay, now her body was igniting. Vyr shoved her shirt up over her head and ripped her bra off. Ripped it, not unfastened. His hands were firm and steady as he sat up and pulled her with him. He sat back and yanked his shirt over his head. “Skin. I want to feel your skin,” he demanded.
Oh God, she’d never liked being told what to do, but hell yes to Vyr taking control. She kicked out of her shoes and shimmied out of her pants as he watched. She planned on straddling him but he caught her by the hips, settled her upright on locked legs, and eased onto his knees before she could move. His fingers dug into her waist as he held her still and licked her right between the thighs…slowly. With a gasp, she locked her arms against his shoulders, because she wasn’t going to stay upright for this, she could already tell. Her legs were going numb.
He sucked gently on her clit, brushing his tongue against it rhythmically until she was panting and digging her nails into his shoulders. And then right when she was on the verge of orgasm, he thrust his tongue deep inside her until she was throbbing hard. She panted his name, legs buckling, but he had her, held her upright. And then he trailed biting kisses up her stomach to her breasts as he lowered her slowly to his lap. When he sucked hard on her nipple, she cupped his head and tossed her head back, closed her eyes, and melted into his touch. When she finally settled onto his lap, his erection was hard against her sex. Vyr slid his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, as if he was just testing his strength, testing how much pressure she could take. Her back cracked and her breath left her lungs with a needy sound. He gripped her ass as he thrust his hips against her.
Riyah lifted up enough to shove his pants down his hips, unsheathing his thick, hard dick. That was hers. When she rocked against him, Vyr closed his eyes and huffed a breath. He reached between them and grabbed his dick, poised it right at her entrance. Riyah slid over him, slowly, focused on relaxing so she could take all of him, and when she had, she rocked faster. It felt so good, having him move inside of her, being connected like this. Vyr spread his knees farther apart and slammed into her, meeting her, moving with her, fingers rough on her hips as he kept her on him. He pushed into her harder and faster until she was chanting his name, and just as her second orgasm blasted through her, Vyr clamped his teeth on her neck and groaned, thrust deep, and throbbed warmth into her. He didn’t break the skin, but his bite felt so good as her release pulsed on and on. They moved together, drawing every aftershock from each other’s bodies. And when they were spent and still at last, she cupped his cheeks and smiled. “That was…” What word could she possibly use to describe something so important?
“For me, too,” he murmured. Vyr pulled her in close and hugged her tight. “It’s not exactly the way I wanted it for us, though.”
She giggled. “You mean you didn’t have prison sex in mind when you started wooing me?”
Vyr snorted and tickled her ribs until she squirmed, then laid them down on the concrete and pulled her against his side. With a sigh, he looked up at the floating stars and murmured, “Thank you for tonight, Riyah. For giving me the sky for a little while.”
With a content sigh, she kissed his chest, right over his heart, and nuzzled her cheek against him. “Someday, I’m going to give you the real thing.” It was a promise she was making to him and to herself. She was going to figure this out because she couldn’t watch him hate his reflection forever. There had to be something better than a half-life for Vyr.
In this moment, she didn’t care what would happen to her if she found a way to save the Red Dragon.
In this moment, she didn’t care about the fire that Beaston had promised.
In this moment, Riyah realized, as long as Vyr existed on this Earth, she would never be in the dark again. And as long as she existed, neither would he.
Chapter Fifteen
Riyah’s burner phone rang just as she was driving into the prison parking lot. In a rush, she pulled into a spot crooked and fumbled around in her purse until she found it.
“Hello?” she answered, hoping she hadn’t missed it.
“Turn on the news,” was all Damon Daye said before the line went dead.
Okay then. She’d been in lala land, aka thinking about Vyr-diddles the entire drive here, and now she was jolted back to reality. She pulled out her personal cell phone and connected to the internet. Well, news footage on Vyr wasn’t hard to find. Every link she clicked showed video of somber anchors talking about the death of the Red Dragon at the hands of the New IESA.
…against his will…
…not what our prison system should’ve been doing…
…grotesque use of power…
…the dragon is finally incapacitated…
…the world is a safer place…
…horrified by the secrecy…
…apparently the International Exchange of Shifter Affairs has been revived, to the detriment of all shifter-kind…
…the New IESA…
…experiments on shifters…
…a second look at shifter rights in the prison system…
…dragon is dead…
…dead…
…dead…
…the Red Dragon is dead…
Feeling sick, Riyah clicked on the video with the most views. It had been released late last night and already had several million hits. It opened with shaky footage of the conversation with Emmitt. Well, shit. She was the only one in the room when they had that conversation. She was definitely busted as the rat.
“Fuck,” she muttered as her heart rate went to racing and the blood drained out of her face and hands so quickly her skin tingled. Why would Cora Keller and Beck Anderson blast this out there? They’d completely blown her cover, and she wasn’t done here yet. Vyr was still in here, still at risk. She struggled to hold the phone steady as she watched the rest of the video.
The entire conversation between her and Emmitt was on there, and then the screen faded to black. Words typed across the darkness as Vyr said, “I hate you seeing me like this.”
The screen morphed to Vyr, running his hand down his short beard, his scar an angry red from his temple to the back of his head. She wasn’t in the scene, but her voice rang out clearly. “What happened?”
“Doesn’t matter.” His voice sounded so defeated, and he ghosted a glance at the camera, flashing those sad, frozen dragon eyes.
“Don’t push me away,” she pleaded.
“Riyah, it’s best this way. I know what’s coming.” The scene faded to black, and words started typing across the dark again as Vyr spoke. “I’m tired. I’ve existed for thirty years with everyone thinking I’m evil. Doesn’t matter the effort I put into keeping good people safe. I lost the dragon. Lost the biggest part of me, and now there’s this hole. It’s growing bigger and bigger, and now all I feel is…”
“Is what?” she murmured.
“Emptiness.” Vyr’s voice echoed with sadness. The video showed Vyr again, and he was looking down at his clenched hands between his knees, shaking his head as he uttered, “If everyone wants me gone so bad…okay. I don’t really want to live a life where I feel like this anyway.”
“What about me?” Riyah asked from offscreen. “I’ll be alone if you leave. Really alone. I want more.”