Page 63 of The Consolation Prize

Una bit her lip. She had not realized she was supposed to supply whole scenarios. “Well, er—” Her mind went blank. Had she made this situation ten times more awkward than it had been already? She almost wished she had let him call her princess and be done with it.

“Sir Lusty Loins could be sent along to vanquish the Blechmarsh Dragon with his mighty staff?” he suggested huskily when she remained tongue-tied.

“Ye-es,” she agreed weakly. Then suddenly, she got the joke. Oh! By staff, he meant …

She flushed. He was definitely teasing her now. Una felt an overwhelming desire to vindicate herself and show she too could play this game! “Of course, he would find it no easy task,” she said, with a valiant attempt at airiness. “For I would be a very wicked dragon indeed and would entirely overpower him.”

“Indeed?” He sounded more intrigued than alarmed by that, rolling toward her and running a hand up and down her thigh. “How?”

“Everyone knows a dragon breathes fire. I would—breathe on him.”

“Breathe?” He cocked an eyebrow.

Una leaned forward with great daring, pressing her breasts to his chest. She knew he liked them, for he had told her so when he was drunk. “From my lungs,” she whispered in his ear. “Like this.” She blew gently against the shell of his ear and Armand’s own breathing hitched before he went very still. Something wasn’t still, though, Una thought, for something was definitely stirring to life against her thigh.

“I see,” he said, after a moment’s pause. Was it her imagination, or did he sound a little breathless? Una felt secretly thrilled that she might be having some effect on him. “I imagine that might be effective,” he conceded. “If you breathed like that against … my staff,” he suggested, giving her a scorching look.

Una blinked. “If I breathed fire against your staff, it would surely disintegrate,” she pointed out.

“Nay, you are quite wrong on that score,” he said thickly. “I think it might explode.”

“I would not let you burn to a crisp,” Una assured him. “I am a dragon, and I like to devour my prey whole.”

Now it was his turn to blink. “Gods, Una,” he groaned. “You’re bloody good at this, love.” He rolled her underneath him. “By all means let’s try it your way.”

Oh, he wanted to play it now, she thought, gratified. She must be getting the hang of it!

He grabbed her wrists in a loose hold above her head. “Behold me now, wicked dragon,” he rumbled down at her. “For I have been sent to battle with you. Prepare to be vanquished, for I have bought my trusty sword—”

“Sword? I thought it was a staff,” Una corrected him, tipping back her head to look up at him. Feeling suddenly inspired, she arched her back and pressed herself against his hard cock. He made a surprised noise in his throat.

“In truth,” Una mused breathlessly, “it feels more like a staff, than a sword …” She rubbed herself against him like an abandoned thing, biting her lip. She felt him grow harder against her. “And yet, I am not sure …”

“You wicked, brazen creature,” he groaned, and the way he said it sounded more like praise than censure. His big hands landed on her buttocks, kneading them, encouraging her to move against him in a sinuous slide. “You should know that all knights are pure in heart and cannot be defeated thus.”

“Is that a fact, sir knight?” She panted. For the life of her, she could not remember his character’s precise name at this moment.

“It is,” he grunted. “Perhaps you do not know Sir Lusty Loins has more weapons in his arsenal than just his mighty staff.”

Sir Lusty Loins, that was it. “And what weapons might those be?” she asked.

“My tongue,” he answered. “My silver tongue that can soothe the most savage beast.”

“Your tongue?” she shivered. “That does not sound very … scary.”

“Oh, I’ll soon lick you into submission,” he promised.

Una caught her breath. “I do not think that will work on one such as I,” she practically whimpered.

“Oh?” he quirked a brow at her, before yanking her thighs apart. “But I am keen to try, for I have heard dragon flesh is so very succulent and juicy.”

Una trembled as he scooted down her body. Oh gods, conversing with him like this was making her feel so very strange! She felt like she was poised on the cliff edge and about to tumble off it already. It was too much, too intense. He paused a moment between her thighs, and she felt his hot breath on her most intimate parts. “W-wait!” she squeaked.

He looked up at her, his hair tumbled forward and winked at her. Una caught her breath, lost before he had even started. It didn’t take long before he had her squirming completely at his mercy.

“Oh! Oh! Sir Armand!” she screamed, completely forgetting the made-up name again.

He gave her a last lingering lick and then moved back up her body, breathing hard.