Chapter 353: Praise Me, Ruin Me

She could feel his breath on her stomach. Then lower. The realization of where his mouth was headed arrived approximately two seconds before the rest of her caught up and those two seconds were the longest of her life.

He was on his knees in front of her. The Dragon King of Velkaris, kneeling on marble, water streaming down his back, looking up at her with gold eyes.

Yes, this man had been inside of her. Yes, she had been naked in a bath with him also. Naked she could handle. She had woken up naked three times this week. This was different. This was more intimate in a way she had never been before and he was making her blush deeper than she thought possible. Because he was three inches away, eye-level with parts of her that she covered.

Every instinct she had was split between covering herself and not moving because his hands were on her thighs and his thumbs were tracing circles on her inner skin and the circles were making a very compelling argument for staying exactly where she was.

Then his mouth locked around her clit and sucked hard enough to make her spine go rigid. Every nerve ending fired at once and her fingers found his hair.

"Maddox... I... we..."

He spanked her, cutting her off mid-sentence, his mouth never leaving her.

The crack echoed off the marble. Her legs buckled and the sting bloomed hot across her skin, her knees almost giving out. His hand came back to grip her thigh, keeping her exactly where he wanted her.

She tried to finish whatever she’d been saying but a broken sound escaped her throat. It came out shredded. He didn’t lift his head. His tongue dragged slow over her, then sealed again, sucking just hard enough that the sting in her ass and the pull of his mouth collided. She jerked.

"Don’t—" she managed, and he spanked her again, sharper, the same spot.

The sound was wetter this time. Heat flooded straight through the bond before she could shove it down.

He made a low, pleased noise against her and didn’t stop.

Her hips tried to twist away and toward him at the same time. He followed, relentless, licking into her like the spank had been punctuation, not a pause.

Waves of pleasure built, bleeding through their matebond. Her body was responding to him exactly how he knew she would, and he wasn’t bothering to hide his smugness about it. She could feel it, the satisfaction rolling off him like heat, the dragon equivalent of chest-pounding sent directly into her nervous system.

"Oh gods—"

The rest of it shattered. Her fingers wrenched tight in his hair, hips snapping once, twice, then locking as she came on his tongue, helplessly.

He groaned like he’d been waiting for it, lifted her leg and shoved his tongue inside her, fucking her through it.

She wrenched, thighs clamping around his head. Every spasm dragged another sound out of him.

He didn’t let her finish. He turned her into the spray, spread her open with both thumbs, and his tongue found the place that made her entire body go rigid.

She squeaked. Full squeaked. The sound belonged to a woman ambushed somewhere she had zero preparation for, processing it one vertebra at a time.

He pushed a finger into her from behind and reached around her hip, thumb finding her clit. Tongue, finger, thumb. Three points.

Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Then every muscle locked at once, her heat tightening around his finger.

Overstimulated, her hips jerked hard against his grip, fighting him and chasing him simultaneously.

He groaned against her, the vibration humming through her ass, and that was what shattered her.

The orgasm hit like a freight train wrapped in a thunderclap.

She came in helpless, stuttering waves, each one ripping another moan out of her she would later pretend never happened. He didn’t pull off. He rode it with her: tongue still there, finger still stroking through the clench, thumb circling her clit like he was wringing it out of her.

For a long moment there was nothing but the sound of water and her own ragged breathing.

Maddox rose slowly, looking at her. More of his want flooded into her.

Water streamed down his chest and abs and the thick, throbbing length of his cock was hard against her stomach.

He spun her into the wall, pinning her wrists to the cold marble, his mouth at her ear.

"You’re mine."

His fingers trailed down to her heat and he rubbed insistent circles, first slow, then fast.

CRACK.

His other hand landed hard against her ass. "Arch your back. More."

Her skin burned where his hand landed. But her hips responded before her brain could intervene, pressing back against him, inviting more. The shy, reserved, rule-following princess was being dismantled in real time by a king who fucked like he governed: with absolute authority and zero interest in the committee’s feedback.

"Maddox," she gasped.

His eyes flashed full dragon gold. He thrust up in one brutal motion, getting about halfway inside. The stretch burned, her muscles fighting against the intrusion.

"Fuck, you’re always so tight."

He kissed the shell of her ear.

Her body responded, muscles releasing. He felt the shift and didn’t wait, driving up and forward, burying himself to the hilt in one merciless ram that pinned her fully flat against the marble. Her breath left her in a single, punched-out gasp.

"Good fucking girl."

There it was. That involuntary surrender to his praise. She craved his approval in a way that she was never going to unpack. Her body answered him before her dignity could intervene and the moan that followed was loud enough to echo.

She could feel his satisfaction through their matebond. Like he had been looking for exactly that reaction.

The satisfaction she felt from him shifted into something heavier without warning. Possessive. Demanding. The man who had been savoring was done savoring.

He pulled out and slammed himself up into her again.

Harder than the first. Angled differently. The burn made her wince and her mouth opened against the marble.

He went harder. Faster. Each plunge buried deep, and her body stopped resisting and started chasing, hips rolling back to meet him thrust for thrust. The pressure built so fast that a moan escaped her lips.

"There she is. Just like that."

She broke apart on his cock. The matebond carried the orgasm to him before his body did, and it pulled him under with her. His hips stuttered, slammed deep, and held.

"Every goddamn inch of you is mine," he growled into her shoulder.

She was supposed to be taking a shower. She was supposed to be washing her hair and rebooting her nervous system and emerging as a functional adult capable of rational thought.

Instead she was orgasming against marble in a bathing chamber that smelled like eucalyptus and bad decisions while a dragon king growled into her neck about ownership.

The shower had failed its mission. The hot water was still running.