The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 77

MIDAS

This is new...

The fierceness of the feelings surging through him.

New and unexpected and thrilling.

So much so that he is unsure whether to be worried or elated.

Midas knows he can be ruthless, his logic cold and harsh.

It is the way he has to be.

All the people who look to him for protection, the lands and clans beneath his care, he is responsible for too much.

And one did not last on the dragon throne or protect the much coveted 5th realm by being lenient or having weaknesses that can easily be exploited.

He has always known, had been taught from the days before he could even mount a horse without assistance, that as dragon king he could never give into his emotions.

No matter how much he desires to.

As a result, except for the brief period of rebellion in his youth, he is never reckless, never impulsive.

He favors carefully thought out plans over spontaneity.

And if there is even the slightest of possibilities that something could result in dangerous, unstable consequences beyond his control, Midas either kills it or stays far... far away from it.

He does not pull them into his arms and kiss them until they are a trembling mass of incoherent want and he is half insane with lust.

Yet when it comes to her everything Midas knows, has ever known, suddenly seems to become of little importance.

When he is around her, this human that somehow manages to take his breath away, caution, control...everything he prides himself in flies out the window, tossed out on their back like discarded pieces of paper. It should unnerve him, how easy it is for her to break down his walls and get to him in places he did not think possible.

But instead he replaces himself craving more and more of the effect she has on him because it allows him to forget.

At least for a while.

He is not just the dragon king, ruler of the 5th realm when he is with her.

And while this confuses him, leaves him feeling bewildered and unsure because Midas does not know how to be anything else, it also feels strangely freeing.

And freedom as it turns out, is extremely addictive.

Even his emotions feel different when it comes to her...stronger somehow.

Anger...need...lust...

His desire to both protect and possess her consuming him with a white heat that all at once is both frightening and intoxicating.

And Midas is unsure about what it all means.

So he simply gives in.

Kissing her again and again, unable to stop.

Teasing her with his mouth and his hands and watching the way her eyes darken with each fleeting touch, each deliberate caress.

He almost replaces it impossible to believe how close he had come to never being able to do this again.

Or that... Or this...

Her pants of arousal into the still warm air between them are the most beautiful sounds Midas has ever heard and he replaces himself wondering, exploring exactly how he can make them come faster. Perhaps it is the bond.

Perhaps it is because she is the other half of his soul.

That would explain why everything felt more intense when it was her, why the scent of her filled his nose and clouded out every other thing.

But Midas suspects, even though it makes no sense, that even if she were not his tether, he would still feel this strongly about her.

Human or not.

He would still be immensely fascinated by the silky fire of her hair, lush and red when he runs his hands through it, watching it slip between his fingers...

By the steel blue of her eyes that were capable of flashing with both defiance and compassion...

And by her partial insanity and how strong she is even after everything she has been through.

Everything he has indirectly had a hand, many hands, in putting her through.

This is also why Midas has tried so hard to keep his distance.

Not because he is not attracted to her because by all the gods he is.

But because he knows he does not deserve to have her as his.

Yet knowing he should not is not enough to stop him from thinking about the way she says his name when she is turned on.

Does not stop him from obsessing about the way her center had tasted in his mouth on the night of their binding ceremony, hot and soft and dripping wet.

For her own good Midas realizes he should stop now.

He should back away from her and send her gently back to bed before he completely loses himself in her.

But she moans and presses up against him and immediately he knows that he would not be able to.

Not even in a thousand years.

And now that he has her here, with him, he has no plans of letting her go again.

Caution and doing the right thing be damned.

For the first time in his many years as king, he does not want to hold back...not anymore.

And if making love to her is insanity, then Midas was just going to have to run mad. "Midas..."

******g hell

Just one single breathless word, that is all it takes to make him as hard as a rock and he has to struggle to keep from taking her right here, against the door of the room in the west tower.

He needs to feel her skin against his but this...dress of hers is getting in the way.

So he spins her around so that her front is towards the door and her back is to him.

He intended to be civil about it, taking off her dress slowly but then she pushes that round pert bottom of hers against the bulge straining in his pants, rubbing herself along its length and he gives up immediately, a low growl in the base of his throat. And one loud rip and a startled squeal later, all the tiny round buttons are scattered on the floor and her ruined dressed droops off both sides of her shoulders.

"You know your highness that was one of my favorite dresses."

He pushes it all the way off, letting it fall to the ground in a puddle at her feet.

"Was it now?"

"It was"

He steps even closer, running his hands down her sides, following her dips and curves.

"Then let me make it up to you."

She exhales, shaky and shallow.

"What makes you think you can?"

"Lie to me all you want Hera..."

His palms slide back up, grazing the curves of her breasts and the hardness of her n*****s to wrap gently around her neck, smirking when she sighs and leans into him. "...Your body knows perfectly well what it wants." Midas tilts her head to the side and then he lowers his mouth to her neck.

Kissing and sucking at the skin.

Marking her.

Her reaction to his kiss only serves to send even more blood rushing to his already swollen c**k.

He turns her around so she is facing him again and when he sees her, his breath catches in his throat.

His eyes take in the sight of her.

The swell of her breasts... the smattering of freckles across her chest...the way her hips dip slightly before flaring out...

By all the realms she is beautiful.

Beautiful and utterly tempting.

He wants to run his tongue, his hands, his teeth across very inch of her.

"Gods above Hera..."

His voice is rougher than it was before and she blushes, suddenly self conscious beneath his ravenous gaze.

She lifts her arms, in an attempt to cover her chest but he pulls her hands away.

Gruff and commanding. "Don't you dare."

He could stare at her all day, all night and every moment in between for the rest of his life and it would still never be enough.

He cups one perfect, smooth mound in his hand, thumb rubbing against the hardened n****e.

"Tell me what you want."

But she merely moans in response so he tugs at it, pinching it gently and rolling it until her eyes flutter close and her mouth falls open in a silent gasp.

"I want an answer Hera..."

She swallows, visibly struggling to replace her voice but then she meets his eyes and his world stops. "You. I want you."

"Good girl."

He scopes her in his arms, cutting across the room before she can even blink and promptly tosses her unto the bed.

He straddles her with one knee between her legs then he holds her hand above her head, pinning it to the bed.

"You are not allowed to bring them down unless I ask you to."

And then before she can respond, he dips his head to her chest and takes the round, hardened button of her left n****e into the warmth of his mouth. "Skies... Midas..."

His second hand covers the other, kneading and squeezing, moving from one to the other until she is shivering and writhing beneath him.

He feels her hands in his hair, pulling him closer and he looks up at her, her n****e still in his mouth.

She gazes down at him with eyes half-lidded, moaning when they lock eyes and she sees...and feels his tongue making circles around her sensitive buds.

He waits till her eyes fall fully shut in silent ecstasy... then he pulls away.

"Tsk I told you not to bring your hands down"

She sighs. "It is hard to remember when you keep doing...that"

"Shall I tie your hands to the bed so you do not forget?"

Her eyes go wide.

Not with fear but with excitement, her pulse quickening in her throat.

He c***s his head slightly and his eyebrows tilt upwards.

"You would like that wouldn't you?"

She does not answer.

She does not need to.

gods could she be anymore perfect?

He smirks. "You surprise me human."

"And you dragon king, talk way too much."

And then she drags him back towards her and kisses the laughter from his mouth.

He breaks the kiss and moves downwards.

A trail of tiny kisses until he finally gets to his destination and takes her in his mouth.

He tells himself that he simply wishes to give her pleasure.

But the truth is since the moment he slid his fingers into her core, he has been dying to taste her again.

He was going to tease her, draw it out as punishment for her bringing her hands down but the moment his mouth touches her...

By f*****g goddamn Hades...

Curses and words of blasphemy that would no doubts damn his soul to the underworld streak through his mind and desire unlike anything he has ever known before rushes through Midas with so much force that he almost loses himself completely.

He parts her folds with his fingers and flicks at her already sensitive clit with his tongue.

She tastes even better than he remembers and he laps at her greedily.

Sucking and licking, selfishly satisfying his hunger until she begins to quiver and shake.

Her breathing gets faster and more erratic as she gets closer to coming in his mouth.

"Midas...you have to stop...I can't..."

But he ignores her, gripping her a*s and holding her tighter so that she is unable to move away from his relentless assault.

Her hips tilt off the bed as she rides against his mouth, chasing after her o****m.

Midas knows the very moment she replaces it, the way it rips through her with a force that lifts her halfway up the bed, legs trembling and bucking.

And he laps up every last drop, drawing it out, drowning her in wave after wave of relentless pleasure.

Much...much later, after a lot more of giving in and losing themselves in each other, he holds her against him and she lies in his arm breathing quietly, immensely satisfied and utterly spent.

He realizes that he is not just satisfied.

He is happy.

And it has been a long... long time, since the ruler of the 5th realm has been well and truly happy.

Midas did not intend to ever fall for anyone.

He still is not entirely convinced or even completely comfortable with the idea.

But it appears to happening anyway.

With or without his consent.

And the dragon king is utterly powerless to stop it.