Everlasting Bad Boys by Noelle Mack, Cynthia Eden Shelly Laurenston Page A

into her pillow so she could muffle her cries. Then Ailean pulled out of her and flipped her onto her back. He drove into her again, another climax washing over her.
    “I love looking at you when I fuck you,” he told her plainly, each harsh thrust extending the life of her climax until she feared the intensity of it would tear her apart.
    Ailean kissed her as he came inside her, his shout of pleasure lost in her mouth.
    When he finally pulled away from her, he covered her sweat-soaked body with furs and kissed her cheek.
    “I’ll see you tonight, my little innocent.”
    She tried to say something meaningful to him but all she could manage was a rather undignified grunt.

9
    A ilean had barely stumbled into his own bed when his brothers knocked on his door and walked in without actually waiting for him to tell them to.
    “What?” he barked, his forearm covering his eyes from the now-invading light of the two suns blasting through his window.
    “The old dragon is on the move,” Arranz informed him, dropping down on the foot of the bed.
    “Where?”
    “Devenallt Mountain. He’s arranged for a meeting with the queen.”
    “And he’s still protected?”
    “Of course.”
    “Don’t give me that look. If anything happens to Shalin’s father, she’ll never forgive herself and I’ll never forgive myself for making her unhappy. And we all know I hate when I’m miserable.”
    “What’s wrong with you?” Bideven asked, his eyes watching Ailean closely.
    “Nothing. I’m tired.”
    “The twins will take her to their home if you don’t want her any more.”
    As much as Ailean wanted to simply respond, “Hell, no!” he knew that would be a mistake. Instead he gave a long suffering sigh. “No, no. She’s my responsibility.”
    “If you’re sure,” Arranz told him, and Ailean could hear the smirk in his voice. Later, he’d toss him out the closest window for it.
    “Aye. I’m sure.”
     
    “So…are you a witch?”
    Shalin swallowed the porridge she’d spooned into her mouth. “No. I mean…” She sat back and thought a moment, trying to answer Kyna’s question. Questions she’d had to ask herself a long time ago. “I know spells. Many. But I wouldn’t call myself a witch. I don’t have that kind of elemental power.”
    “What are you studying, then?”
    “Alchemy.”
    “That’s turning brass to gold, yes?”
    Shalin laughed. Everyone wanted to change things to gold. “I don’t think of alchemy that way. Changing one thing to a complete other thing doesn’t make sense to me. I think of it more like taking a branch and making it a tree. Expanding on what it already is.”
    “That’s boring.”
    Shalin nodded. “It is. But you could also make a dagger a sword. A sword a lance.”
    “Imagine that, Kennis,” Kyna said before diving back into her porridge. “Imagine how deadly we’d be in battle.”
    “I’ve heard you already are deadly. They talk about you at Devenallt Mountain.”
    The twins shrugged and continued to eat.
    “What makes you such good warriors?” Shalin asked casually, enjoying a conversation that had nothing to do with scholarly endeavors or throne politics.
    “We like to kill,” Kyna replied simply.
    Shalin choked up her porridge, barely covering her mouth in time to stop it from flying across the table.
    “You all right?”
    She nodded.
    “And we hate to lose,” Kennis elaborated.
    “I see.” Shalin cleared her throat. “Don’t think I’ve heard any other warriors put it quite that way.”
    “I doubt they enjoy the killing as much as we do. Our mates, they say we have the bloodlust. Can’t really argue with them, can we, Kennis?”
    “No. We really can’t.”
    It amazed Shalin there were two dragons out there brave enough to be mates of the twins.
    “You take Ailean. He loves a good battle and he’ll kill when he has to, but I don’t think he enjoys it.”
    “Unless someone pissed him off, eh, Kyna?”
    “Exactly, Kennis. Then he enjoys it as much