Chapter 161: The Clock Could Go To Hell

She was straddling him, facing him, her thighs braced against his in the green water, and the proximity was a form of warfare he had zero defense against.

The clock was ticking. It could go to hell. Maddox didn’t care.

His hands moved over her wet skin with deliberate possession. One splayed across her lower back. The other slid in between them, cupping her heat.

Yes. Do that.

Maddox didn’t need coaching from a damn reptile. He was doing it. The reptile could observe or leave. Those were its options.

He slid a finger inside of her and moved it, hard and fast, while his thumb worked against her. She stiffened, caught off guard by his boldness.

"Relax for me," he whispered.

Her breath caught on a sound that went straight through him. Something primal took over, and he smacked her ass.

She gasped, immediately tightening around his finger while her hips bucked forward. He gripped her hip and rocked her forward and back on his hand, again, again, until her body caught the rhythm and started moving on its own.

"That’s it."

Water sloshed around them as she writhed.

He watched her ride his finger, head tipped back, lips parted, wet hair clinging to her skin, and thought with absolute clarity: How the fuck am I supposed to do anything else for the rest of my life?

His dragon rumbled in agreement.

Excellent work.

Get the hell out , Maddox thought to his dragon.

The dragon did not get the hell out.

TWENTY-TWO MINUTES REMAINING.

He refocused. Forcibly. With great effort. The effort was failing.

He withdrew his hand and pressed himself against her entrance, pushing inside.

She winced, gripping his shoulders.

"You’re going to kill me," he groaned, barely halfway. The words left him before his pride could catch them. The Dragon King, killed in a guest bathtub by his own wife.

He tried to let her adjust. That lasted one thrust before his hips made a decision his brain hadn’t approved, and he drove the rest of the way in.

Restraint, which had been on life support since she kissed him, flatlined.

She sucked in a breath, gripping tighter. He felt the sting travel through the bridge between them and land in his own body.

"Hold on to me, baby," Maddox said, marshaling every ounce of control he had left to go slow.

Her arms wrapped around his neck. He tried. He lasted three strokes at that pace. Then his hands locked onto her hips and he moved her on him, driving up from underneath.

The noise that came out of his throat belonged to the dragon and he was no longer certain which one of them was in charge.

He spilled into her, his cock pulsing, his vision going solid gold.

The Dragon King, who had turned down a hundred and twenty billion gold, had lasted approximately fifteen seconds.

We did not last. I did the math.

Do me a favor and stop doing math, Maddox told the beast.

EIGHTEEN MINUTES REMAINING.

He had cum, and he was going to cum again.

His hand came down on her ass again, harder, and she ground into him in response.

His mouth found her breast and he sucked. The bathwater was going everywhere, and the floor of this guest room was going to require an explanation he had zero intention of providing.

"Maddox." She gasped his name.

"That’s it, baby. Cum for me," he said in the Draconic Register against her nipple.

An orgasm crashed through her, muscles clenching in waves, and he felt every single one of them through the bridge and his body was already responding.

"Fuck yes, baby. Milk my cock just like that."

Her hips moved rapidly, riding him, taking him, meeting his every thrust.

TWELVE MINUTES REMAINING.

Reason had checked out. It left no forwarding address.

A sound left her mouth that he would be hearing in his sleep for the rest of his natural life. He followed immediately, a raw groan tearing from him as he pumped into her, deeper, the two of them riding it out while the green water sloshed over the rim of the tub in waves.

Most dragons managed twice. Maybe three times with an exceptionally motivated mate and a tailwind.

By the third round, Maddox had stopped counting and started negotiating with gods he didn’t believe in, because whatever was happening in this bathtub was either divine reward for a life well-lived or divine punishment designed to ensure he could never take a bath again without getting horny.

FOUR MINUTES REMAINING.

The healer was going to arrive. The healer was going to knock on this door. The healer was going to stand in the corridor outside a guest room while the Dragon King was inside his wife in a bathtub full of green water with a floor soaked through and the dignity of the Drakencrest crown dripping off the ceiling.

"Fuck, you feel so good. Give me what I want. I need it, baby."

His dragon surged forward with an intensity that bypassed every safeguard in his body. The urge to mark her clawed up through his chest, his fangs aching.

He fought it for two seconds. Closed his eyes trying to swallow it. When he opened them, his fangs were in her neck.

She came apart, her moan swallowed by his mouth on her skin, her body spasming so violently the bathwater surged over both sides of the tub and hit the stone floor with a slap.

His own release tore through him so intensely his vision went black at the edges, gold blooming in the dark, the two of them locked together in a feedback loop that refused to end.

He held her through all of it, fangs buried, arms iron, the purr in his chest loud enough to rattle the bottles on the ledge.

When he finally retracted his fangs and pulled out of her, she winced. Her eyes fluttered closed and her body went boneless against him, too still.

His heart kicked. "Guinevere?"

Her mark pulsed with a glow that shifted from gold to white and back again, and something cold coiled in his gut.

Was his mark glowing underneath the blood?

That thought was gone at the realization: fuck, he’d marked her again. Twice in the last four hours. Four times in the last thirty- six hours.

The dragon was smug. Maddox was panicking. Both were happening simultaneously, which was his entire relationship with the beast summarized.

ZERO MINUTES REMAINING.

A knock landed on the door.

"Maddox?" Blair called. "The healer is here. So is Aldric. Are you in there?"