Tabula Rasa
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Ophelia Bell
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Chapter One
In Camille’s dreams, she was never the shy, bookish girl who got tongue-tied in the presence of a beautiful man. No, in her dreams she was the pursuer, dominant over her desires, the mistress of her own pleasure. The subject of those nocturnal musings in recent weeks had been one man—lovely Eben—who had destroyed all her past fantasies in a single afternoon, just by being him.
While in the real world he barely spoke to her, in the dream realm, he became her supplicant. There he would kneel before her, begging for the honor of pleasuring her. Out of his mouth would spill the most deliciously dirty words. The power she held over him in the dark of night made her giddy.
After hours working to translate the text etched around the jade throne in the ancient dragon temple, Camille had succumbed to exhaustion. She now dreamed she sat naked upon that very throne, flanked by the dragon statues. The setting was unlike past dreams, but the situation familiar enough for her fantasy to play out as it always did in vivid detail.
Eben stood before her, naked. Her gaze traveled hungrily up his strong legs, over his muscular thighs and narrow hips. His cock stood proudly erect and appeared massive to her inexperienced eyes, yet it didn’t frighten her.
Camille’s gaze lingered there, and she licked her lips, imagining the taste of the moisture that glistened like a tiny jewel clinging to his tip. Would he be salty or sweet? Still, there was so much more to him than his virile manhood. Her gaze moved higher, over his taut stomach rippling with the evidence of a body well-kept, over the tight curves of his pectorals and powerful arms dangling from his wide shoulders. So many moments had she caught herself staring at the way his muscles flexed when he lifted his heavy trekking pack to his shoulders each morning. More recently, the image that came to mind was the bunching of his thick forearm when he’d stroked the column of the dragon statue’s huge phallus the day before, when they’d first explored the room at the heart of the dragon temple.
Eben’s face was what really incited her desire—his wide-set blue eyes that seemed to undress her on the rare occasions she managed to capture his attention, his perfect nose above his bow-shaped mouth—a mouth made just for doing those things he promised in her dreams.
Since the first day they’d met, two months earlier, her infatuation had grown with every stolen glance. While he rarely spoke to her, sometimes she would catch him looking, and each night her dreams would grow more intense until she woke in a sweat, her heart pounding and the flesh between her thighs craving contact.
But during her waking hours, she was far too reserved to follow through.
Words came more easily within the sanctuary of her subconscious. All she had to do was speak and he was kneeling at her feet.
“My sweet Eben. Tell me what you want to do to me.”
He leaned forward and tilted his head to rest one rough cheek against her inner thigh, tickling her sensitive skin lightly with his short stubble. His gaze rested at her core, the intensity of his desire burning in his eyes, causing her own flesh to tingle and warm without a single caress.
The corner of his lips brushed her skin when he started speaking. “I want to kiss those pretty lips so deep there can be no doubt how much I want you.” His face tilted higher, gaze lingering on her plump, pink-tipped breasts. “I want to suck those perfect rosebuds until they’re so hard and tender you beg me to fuck you.”
With each word, he moved incrementally closer between her thighs, and now his lips barely brushed against her slick pussy. She had to fight the urge to tilt closer to his mouth as the words gusted against her flesh. She held her breath, waiting, vibrating with desire in anticipation of what he would say next.
“And I want to bury my cock inside you so deep I touch your soul.”
True to his word, Eben nestled his face in the cleft between her thighs, fastening his lips against her slick folds. The wet heat of his mouth always startled her at first, hotter even than the flesh he latched onto. He plunged his tongue deep inside her, sliding it in and back out in a languid thrust. The licks grew slower and longer with each pass, slipping up higher and swirling around and around her clit that already throbbed thickly with arousal, and Camille was lost to the sensations.
Each curling tease of his tongue sent little jolts of pleasure through her body, bringing her nearly to the edge before he stopped. She braced herself for the next step and wasn’t disappointed. Rising higher on his knees, he latched on to one nipple, sucking until she gasped and arched her back. He worshiped the other in kind, swirling his tongue around her areola once before pulling the tip between his lips. When both nipples were thoroughly attended and aching from his attention, he took her face between his large hands, gazing into her eyes.
“Take me in, baby. Let me fuck your tight, virgin pussy.”
She spread her legs wider, inviting his thick shaft into her. The sharp pain of tearing flesh came first, followed by the exquisite pressure of him filling her. Her virginity was undeniable even in these nocturnal interludes, so she used it as an anchor. It made the dream seem all the more real.
It never took long after that. He would fuck her soundly, whispering all the filthy things he planned to do to her, and within a few minutes they would both be crying out each other’s names while they came.
Camille would awaken, replete and glowing with satisfaction. She would spend the rest of the day in a happy buzz, not fazed in the least by the petty annoyances of their expedition, or even Eben’s generally circumspect attitude toward her.
Except this dream changed. When they were at that cusp and her impending climax began to grip her, an unfamiliar voice spoke through Eben’s lips, the words exuding a power that tickled inside her eardrums.
“It is not yet time, my flower. To have him, you must awaken one of mine first. You must give your virgin gift to my brood to get your heart’s desire.”
She awakened with a frustrated groan. Not time yet? Then she remembered her revelation earlier that evening. The ritual would keep any human in the temple from finding sexual satisfaction unless they were offering it to a dragon. What did they call it? Their Nirvana?
Apparently the Queen had reprimanded her in her dreams just now. Camille wasn’t sure if she should feel special or not, knowing they needed her in particular to ensure the ritual’s completion.
Right now, she was just incredibly frustrated, her body tingling still with Eben’s imagined touch. It may have been her lack of release talking, but she wanted him so badly she could taste it.
During their journey, she’d tried to come up with ways to seduce him. Each day she’d sought out the moments when he would be alone. She would start to go to him, just to talk, but always ended up paralyzed by indecision and anxiety over taking that first step. Still, she knew she wanted him to be her first.
The difficulty was compounded by the fact that he and Erika had slept together nearly every night of their trip, and they didn’t do a whole lot in the way of disguising the fact.
But not every night, Camille reminded herself. Not the night before we arrived here. That gave her a shred of hope, as did the subtle looks she sometimes caught him throwing her way.
She would just have to find him. There was a ritual to carry out. A sex ritual, if she’d interpreted the etchings around the throne correctly. She imagined convincing him to assist with her part of it. Help me find a dragon to—
To what? Give her virginity to? That thought brought her up short. If she were going to be part of the ritual, Eben wouldn’t be her first after all. But to have him there with her, even just watching—the thought drove her back to the camp to find him.
But his sleeping bag was empty. As were Erika and Kris’s. No! Tonight of all nights she needed him, and he was with Erika again?
“Camille?” Hallie’s groggy voice spoke in the dim light. “Y’okay? W’assup, sweetie?”
She realized she must’ve cursed out loud. “Nothing. Just burning some midnight oil to translate. Go back to sleep, Hal.”
Her friend rolled back over in her sleeping bag. Camille felt a little guilty for not at least letting Hallie know what was going on. The other woman had been her closest friend in the group since Erika had brought them all together with the promise of adventure and academic renown. Hallie had even encouraged her to pursue Eben in spite of the obvious connection he and Erika had. It’s just a casual thing between those two, sweetie, Hallie had said. I see the way he looks at you. Except now that Camille finally had the courage to chase him, she couldn’t even find him.
Dmitri’s and Corey’s sleeping bodies didn’t budge when she stole past them back into the corridor to search for Eben. She hoped he wasn’t actually with Erika for once.
She navigated the darkened reaches of the maze that was the underground compound they had discovered. None of the multitude of intricately carved jade doors lining the corridor gave entry. She tried them all until she finally came back to the beginning, frustrated, and stared at the huge, dark door leading to the passage behind the throne where the five doors of the ritual were concealed. Eben wouldn’t have gone to those doors first, would he? He couldn’t know about the ritual. But if Erika had found him, perhaps … perhaps they’d already begun.
Her chest tightened with rage and hurt. To think he was embarking on the beginning of this ritual with Erika and not with her—even if he and Erika weren’t in love—somehow made their relationship something beyond Camille’s reach. What if he’d left her behind without a backward glance?
“Dammit!” She wiped a stray tear from her eye. Hoping she was mistaken, she pushed through the heavy door and slipped into the shadows of the corridor beyond. Within several yards, the light from an open doorway spilled out across the pale stone of the floor before her. The most startling thing was the series of sounds that accompanied it. A chorus of urgent noises met her ears—the moans and whispers of people in the throes of ecstasy.
Consumed by jealousy and curiosity in equal part, she crept closer, keeping to the shadows just outside the door. She paused, hidden behind one of the large guardian statues that flanked all the doorways in this place. The carved white dragon kept her concealed while still granting her a perfect vantage point from which she could see everything happening in the room.
She stifled a gasp at the sight that was both disturbing and arousing. Erika was on her hands and knees on a low altar. Behind her crouched a creature the likes of which Camille had only seen in storybooks, its red scales glimmering like translucent jewels. Long, crimson claws delicately gripped Erika’s hips as it plunged its thick, smooth penis in and out of her. His cock looked so big he had to be uncomfortable for Erika, but she writhed and moaned and pushed back against it with obvious, enthusiastic enjoyment. Camille couldn’t pull her eyes away from the sight. Heat coalesced between her thighs while she watched, throbbing in time with every thrust Erika endured.
After a moment, the dragon’s wings extended, blocking Camille’s view of everything but where his hips were joined with Erika’s, and he bucked against the woman’s ass as he climaxed with a low, velvety roar.
Camille thought her eyes were deceiving her when the dragon shimmered and shrank down to the size and shape of a large man, pulling Erika back into a tender embrace and murmuring soft words Camille couldn’t hear. She was comforted by the fact that the red-haired man was decidedly not Eben, but where was he?
A motion at the far end of the room caught her eye, and she drew her hand to her mouth to suppress a cry of astonishment. In an almost perfect reflection of her dream, Eben knelt, naked, between the thighs of a rigid statue of a beautiful woman. The figure was so much more than a woman, though. She had lavender skin that hinted at a scaled texture and majestic horns extended from her forehead, coiling back behind her. Sprouting from her back like sails were a pair massive wings.
Before Camille’s eyes, the lavender dragon-woman shimmered as though the light had changed, but there had been no shift in the ambient lights of the room. Camille heard Eben groan as he latched his lips onto one bare, stone breast. In the most surreal of motions, his hips seemed to sink against the statue like he’d just shoved his cock in deep. Camille’s pussy clenched and she groaned in empathetic ecstasy, wishing so hard that she were the object of his attention just now.
Her skin prickled beneath her clothing while she watched. Too hot … it was too hot in this dark corridor. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the cooler stone of the statue she hid behind. The sounds of passion that rolled over her only made her temperature rise.
She swiped a hand over her sweat-drenched neck and down her chest, gasping when her palm brushed over her breast, causing one nipple to stand erect. Experimentally she teased the other nipple, and her eyes fluttered closed in response to the pleasant tingle that resulted.
She opened her eyes again to see Eben’s head still bent to the statue’s breast, sucking on the dark purple jade of its nipple. She shoved her tank top up and tweaked her own nipples, trying to mimic what it might feel like to have his tongue on her. Oh, God, her head spun with the pleasure of it. Stronger heat tingled between her thighs, but she knew it wasn’t sweat making her wet down there.
She hastily stripped off her tank top and pressed her bare breasts against the silky smooth jade of the statue in an effort to cool herself off. The cool stone rubbed pleasantly against her nipples, relieving more of her tension, but leaving behind a deeper need.
Eben let out a surprised grunt. He glanced between himself and the statue of the dragon-woman, who now glowed with a subtle light that emanated from deep within, growing stronger with each thrust of his cock. His hand disappeared between them and Camille could see his shoulder flexing with the hidden motions of his fingers between the dragon-woman’s thighs.
The visuals that image incited were too much for her to bear. She was beyond modesty now. It was just her and the silent statue of the guardian in front of her. She unzipped her shorts and slipped a hand into her panties. The fabric was sticky wet from her arousal, and her pussy tingled in anticipation of her touch.
She leaned against the statue and braced one knee on its heavy, smooth thigh, spreading herself open. Oh, she’d never been so wet before. Her clit had never felt so much like a swollen bundle of nerves, ready to burst with a single touch. She believed she could have come with the slightest pressure just then, but knew it couldn’t happen. Not after the ending of her dream. You must awaken one of mine, the voice had told her, and for the first time, she was feverish enough to want to make it happen. But how?
Camille clenched her eyes in frustration, suppressing all the worst curse words she could think of, but would never actually say out loud. When she opened her eyes again, the remedy to her need stood proudly before her in the form of the polished white jade cock that jutted up between the guardian dragon’s thighs.
All the guardian dragons were posed identically, like loyal dogs resting back on their haunches, arms upraised and wings unfurled. If it weren’t for the presence of their large phalluses, they’d have made comfortable seats with their thighs perfectly parallel to the ground and their arms outstretched above them. It occurred to her perhaps they were meant to serve a different purpose. Her purpose.
She stood, now practically within the embrace of this guardian, and the sensation of its polished skin against hers suddenly felt a lot more intimate than it had a moment earlier. Her face flushed savagely. He could be alive, she remembered, and here she’d been wantonly rubbing her body all over him. But that was precisely what she should be doing, wasn’t it?
She gripped the base of the dragon statue’s erection to test it. Her hand didn’t quite close around its girth, but it was smooth and soft, polished to a high shine and perfectly proportionate to what she’d always imagined Eben might look and feel like, only much, much bigger—so big she was a little terrified.
With a fascinated gaze, she let her hand slide slowly up the shaft to the tapered tip, then back down. Her palm tingled the entire length of him. He was a little warm, particularly at the base, though the smooth, twin globes of his testicles were cooler to her hot touch. His smoothness encouraged her to stroke again and wonder if Eben had the same texture or if he would be softer, more pliant, and would he have a slight curve, too.
She glanced quickly into the room again. The sights inside caused another surge of heat to rise between her thighs. Erika now rested astride the red-maned man, and Eben’s pretty lavender dragon had fully awakened. She was riding him as he sat on the bench, his hands tightly clenching her ass while he plunged his cock into her.
Camille pushed her shorts down over her hips and stepped out of them, eying the statue’s penis with some trepidation. Was she crazy to try this? What would Eben or the others think if they knew? Then Eben’s murmurs from inside the room hit her ears.
“You like my hard cock deep inside your pussy, don’t you, baby?” The dragon-woman let out a hum of appreciation in response.
The sound of his voice reminded Camille of her dream, and a violent flutter of need erupted deep in her belly, making her close her eyes and moan. When she opened them again, she focused with determination on the statue in front of her.
“This is going to hurt,” Camille said as though the dragon could hear her. Her voice shook a little, but she wanted this. She needed this. She climbed up onto his thighs and braced her hands on his shoulders.
Leaning forward slightly, she raised her hips and positioned herself above the head of the jade cock. Each brush of the stone against her skin, from her breasts against his chest to her slick folds against the solid tip of his cock, was enough to make her shudder with increasing desire. When she pressed down, her lips spread wide and she pivoted her hips in a tight circle, sliding her clit around the tapered head. Little pulses of pleasure shot through her as she did so, drawing from her a ragged groan.
“You feel nice.” She looked into the dragon’s stony eyes beneath his horned brow and imagined she could see a flicker of recognition there. “Are you ready for my virgin pussy to wake you up?” She giggled nervously at her attempt at dirty talk, but it somehow made things easier. Finally she angled her hips so that his tip pressed directly against her hot, clenching opening, and began to press down.
She stopped when she hit painful resistance. Pretend you’re ripping off a Band-Aid, silly, she thought to herself. Just get it done.
With that thought, she gritted her teeth and plunged down, seating herself entirely onto the dragon’s massive erection with a cry. She immediately bit her lip and blinked away the tears that sprung to her eyes in response to the sting of her hymen breaking and the thick shaft stretching her wide open. She glanced into the room, but the others were being far too uninhibited in their own fun to have heard her little outburst.
In an attempt to distract herself from the pain, she leaned against the dragon’s chest and grazed her nipples over the smooth stone again. At the same time, she began rubbing her clit gently with one finger, the zing of pleasure making the ache in her pussy all but disappear. Bracing her knees on the statue’s thighs, she rose up slowly, her eyes fluttering at the slick friction of the smooth, polished cock as all its contours rubbed against her sensitive inner flesh. She could even feel the thick ridge on the underside that led to the rounded flare of its head.
“Oh, wow, you do feel good,” she murmured, sinking back down again. The pressure of the dragon’s length inside her caused a pleasant buzz of sensation with each stroke, up then back down, as slowly as she could.
After the third stroke, her pain was completely forgotten, replaced by urgent need to find her peak. She sensed that this time when she came it would be nothing like the times she’d toyed with herself to orgasm. No, she was filled so completely by the hard, smooth stone, she almost forgot she was fucking an inanimate object.
A fresh sheen of sweat broke out over her entire body and she panted out little whimpers against the dragon’s chest. The temperature beneath her palms seemed to rise with each thrust of her hips. The cock deep inside her had more give against her needful thrusts, but she had no frame of reference as to why.
She turned her head to face the open doorway just visible beyond the edge of the dragon’s wing still shielding her from view. A shiver of pleasure ran through her at the sight of Eben, standing now, his beautiful cock erect and about to be serviced by the pretty dragon-woman on her knees before him. Oh, to taste him like that. Then her eyes flitted to Erika, who now lay back, her chest arched up and her pussy being thoroughly attended to by the red-haired dragon-man with a tongue that looked impossibly long and agile.
“I wonder, do you have a tongue like that?” she whispered to her serene and silent lover. Impulsively she brushed her lips across the end of his carved and slightly open snout, teasing her tongue between the smooth jade of his lips. He tasted of earth and sex, and a tiny jolt hit her tongue like she’d just touched it to the end of a battery.
The sharp sensation set off a chain reaction through her body. The tingling began in her core and her pussy began to clench in steady spasms. It came on so suddenly it surprised her. She clutched at the dragon’s shoulders, gasping for breath, but unable to stop moving her hips—it felt so good. Then it overtook her like a wildfire, consuming her from head to toe.
She arched her back and cried out, rising up and slamming down again and again just to prolong the pleasure. The dragon’s shoulders gave beneath her fingertips and his wings shuddered. His eyes flashed bright silver; a gust of white smoke rushed from his mouth followed by a low, curious growl.
With his first solid thrust back, she screamed in unbridled ecstasy, and everything went black.
