Tabula Rasa Read online

  Sleeping Dragons

  Book 2

  Tabula Rasa

  Ophelia Bell

  Copyright 2014 by Ophelia Bell

  Cover design by Dawné Dominique

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  About Ophelia Bell

  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 fantasies. The subject of those fantasies 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 with delight.

  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 jade dragon statues. The setting was unlike past dreams, but the situation familiar enough for her fantasy to play out as it always did. Eben stood before her, naked. Her gaze traveled hungrily up his strong legs, over 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 tight curves of pectorals and long, powerful arms dangling from wide, strong shoulders. So many moments had she caught herself staring at the way his muscles flexed when he would move—to lift 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 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. The wide-set blue eyes that seemed to undress her on the rare occasions she managed to capture his attention, a perfect nose above his bow-shaped mouth—a mouth just made 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 grow 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 her hips closer to his mouth as the words gusted against her tender 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. But shortly she lost herself in the sensations. 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.

  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 pink tip between his lips. When both nipples were thoroughly attended and aching from his attention, he took her face between his large hands, gazing deeply 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 ever present, 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 most suggestive 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 the lack of release, 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 tried to find 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 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 drag
on 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.

  The sleeping bodies of Dimitri and Corey 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 that lined the corridor walls gave entry. She tried them all until she finally came back to the beginning, frustrated. She stared at the huge, dark door that led 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 angrily wiped a stray tear from her eye. Hoping she was mistaken, she pushed through the heavy door and quietly 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 equally by jealousy and eager curiosity, 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 and still gave her a perfect vantage to 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 large creature the likes of which Camille had only seen in storybooks, its red scales glimmering like translucent jewels in the glowing lights. Long, red claws delicately gripped Erika’s naked 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 the dragon’s cock with obvious, enthusiastic enjoyment. Camille couldn’t pull her eyes away from the sight. Heat coalesced between Camille’s thighs while she watched, throbbing in time with every thrust.

  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 nuzzling soft words Camille couldn’t hear. She was comforted by the fact that the large red-haired man was decidedly not Eben, but where was Eben?

  A motion at the far end of the room caught her eye. 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 shimmering lavender skin that hinted at a scaled texture and majestic horns extending 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 Eben’s cock. His hand disappeared between them and Camille could see his shoulder flexing with the hidden motions of his hand 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 resounded in her head, and for the first time she was feverish enough to want to make it happen. But how?

  She 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, 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 feel of its polished skin against hers suddenly felt a lot more intima
te 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’s 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. The smoothness of him 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 awoken. 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 penis of her statue 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 Eben’s voice reminded Camille of her dream, and a violent flutter of need erupted deep in her belly, making her close her eyes and moan softly. 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.