by Celeste Raye
He chuckled. “In your world, probably. But we don’t have money here.”
Her mouth dropped open. “How do you pay for stuff?”
“We trade for it or we work for it.”
She surveyed his face. “You have a job? I mean, what does a dragon do?”
“I protect my loyal subjects, of course.”
She sipped the tea. “Are you kidding?”
“No. That’s what I do. I…my father was a knight, and so I am too. We have always been warriors, and there’s always something to fight.”
“Like those things that came after us when we got here.”
“Orcs,” he supplied as he dumped a spoonful of honey into his cup. “And yes. We used to have other things here, but they’re dead now. We killed them all.”
She asked, in a softer voice, “Have you been in a lot of battles?’
He stared into the cup. The tea was dark, nearly black. “More than I would have liked to have been in.” The words were true. He was a knight by birth and law. He was also the second half of the two rulers who guarded that world. That was also something he had never asked for and was not always sure he had any right to be. He had done his duty, and he had killed hundreds of Orcs and other creatures, but still, he always wondered if, after he died, and his line was gone from that world, anyone would really remember him at all, other than to remember him as his father’s son.
Chapter Six
Christy knew sitting there sipping tea that had the same kick as a triple shot of espresso was probably stupid. Blake had been smirking and smug the day before, but right then he seemed way more approachable, and a little sad too.
Human, even.
But he was not a human; he was a dragon.
She asked, “Wait. You said your kind got cursed and turned into dragons?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s a fairy tale, but with a screwed-up ending, I guess. Once upon a time, a wizard fell in love with a princess, who just happened to be married to a knight, who was my uncle and Max’s father. They fought, and when it was clear that the wizard was going to die, he took his anger out on them by cursing them to be dragons and making them leave the world they had always known. The portal opened just as he died, but there was no way they could stay. They fought, my uncle and father and the others, but it had some sort of pull they could not resist.”
“Like the beams UFOs use?”
“What is a UFO?”
“Spaceships. You know, aliens and…never mind. You were born here then?”
“Yes.”
She looked away but not before he saw the pity on her face. “And you can leave, but you don’t.”
“Oh, I can leave, but unfortunately, I can’t stay over there like some can, because when my father broke that law, I was cursed too, but that time by the other dragons, by the Council. So, I can’t abdicate my punishment and live in your world.”
Sympathy and a little anger came then. “That’s not fair. You didn’t do anything!”
“I know. But what can you do? The law is the law, and there’s no way to change it.” He looked down at the cup, and she watched lines crop up on his forehead. How old was he? How long did dragons live? How many years would he have to live with that punishment?
She said, “So why did your dad do it?”
“He was…we were human once, and we still are, deep down we are. We feel all the same things humans feel. The dragon my father killed knew the portal was opening again and he raised an army; he sided with the Orcs and was going to lose them on your world, along with other creatures born of evil. He knew he had an army your kind had never seen and had no ability to fight. He was not the ruler of this world, but he could have been the ruler of that one. None of his peers could kill him because to do so would be to break the law. Besides, he didn’t want war here; he wanted to rule there.”
Her breath was a sharp inhale. “Your father killed him to stop him from destroying a lot of lives.”
“Yes.”
“And now you can’t have kids with another dragon or human here? That’s how they paid him back for that? I mean…that’s…” She could not speak. It boggled her mind. “Didn’t they care what the evil dragon was trying to do?”
“They did, but they could not bring themselves to break the law.”
“I would have,” she said hotly. “Good for your father. What happened to him, I mean after?”
“He died. He took the dragon fire.”
“The what?” Her hands clutched at the cup as she tried to puzzle that one out.
Blake clarified, “A dragon can choose to be immolated in their own fire, and he did.”
Oh. My. God. Her mind went utterly blank, smooth and seemingly without any ability to comprehend that horror at all. She swallowed hard and then poured a hefty swig of tea down her throat. The brew sent caffeine, or whatever the equivalent of it over there was, rushing through her veins and shocked her mind back to awareness and the ability to think. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me too. He was a great father, a great knight. One hell of a dragon and a better man.”
She wondered where his mother was, but no way was she going to ask that question. She was sure if there was a story there, it was just as sad and tragic, and if she was a sucker for anything, it was sad and tragic.
She asked, “So it’s pretty important for you; I mean, that’s why you went to my world and tried to get a…”
“Yes.” His gaze was so direct that she felt color flush up along her cheekbones. “I don’t want romance. I don’t need love. I need a child. If my line is going to survive.”
“I hope it works out for you.” His words had made her acutely uncomfortable. Leave off the baby part, and he sounded just like her speaking about sex.
“Me too. You feel sorry for me I take it?”
She snapped, “Not sorry enough to offer to have your kid.”
“Duly noted.” There was a smile on his lips as he lifted the cup to his full and sensual mouth and when he lowered the cup, she found herself staring at that mouth, wondering if he was a good kisser, if he could put that mouth to wickedly good use. More color crept into her face, and she stood a little too quickly. The caffeine perked along her system, making her even dizzier. “I need to go see if Heather’s crawled back to our room yet.”
His eyebrows headed toward his hairline. “She didn’t come back?”
Shit. Why did I say that? “No.” Dammit again. She said, a trifle acidly, “It seems your cousin has a better way with women than you do.”
“He’s had more practice.” He saw the look on her face and added, “Not saying he has…that’s not what I meant. I just meant most avoid me…”
“Again, not surprised.”
“So, I don’t really know how to be as charming as my cousin,” he finished like she had not spoken at all. “Dragons mate for life, you know. I’m a losing proposition for the females here.”
Mate for life? She felt that wave of sympathy for him again. She said, “Oh. Well. Have a good morning.”
He said, “Did you want breakfast? The people who work here in the castle only make lunch and dinner. If you want breakfast, you have to get it on your own. Or I could whip you up something while I make mine.”
“No. I never eat breakfast. The tea was great though. Thank you.” The last thing she wanted to do was say thank you to him. This was all his fault, and she wanted badly to go home—and get as far away from him as possible. The fantasy that she had had last night was front and center in her mind just then, and her eyes kept going back to those molded lips of his. The lips she wanted to so badly to kiss and to have kiss her.
Chapter Seven
Blake muttered, “Well that was awkward.”
It had not been awkward until she had bolted though. In fact, it had been nice, sitting there with her, drinking the stout tea and talking. The light had come through the windows, highlighting her face, and for a moment he had let himself imagine that this was what it would be like to have
a mate. To have a woman he could wake up to every morning.
“I could have gone without the whole flour to the face thing though. Yeah, he could have, but even that was funny.” He sighed and grit his teeth together. He wanted her, dammit, and he knew it. The question was, how to get her?
Blake was still asking himself that question when dinner ended. He watched her stroll out of the hall, the gown she wore that day clinging to her pert bottom in a way that made his entire body go taut and stiff. He muttered, “This is ridiculous.”
He stood up from the table and took off after her, following behind her and admiring the very delectable view as she made her way up the stairs to the roof. He spoke as he approached so that he would not frighten her. “This has always been one of my favorite places.”
She didn’t turn around. “I can see why. It’s stunning.”
“It is.” He wasn’t talking about the view though. He came up beside her and they stood looking out at the large vistas of sky and mountain, of the village situated just below, and she asked, “It’s so different here, isn’t it?”
He said, “At one time your world was not that different from this one.” She turned to face him then. Strands of her hair blew around her face, and he stared at those strands and at her dark eyes and full mouth. She asked, “Really?”
He let his body lean against the edge of the roof. “Really. My father and mother used to go there a lot, back when I was younger.”
She glanced out at the softly waving grass in the bustling village and then asked, “I thought they were cursed to stay here forever.”
He said, “They were. The portal was still here then. It comes and goes. You can never really know how long it will stay open. We have a sort of general estimate on it, but sometimes it fools us. The truth is the curse sent them here and turned them into dragons, and yes, the wizard cursed them to be here forever.”
She finished it. “It was once they became dragons that they couldn’t live there anymore. That’s what kept them from going back and staying.”
She was so close to him, close enough that he could feel her body heat and smell that delicious fragrance that was her skin. “Yes. For one thing, the time is different. When they went back the first time, they discovered that though they had been here only a few years, many years had passed there. Many of the people that they had known and loved were already gone. Then there was their Dragon-ess. It’s hard, when you’re a Dragon in a place where there are none, to feel at home. That’s not to say that some dragons didn’t return and don’t live there now, because they do.”
She looked interested. “They do? Really?”
He let his fingers stroke across the smooth stone of the roof’s wall. “Yeah. Really. Some went back in what would’ve been several hundred years after the wizard died. Some of the young that were born early on decided that they couldn’t stand not knowing what they might have over there and so they left. Many came back, but many didn’t. That was before we knew that the portal in your world changes its location. Sometimes it opens in your city, sometimes in completely different countries. There’s no way to know where it’s going to be and so some who wanted to come back found that they couldn’t. Many spent decades searching for that portal again.”
She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Some of the humans here said they came here through doors.”
The wind pushed him a little bit closer to her, and he let it. Their bodies were close enough to touch now if he simply leaned a little bit toward her. He resisted that for a moment. “Yes. Many of those dragons who chose to go back, to see what might be there, decided that rather than have to search for the portals that they would just build doorways. It took centuries and a lot of magic, but eventually, they made a few.”
The wind fluttered her gown. A small fold of fabric moved across his fingers and his body reacted by moving toward hers. They stood, a mere inch of space between them, and with their hands close enough to touch. He looked down at the stones and their fingers. Their pinkies were very close to each other. He nudged his closer yet, and just the tip of his finger touched the side of hers. She didn’t move it away.
She said, “You really have magic?”
He said, “Yes. Do you want to see?”
Her pinky pressed a little closer to his. “Please tell me you’re not about to bust out some cheesy card trick or magic trick.”
He gave her a look. “I like cheese, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t need it for magic.”
Her head went back. Her throat moved as laughter bubbled up from her chest and then exploded from her mouth. She cried out, “Oh my God! That’s not what it meant at all! I mean, I didn’t mean cheese like...You know what? Show me.”
Their gazes locked. Her eyes were dancing and twinkling and a smile highlighted her entire face. The sight of her, so caught up in humor, made a strange ache in his heart. He said, “Will you trust me?”
She responded with, “Not in your life.”
He gave her a look that he hoped made him appear wounded. “Why not?”
She said, “Do you really need a whole list of the reasons or do you just want a few of the highlights?”
He said, “Okay. I can see your point. I mean, all things considered. How about you trust me to take you for a ride?”
Her laughter came again. “You do know the last time you took me for a ride I ended up here?”
He said, “Well, you can actually blame Max for that one.”
Her head tilted to one side. “Oh. Is that how you are doing it now?”
He said, “If it will convince you that I’m not a terrible person, hell yes.”
That laughter came back, matched by his own. There was something starting between them; he could feel it. She was a woman who knew her own mind very well, and he wanted to know what was in it. It was so unlike him, wanting to get to know a woman, not just on the physical level but to know what went on in that head of hers; it took him aback. He stopped laughing and said, “Just hang on really tight, and you’ll be fine. Although I’ll go slow and I won’t go too high.”
She said, “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m something of an adrenaline junkie.”
He said, “I don’t know what that means.”
She leaned in. Her eyes sparkled. Her grin got wider. “It means I like doing things that scare most other people. They scare me too, but that’s why I like them.”
He had the immediate urge to tell her that most women were afraid to have sex with the Dragon. He squelched that before it could make it off the tip of his tongue. He said, “Then I’ll fly and if you feel that the ride is not exciting enough, you let me know.”
She stood there staring at him, and he could tell that she was trying to make up her mind either to take that ride or to stay where she stood. He knew there was no way that he could sway her decision. She was a woman who was used to making up her mind and acting without any input from anyone else. She was a stubborn, independent, modern woman. Something he had zero experience with. But God, how he wanted to learn.
He changed. He knelt on the ground and said, “Your chariot, so to speak, awaits, milady.”
She was uncertain. “What if I hurt you?”
He said, “You won’t.”
Her hands ran across his scales, and a little shiver of pure lust worked its way through his body. He took a deep breath and said, “Just step up.”
She did. Her hands went to the smooth flesh between his shoulders and neck, an instinctive thing that told him that she was going to be very good to carry. Some people were born to ride, and so far, she seemed to be one of them. The feel of her very toned legs around his body threatened to topple his self-restraint. He wanted nothing more than to change back into his human guise and bed her right then and there.
He lifted up and away, off the roof. He said a slow pace, not flying very high, staying just above the height of the castle walls. She cried out, but that cry was one of sheer pleasure. Then she said, “Go higher! Go higher!”
He took her toward the forest. The trees grew tall there, and the daylight was not yet fading from its corners. The wind blew harder and she leaned forward, lying almost flat against his body. Her laughter rolled behind them as he spotted a break in the trees and then began to descend.
By the time he had landed, her laughter had become contagious, and he was laughing too. She scrambled off his back and cried out, “That was incredible! I’ll admit it, after the way that Max snatched us up and flew us over here, I wasn’t sure I should do it, but I’m so glad I did!”
He changed into his human form and stood there smiling at her. There was color in both her cheeks and her body was fidgeting restlessly. He knew that was the aftermath of flight. Many humans did that. Yet he couldn’t help but feel like he had given her something special. He said, “Come on, I want to show you something.”
She followed him eagerly across the forest floor. Their bodies brushed together as they walked and every time their hips or hands or legs touched, he felt another streak of desire arc through his body.
The door stood ahead, and she stopped, staring at it with real confusion. She said, “What the hell? It’s a door!”
He nodded. “It is.” She went to it. She reached a hand out and swung it open, but the door opened to reveal nothing but the forest behind it. She scratched her head and walked around the door then peaked at him from the backside of it. “I don’t get it.”
He said, “This was the door that the first dragons to risk going back into your world built as a means of bypassing the portal.”
She leaned against it, “But it doesn’t work anymore?”
He said, “Oh, it does. But only if there’s somebody on the other side who really truly wants to enter this world.”