by Lori Dillon
Jill made a small curtsy. "Doctor Donahue at your service. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."
Baelin frowned at her, confused. Great, she was babbling nonsense again. She couldn't be any more awkward if she tried.
His gaze traveled her body and his frown hardened when it stopped at her feet. "My lady! I am not the only one injured. We must see to your feet."
She looked down and sure enough, her feet were a throbbing, bloody mess. Nothing in her modern world had conditioned her for running through the woods barefoot.
"Sit and I will tend them."
She did as he asked, taking his seat on the log, the bark still warm from his body.
He knelt before her and lifted her foot, carefully cleaning the leaves and dirt from the worst of the cuts. Water would've been nice, but there wasn't a stream or brook in sight. He kept his head lowered, intent on his task.
He was being very tender, but he could have taken sandpaper to her toes and she wouldn't have noticed. All the feeling in her body was no longer focused on the pain in her feet, but up higher, where his hand cupped her calf. Tingles radiated out from the spot and she could feel her pulse pounding just under the skin. Could he feel it too? The moan she tried to suppress came out sounding more like a groan.
His eyes flew to her face. "Did I hurt you?"
"No. You have a gentle touch. I hardly felt a thing." Liar.
Jill mentally shook herself and tried to shift her mind off this train of thought. "I wish I'd gotten to say goodbye to Owen."
Baelin returned to tending her feet. "It could not be helped."
"I know." She looked at his bowed head, her hand itching to run her fingers through his hair. She gave herself bonus points for controlling the urge. "So, do you think Roderick will keep his word and not come after us?"
"I do not know. Though some men claim themselves knights, they do not always live by the code. Kendale? Perhaps he is honorable enough. In the short time we knew him, I would like to think him to be true to his word. But after taking you, I am no longer so certain." Baelin paused in his task and stared at the ground. "How could I have been so wrong? For a time, I thought him a friend."
"And you were his."
"Then he was a friend I nearly killed. If you had not stopped me…" He shook his head. "I hated him for taking you from me. I could have killed him for it and not thought twice."
"But you didn't."
He didn't respond, but continued in his task, cutting more strips from his surcoat and wrapping her feet.
"For what it's worth, I don't think you were wrong about Roderick. Neither of us were. He's a good man." Jill took a deep breath and pressed on, needing to fill the tense silence surrounding them. "Sometimes, when you're taught all your life that something is one way, it's hard to accept what you thought was right might have been wrong all along. Given time to think about it, I believe Roderick will come to realize he was wrong about you, just like you're wrong about him. You can't blame him for doing what he believed was right any more than he can blame you for being a dragon."
Finished wrapping her feet, Baelin leaned back and surveyed his handiwork. He swore under his breath. "If that is what you believe, then perhaps I should have left you with him. With me, you have known naught but pain."
"But I'm not with him and I don't want to be. You and I, we're in this thing together."
He shook his head. "At least with him, you would be safe. Now that the Dark Witch knows of you, your life will always be in danger."
"Then I can think of no better person to be with."
"I am honored you have such faith in me." Baelin sat taller as his eyes searched her face, serious, intense. "Know this, my lady. As long as you are with me, I will allow no more harm to befall you. I will use all that is within my power to keep you safe and I will gladly lay down my life to protect you."
She looked at his handsome face, illuminated by the sunlight filtering through the treetops, and knew he spoke the truth.
He would die for her.
She didn't think there was another person on this earth—in this time or hers—who would so freely say the same.
She wanted to say something, but the words refused to come. She looked at him, sitting there on his knees in front of her, so big and brave and yet suddenly so vulnerable.
Then his gaze dropped and focused in on her mouth. In an instant, those eyes of his shifted from chocolate brown to a glowing gold, hinting at the fire constantly burning inside of him. She watched his body tense from the force of holding back, his fists gripping his thighs as if he didn't, they might reach out and grab her of their own accord.
He wanted to kiss her. Wanted it so desperately she felt it with every fiber of her being. But he wouldn't, not when he thought she saw him as a monster.
No, with a man like Baelin, it would be up to her to make the first move.
And so she did.
She leaned in and cupped his handsome face in her hands, brushing his mouth with a gentle kiss, showing him with an action better than words that she thought him no beast.
She felt his shock, his initial resistance. When he tried to pull back, she held on, tunneling her fingers into his hair and clasping the nape of his neck. She increased the pressure, crushing his mouth with hers, nipping at his lips with her teeth, probing the crease of his lips with her tongue. She felt the moment of his surrender in the relaxing of his shoulders, in the growl that erupted from deep inside him before he wrapped his arms around her and returned her kiss.
His hands touched the skin of her back where the torn smock gapped open. He pulled away, as if the feel of her exposed skin shocked him. He looked at her, confusion warring with the desire in his eyes.
Before she could stop him, Baelin pushed himself away from her, stood and walked away.
She swayed, feeling suddenly cold and weak without his arms around her.
What just happened? They'd been kissing. A hot, sizzling kiss that had sent tingles zinging all the way down to her toes. She'd been thoroughly enjoying herself. So what did she do wrong? Had she offended him? Had she misread all the signals?
She stared at his stiff back. He couldn't even look at her. Did he not want her?
Embarrassment and shame rushed over her. Well, if this just wasn't the most pitiful thing. Rejected by Puff the Magic Dragon. It looked like her love life sucked in every century.
Jill stood and walked to him, stopping an arm's length away. "Baelin, I'm sorry if—"
He whirled and stared down at her, that smoldering heat still burning in his eyes.
Before she could blink, he crushed her to him as if he could pull her body inside his own. Now it was he who was the aggressor, nipping and teasing her lips before invading her mouth with his tongue.
He tasted of smoke and mint and, strangely enough, just a trace of salt. The sensation of his forked tongue wrapping around hers shocked her. She'd never felt anything like it, and a wave of pure electricity shot through her entire body. Her gut clenched, her legs grew weak, and she thought she might climax on the spot from just that one kiss.
Jill had never felt so consumed by another person in her life, as if the very breath from her lungs gave him life. Holding him in her arms, she marveled that such a strong, brave knight could tremble so.
Without warning, Baelin broke the kiss and dropped to his knees before her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his cheek against her stomach as his broad shoulders shook and his hands clutched at her.
Then silently, her big, brave dragon-knight wept.
CHAPTER 28
"Am I to assume by your presence before me that you have succeeded?"
The tall, strong knight squirmed where he stood. "Not quite."
Isylte narrowed her eyes at the man, who seemed to prefer to gaze at his feet rather than look her in the eye.
"Not quite." She mimicked his inflection of the word. "'Tis not an acceptable answer. Tell me, did you kill the maiden or not?"
; The warrior glanced at the fellow knights standing with him before he answered. "I am afraid not, my queen. The maid and the dragon are still together, though they were separated for a time after the fire."
Her only reaction was the tightening of her knuckles as she gripped the arms of her throne. "What fire?"
"When we found them, they had stopped at an inn, still in the company of the dragonslayer and the boy. But there were too many others about. We thought to create a distraction, so that we might flush them out."
"And so you set fire to the inn?" she said in disbelief.
"Aye."
"With my dragon inside?" Her disbelief quickly turned to simmering outrage.
The knight finally looked up, alarm mingled with puzzlement in his expression. "Being a dragon and all, we did not think the flames would harm him."
"'Tis where you made your first mistake. You did not think." Isylte glared at the motley crew standing before her who dared to call themselves her guard. "In his human form, he can burn as easily as the rest of you, which may soon become your fate if you do not tell me what I wish to hear."
To a man, the warriors paled at her threat. They might be battle-hardened knights, but they were no match for her powers and they all knew it.
"What happened as a result of this little 'distraction' of yours?"
"During the fire, the dragon revealed himself and the people at the inn attacked." At her alarmed expression, the knight rushed to add, "He flew off before they could catch him. I assure you the dragon was unharmed, my queen."
"I see." She relaxed, if only a little. "And what of the maid who is helping him? What of her?"
"We believed she perished in the fire…at first."
"At first?" Isylte ground her teeth. She contemplated what method of torture would be necessary to get answers out of the man faster.
"It appears a dragonslayer made off with the maid sometime during the tumult. The dragon was none too happy about it."
Reminded once again of how much this faceless girl meant to Baelin, Isylte inwardly seethed. "No, I would imagine not."
The knight continued on, oblivious to his queen's rising ire. "When we found him alone the morn after the fire, we attempted to take him, alive, of course. But he fought fiercely. He used his dragon powers, killing the captain and nearly a dozen of the men before he escaped. The rest of us barely survived with our lives."
"How fortunate for you," she murmured, her tone dry and unsympathetic.
"The dragon gave chase after the maid and we followed. But sometime before we found them, the dragon must have overtaken the dragonslayer and bested him, for when we came upon his camp, the dragonslayer was alone and nursing his wounds."
"So, the maid is under the dragon's protection once again." It wasn't what she would have hoped for, but there was still time to stop them from breaking the curse. "Where are they now?"
"We are not certain."
"And why not?" she growled. By the slumping of the knight's broad shoulders, she could already tell she was not going to like what came next.
"We followed their trail deep into the forest. We were almost upon them when men from the inn found them and attacked. The dragon attempted to fly away with the maid, but they shot at them with arrows. They fell from the sky and landed somewhere in the Grizedale Forest."
"What? How dare they try to slay my dragon." She breathed in and out in an effort to control her anger. "He is not dead. I would know it if the dragon was dead."
Comforted in the thought, she turned her rage on the men standing before her.
"But you. You have failed miserably. Not once but twice, and in the process endangered my dragon." Her voice was deceptively soft, striking fear in the men before her.
She stood slowly, full of restrained power and coiled rage. She flung a bolt of sizzling magic out into the room, reducing the twelve men standing before her into the puddles of slime they were.
She regretted her action the moment she did it. Now she would have to create more warriors to take their places and that took time. And time was something she no longer had when it came to a certain dragon-knight.
"Grend!" Her voice echoed in the empty hall. There was no one left alive in the vast chamber to obey her order. It did not matter. She pulled the silken cord by the dais, summoning the servants no doubt skulking about somewhere in the maze of corridors of her fortress. She would send one of them to fetch Grend. Her prized pet could always be depended upon to see a task done right.
She eyed the mess the useless knights had left on her pristine floor in disgust.
"You may have won this battle, my dragon. But you have not won the war. I shall see to that."
"I just don't get it. How can being shot at with arrows and plunging in a death spiral from the ozone layer not be the second test?"
Lady Jill sat on a moss-covered rock beside a stream cutting a jagged scar through the forest floor, staring in disbelief at the tapestry in her lap.
Dusk crept through the trees around them, heralding the coming of night. They'd finally stopped after walking for a while longer in near silence. The whole time, neither had spoken of the kiss, or of what had passed between them after.
For now, she seemed more concerned with the tapestry. He did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
"Why does this stupid cross stitch project from hell only show what's already happened? Why can't it be like a crystal ball and tell what's to come? At least that way, I could prepare myself for it."
"Are you certain it has not changed?"
"No. See?" She held up the tapestry. It was the same. Nothing had changed since she survived the trial by iron. "Is it because I wasn't the one hurt this time? My sliced up feet didn't bleed enough? Was I the one who should've gotten shot by the arrow?" She gripped the edges of the tapestry and shook it, as if by doing so it would give her the answers she wanted. "Do I have to endure some kind of horrendous bodily torture for these challenges to pass? If that's the way this thing works, it's not fair."
Baelin cleared his throat, uncertain of what to say. "If you have lived as long as I have, you soon learn not all in life is fair."
She looked up at him. Did she know he was speaking of more than the challenges? There she sat, tired and bedraggled and filthy, and yet he'd never seen anyone as beautiful as she was to him right now. Unfair was she could be so close and yet so far beyond his reach.
He glanced away. He didn't dare look at her any longer. And heaven help him if he ever touched her again.
"Rest. I shall see if I can gather us some food."
He left her there, sitting on the mossy rock by the brook, unable to be near her without impossible dreams running through his head.
But as he stalked away through the trees, her kiss was never far from his thoughts. The first one had been chaste and sweet, but this one…
Never, in all his years, did he think something as simple as a kiss would have the power to bring him to his knees. But it did.
Hers did.
Now he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and kiss her again. And more.
But he didn't dare. By the saints, he was almost afraid to be near her now. He was a brave knight who'd battled armies and fire-breathing dragons. How could a little slip of a woman turn his world upside down?
He stopped walking and leaned against a tree, feeling the rough bark against his palm.
How long had it been since he'd felt a person's touch? Since a woman had held him without fear? It was nearly impossible to remember. For so long, he'd hardened himself to any such emotions, any such longings. He'd begun to believe the dragon part of him had stolen that part of humanity from him. After being alone for so long, he didn't miss what he could no longer have. But now, with one kiss, those emotions had all come back. And he couldn't think of anything he wanted more than to keep Lady Jill with him. Always.
But he couldn't ask for more from her. Not yet while he was half a man.
That did not stop
him from yearning. For with her kiss came hope, and the fragments of a long forgotten dream. If Lady Jill truly was the one, then she held the power to set him free. And when he was once again a man whole, he could live a normal life, with a home that was more than a cave, with a woman he did not have to kidnap and force to stay at his side. A woman who would wed him, give him children, grow old with him.
Love him.
When he pictured that woman—the one he never dared believe he might have—he saw only Lady Jill's face, with her wild untamed hair and saucy grin. If she was the one to finally set him free, dare he hope she would be the one to stay?
Then he recalled her crushed look when she realized the second challenge hadn't been met, and she was no closer to getting home. Baelin pushed away from the tree and continued deeper into the forest.
For the first time, he admitted he didn't want her to go home. That if it were within his power, he wanted this woman to remain by his side once this quest was over. But if she was right, passing the other tests would send her far away from him, to a place where he could never reach her.
His only hope was she was wrong. That perhaps breaking the curse wasn't the key to her going home and she would stay. After all, she was only grasping at the possibility. But did he have the right to wish against the one thing he knew she desired most? Where was the honor in that?
And what if the curse was not broken and she was forced to remain? In three nights he would return to the beast that he was, just as he had year after year for over two centuries. And then where would she be? Alone, with nothing more than a giant lizard—as she so often called him—for company. Would she stay with him then? Could she live in a cave with the dragon, only able to have Baelin the man for one month out of each year?
He did not think so.
Baelin shook himself from his thoughts. After two hundred years of disappointment, he knew it was better not to hope for the impossible, less painful when the dream faded away with the rise of the next full moon.