by Lori Dillon
But all of that was gone now.
He listened for the remembered sound of his parents' laughter that once filled this room. He strained to catch even one faint echo that might somehow have remained trapped within these crumbling walls. But he heard only the restless breeze as it wafted across the top of the roofless chamber and the scurrying of tiny creatures making their nests in the cracks and crevices of the rotting timbers.
The enormity of all he had lost at the whim of the Dark Witch had never been more acute.
He looked at the wall where his parents' bed had once been, now a gaping hole open to the rear bailey. Only one post remained standing in silent refusal of defeat. Baelin walked over to it and shoved the massive timber, toppling it onto its kindred where it splintered at his feet.
"I am lost. Even if I break the curse and become the man I once was, what good does it do me? I have no home to return to, no lands to claim as my own. My family is gone, long ago turned to naught but bones and dust in the ground." He closed his eyes against a truth he did not want to acknowledge, but could no longer deny. "All this time I have been trying to return to what I was, and it can never be. The man I was died the day the dragon came to life within me."
"Oh, Baelin." He heard Jill walk up behind him, felt the warmth of her presence at his back. "I'm so sorry."
He felt her hands brush over his shoulders. Her small, delicate hands that could set his warrior's body to tremble with the slightest touch.
"In different ways, we have both lost our homes and families, and neither of us knows quite where we belong anymore." Her hands glided down his arms, her palms resting over his clenched fists until he relaxed enough for her to entwine their fingers. She brought their clasped hands around in front of him and wrapped both their arms around his waist before resting her head gently against his shoulder.
An embrace had never felt so dear, nor been so needed.
"If it's any consolation, you still have me."
She spoke the words softly, as if she was unsure he would value their worth.
Baelin turned in her arms and gazed down at her. "You are no mere consolation, my lady. You are a prize, a treasure beyond my wildest dreams."
"Then don't shut me out anymore."
He gazed down at her. "For over two hundred years, I have been the one shunned. And yet here you stand before me, asking me not to spurn you. What a strange pair we make."
God help him, now that she was in his arms, he never wanted to let her go. He kissed her, the soft touch of lips growing more forceful as their tongues danced, their breaths merged, and each fed the hunger of the other. Finally, he broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers, his eyes closed.
"Ah, Jill, you tempt me beyond bearing."
"I certainly hope so."
His eyes flew open and he pulled back to look at her. "But I cannot offer you a bed, nor even a roof over your head."
She smiled and ran a finger along his jaw. "It didn't matter to me the first time. I don't think a little thing like the lack of a mattress will bother me now."
Jill drew her hands down his mail-covered chest, then held her breath as her nervous fingers unbuckled the belt holding his sword. When it started to slip down his hips, his hands covered hers. She froze. Was he going to stop her? Was he going to deny them what she knew they both wanted?
She dared to look up and found herself gazing into eyes dancing with golden flames. He took the belt from her and tossed it to the ground before spinning her around.
"Baelin?"
"Hush." He brushed her hair aside, placing a whisper-soft kiss on her neck. "Since that first night in the cave, I have dreamt of doing this."
She felt a pull at the back of her gown as he untied the laces, tugging them loose. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, the ridge of her shoulder blade, as inch by inch, her skin was revealed.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he peeled the gown down her arms as that wicked dragon tongue of his licked circles down her spine to the small of her back. His touch was so tender for a battle-scarred warrior dragon, his attention to her so gentle. Jill trembled, her legs nearly buckling with need as she stood naked in the ruins of his parents' chamber.
Behind her, she heard the clink of mail, the rasp of cloth. Then his arms came around her waist, pulling her back against the naked, hard length of him before he trailed his hands up her stomach to cup her breasts.
"Know you what you are about, my lady?"
"Yes."
"Then, before we go any further, I must know one thing—do you trust me?"
She only paused a heartbeat to answer.
"With my life."
He spun her back around. Pure pleasure lit his face before a cocky grin crossed his features. His eyes hinted at some deep secret he held just out of her reach. "Then I need you to trust me now, and know that I will never let you come to harm."
Jill shivered. They were about to make love. At least she hoped so. He was making it sound like they were about to do something life-threatening. All she could do was nod.
"Then my lady, prepare yourself to mate with the dragon."
Before she knew what was happening, Baelin wrapped his arms around her waist. He spread his mighty dragon wings and took them up through the opening in the roof, soaring into the darkening sky.
Jill squealed and held onto his neck for dear life.
Higher and higher they soared, until she wondered if they were going to touch the clouds.
All the while, he kissed her, his wicked tongue distracting her from their rapid ascent. He held her tightly to him, one arm firm around her waist, the other cupping her buttocks, his rigid cock pressed between their bellies. Terrified at first, passion gave over to the sensation. Lost in the heat of his kiss, Jill almost forgot that her feet weren't touching the ground.
And then they stopped and hovered in the air, broad sweeps of his wings keeping them aloft as if they were treading water. The cool temperature of the high altitude licked at the skin of her back, making her front where she pressed against his bare skin feel as if it were on fire.
"What are you doing?"
"'Tis the way dragons mate," he whispered in her ear as his hands lifted her ever so slightly, urging her legs around his waist. Jill obeyed, locking her ankles at the small of his back. "Trust me, Jill. I will not let you go this time."
"I do trust you."
"Then hold on to me. Now!"
With one smooth thrust, he was inside her. Then they were falling, tumbling, spinning. In what she would have once thought was an out of control plummet, she knew now by the grip he held on her that he was in total command of what was happening. In the waning light, she could barely make out the ground below them. But it didn't matter any longer. The movement of his body inside hers distracted her until she thought she would pass out into oblivion.
Baelin spun and tumbled them, her stomach turning flips, and all the while he thrust inside her, over and over. As they plunged toward the earth, the building pressure inside rose to a peak she'd never reached before. What should've been utterly terrifying became the most erotic experience of her life.
They plummeted toward the ground, coming closer and closer as they tumbled in the air, two joined bodies falling like a shooting star in the twilit sky. Jill cried out as a burst of sensation shot through her entire body from where Baelin filled her. He roared in triumph as his hot seed shot inside her, pulsing and throbbing, once, twice, a third time. Just when they were only seconds from crashing into the ground, he spread his wings wide and they soared back up into the sky again.
Jill clutched him, wondering how he could still hold onto her when her whole body felt weak and drained of all strength. She hardly noticed as he flew them over what had once been his village, to land softly on the grassy plateau of the fortress mound.
He walked, still carrying her, through the opening in the ruined wall and gently laid her on the ground in the remains of the place he once called home.
The Dark Witch was in her courtyard
when the hunting party returned.
If the knight thought it odd that she would sit in a garden of stone in the dead of night, he made no comment.
"What news do you bring of my dragon, Edgar?"
"We have found him, my queen."
"Good. Now that was not so hard, was it?" If the man thought otherwise, he kept it to himself. Isylte smiled. At least this one was learning. "Where is he?"
"The dragon and the maid are passing the night in the ruins of his family stronghold."
"Is he now? How touching. Could it be after all these years, he's grown sentimental, longing for that which he has lost?" She looked up at the moon, hanging high in a starless sky, only the last crescent left in shadow. "Or does he feel his chance slipping away and already mourns the loss of his humanity?"
"Perhaps…"
"Perhaps what?" Isylte shifted to regard Edgar, unease creeping up her spine at the faltering tone in the man's voice. The knight stood there, worry etching deep lines in his brow. "Perhaps what?"
"Perhaps the dragon took the maiden there for another reason."
"And what, pray tell, would that reason be?" Isylte's anger escalated when the knight would not answer. "Tell me."
"The maid is…no longer a maid."
She stood, her fists clenched at her sides, her nails digging into her palms, but she ignored the pain. "What?"
"The dragon has mated with the girl."
She did not want to believe the words he spoke. "How do you know?"
"I saw it with my own eyes." His gaze darted to the sky and then returned to the ground at his feet. "'Twas hard to miss."
Isylte paced the flagstone path of the stone garden, the air about her crackling with violent energy.
"How could he? How dare he?" She whirled on the knight. "Since you were so close, were you able to deprive Baelin of the tapestry or his whore?"
"Nay, my queen. We did exactly as you ordered and did not approach them. But even if we did, we could not remove either without a battle. The dragon guards his treasure well."
"What did you call her?"
The knight swallowed, a fine sheen of sweat erupting on his brow. "His treasure?"
"Well, in that case, take Lorcan and bring his treasure to me. If he values it so highly, the dragon will come here to get it back."
Isylte seethed. All this time, Baelin had refused her, yet he'd taken the maiden. For over two hundred years she had called to him, yet he had not set foot in her realm. He'd never come back to her.
But Baelin would come for the girl. She knew he would.
And for that reason alone, the maiden would die.
CHAPTER 33
"Well, that just gave a whole new meaning to being a member of the Mile High Club."
"My lady?" Baelin sighed, his warm breath tickling the back of her neck.
"Never mind. It's a twenty-first century joke."
Jill stretched, her body limp and satiated in some places, sore and tender in others. Then she resumed her spooning position with him under the blanket they'd hastily tossed over their naked bodies. His arm snaked around her waist, drawing her against him.
"You know, for someone who's been living as a dragon in a cave, you sure have some amazing sex tricks up that chain mail sleeve of yours." As soon as she said it, an odd, creepy thought popped into her head. "Please, please tell me you don't have some cute little she-dragon out there on the side."
He chuckled, his broad chest rumbling against her back. "Nay, my lady. You are my only lover, both of the flesh and of the scale."
"Good to know."
But her relief only went so far. What she'd just done—sleeping with a man who was part dragon—probably technically bordered on bestiality in most states. As kinky as that seemed, she wouldn't be able to handle it if she found out Baelin had been getting his rocks off with some little dragonette all along.
"But if you've never done it dragon-style, how did you know how to do…," she waved her hand in circles in the air, "…that?"
She felt him shrug against her, apparently unconcerned with her probing and totally inappropriate questions. "Instinct, I suppose."
"Instinct?"
"Aye. In human form I should not know how to fly or breathe fire, yet I do. The same obsession that compels a dragon to hoard treasure drives the man in me to amass gold and silver too, though I try to fight the urge. As you recall from the bounty in the cave, I have not always been successful at denying that particular impulse." He shifted, rolling her on her back to lean over her. "And when the lust is upon me, as it always seems to be with you…" He gave her a shameless look that said he was more than ready to prove his point all over again. "I feel I must take you in the air. I almost did that first time in the forest, but did not dare with the wound still fresh to my wing."
At her shocked gasp, he frowned. "I am sorry if you did not find pleasure in the experience. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to me."
Jill laughed. "The most orgasmic experience of my life, yes. Natural, no."
"Orgasmic? I do not know this word."
His hand traveled down her belly to tangle in her curls, still damp from their recent aerial escapade. The look in his eyes and the smile on his face said he had a pretty good idea of its meaning all the same.
Jill shoved him over on his back and sprawled her body on top of his. "Hmmm, as thrilling as it was, I'd just as soon have the next orgasmic experience safely on the ground, if you don't mind."
She began a slow, tortuous exploration of the tender flesh behind his ear. Baelin's entire body tensed and he sucked in air as she nibbled her way down his neck to his collarbone.
"I will do my best to restrain the urges of my inner beast."
"Oh, your inner beast can 'urge' all it wants." She rubbed herself slowly up and down the hard length of his erection. "Just try to keep it under twenty thousand feet."
He rolled, pinning her beneath him. "As my lady wishes."
Then, true to his word, he kept her body physically on the ground, but still managed to take her soaring to the stars once again.
When they finally drifted back down to earth, Baelin built a roaring fire with the worm-eaten timbers that had once been part of his ancestral home. Content in the afterglow, he was reluctant to venture out for real firewood, and Jill was as reluctant to let him. Too soon they would have to leave the sanctuary of this place, but for now, both were content to stay in the illusion of the two lovers they'd become.
"I am sorry I cannot offer you more, my lady."
"Are you kidding? I have a castle with the biggest skylight in the world. I get to lay here, watching the stars twinkle in the sky. A girl can't ask for more than that—except maybe that it doesn't rain any time soon." Jill rested her head on his shoulder. "You know, where I come from, little girls dream about knights in shining armor coming to their rescue. Who'd have thought one day I'd be living out the real thing." She ran her hand over his body, her fingers caressing each ridge and muscle within reach. "A knight, I might add, who looks even better without all that clanking metal hiding this deliciously naked body of his. Why, I'd be the envy of all my friends back home."
To emphasize her point, she ran her tongue down his chest, raising gooseflesh in its wake. But instead of eliciting the groan of returning passion she expected, the taut stomach under her hand growled loudly in response.
"Hmm, sounds like the dragon is hungry." She rose up and playfully called out into the night, even though there was no one to hear her. "Attention. All juicy maidens in the vicinity please report immediately to Gosforth Castle to be eaten by the resident dragon."
Baelin chuckled and pulled her back down to him. "There is only one maiden this dragon has any desire to eat." His stomach growled once more, not appreciating the teasing talk of food. "Yet it does appear all this mating has made me quite ravenous."
"There you go, using that 'mating' word again. You make it sound like we're two jungle animals having wild monkey sex. I prefer the term '
making love', if you don't mind. It's much more refined."
"Forgive me. 'Tis the beast rearing its ugly head once again. The dragon mates…" With a wicked grin, he nipped at her breast.
"Ow!"
"…while the man makes love." He placed a gentle kiss over the spot where he'd just bitten her.
"Hmm." Jill stretched beneath him, relishing the pleasurable torment his wicked dragon tongue was inflicting on her taut nipple. "Mating with a dragon and making love with a man…since it appears I've done both at once and we haven't exactly been practicing safe sex, if I get pregnant, am I going to have a baby or lay eggs?"
Baelin stilled and his eyes flew to hers, alarm erasing the jovial look they held only seconds ago. What she'd meant as a joke he had obviously taken all too seriously.
"We should wed as soon as possible."
Way too seriously.
"Hold on. Let's not jump the gun here. We don't know if I am pregnant. Besides, it's the wrong time of the month."
A quick calculation in her head to verify that detail threw Jill into a major panic. How stupid could she be? It was actually the prime time of the month, or pretty darn close to it. She just prayed she wouldn't be taking any little souvenirs back when she returned to her time.
"That is beside the point. I have lain with you three times as only a husband should."
"Well, technically, the second time we weren't lying, we were flying," she said, making her tone deliberately glib to hide her unease.
Baelin wasn't about to be swayed by any attempt at humor. "We shall marry as soon as we can find a priest to do the deed."
"Slow down, Baelin. That's really not necessary."
"But it is. I will not dishonor you that way." He paused, staring deep into her eyes. "Besides, once a dragon mates, he mates for life."
"Stop referring to yourself as a goddamn dragon. You're not. You're a man. And in my experience, most men are not innately monogamous."
"This one is."
She looked into his eyes and knew he was deadly serious. Where the idea of a man like him loving her, being faithful to her for the rest of her life should have thrilled her, instead it felt like a weight around her neck. Boy, did their timing suck.