He got as far as shedding her leathers and wedging his hips between her thighs. His mouth was everywhere. His hot tongue licked at her lips, her throat, and the shell of her ear. His rough skin rasped against hers in such a way shivers of lust bolted through her veins and had her hips rolling.
Sinking fast, Marina rasped, “Koen.”
Berserk, he shook his head once and covered her mouth with his. He freed himself. She felt his turgid cock thump against her bare mound and her eyes crossed.
He shifted, dragging the engorged head of his shaft against her clit and pulled back to plunge.
Desperate, she bit his tongue, hard, screaming, “Vow,” though both their teeth.
Determined to distract him from seducing her, she mentioned Cathryn then shimmied from under him when he stiffened in anger. So they rehashed her earlier upset, Koen’s protective streak engaged once more and refusing to let it lie.
“Let me talk to them.” His erection bobbed angrily between his muscled thighs as he stormed after her. “With my help they will perceive the error of their ways.”
“Never before has the word ‘help’ possessed sadistic connotations.” She sniffed over her shoulder at him, flicking water. “Not until you.”
Marina splashed through the shallows, shaking off the sensation of his body hard and heavy over hers as he readied to take her. Her skin was clammy with unfulfilled desire. The hem of her tunic stuck to her upper thighs, sand was ground into places it should never reach, and she was hot, uncomfortable, and burning for him.
Reconsidering her saintly behaviour, she turned and clasped his naked hips. “Do I sense in this conversation ‘talk’ is a devious euphemism for cripple and maim?”
Looking her right in the eyes, without flinching, he lied. “No.” He drew the word out, dipping his head and claiming her lips.
Marina allowed him to sidetrack her – for a moment.
She pinched his nipple and twisted. Sank her teeth into his full bottom lip, breaking skin. “Liar.”
“I know you, Treasure.” He licked away the blood. “This plays on your mind. Pain shadows your eyes.”
“Is it wrong to feel betrayed?”
“It is never wrong to feel an emotion.” He paused. “What upsets you more? That they are not in love, or that they are involved at all?”
“Yes. I mean no. I mean, I don’t know.” She shook her head and pushed it against his shoulder. Her words were muffled. “I’m angry. I feel loss, rejection.”
He focused on the emotion puzzling him most. “Why rejection?”
She blinked. “Mikhail chose to be with her instead of furthering his relationship with me.”
“Ah.” His hand burrowed under her tunic and caressed the tender skin under her breast. His other hand gripped her hip. “With you it was one or the other?”
“Something like this happening never crossed my mind. I knew Cathryn was hot and bothered over a man. I knew.” She resorted to bashing her head against his shoulder. “I thought Daniil. At worse Nikolai.”
Koen grunted.
“Not my father.” Retrospectively there were glaring clues. “I should have guessed. I was so involved in my problems I missed the clues. His growling, her inquisitiveness into his previous marriage.” She rolled her eyes, made a hollow, empty sounding noise. “Talk about obvious. Ugh, she’s a hateful bitch, always so ready to call me on my shit. It’s why she’s my girl. Still, I don’t understand this thing with Mikhail.”
Koen stroked her back as he pondered how to respond. “Love is different for each individual. Did you know that not all Treasures loved their Phoenixes?”
“Well, I suppose I came to that conclusion when I discovered Mikhail was my father. I assumed my mother loved him, but from comments I’ve heard of her reign, she was more like Anastasia in her outlook than me. It’s unsurprising.”
Marina remembered her mother well.
Almeria had been cold, frozen in some untouchable way, thawing only in private. There were times – like their joint laughter a split second before the accident – that shone bright in her memory.
When her mother had let go, she had been the kindest, most loving of creatures.
At some stage in her life that softness had been crushed.
She probably destroyed it herself as a way to survive the cutthroat reality of the Dragon Courts.
“Perhaps that was your first mistake.”
Marina jerked back, mentally and physically. “My mistake? Are you saying I’m in the wrong?”
“Easy.” Koen pulled her back into his chest. “There is no right and wrong here. Remember that. I think I may be able to unravel some of the confusion in what you are feeling. May I?”
Appeased, she snuggled closer. “Go ahead.”
“If you were gone it would destroy me. I would die. When Almeria left Mikhail carried on. That he let her go was a scandal in itself. Theirs was not a complete match yet they may have grown into love. Your mother chose another path.”
“But Mikhail seemed to care deeply about her. When I told him she died, he grieved.”
She grimaced. The way she’d told him had been entirely rude and heartless. He wasn’t the only one guilty of ruining the fragile attachment between them.
“There is no way he could not. Even if there is not love between a Dragon and his mate there is respect, liking, and friendship. They went through the Hunt together. That forms a bond between the Emperor and Empress beyond love. There is loyalty.”
“He’s sleeping with Cathryn. That’s not loyalty, Koen.”
“I speak of another kind.” He hesitated then braced himself, as if expecting a blow. His voice deepened, darkened. “Did your mother remain chaste? I tell you now, until Cathryn your Sire would have been.”
Marina fell silent.
Gritting her teeth, she clutched him tighter.
Though Koen was angry with Mikhail for hurting her he was definitely on the male’s side concerning everything else.
He reminded her there were shades of grey, and given her food for thought. She thanked him for it, even if it forced her to rethink her judgements.
Cupping his throat, she invited his addicting kind of distraction.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Marina was in heaven. The hope of attaining her goals was never higher.
The sun was a solid gold disc. As it set rays of light shot across the horizon turning the sky a blend of pink and purple that faded into a dusky blue splattered with stars.
Their hunger sent Koen hunting.
They feasted on fresh fish he cooked with dragonfire, and drank chilled water from an artesian spring.
It was a preview into how life would be with her Dragon and nothing made her more content.
Velvet darkness enfolded them before the rest of the world intruded on their tranquillity.
Daniil’s gait was smooth through the finely milled ridges of sand bleached silver by the moonlight.
He stopped at their bare feet.
His gaze wandered up a pair tangled legs, one set long, muscled and dark bronze, the other shorter, slender and the colour of pale cream, until it reached their sleepy faces.
He sighed. “I suppose I am not surprised.”
Curled up against her male’s chest, Marina blinked sleepily.
Grunting, Koen remained in repose. He kissed Marina’s throat, his fingertips lightly stroking the curved indent of her waist. His belly was full. He had spent the entire day alone with his Treasure talking of their pasts and future, playing games, improving warskill, and as the day wore on despite their vigorous activities, Marina lost the tension around her mouth. The haunting sadness deep in her expressive brown eyes lessened.
The carnality of his hunger for her body lowered to a smouldering burn, and so he would wait, patiently, for another time to ease them both.
Nothing could dampen his good humour.
Not even Daniil’s censure.
“I did train.” Yawning, Marina pushed up onto her elbows. Sh
e got no further as Koen’s arms refused to loosen. His hold became sweetly possessive, and she raked her fingers through his hair. Smiled when he groaned. “We went over my strategy, I practiced diving off Koen’s back, skimming with Glypwr.” She ticked the day’s activities off her fingers. “And I learnt how to kick under water.” She grinned. “Amazing how a female can do something as difficult as keeping her word, isn’t it?”
Daniil smiled, in a good mood since he’d slept for the first time in days.
As he opened his mouth to mercilessly tease them for being caught in a compromising position, he stilled, nostrils flaring.
The wind shifted.
Koen Raad became absolutely still.
The Dragon roused, senses hyper alert and sensitive to the subtle change in atmosphere.
“Attack and you die.” His voice was quiet with violence. He spoke into the jungle at their backs, still not bothering to rise, though his arms tightened around Marina as she tried to stand. “You may as well show yourselves. You allowed us to sense you.”
Melting from the shadows and separating from the trees cloaked men clad in long-sleeved, thinly woven tunics, and loose trousers coloured in earth tones ghosted down the sand dune.
Their heads were covered in the ebony tagelmust denoting the Desert People’s rank of Battle Mage. The wrapped swathes of fabric obscured their features, veiling their mouths, jaw, and covering the roots of their dreadlocked hair, leaving exposed a strip of skin showing their grey eyes and aquiline noses, the tips of brands on their tanned cheeks. The remaining fabric folded loosely around their necks.
Each wore a simple sash at the waist in which was tucked a plain silver dagger.
Magick twisted around their open palms in gyrating spirals.
“You are far from home.” Eyes fixed on Marina’s face, beautiful even caught in the grip of shock, Koen only spared the group a probing look when his statement led to nothing but silence. “Why do you do this? Always have you been respectful of my territory.”
“Our fight is not with you, King Raad. Give us the woman.”
“Were you hired by a House from the Wyvrae Court?” Daniil shielded Koen and Marina with his body. “I am Dragon Lord Daniil of house Kol of the Ice Realm. I demand–”
“We know who you are.” Irritation deepened the Mage’s husky accent. “Our business is not with you or the Dragon King. Give us the woman.”
“The female is mine. My Treasure. This means your fight is with me. Anything that concerns her concerns me.”
When they remained silently hostile, Koen sighed, and relaxed his grip.
Marina neatly rolled into her feet, guarded, and battle ready.
Koen leisurely stood and stretched. Screwing up his face, he magicked his leathers. “You have ruined my twilight.” And it was his favoured time of day. But he was feeling magnanimous. His beast was so sated by its mate’s petting he was contented to recede and let the man handle the invaders. “I am peace. Because of this you may leave this place alive. As long as you do so before I wear dragonskin.” His equable manner turned menacing. “Then you die.”
The lead shadow took a threatening step. “We cannot.”
“Do not do this.” Daniil lifted an arm defensively in warning, palm facing outward, fingers spread, as if his willpower alone would halt the confrontation. “He offers clemency. Take it.”
One of the cloaked shadows cursed. Another made a mournful sound, a sad warble that ended in a resigned hiss of frustration.
Their reluctance did not escape Koen’s notice.
The lead Mage barked over his shoulder, and the eddies of magicks around their hands intensified, twisting around their arms and twining around their shoulders in thick ropes of energy.
Though his features were covered the Mage’s eyes revealed a hardening of his resolve.
He lifted a hand, a globe of flames appearing in his palm.
That summoning of power was antagonistic enough for Daniil. He shifted mid leap in a swirl of sparkling magick that lit the beach in a flash of pure light.
The Mage drew back his arm and spun with ethereal grace, the sash of his band whiplashing around his hips as he hurled the sphere of flames with a throaty cry.
The ball of flame exploded and ripples of heat surged above them.
Koen dived, hooking an arm around Marina.
A bolt of lightening wreathed in fire followed. The jagged blaze of light was hotter than its predecessor. It sizzled as it struck the ground, and sand erupted into the sky to fall as crystallized rain.
He snared his Treasure beneath the bare skin of his torso, immense physique bulging with tension as he used his body as a living shield. To Koen’s surprise, Marina remained calm and still, accepting his protection. Her dark eyes bored into his and to his utter shock, she winked, grinned, and smoothed her hands over his back. His return smile was blade sharp, his dark humour a match for hers.
Another ground shaking explosion of sand, fire and jewel-hued light.
Koen grabbed his female and rolled.
Throwing up an arm to cover her head, his whipped around. He growled menacingly over his shoulder, and bared his teeth in a snarl.
Even then his Dragon remained dormant. Its energy only just began to quicken, waiting, predator-still.
The Mages advanced, openly displaying offensive magicks.
‘Go.’ Daniil ordered. ‘Get Marina away from here.’
Transformed into a smooth-backed Dragon with sapphire scales, he reared onto his haunches.
His arched chest glowed brightly.
Cold light rocketed up his throat then exploded from his mouth in a hail of dragonfrost.
Deadly shards ripped through the air, slamming into the torso of a Mage, and the upper arm of another, knocking them off their feet and down the beach.
The others vanished then reappeared as transparent, shadowy figures darting closer, hemming him in.
Increasingly aggravated by the attack in his territory, Koen gained his footing with Marina cradled in his arms.
She tapped his shoulder.
As she was calm and controlled he set her on her feet, pushing her behind him when the Mages Daniil hadn’t engaged fanned out to surround them.
Marina was annoyed, not worried about her fate, or the outcome of the encounter.
A handful of men couldn’t defeat Koen Raad.
Rubbing the small of his back, she whispered into his ear. “You’re aware I can fight?”
Koen snorted. His eyes tracked the circling men. “You have nothing to prove to me. I am aware of your warskill.” His fingers brushed the back of her hand when it hugged his waist. “I have watched you.”
Warmth at this whispered confession chased away the lingering shock from the ambush.
Curious, Marina turned her attention to the attackers, excited to be in proximity to the mysterious people of the Wastelands separating the Fire Kingdom and Ice Realm.
The tallest Mage detached from formation, his power of magicks burning at a greater intensity than the others. “Give us the woman.” His glottal stop was deeply pronounced making his guttural words punchy and halted. “She will not be harmed.”
‘You break the treaty between our people and invite war.’ Daniil retreated. The deadly spike of his tail cracked side to side. He bared his sharp teeth, and wispy vapour poured from his mouth chilling the air. “The state of affairs is yet redeemable. Surrender.”
Indecision poured from the tallest Mage. Emoting so potently, Marina felt his frustration, as it was her own. “War will find you, Dragon Lord.” The Mage met Marina’s gaze. The steely grey of his irises were stormy. “It is not us who broke the treaty.” He signalled with his hand and the magicks surrounding them flickered and died.
Darkness enveloped the Mages, as if the night sympathized with their plight and thickened to shroud their bodies.
Sand whisked into a tornado and covered the entire beach in a gritty sheen of white.
Koen pulled Marina into his chest
and cupped the back of her head, shielding her soft flesh from the harshness of the sandstorm.
The twister of sand and wind died.
The Mages were gone.
Daniil shifted and magicked his clothes. He was unharmed, expression tight with fury. For a long moment it seemed his emotions robbed him of speech. “They dare?”
Thoughtful, Koen released Marina’s head only to wrap his arms around her waist.
The Dragon slumbered uneasily, perturbed by the encounter.
Marina rested her chin on the back of her hands that lay on his chest. “Did you feel their remorse?”
“How can you be so calm?” Daniil demanded. “They have broken the treaty. A legion crossed into the Fire Kingdom and attacked royalty.”
“Was standing right here.”
“And I did not see a hundred men,” Koen said dryly at the exaggeration.
Marina leaned to grip Daniil’s arm, because he looked ready to go hunting. “I’m not stressed for three reasons. One, I never got the sense they were here to hurt me. They wanted to take me somewhere alone to talk.” Her brows pulled together. “Though I haven’t the slightest inclination why. Even if they were out to harm me they didn’t stand a chance against the three of us. Why would I panic? Two, I sensed intense frustration and regret from their leader. That’s not the aura of a man who wants to start a war. Lastly, I’ve dealt with too much shit today. You have my word I’ll freak out tomorrow. Right now, I can’t take any more. So we’re going to look at the positives. None of us were hurt. We have no knowledge of their intentions other than they wanted a private chat, so desperately as to try and bluff the Dragon King.” She didn’t back down from his anger. She met his gaze, deadpan, daring him to defy her. “Drop it until tomorrow.”
“But–”
She held up a finger. “No.”
He broke the stare, backing down. “Koen?”
“A night to sleep on what transpired will not harm us.” Koen held up a hand when Daniil huffed prepared to argue. “Marina has a point.” And he found her dominance over another male arousing. It told his more savage instincts she was strong enough to claim, to be his mate. He focused. “We were not injured, and after their scare tactics failed they retreated. I did offer leniency.”
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