Kiss of the Dragon

by Christina James

  Even now, the memory of his dark, hungry eyes roaming over her body left her aching and needy. Beneath her morning gown, her nipples hardened. She slowed her steps as they neared another stone bench among the roses and sat down abruptly because her legs had suddenly turned weak as she remembered the pleasure she had experienced beneath her dragon’s hands, beneath his body. A moan came close to slipping past her lips and a fine sheen of perspiration covered her brow. If Bianca had thought to bring her fan, she would have definitely used it at that moment.

  “Last night after you left, we danced for a while and then Charles asked me to accompany him for a walk out in the gardens. There was a glorious moon and the stars were so bright in the heavens. A maiden could not ask for a more perfect setting in which to be proposed to. Charles drew me into his embrace and kissed my lips so tenderly.” She lowered her lashes to hide the excitement she felt. Modesta did not want her beautiful cousin to guess just how thoroughly she had allowed Charles to kiss her. Even now, she tingled at the memory. The way his hands had moved over her shoulders and down to her waist as he pulled her close against the hardness of his body. At first, she had been shocked to feel the evidence of his sexual arousal that prodded her belly. But then he tilted her face up and her embarrassment disappeared as his mouth covered hers in a kiss so passionate that every other thought was pushed from her mind.

  When the kiss ended, Charles had smiled so tenderly at her that she thought her heart would stop. He reached for her hand and dropping to his knees, he looked deep into her eyes as he asked her to be his wife. Her reaction had been shock and then wonder. A whimper of disbelief squeaked past her lips and she trembled so violently that he drew her into the comfort of his arms and held her fast against his heart and repeated his question against her hair.

  It was only after several moments that Modesta managed to get herself together enough to accept him. The kiss of peace he then gave her was so sweet that she thought that she had died and gone to heaven. When he finally released his hold on her and stepped back, she had felt bereft. She let him lead her back to the ballroom where he had not left her side for the rest of the evening. He treated her as if she was the most precious thing in the world.

  All in all, it had been the most wonderful night of her life and Modesta would treasure the memory forever. Even now as she walked and talked to Bianca in the beauty of the gardens, she knew that Charles had gone to seek out the Duke de Neige to ask for her hand in marriage. He had promised her that they would marry whether her uncle agreed to it or not. If need be, they would elope. The thought of the scandal that might ensue after such an action did frighten her somewhat, but she was certain that it would not come down to anything that drastic. Her uncle would have no objection to his niece marrying a baron after all.

  Bianca was happy for her cousin but she was distracted with her own thoughts and nearly missed the secret smile that flickered over Modesta’s lips. It was obvious she had been kissed and very thoroughly and she had enjoyed the experience.

  If only Draco had asked her to marry him, Bianca would not be experiencing these conflicting emotions. What if he never asked her? Would she be prepared to sit back and watch him walk away? Nay, it would be impossible. She loved Draco far too much not to fight for him. She would find a way to make him understand that he could not declare his feelings for her one moment and then deny them in the next.

  “So when do you plan to marry?” Bianca brought her thoughts back to the conversation at hand.

  “It is undecided as of yet. We have not spoken of it in so much detail as of yet. We were preoccupied with…other things.” She hesitated slightly and her face became even redder, if that were possible. “But I hope it will be as soon as possible. Charles seems very impatient. I only worry that….” Her face fell into a mask of uncertainty.

  “What is it, Modesta?”

  “It is my dowry, or the lack of it. Charles has a sizable estate and enough money for us to live there comfortably, but I cannot help but think that he might come to resent taking a wife who brought only an adequate dowry to the marriage.”

  “If he truly loves you and wants you for his wife, it will not matter to him. And it is obvious that he does love you. Trust me. Your dowry will not be an issue. You are not poor, Modesta. In truth, you have a sizable inheritance from your mother’s estates.” If it happened that this was not enough to satisfy Lord Charles, Bianca would talk to her father about adding a large amount of coin and goods to the dowry. But she had no intention of mentioning it to Modesta, at least not at the moment. Lord Charles would not be sorry he fell in love with a woman even though he had no notion of her worth. In Bianca’s opinion, he was a true knight in shining armor for her cousin, Modesta.

  The cheerful expression on Bianca’s face had Modesta returning her smile. This day was turning out to be good in every way. Nothing could depress their mood.

  “My lady?” Leia came around the hedges behind them panting to catch her breath. Her appearance interrupted their conversation, effectively ending the cousins’ private moment together.

  “Slow down, Leia. Stop and catch your breath before you proceed.” After a moment or two, and deciding that her maid had enough breath to relate her message, Bianca bid her to continue.

  “Another suitor has arrived, my lady.” Leia paused to take a deep breath. “This one is a little different from any of the others.” A giggle burst from her lips and she slapped her hand over her mouth as she fought valiantly to regain her composure

  “Yea, milady, this lord only just arrived and he immediately demanded to be presented to the famed Beauty de Neige.” It was the most she could get out before she doubled over in a fit of laughter. Bianca and Modesta stared at her antics with censure and hard contained amusement.

  When Leia noticed the disapproving looks of the two young noblewomen, she immediately sobered long enough to apologize. “Excuse me, my ladies, I don’t know what came over me. Shall I make your excuses?” As Leia waited for permission, the corners of her mouth twitched several times and her eyes watered as she fought to hold back her hilarity.

  Bianca looked questioningly at her maid, trying to understand what was wrong with the woman. She let Leia wait for her answer as her thoughts came back to the issue at hand. Bianca was not pleased to hear that yet another nobleman had arrived seeking her hand in marriage. This courtship affair had to stop as far as she was concerned. It was like pushing a small snowball down a steep snowy slope; it got bigger and bigger causing it to roll faster and faster until it was completely out of control.

  Bianca looked at her cousin and rolled her eyes in vexation, wrinkling her nose in her disgust. “I wish that I could send this one on his way, but I cannot disgrace my father by refusing to see the man.” Suddenly an unholy gleam lit her eyes. “Of course, if the duke knew nothing of this new suitor’s arrival, I could send him away immediately. Yes, that is what I will do. Leia, return to the newcomer and tell him I am ill or something.”

  “Nay, my lady I am sorry but that is impossible! It was the duke who received him and he has requested that you meet this nobleman. I understand that this one is the son of an old acquaintance of the Duke de Neige.” Leia winked at Modesta. “You will find the young lordling a little…odd.” Her description left Bianca staring at her suspiciously while Modesta put her hand to her lips to stifle the giggle that threatened to escape. It was Leia rolling her eyes that brought forth the burst of laughter from Modesta. Bianca could not believe that both her cousin and her maid were openly laughing at her vexation over this situation.

  “Very well, show him to the garden. I will meet him here.”

  Untying the wide-brimmed sunbonnet she had been wearing, Bianca threw it onto the stone bench beside her. She was in no hurry to keep her appointment. Making her way to a natural pond situated behind the bench, Bianca used the smooth surface as a mirror. Clear water surged up from an underground spring to fill the rock natatorium her father had had erected to amuse her mother when
they first got married. It was a beautiful, secluded place she had always loved, and it usually provided solitude.

  “Do you want me to stay?” Modesta queried behind her.

  “Yes, if you would not mind. I could use your support in this matter.”

  It was not long before they heard several people approaching them, one voice in particular loud and whining. A moment passed before, through an opening in hedgerow, stepped the strangest sight Bianca had ever seen. A very short man dressed in the latest fashion to the hilt came toward her with a wide, friendly smile on his round face. Though the round little nobleman was dressed from head to foot in several shades of green, it was his unusual shape that had the two women staring at him with incredulity.

  There was only one way to describe the spectacle walking toward them. Toady. He was short in stature with a large, rotund belly, which made his arms and legs appear to unusually thin and angular by comparison. Below his feathered green velvet cap, pendulous jowls jiggled as he moved and his eyes protruded above his fat, rounded cheeks, rounding out his olive-toned face. His broad nose and wide, flat lipless mouth combined to give the unfortunate man a somewhat amphibious aspect.

  As he drew closer, every detail of his countenance became more apparent. As she rudely stared at him, Bianca hoped that the object that caught her immediate attention was not what it appeared to be, but when he finally stopped a short distance away, it was obvious that it was what she suspected.

  God preserve her if it was not a great hairy wart sitting there most predominate upon his flat nose. The sound that gurgled in her throat Bianca fought to keep there. But her lips twitched suspiciously as she glanced surreptitiously at her cousin to determine her reaction to the sight that stood before them. Modesta held her breath! Her hands were clenched at her breast, but it was obvious that she fought the urge to burst out in laughter. This was not a good thing, not good at all. If one of them lost control, they would both be lost. Bianca gave Modesta a warning shake of her head.

  The herald that proceeded the toady little aristocrat announced his presence in his best stage voice.

  “Lady Bianca, Lady Modesta, presenting the benevolent, the compassionate, Count Friedrich der Froschfuerst.”

  Bianca dared not look at Modesta, she dare not. She could hear the snort and then the snigger before her cousin covered her mouth with a dainty handkerchief and pretended to sneeze. It came out suspiciously like a giggle however. Bianca held herself stiff and managed to maintain her dignity. The little, round nobleman was worthy of such a ridiculous name. Holding on to her composure by a mere thread, Bianca extended her hand in greeting. “My lord.”

  Before the German count could take her proffered hand, a gust of wind snatched her hat from the bench beside her and, before she could catch it, the hat was swept across the distance and deposited into the pond. As she stood there watching the straw bonnet float on the water, the newly arrived noble clicked the heels of his stiff leather boots sharply together and bowed over her hand.

  “Do not fret, my dear, it is frankly a focus of finding a fashion to fix the fiasco.”

  With their mouths dropping open in unison at the peculiar way the little frog-man spoke, Bianca and Modesta did not realize his intent until he stepped to the edge of the pond and leaned over the edge reaching out as far as he could to try to retrieve the now ruined hat.

  “Do not worry overly, my lord. It is merely an old sunbonnet.”

  “Fear not, my dear. Your fedora is a fragment of your fascinating person and I would find myself a frightful fiend if I failed to fade your flagitious fret by not fetching your favor.”

  Bianca looked at Modesta, who had turned an alarming shade of deep red as she fought to hold back her merriment at the ridiculous dissertation they were hearing. A very unladylike snort wafted out from behind the handkerchief still covering her mouth and she turned abruptly away, her shoulders convulsing in silent laughter.

  It was the large splash that brought Bianca’s attention back to the toady nobleman and the sight the met her startled eyes was too, too much. She could no longer hold back her mirth. Gales of laughter filled the air as everyone in the garden stood watching the little herald who had accompanied the German nobleman run to the edge of the pond and attempt to reach his liege without falling in the water as well.

  The sight was something right out of a fractured fairytale. There sitting very ignobly in the center of the cold pond was the little count, his green vestments thoroughly soaked and wilted. His knobby knees protruded from the water, and to top things off, a fat green toad sat atop his dripping feathered velvet cap, as wide-eyed in its astonishment as the wet nobleman.

  “Oh, ha ha ha. Oh, God, for…give me, my…lord for…laughing. But you have only to see…what…I see and you c-could not h-help yourself e-either. Ha ha ha.” Bianca had not laughed so hard in her entire life. And she could not stop. “Please, my lord, forgive me.” She swallowed hard and took several deep, shuddering breaths. When she finally regained some of her dignity, she addressed the little green garbed nobleman who was being helped from the pond.

  “I thank you for your consideration, Count Friedrich. But I must decline any offer that you were proposing to make me. I have already decided on a suitor for a match. It was very good of you to come all this distance, but I must decline. I hope you can frogive…forgive me, but I must be about my duties. Good day.”

  Grabbing Modesta by the hand, the two cousins picked up the hems of their gowns and fled from the garden, their peals of laughter drifting up into the air.

  * * * * *

  “Where do you go?” The deep resonance of the now familiar voice washed over Bianca causing shivers of delight to race through her body. Draco had come up behind her as she stood just inside the stable doors waiting for her mare to be saddled.

  “I am going out for a morning ride.” A slight quaking colored her voice as she responded. She did not dare turn around to face him for fear she would do something outrageously scandalous like throw herself into his arms and kiss him ardently in full view of several stableboys who had stopped their tasks to stare curiously at the great Black Dragon. Even now, her face flamed at the memory of his hands moving possessively over her body.

  And his lips, his delicious kisses. She wanted his lips moving over hers even as she gripped her quirt fiercely to keep her hands from trembling, fighting to regain her strength of will. But it was not an easy task. His nearness, the smell of his very maleness disturbed her in ways she had never known she could feel before she met him. It seemed that her body came alive and tingled just having him close.

  As if he could read her thoughts, Draco grasped her by the arm and pulled her into an empty stall out of the sight of prying eyes. He did not give her chance to protest as he crowded her against the back wall, pressing his large body fully to her small, soft one. He held her prisoner at his mercy.

  “What do you think to do, my lord?” Her whispered protest was cut short when his mouth covered her soft, trembling lips in a hot, passionate kiss that left her clutching at him, pressing her breast fully against his hard chest as her arms moved up to encircle his neck. All thoughts of where they were or who might see them flew from her mind as her body responded to his kiss.

  After a few moments of thoroughly ravishing her sweet mouth, Draco slowly drew away, tugging her lower lip with his teeth as he did so, reluctantly relinquishing it at the very last.

  “Now what is this nonsense about you leaving the protection of the castle? Do you forget so quickly what happened only yesterday? It is unsafe for you to venture beyond your father’s walls.”

  Her state of euphoria evaporated instantly and her temper flared at his words. Bianca put her small hands against his broad chest and shoved with all her strength. “You dare to instruct me on where I may or may not ride my palfrey? It is none of your concern, my lord. I do as I wish. I always have.”

  Draco stiffened and stepped back from her as if she had just turned to flame and burned him.
Hurt and betrayal flickered briefly in his eyes before those emotions were quickly replaced with cold distance. His suddenly harsh features could have been hewn from stone and Bianca felt as if a blast of cold wind hit her when his icy black eyes swept over her, taking in her appearance head to toe.

  “Pardon, my lady. It seems that I have overstepped myself.”

  Too late, Bianca realized she had insulted him. For a brief moment, panic welled up inside her. She had just made a bit of headway in her pursuit of this magnificent knight, and now to lose him because his sudden appearance had thrown her totally off balance would be a tragedy.

  Holding her breath, Bianca awaited his ensuing rejection of her. But even as she watched for his condemnation, his eyes warmed with amusement and her temper flared anew. Apparently, her hot outburst had amused him. The great fool had the audacity to laugh at what she considered justifiable ire on her part. He treated her outburst as he would have done if she were a child.

  “Does my nearness disturb you, Bianca?”

  “Oh, yes, you’re a bother.” She was not yet ready to forgive him for finding amusement at her expense. She moved to sidestep around him trying to put some distance between them. “Just as all men are.” She made it as far as the stall gate when his next words stopped her.

  “I have my doubts about that. What I think, nay, what I know for a fact, is that you are afraid of your own passionate nature and you have a habit of throwing up barriers to keep out the one person capable of bringing that passion to the surface. I am the only man who has ever been able to reach you and you know it. Admit it, Bianca. You want me, just as badly as I want you.”

  Whirling around to face him, her eyes blazing murderously Bianca raised her hand to slap his face, but he caught her hand and held it tight.

  “How would you know such a thing?”