Page 41 of Born of Blood and Thorns

Soon, Alysha and I stood before my rumpled bed, where a beautiful dark purple dress had been laid out. The bodice was corseted, and the dress fanned out like a bell. The sheer material over the top was inlaid with dark purple stitched droplets that looked like falling leaves were cascading down from the waist. Roses and rose petals in a dark shade of blue-toned crimson melted into the dress's purple shade as if the rose petals were flying away and down the bodice. It was more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen.

"Why do you want me to wear this?" I asked, perplexed as I touched the soft fabric.

"It's a special night," Alysha said as she pushed me toward the bathing area where hot water already steamed from the tub.

Minutes later, I was standing in a towel scrubbed until I sparkled, and now, I smelled like roses from the oil she'd poured into my bath.

"What is up with the rose scent and…" I motioned back toward the dress.

"Lore's mother used to love roses. He'd bring her back a new rose bush every year for her to plant. She began planting them around the castle so that people would see them when they entered the castle grounds." Alysha shrugged as she pulled a comb through my wet strands.

She twisted and braided my moonlight strands until they were half off my shoulders, leaving a layer of hair still cascading down my back. She forced me into the gown.

"Is this really necessary?" I muttered as she sprayed more rose-scented perfume into my face until I sneezed.

"It's a special night," Alysha echoed before she inspected me, walking around me and making appreciative noises as if she had accomplished her goals.

Before I knew it, she pulled me back through the corridors and shoved me into a room lit low and laid out with food—a table set for two.

I turned to leave, to run out of the room, but just as I turned, I slammed into the hard chest of a body. As my eyes traveled up, I met the gaze of Lore—red eyes meeting mine. No, not just Lore, but his dragon too.

I turned my eyes to the window where the sun had long since left the sky, then looked back at him. My eyes widened in shock. It was night, and the man stood before me—albeit with the eyes of his dragon, but the body of the man all the same.

"I-I should go," I stuttered before trying to run, but a large hand gently grabbed my arm, making me still.

"Please don't," a rough, gravelly voice said. Lore's voice, the dragon's voice. I turned to meet those red eyes.

"He wouldn't want me here, or to have dinner with me," I said softly, remembering the words we had shouted to each other earlier.

"He is…" the dragon trailed off as if considering the right word. "We are just stupid," he said with a triumphant grin as if admitting it was something he should be proud of.

I felt my lips twitch in response. I liked his dragon far more than I did him.

"Please stay." He wrapped his hands in mine, pulling me back toward him. Once I stood close to him, he took one hand to tilt my face up to his. "Let me make…" He paused again, trying to remember the correct words as if he hadn't spoken in so long that it was hard to search his vocabulary. "Up for that with tonight."

My breath caught in my throat as I stared up at him, my thoughts going to the morning. Lore and I had lost ourselves in each other's arms and the way he felt as he moved inside of me. How, for the first time ever, pleasure meant something to me. Not just a means to distract myself only to find myself utterly disappointed in the end.

There had been no disappointment in Lore's arms. In this dragon's arms, I felt the heat of his body near me as my heart sped up and that wetness between my thighs began to form again. I had to fight to keep myself from pressing my knees together.

The dragon leaned in and breathed in my scent deeply as he growled. That sound, purely primal and a different predatory need, made me arch my back. A soft whimper escaped from my lips. "I think…" I said breathlessly. "I think I can stay for a little bit."

The dragon smiled at me with carnal delight as if he had already imagined what I would taste like if he feasted on me instead of the food left for us not far away.

"Good."

We sat and began to eat, the dragon clumsy at first as if he'd forgotten so much of what it was like to be in a mortal body.

"I thought you two were separate due to the curse," I said as the dragon that sat before me in Lore's body looked up from shoving a mouthful of meat into his mouth. Without really chewing, he swallowed it whole before answering me.

"Things are changing," he said darkly.

"You have." I pointed to his mouth, where a bit of the meat sauce was smeared in an impressive arc around his mouth.

The dragon wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then winked at me. "I'm afraid it's been a long time since I've done this." He set his fork down, wiped his hands off, and walked toward me. "Would you like to dance?" he asked, and there was a vulnerability in his face and in the way he worded each syllable.

I couldn't say no. I put my hand in his and let him sweep me away. My heart secretly soared as I thought of all the times in my childhood I'd wished to be whisked away by a handsome lord at a ball.

Music began in the distance, and we moved into the ballroom he'd found me in before. I noticed the furniture had been carefully pushed aside, leaving the entire floor open to use. As we danced, it almost felt as if I closed my eyes, I could imagine the ballroom was full of people there to watch the dragon prince and me dance.

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