Page 32 of Born of Blood and Thorns

At that moment, I wanted to give in to whatever was brewing between us. The desire was stronger than the voice of reason telling me I shouldn't. Just as that thought crossed my mind, Lore pulled back, his eyes no longer red.

As he looked at me, wariness was written across his face. He went rigid as I felt his body heat recede with his distance. The loss of his heat sent a chill across my overly warm body. We stood there for a moment, both of us breathless.

"You don't…" he panted as if he'd just returned from running. "You don't smell like death anymore. You smell like sunshine and lilacs." His voice was rough.

He turned and walked away, leaving me more confused than ever.

His dismissal cut cruelly, reopening the wounds left by a lifetime of rejection. Though I tried to cling to hatred, already this captor of mine had awakened longings I could no longer deny. I saw glimmers of humanity behind his brooding exterior. Allowing fondness for one's sworn enemy was the height of folly. No matter how my traitorous heart wavered, I could not forget Lore and I were destined to be apart.

CHAPTER 15

Bella

Weeks passed as we avoided each other and found other things to do in other castle areas. We only ran into each other once or twice before we quickly found other places to be. At night, after the sun dipped into the horizon, I heard his dragon roaring as if it called to me, and I desperately wanted to go to it. Only I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk the havoc that would follow if I let myself get close to Lore.

I knew I wouldn't survive because we would kill each other—or something even more frightening—care for one another.

I found my way to the library, taking my quickly procured dinner. It had been days since I'd heard Lore's footsteps in the hallways and had hidden in an alcove until he had left, and even more days since we'd bumped awkwardly into each other in the hallway. Both of us had jumped back as if we had been burned before muttering about places we had to be as we fled.

I sighed, curling my legs beneath me as I looked out the window. The moon had already breached the sky, and the last tenders of blue sky that reminded me of Lore's eyes disappeared into the distance.

I scowled at the moon and cursed under my breath as I muttered, "Forget about him. He isn't important." But even the words felt hollow to my ears. I had escaped the others to find a quiet area because they reminded me of Lore every second of the day.

It was frustrating, to say the least. I couldn't trust this thing building between Lore and me. Not just because of the curse but, also, I refused to hope for something or give in to emotions and feelings that could be used against me later.

Besides, it was utterly ridiculous to even be considering feelings when the man had literally taken me prisoner. Not to mention his awful personality. He was hot one minute and cold as the coldest winter night the next. No, I couldn't even fathom the almost kiss or the soft, gentle way he had touched me.

I had to focus on the curse and getting out of here. Yet, I kept thinking about the way his face changed for just a moment. As if all that ice had cracked, and he’d let me see for just a moment the man beneath it all. It sent a pang to my heart because I’d seen what he hid, and it was as sad and lonely as what I felt deep inside. It longed to be free just as I did.

I groaned, running a hand down my face and forcing these traitorous, sympathetic thoughts from my mind.

I stared at another kind of chicken stew, bread, and a steaming cup of tea. As the sun dipped low on the horizon, I prepared for a cozy evening in front of the fire with a book. The talk of curses and my encounter with Lore had my thoughts and emotions tangled. My hand had healed enough to take the bandage off, and the slathered poultice had healed faster than anything I'd seen as if there were magic in it.

Only an angry, jagged line remained where the vine's thorns had cut me, taking its blood sacrifice with it. I chuckled at my dark thoughts and then sat to eat my food. It had been so long since I'd had so many meals throughout the day. It was still hard to eat much without feeling sick. For the first time in a long time, my stomach no longer ached.

For that, I began to feel that maybe this wasn't such a bad deal after all—at least not for now. There were worse fates than being stuck in a magical cursed castle that fed me and kept me warm. I could easily get used to it—except that there was Lore.

I sighed, leaning back on the settee and staring into the warm fire that crackled nearby. Lore had created feelings I'd never had before. A desire that still made me warm to think about the way his hands had felt against me, the desire I had as his hard cock pressed into me, and the kiss that had destroyed me. Then there was his body…

"Goddess dammit!" I muttered to myself and the rows of books. I could not afford to allow my thoughts to go in that direction. I'd made up my mind to kill him. Hadn't I? A dark thought invaded my thoughts. What better way to do that than to seduce him? You might as well have some fun in the meantime.

I grimaced. "If only it were that simple." I sighed. Because I knew if I succumbed to the passion that I knew existed between us, I'd lose a piece of myself I'd never get back. Especially when, one day, his true love showed up. If I didn't kill him before then.

The roar of the dragon in the distance suddenly had me sitting up. I remembered the red in his eyes and how the dragon had looked at me—gods, it was hot. Another roar sounded, only this time it was closer than I'd ever heard.

I stood up and moved toward the back of the library, past Lore's room, until I found the window. As the moonlight illuminated the land before me, a dragon high in the sky circling above me came into view. He was descending. Soon, he slammed into the ground close to the window and turned his head toward me as if he sensed me there.

So, I did precisely what Alysha told me not to do. I went outside.

He was massive, staring back at me with the same red eyes as earlier. He pushed his enormous snout into my body and breathed in before huffing. He proceeded to rub his face into me. His crimson scales were rough against my skin. I lifted my hand, unsure what to do, before placing it on his face… or snout. The dragon purred as I caressed it.

My finger trailed up his left horn, and he shuddered before huffing his hot breath on me as it fanned my hair.

The dragon stared at me with ancient crimson eyes as if trying to tell me something. I felt the pull toward him, the desire to spend all night by his side. Something in his nearness felt familiar as if I were being pulled to this creature that had saved me the night I had run into the forbidden woods with nothing but survival on my mind.

My savior said nothing as he nuzzled my hand with his scaly head as if he, too, was content to spend forever just like this. He huffed, turned, and, with a giant sweep of his wings, took off into the night sky, leaving me staring up at him in wonder as I wished I could fly right alongside him.

He hadn't spoken one word in my head or out loud, which made me think I was going crazy and had imagined his words from before.

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