Page 28 of A Witch and Her Dragon
I brace myself, prepared for him to push me away, to tell me how inappropriate it is for a guard to be kissing the princess he’s sworn to protect. And at first, Raelan goes tense, his lips hard beneath mine.
And I think I’ve made a mistake. A horribly embarrassing mistake.
But between one breath and the next, everything changes.
His hands come around my waist to grasp me in a firm hold, and he whirls me around, making me gasp as he presses my back against the cool brick wall in the dimly lit corridor. On mine, his mouth softens, working my lips like he’s done this a thousand times.
Maybe he has, I realize. Maybe he’s had a hundred women, has lain between so many thighs that he can’t even remember the faces that go along with them. Maybe I pale in comparison, being so young and naiveand inexperienced.
The growl he lets out as he presses his hard body against mine makes me hope I’m wrong.
I’ve kissed boys before—in the gardens back home, in quiet drawing rooms after escaping from stuffy waltzes—but no boy has ever kissed me like this. Raelan kisses me like a man. And I feel myself melting for him, becoming soft in his hands, pliable and easily molded.
His mouth ceases its ravishment of mine, and I catch my breath as he tips my head back and moves his lips to my throat. My heart gallops in my chest as his tongue glides across my skin, making me tingle in places I’ve only ever touched myself.
But now I want Raelan to touch me there too.
I know now I’ve been lying to myself over these past few weeks. The first time I saw Raelan in Grandfather’s study, with his dark eyes and cold stare, I thought he’d just be yet another emotionless guard, someone to hold doors and scan courtyards before I passed through them. He was handsome, but it meant nothing.
Then he started appearing in my dreams, and then in my waking thoughts.
And I’m wondering now if he thinks about me as often as I think about him.
With heated abandon, I grab Raelan’s hand and move it to the junction of my thighs. He doesn’t resist. His hand cups my mound through my school skirt, and I let out a gasp.
Please, yes, I think, tipping my head back against the wall.
Iwantthis. I’m not confused anymore. I know for sure.
Around me, the hallway falls away until all I can think about is him, his touch, his hand between my legs and his mouth exploring my neck. I start to open my thighs for him, seeking more of his touch, wishing for him to discover me, to teach me what to do.
But then Raelan recoils from me as if I slapped him, as if I drove a dagger through his chest. In the semidarkness of the corridor, his dark eyes look almost black, and I think it must be a trick of the light when his pupils contract, thinning into slits so narrow I can scarcely see them. They’re almost... reptilian.
It sends my heart skipping a beat.What the . . . ?
He’s breathing hard, gasping for breath, his skin glistening with perspiration. He winces and squeezes his eyes closed, doubling over in pain.
Something’s wrong. I know this even before he turns and stumbles down the hallway, headed back the way we came.
“Raelan!” I yell after him, but he doesn’t respond.
What’s going on?
I chase him into the grand hall, arriving just in time to see him throw open one of the massive double doors and fling himself outside into the storm. My shoes tap across the marble floor as I follow after him. I step into the open doorway, a small gasp slipping from me as icy wind and rain lash my face.
The storm is intensifying, the sky overhead darkening with clouds and distant thunder. Fog rolls through the courtyard, thick and almost impenetrable.
And collapsed upon his knees in the grass is Raelan, a dark form hunched beneath the weight of the rain.
I run to him, ignoring the cold rain as it strikes my face and causes my vision to blur.
“Raelan!” I yell over another roll of thunder. My robe snaps wildly behind me, and the wind tears at my hair.
He doesn’t turn as I approach.
On his knees, he bends low, fingers digging into the soft grass and soil, forehead pressed to the earth. His body is shaking.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, sinking down next to him. But when I reach out to touch his shoulder, he flinches away, acting like my touch is scalding fire.
