Page 12 of Dragon Lord
Draknart caught a small tremble in those hands.She was angry, but she was scared too.He meant to have her in another mood and soon.“I merely wish to see that you are not hiding any more knives.”
When she neither moved nor responded, he added, “You did have that hidden kitchen knife the last time.A longer blade, and you would have been the end of me, sweeting.”
Dragons were tough bastards as a lot, but a direct hit to the heart could be lethal if the blade was angled to slide between the scales.And the way he was now… Curse the goddess, Draknart’s human form had any number of deplorable weaknesses.
Einin lifted her chin.“I’ve given you my word.I will not fight.My life is forfeit.”
“Even so.”
With a furious growl, the likes of which he had never before heard from a maiden, she shoved off her boots and kicked them away.Her voice was pure bravado as she asked, “Satisfied?”
Not nearly so.
“Now shed your britches, sweeting.Best to make sure you have no knives stuck in the waist.”
Her full, ripe lips thinned as she pressed them together.He did not know whether her fingers trembled with fear or anger—probably a combination—but she did untie her britches, then let them drop.She stepped out of the worn material that pooled at her ankles, another step away from Draknart.
Her coarsely woven shirt hung low enough to cover her to her knees, but as she moved, he did catch a glimpse of lean, naked thighs.His body hardened.He shifted in his seat.He felt alive in a way he hadn’t in a long time.
“Now come to me, sweeting.”
“I have pledged to return to you,” she said, standing immobile.“I have come to the dragon’s lair.I’ve come this far, but I will go no farther.”She was a brave lass, but courage had limits, and she’d reached hers.
Blood rushed faster and faster in Draknart’s veins as he watched her.The familiar urge totakerose inside him, along with a strange impulse to make her unafraid.Instead of grabbing her in haste as his body demanded, he slid off the rock throne and strode to her slowly, lifted her into his arms gently, though she flailed and fought, slippery as a spring eel.
“On my dragon’s honor, I will not violate you, lass.”
At last, she stilled.Did she believe him?He happened to have meant the words, but… Had no one told her that dragons had no honor?Did humans leave their pups completely uneducated?Draknart shook his head as he carried her to his sleeping furs.
He took care not to hold her too tightly.He was large, even in his despised human form, and she a slight maiden, stiff as battle armor in his arms, and as cold.He looked forward to softening her and filling her body with his heat.She was a woman to be savored.
He smiled at her.“I shall gift you with a slow seduction.”
Einin heldon to her fury so she wouldn’t give in to her fear.Draknart.Even in his human form, he was a great beast.
“I’ve come for a swift end, you perverted spawn of Satan!”She scrambled away from him on the stone ledge until her back hit the cave wall.“Is a quick death too much to ask?”
He seemed intent on debauching her in the night before devouring her in the morning.And what if he did not eat her the very next morn?The blood ran out of her head at the thought.What if he kept her to torture her for who knew how long?To be at his mercy like this…Never!
The moon dipped to an angle where its silver light now shone straight into the cave, and she could see better.Draknart watched her, reclining in the middle of the “bed,” blocking her only path of escape.
The soft furs of his bedding stood in stark contrast to the man, with everything hard about him.Einin fought to keep her gaze above his chest.He was larger than any of the men in her village, made entirely of muscle, the thick cords bunching and relaxing under his shirt as he shifted closer.
“No!”She snapped out the word, warding him off with her hands.
She didn’t expect him to obey, but he stopped and stayed where he was.Then he said, with exaggerated patience, “Einin, sweeting.I am a man, for the moment.You are a woman…”
“I have come to die.Not for…that!”
Yet his words echoed in her head.I am a man.And then a thought formed in her overwrought mind, one that brought a small spark of unexpected hope.Must be easier to kill a man than a dragon.
The thought sent her blood rushing.She had not returned to the cave to kill the beast.She had given up that hopeless fantasy after the first try.Under these different circumstances, however, if she could succeed… She still couldn’t go back to her village, but could she claim the cave as her own?
The thoughts followed each other in rapid succession, while Einin tried to keep up, tried to imagine a possible future for herself instead of certain death.
She’d never had anything of her own.The hut in the village had been her father’s.She lived in it, but had she married Wilm, the hut would have become Wilm’s property the moment they wed.The dragon’s cave, on the other hand, she might be able to keep.
A place of her own...She could be safe here, living as a hermit.No bear or wolf would come to a cave that smelled of dragon.And with some luck, there might not be another natural disaster in the villages for decades, no reason for the priest to bring another procession this way.
