Page 31 of Earth Dragon
It was hopeless.
***
She was woken by a knock at the door. She grumbled, leaving the dream she had had of flying high above the clouds, soaring close to the stars. When she opened her eyes, they widened at the sight of the carvings in the wall.
She was still in Ewan’s bed.
The realization made her sit up with a soft intake of breath. What time was it? How long had they been asleep?
The room lay in darkness.
It was nighttime.
What hour?
“Your highness?” a male voice came through the door. “Is everything all right? Your father is asking for you.”
The celebration! The function. How could they have fallen asleep?
She sat up, looking at Ewan, still snoring soundly.
She grabbed her pillow and hit him in the chest with it.
“What?” he yelled.
The voice came calmly, though mildly apologetically, through the door, “Well, it’s only that the dinner gong has been sounded, my prince.”
“What?” Ewan muttered sleepily, about to turn over and go back to sleep.
“Hey,” she hissed. “Answer the man or he might come in here.”
He was half-snoring. “We don’t want that?”
“No, we do not,” she said, shaking him back awake. “Tell him whatever it is you princes say to send servants away.”
Ewan drew a breath. “All’s well!” he yelled. “Tell my father I shall be there… momentarily.”
He was snoring again.
“Youare hopeless,” she stated, sliding out of the bed and walking up to the pile of clothes. She was irate with herself for not leaving. She should have pulled her borrowed clothes back on and left with a request for a dress. Now she would have to wear clothes that smelled of him. Or was it her? His scent stroked into her skin, lingering there.
She needed a scrub.
“Well, good evening,” he said and in spite of herself she glanced over at him.
He had propped himself up on the pillows, half-laying down and half-sitting, his muscular chest on casual display and a grin on his face. He still looked sleepy. All she wanted to do in that moment was crawl back into the bed and bury her face against his neck.
Crushing waves of torment, she knew exactly why she had not left.
She had wanted to see what it would be like to sleep next to him. Of course, she had fallen asleep too fast to see much of anything.
“You don’t snore,” he commented.
“You do,” she said, a crooked smile placing itself on his beautiful face.
He looked about ready for a verbal sparring match on the subject, but she resolutely turned back to the task of getting clothes on. There would be no banter and there would be no flirting. Not until she knew… But how could she know if he would be merciful until she told him? And she could not.
The tension fizzed through her veins and she sighed softly.
