Page 21 of Fire Dragon
So, she let herself weep.
Liam.
She’d thought she’d set aside how she felt about him, how much every nerve and drive of her body and soul had been about being with him.
Over the past year, Liam had made his position clear every time he’d left a room when she’d walked in. She might have despised him for it, but Logan had helped her to understand what his wife’s death had meant to him, especially because she’d died in childbirth. Logan said Liam had blamed his powerful dragon genetics for causing both deaths. Where women were concerned, he avoided connection like the plague.
Now the same man was to be her exclusive battling partner.
Great.
She fell asleep cursing the heavens, fate, destiny, the Great Dragon Creator, every mythological god that kept dribbling in from Earth and any other deity that came to mind for pairing her with a man she could never, ever have.
~ ~ ~
Liam stared up at the ceiling letting his gaze run across some kind of glittery red mineral that was laced throughout the rock.
He needed the distraction.
He’d awakened with a hard-on to the sounds of Emma in what he was pretty sure were the throes of a hearty orgasm. Right now, his cock matched his silver dragon horns. He ached.
At first, he thought she was teasing him with a bout of self-pleasure, but again that wouldn’t be like her. She wasn’t a tease at all. Emma, as much as she clearly enjoyed sex, was on the modest side. He couldn’t imagine she would ever torment him with some loud masturbation.
But his own need had lifted him up and out of his bed and took him straight to her door. If she wanted him, she could have him. He kept petting the door the way he would glide his hands over her body.
When he’d asked if she wanted company, he’d had the other hand around his cock and hoping like hell she’d say yes. He wanted her like he wanted the sun during the day and the large moon of Dusane at night, like he wanted life, breath, and food.
There had been a long pause, longer maybe than she realized, as she considered her answer. He’d petted the wood some more and squeezed the head of his cock.
Her refusal had made him wince.
But she’d been right to refuse. It wasn’t a good idea on any level to engage with her sexually. They were assigned as exclusive battle partners and he had no interest in a real relationship.
Still, his balls ached.
He went into the bathroom attached to the guest room and got the shower going again. With his forehead planted against the tile and his fist doing its magic, he came with less than a dozen strokes. Of course, the image in his head had helped, of Emma sprawled naked on her bed, her legs spread wide to receive him.
After returning to bed, he fell into a deep sleep, exactly what he’d needed after bringing a caravan in then battling eleven coppery Magi bastards.
The next morning, he didn’t find Emma in any of the rooms. But she’d left a note saying she was on her habitual run and to help himself to the pot of coffee she’d left warming.
He’d dressed and had a cup but didn’t plan to stick around. He left her a return note thanking her for dinner and for taking care of him after the battle.
He was glad to be leaving. For her sake, it was better if he kept his distance. He had nothing to give her.
The next two weeks eased his mind about Emma. She was all business and so disciplined that his fears about being a regular partner with her abated. When they weren’t practicing battle maneuvers, she spent most of her time at the range or with lesser dragons drilling on the battlefield mesa near the caravan landing strip.
He was only with her two hours a day during which time he shifted, then they went through about a dozen different training sequences at various locations around the lake. She was an eager student and insisted he push the boundaries of their drills. More than once she’d taken a tumble in the air. But the woman had mad levitation skills and came up laughing each time.
He loved how game she was.
The red sand hadn’t blown again from the northeast and when the blue sands off the mountains far to the east came in, Logan and Mason were on duty. But so far, the Magi hadn’t returned.
Liam wasn’t scheduled to take a caravan out for another week, though part of him itched for an assignment. He’d made peace with his desire for Emma and with her presence in his daily life, but he was looking forward to time away from her.
When the week passed and he was ready to lead the caravan, he breathed one helluva sigh of relief. He’d been working with Emma exclusively for three weeks now and he needed a break. He hadn’t realized how much tension he’d been carrying because of his proximity to her.
He looked forward to a few days traveling over the lands in the southern part of Saanvale Province and enjoying the pleasures of their destination city, Kochwick, riding the winds, battling the powerful crosswinds, then hunting down some action in a distant city. All of it was just what he needed.
