Dragon Actually (29 page)

“No.”

“Not at all?”

“No.”

“I don’t understand. There is so much passion burning inside you. So much desire. I see it in your eyes. You need to release it or you’ll become . . .” He stopped speaking abruptly and looked down at his empty plate.

“Like my mother?” His eyes slowly rose up to look at her. “You fear I’ll become like her? Trust me, Low Born, I’m making sure I never become like her.”

“But you already are. As surely as you sit before me now as human. The more you harden your heart. The more you cut yourself off from everyone and everything. . . .”

“Dragons were meant to be alone.”

“No. Dragons are social. We just don’t need to spend endless amounts of time with each other like humans. But you . . . they say you go to your den and aren’t seen for years at court or anywhere else. You don’t see your kin. You’ve seen no one since the death of your father.”

She winced at that. The one being she missed with all her heart was her father. He’d loved her. Cared for her. And protected her from her mother. But with him gone . . . she had no one. Her siblings were petty and only wanted the throne or what they could grab from the queen’s treasure. The other royals were not to be trusted. And the unclaimed dragon males did truly fear her.

“You’re young, Rhiannon. Much too young to cut yourself off from everyone and everything. What your mother did to you was cruel . . . but perhaps we should see the good in it. It forced you out of your den and into the world. The world you’ll one day be queen of.”

Finally, she looked Bercelak in the eye and said with all honesty, “Do you truly believe I’ll live long enough to be queen?”

Bercelak leaned back against the boulder he sat next to and placed his arm on the knee of his raised leg.

“Why would you say that?”

“She wants me dead. She’s always wanted me dead. Why do you think she sent me to you?”

Bercelak didn’t know whether to be insulted by that last statement or merely horrified. “What the bloody hell does that mean?”

“Don’t be a fool, Low Born! She’s testing your loyalty. Once you Claim me, she’ll expect you to either drag me back to her court in chains or to kill me.”

“That’s not true.” He shook his head. He refused to believe that could possibly be true.

“What? You think she sent me here because she thought we’d fall in love? That we’d look in each other’s eyes and have a beautiful and meaningful Claiming? Try again. I’m in her way. Since my birth, I’ve been in her way. When I was younger, I was just annoying. Now she despises me and wants me dead. And you . . .” She gave him almost a pitying look. “She thinks of you as her pet. A well-trained war horse. Or some over-sized battle dog. And she’s dropped me right in front of that dog, completely defenseless, and left me. Hopefully, to die.”

“And you actually believe I’d kill you on your mother’s orders?”

“No.” She looked weary. Exhausted. “But I wouldn’t put it past you to try and break me.”

“You’re not a horse, Rhiannon.”

“I know that.”

“Then why would you even think that?”

She let out a long breath. “Your reputation precedes you, Bercelak.”

His frown deepened. “Now what the hell does
that
mean?”

“Rumors of what you do to females once you have them here have circulated the court for years. I hear everything.”

He raised an eyebrow, even more intrigued. “Oh? And what are those rumors?”

“Forget it. This conversation is getting uncomfortable.”

“Forget nothing, Princess. Tell me what you’ve heard. And I’ll tell you if they’re true.”

“Fine.” She stared him straight in the eye and he adored how she didn’t back down from a fight. “Banallan the Gold said you kept her chained here for days.”

Bercelak grinned. He couldn’t help himself. “I did.”

Rhiannon’s body flinched the smallest bit and her brows pulled down into a brutal frown.

“But she wasn’t forced if that’s what concerns you. If memory serves, she enjoyed every second of it . . . immensely.”

Rolling her eyes, she snorted in disgust.

“What else, Princess? What else has you so concerned?”

“Derowen the Silver.”

He really had to search his brain for that one. Derowen the Silver? Gods, it had been ages since he lay with a silver. “Oh. Do you mean old Gobrien’s daughter?”

“Yes.
That
silver.”

My, what was that tone in her voice? “Yes, I remember her. What about her?”

“One of my mother’s guards said he could hear her screaming from nearly a quarter league away.”

“Aye. She was a noisy one. Fun . . . but noisy.”

“He said she sounded in pain.”

“Well, there’s pain . . . and then there’s pain.” He grinned at the expression on her face. “Anything else?”

“I heard what you did to the Argraff twins.”

“Yes. But I only had one. My brother had the other. Don’t ask me which. They both look exactly alike. Imagine coming from the same egg.”

She looked at him in horror. “Dark gods! You’re as bad as your father.”

Bercelak laughed outright at that. He hadn’t laughed so much in his entire life. Always so serious and intense, with much on his mind, this was the first time he ever felt he could relax. “Not in a million ages. There aren’t enough dragons in the universe to compete with him. No, I’d be forced to involve humans, elves, and, rumor has it, centaurs.”

“I’m done with this conversation.” She stood up but he reached over and grabbed her wrist.

“Tell me, Princess, what truly bothers you?”

“Nothing. But if you think you’ll chain me here and turn me into some broken dragon available at your beck and call, you’re as insane as my mother. I bend for no male, Low Born.”

“I have no desire to break you, Rhiannon. I like you mean.” He growled that last part and her breathing sped up. As, it seemed, did her desire to get away from him. She tried to yank her arm from his grasp, but he didn’t let her go.

Bercelak sat up until he rested on his knees in front of her. “Perhaps it’s time to set up some rules.”

“Rules?”

“Aye.” He tugged her until she grudgingly knelt down in front of him. “So that you feel more comfortable.”

She watched him with narrow eyes, but she did relax a tiny bit. “All right.”

“If there’s anything you don’t want me to do when we’re together . . . say no.”

She stared at him for a long time, then shook her head. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“All I have to do is say no?”

“Aye. You say no . . . and I stop.”

“That sounds very odd to me.”

“Why?” He leaned over and gently kissed her neck.

“I . . . I don’t know. It just does.”

He kissed a spot under her ear. “Let me explain it to you this way—You say ‘don’t,’ I will. If you say ‘stop,’ I won’t. If you really want me to stop, you’ll have to say ‘no.’” While keeping a tight rein on her left wrist with one hand, he used the other to wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him. “You can beg me, Rhiannon. Beg and plead for me to stop, and I won’t. Because between us, there will be only one word that will stop me. And it’s ‘no.’Now do you understand?”

Her body melted against his, her head tipping so he had better access to her neck. “Aye. I understand.”

“Good.” He slapped her ass. “Now you should go to bed.”

It took her a moment, but suddenly she pulled away from him. “What?”

“To bed, love. You look exhausted. I’ve fixed a place for you down the cavern and to the left. It has a bed and everything. Until you can shift back to dragon, no floors for you.”

As hard as it was, he pushed her away and stood up, dragging her with him. “Besides, tomorrow we travel into Kerezik.”

A bit dazed, she pulled herself up. “Why?”

He didn’t want to answer that, at least not honestly, so he dragged his hand along her cheek. “Are you all right? You look a bit . . . ow!”

She punched him. Right in the face. And the female had a right hook that could destroy the jaw of a strong human male.

“What the hell was that for?”

“You play games with the wrong female, Low Born,” she snarled. She walked away from him, her robes swirling around her. “Do you think I’m like one of those stupid whores you had here before? Do you think you can toy with me?”

Rubbing his jaw, he looked at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You hope to leave me wet and wanting so that I’ll come begging for your affections like some dog looking for food.”

Damn. She was right on that. He was.

He stepped toward her. “Rhiannon . . .”

“No. Say nothing,” she growled.

His eyes narrowed. Why was she so angry? Angrier than he’d expect since she figured him out quick enough.

Of course, it could be . . .

“Are you already wet for me, Rhiannon?” She turned on him like a coiled snake. “
What
?”

“You heard me, Princess.” He walked toward her and immediately she stumbled back away from him. “If I put my hand on your pussy right this second, will it be dry like the deserts of Alsandair or wet and desperate like the Kennis River?”

She slammed into the far wall and immediately Bercelak placed his hands on either side of her head, caging her in. She looked caged in, too. Like a wild animal about to snap.

“Perhaps I should find out.”

“Get away from me, Low Born!”

“Now, Rhiannon,” he gently admonished as he used one hand to yank off the belt holding her robe together, “you know those aren’t the right words.”

She was gorgeously naked underneath. Bercelak placed his hand against her breast and squeezed before moving down her body, past her hips, only to slip his fingers between her trembling thighs.

“Wait.”

“Still not right,” he muttered low, unable to turn away from the sight of his hand disappearing between her legs. As soon as two of his fingers slid inside her they both let out a low moan.

So wet and hot. Like a volcano. Just thinking of having his cock buried there for several days or years was making him shake like a young one.

He started shafting her with his fingers and she groaned in response, her eyes shut and her teeth biting into her bottom lip. Leaning in close he kissed her cheek and couldn’t help but mutter, “Mine, Rhiannon. You’re mine.”

And that’s when he felt her claws slash across his face.

Yanking his hand out of her and away, he stumbled back. He could feel and smell the blood dripping down his jaw.

“I belong to no one, Low Born. And if you hope to trap me with this game, you are sadly mistaken.”

He didn’t even wipe the blood away as he stared at her. As they stared at each other. Their eyes locked in silent battle.

“What are you talking about?”

“You force me into a Claiming, and I can fight you with the Elders. And we both know it.” Aye. He did know that. “But if I let you willingly take me . . . fuck me . . . I have very little room to argue, now do I?”

She pulled her robe together and knotted the tie around it. “You’ll have to work a little harder than that, Bercelak the Vengeful, to ever hope of Claiming
me
.”

Rhiannon walked past him, her shoulder brushing his as she stalked out. “I will be Claimed by no one, Low Born,” she said over her shoulder. “But especially not by you.”

She disappeared around the corner and although his cock was so hard it hurt, he couldn’t help but smile. Because she didn’t even realize . . . she still never said the word, “No.”

* * *

Once a good distance away from him, Rhiannon stopped and slid down the wall. She glanced at her hand. For several seconds it had returned to claw. Promising. She may be able to reverse this spell yet. But she couldn’t worry about it at the moment. Not when thoughts of a black-eyed dragon kept playing through her head. Just with his fingers he’d managed to make her feel . . . full. For those few seconds she was his.

Gods, could she be any weaker? What kind of queen would she be if she couldn’t keep the local riffraff from her pussy?

But was it really that simple? She’d let Bercelak get away with more in the few hours she’d been with him than with any other dragon she’d ever met. And, she had to admit, it wasn’t merely because her mother had trapped her in this weak, human body. No, it was worse than that. She liked Bercelak’s touch. She liked having his hands on her. She was, in fact, beginning to like
him
.

And she absolutely
hated
him for it.

Rhiannon spent the hour before dawn trying to undo whatever her mother had done to her so she could shift back to dragon. But to no avail.

She missed her dragon self. She missed her wings and her talons. She missed being able to take a horse for a quick meal.

But most importantly, she felt unsafe in this human body. She poked at her skin and it hurt. She dug her nail into her forearm and it bled. By the gods!
How do these humans live like this?

And then there was Bercelak. She thought for sure he’d come to her last night. He’d come to Claim her. And she’d been prepared, too. Ready to challenge him as human. Ready to die if he’d come as dragon. But he didn’t come at all. And, in the end, neither did she.

Damn him! She’d never had a male, any male, make her feel so . . . so . . . needy. And not for food or safety or any of those important things. But for sex. She wanted a lusty ride from that bastard and she hated him for making her feel this way. Especially when she’d been so comfortable with not feeling anything at all.

“Are you ready?”

She looked away from the early-morning two suns to the dragon standing beside her. They stood at the mouth of his den, leagues above the earth. If she fell from here now, she’d die. Perhaps that was what her mother had hoped for. That her human form would crumple and Bercelak would be forced to deal with the remains.

“I’m still waiting for you to explain to me why we are going to Kerezik.”

She pulled at the collar of the dress she wore. It wasn’t in any way high. In fact, it scooped dangerously low across her breasts. Much more and her nipples would show. She hated wearing clothes, but she felt terribly bare without them, and felt suffocated when she had them on.