Man Who Should be King (8 page)

Marcus turned over slowly, not wanting to wake up. For a
moment he was back in his big comfortable bed in the castle. As he stretched,
though, he realized he was not in his bed but lying beside Syranna. When his
hand touched her warm flesh she moaned softly, obviously still asleep. He
wondered what had awakened him, because he was still a little sleepy. Scooting
toward Syranna, he decided to go back to sleep, since it was all so warm and
cozy like a cocoon in her bed.

“Hmm,” he murmured, moving his arm across her body. His hand
slid upward to cup one of her lush, soft breasts. The idea of sleeping with her
womanly flesh in his hand was comforting—

Abruptly his hand stopped. Something didn’t feel right and
reluctantly his fingers rubbed around before he admitted he had to open his
eyes. Syranna’s skin was not soft, if anything it felt almost scaly. Propping
himself up on his elbow, he looked down on her sleeping face. For a moment, in
the fading light of the day, he thought how truly beautiful she looked. Then
something caught his attention. The covers over her chest were moving and it
didn’t appear to be from her breathing. The strange scales he felt came back
into his consciousness and he jerked back the covers.

“Mmrrraaawwww!”

“Holy hell!” Marcus shouted and came up on his knees beside
Syranna.

“Mmmrrreaawwww, mmmrrraawwwaaawww.”

Three little dragons were all nestled in the bed next to
Syranna’s body, with the tiniest one on her chest. All three turned to glare at
him, he guessed, for awakening them. He was relieved to see their mouth
harnesses in place.

“My lord Marcus! Are you all right?”

Syranna’s bedroom door was flung open and in stormed Sir
William, weapon drawn and ready to defend his liege lord. The noise upset the
dragonets and they started mewling like cats and flapping their wings.

Syranna sat up, pulling her hair back with one hand. “Uh
oh,” she murmured a moment later.

“I didn’t know the little beasties slept with you, madam!”
Marcus almost shouted at her.

“Hush! You’re scaring them,” she told him quickly, as the
little female dragon curled into her lap, which was where it had landed from
its precarious slide off her chest.

Marcus saw the small scratch marks on her pale skin at the
same time William spoke from the doorway.

“Oops! Sorry, Marcus.”

Marcus looked at William, as if seeing him for the first
time. Then he remembered that Syranna was naked from the waist up.
Instinctively his hands shot out and covered her breasts. William’s soft
laughter from the doorway told him how ridiculous he had to look, naked himself
and trying to shield his bed partner’s breasts from his friend’s eyes.
Syranna’s own smiling gaze merely reinforced the idea, but she made no move to
shift his hands or move out of his reach. In his mind that said a lot about how
she was coming to see him, in her life and her reactions to him.

William spoke from the doorway. “I’m going now. If you need
another sword to battle back the dragons, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.”

His laughter could be heard as he walked back down the hall.
Marcus turned back and realized his hands were still clasping Syranna’s breasts
and not just concealing them. He gave them two firm squeezes, just to prove he
was in control before he released them. As he shifted back in the bed, moving
to sit cross-legged, the two male dragonets clambered over Syranna’s legs
toward him. It was obvious they felt that anyone in their mistress’ bed must be
fair game.

“Ouch!”

Marcus complained as the little feet dug into his skin. He
grabbed the covers as one of them appeared to be heading for a place he had no
business being. Marcus piled the sheet into his lap, covering his groin and
lower abdomen completely. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Syranna was
smiling even as she lifted the littlest pet to her face.

“Did the mean man awaken you, sweet thing?” She rubbed her
cheek against the tiny dragonet, which ate up every iota of attention she got.

Marcus growled softly, which startled AnnaBelle.

“Mmmrrraaaaawwwwww!”

“Can’t you at least clip their claws? Look at those scratch
marks.”

Syranna shook her head. “They rarely scratch me, only when
they are startled or frightened. Dragons are very sensitive creatures, you know.
It is all part of their chemical makeup. A happy dragon rarely breathes fire,
which can be quite important.”

“Look, sweetheart, I’m still having trouble believing these
things are even real. I thought that was all myth, told to children.”

“Mystonia is believed to be the cradle of civilization for
our three worlds. Here in the shadows and wetlands is where we came from.”

“That can’t be right, Syranna. We all know that space flight
and therefore interplanetary travel began on Vikalla, then they traveled to Kallas
and here to Kalledane last.”

Syranna lowered AnnaBelle to the bed and came to her feet
beside it. “Perhaps there were always other methods, or means of travel, but
people on Vikalla were unaware of it. They always believed they were the
creators and the masters of their moon worlds.”

She walked away from him and Marcus watched the seductive
movement of her ass. Damn! She was sexy even when she didn’t try to be. As he
continued to observe her, she walked to a wooden cabinet and withdrew a
shimmering piece of cloth. She draped it around her body, tying a knot to hold
it between her breasts.

“Where are you going?” Marcus asked quickly, coming to his
feet as well. He did not like the way she was so casually walking out on him
without so much as a word.

“I’m going to bathe in the river. Come along, babies!”

Marcus stared in frustration at the disappearing parade out
of her bedroom. All three of her little dragons had obviously understood what
she wanted them to do, because they had immediately hopped, jumped and ran
toward Syranna when she said, “come.”

* * * * *

Syranna was in the water, swimming and floating idly while
she listened to the little dragons scampering and playing in the gently flowing
river and along the sandy bank. She felt distinctly tender at the apex of her
thighs. There was no way she could banish the memories of the passion she’d
felt at Marcus’ clever hands and skillful fingers. It seemed that he knew every
trick in the book to elicit her sexual responses. Thinking back, her naïveté embarrassed
her somewhat. She had spent most of her life learning magic, and how to control
and use her special powers.

In the beginning it had just been great fun being with her
grandfather and discovering all the different things he could do. Fairly
quickly she had begun to see what she could do, like the mind-bending or mental
alteration, as her grandfather termed it. Her proficiency exceeded her
grandfather’s which he was quite proud to see, but he still warned her against
revealing her full strengths to just anyone. Many people on Kalledane and even
Vikalla would fear her. While here in Mystonia, there would be factions who
would want to use her and manipulate her. That was what she must watch out for
at all times.

She had barely constrained herself from telling Marcus about
the ancient way of travel. Teleportation, which didn’t involve machinery, would
be suspect by any culture. She had chosen to travel via the transportation
stations to avoid attracting attention by suddenly popping in somewhere, and
bringing her horse allowed her to travel alone to the castle. Learning the
nearest station was a two hours’ ride away from the palace had surprised her,
though. Knowing she had the power to pop in and out might not be the right kind
of knowledge to reveal to Marcus until she knew him better.

Abruptly she sank beneath the water and came up sputtering.
Get to know him better! She had no intention of getting to know Lord Marcus at
all! He needed to leave here and never come back. That’s why she had tried to
hold back as he swamped her with sensuality and made her know what it meant to
truly be with a man, on the most elemental of levels. Except the last time, on
the pillows. Hopefully there had been too much time lapse between…but his
giving her those orgasms had taken her control away completely. It might have
been possible for her egg to meet his sperm.

“No!” She spoke vehemently and loudly. She was determined to
keep things the way they were. Her life was here, and Marcus’ was on Vikalla.
And that was how it must stay.

“No, what?”

Syranna jerked around in the water, startling the dragons on
the far edge. She heard their frantic little cries as she argued in her head
over maintaining her primness and concealing her nudity, or rushing to settle
the little pets.

“Darmand!”

“Yes, indeed, beautiful lady. It is I!”

Syranna tried to move farther away from the bank her
intruder was upon. “I don’t imagine it will do me any good to tell you that you
are trespassing.”

“None whatsoever, Syranna. Rumor has it that you have a visitor.”

Syranna watched as the raven-haired, black-eyed wizard sat
on a large boulder, not far from where she was in the water. He was the one in
line for Grand Vizier, or wizard, of Mystonia. This was not a recognized title
anywhere else, but that did not matter. To be Grand Vizier gave you access to
the most ancient of the protected texts stored at the central archive. The
witch, warlock or wizard who sought the position, despite lineage, still had to
prove his or her worthiness.

“So you’ve come begging for an invitation to dinner.”

Darmand threw his head back and laughed quite heartily, as
if she were truly amusing. Syranna noted that his black beard was trimmed quite
short, and close to his skin. One of Darmand’s downfalls was his
attractiveness. Women clustered around him, seeking his attentions. As he’d
matured, he’d developed a strong and muscular body, which only aided and
abetted his success with women.

She had watched him as he grew used to the female attention,
perhaps even to expect it as he got older. But he’d never received any such
attention or interest from Syranna. Even though there was only a few years’
difference in their ages, and Darmand’s father had often brought him to the
castle when he came to visit her grandfather, she had never drooled over him
like most of the girls and then, later, all ages of women.

As children, she’d always felt like Darmand watched her,
waiting. It was as if he believed she knew something that was his by
birthright, and he would be getting it out of her one day. Since the death of
his father, he had not visited nearly as often. Then, after her grandfather
passed away, he had started showing up at the most unexpected of times—like
now!

Shivering, she swam back another few feet. AnnaBelle was on
the bank, bawling for her attention. The problem was that in between her cries
she was spouting a two-foot length flame.

“Hush, AnnaBelle, I’m coming.”

Darmand laughed. “Don’t let me stop you, Syranna. It’s been
a few years since we last went skinny-dipping, but I won’t mind your break in
propriety.”

Syranna glared at Darmand. “There is no breach. You are not
vizier yet.” She turned and began swimming toward the far shore. “Come here,
AnnaBelle. Swim to mommy!”

She encouraged the smallest dragon into the water. She would
drink and that would calm down the flames once again. AnnaBelle took a few
steps toward the water, which attracted her calmer brothers’ attention.

“Syranna! Syranna! Where the hell are you, woman?”

Syranna heard Marcus’ bellow seconds before he stumbled onto
the same bank the dragons were on. All three dragons took flight at once,
either frightened or startled. Chaos reigned supreme in the midst of beating
dragon wings, human shrieks and three-foot long flames spewing out in three
different directions.

“What the hell!”

Marcus ducked just in time to prevent losing his hair, but
in his crouched position he saw Syranna was still swimming, and across the
small pond was a man who was watching her.

“Stay down, Marcus! They’ll settle down, just give me a
moment to call them,” Syranna called out. She immediately made the soft
trilling noise, which she used to call them to her. Very quickly, all three
dragons were swimming toward her like they were baby ducks returning to their
chiding mama. AnnaBelle moved the closest to her, needing more reassurance than
her male siblings.

Syranna reached out and stroked her fingers against the
green, shiny skin. It was funny, she thought, the flesh of the dragonets never
felt like she expected it to. Before she could introduce the two men, if that
was what she had intended, Marcus came to his feet.

“How dare you intrude on this lady’s bath, sir?”

Syranna watched with trepidation as Marcus’ hand moved
toward his weapon. Before she could explain, Darmand had come to his feet.

“I am an old friend of Princess Syranna. I’ve known her
since we were both children and many times did we swim naked in these waters.
In fact, I was just contemplating joining her.”

“You will not be joining her, sir. I am Lord Marcus, liege
lord of Vikalla. Lady Syranna is my future wife. All that remains is for the
papers to be signed and we will be legally wed!”

“Ooh!” Syranna said under her breath in frustration. As far
as she was concerned, nothing had progressed that far. Sure, he had expressed
his views, but that certainly didn’t equal a “done deal.” This bold lord
overstepped his boundaries once again. Granted, he deserved to be king, but
that didn’t automatically assure that she was going to be his queen!

The dragons perceived her stress and began mewling and cawing
and making different levels of threatening sounds. Looking from one man to the
other, she spoke quickly. “Will you please look away and I’ll get out?”

Darmand shrugged. “I’ve seen it all before.”