Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Who was he fooling?

  Zoran moved to follow her. He would not leave things unsaid.

  Chapter 19

  “Pia, wait,” Zoran demanded.

  Pia stiffened. For once his words sounded more like a request than a command and so she didn’t deny him. She stopped, her head hanging down, and refused to look at him. She was too embarrassed.

  “There’s more I have to tell you.” he said, as if needing to come clean.

  “Oh, there’s more?” Pia sighed, weary from their verbal battles. She would much rather use her fists. Sarcastically, she added, “What? Do you have another wife somewhere? Some children hiding out in the next room? Oh, don’t tell me, there’s some evil monster on the loose and I got voted as the sacrificial offering.”

  Zoran spun her around into his arms. She stiffened in surprise, but he didn’t back down. His eyes flashed with liquid fire.

  “Quit saying things like that. I would never let harm befall you. You’re my only wife. It’s my duty to protect you,” Zoran said, tenderly brushing back a strand of her hair.

  “I don’t need your protection, Zoran. I can take care of myself. I have always taken care of myself.”

  “Then take something else from me,” he urged. Emboldened when she didn’t struggle to be free of his hold, he pulled her closer.

  Pia shivered. Her eyes closed as he claimed her mouth with his. The kiss was soft, taking his time as he moved his mouth over hers. Slowly, she tried to respond. Her lips parted, offering herself to him.

  Zoran growled, deepening the kiss. He found her hair, crushing her mouth to his. Pia moaned lightly. She lifted her hands to nestle against his strong, protecting arms. Maybe being protected wouldn’t be so bad.

  To her surprise, Zoran tore his lips away with a frustrated growl. Her body ached, begging him on. She lifted her hand to stop him but then pulled it back to her side.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you’re trying.”

  He looked at her, confusion tapering through his gaze.

  Pia pulled out of his arms, pushing at his forearms until he let her go. “You don’t have to kiss me if you don’t want to. It’s fine. I understand and—”

  Zoran pulled her back into his fierce embrace. Pia moaned in surprise of the suddenness of it. This time, when he kissed her, he was none too gentle, letting her feel his slashing teeth, his hungry mouth, the onslaught of his uncontrolled desire.

  He readily found her breasts, tearing at her shirt to get to them. Her scent was in his head, drugging him until he was trapped in a web of mindless obsession. He pulled away, only long enough to find a place to lay her down. Sweeping her up into his arms, he carried her to the couch. Pia trembled, as he immediately came over her.

  His lips were on her neck, eagerly licking and biting at her tender flesh. He found her waistband, pulling away long enough to strip her pants from her body in one swift movement. Then, when she lay naked beneath him, he devoured her breasts—teasing the tips with this tongue and teeth.

  Pia gasped, her hands weakly falling back in surprise at his onslaught of kisses. Zoran groaned, a truly animalistic sound, against her. She didn’t hold back for long. Her fingers sought to fulfill an adventure of their own. Trailing over hard muscles and sinewy flesh covered in his thick tunic, she urged him to her.

  Zoran’s hands found her scar. He followed it with his mouth. Licking it, he trailed down her side. Pia’s stomach tightened and arched.

  “Argh,” he growled passionately, as if in pain. He came over her once more. “I want you. I want to be inside of you. I must have you, now.”

  Pia shivered at the hoarse admission. Suddenly, his hands were at his waist, freeing his all too potent arousal. His arm mindlessly pushed her leg over his shoulder to open her up fully to him. Now that she didn’t fight him, he didn’t hold back.

  His mouth dipped to taste the wetness of her center fire, making sure she was ready for him. Her hips bucked against his hot mouth and his warrior’s body took it as an invitation to conquer. “Pia,” he moaned into her panting lips. “I can’t hold back...ah. I need to be inside you. I need to feel you.”

  Pia tensed. Excitement and fear flooded her blood, sped faster by her racing heart. She didn’t understand him. He sounded as if he was in agony but looked like he enjoyed the suffering.

  Zoran lifted up, guiding himself to her moist opening. He tested her depths. The tight muscles of her body squeezed the tip of his erection.

  “So hot,” he said in approval. “So tight.”

  She gasped. He was a big man and, though her body sought his, his size hurt.

  “Zoran?” she asked, confused by the pain where need had so readily been. Her sex tightened, making it worse.

  He pushed a little more, his hips working in shallow strokes as he drove persistently deeper.

  Pia quivered in pain. She pushed at him, her caresses becoming resistant, as she was frightened by his uncontrolled claiming. Her legs flailed against his side, trying to knock him out of her.

  With a flex of his hips, he embedded himself deeply into her. And, though she didn’t accept his full length, it was enough to cause a conquering yell of satisfaction to escape Zoran’s lips.

  Pia’s eyes widened. Her body burned with liquid fire, a white hot pain that tore her apart. His body withdrew. Reacting on instinct more than reason, she swung viciously for his head. Zoran grunted in surprise, poised to thrust again. Pia smacked him another time, slamming his face with her fist so hard that he fell off the couch.

  * * *

  One of Zoran’s hands reached for her in his confusion as the other braced his weight against the floor. His body tensed, wanting its release desperately. In his fervor he forgot that he should slow down. He forgot he’d told himself that she needed him to be gentle. The way her hands pulled at him, it didn’t appear as if she wanted him to be gentle. He had felt her body jerk beneath him and thought she urged him on.

  Zoran wanted her badly, always wanted her, and had tried to hold back from her. But when she moaned against his mouth, it was like a siren’s song calling him to his death. He knew he should stop, but he couldn’t refuse the passionate link between them. His body was on fire, taking over his mind until he couldn’t think to slow his assault on her body.

  Everything about this woman drove him to madness. He lost all control.

  When she squeezed him, it was like nothing he’d ever felt before. He wanted to feel her again. He pushed up, ready to rejoin her on the couch. But then he witnessed the look on her face. She was terrified of him.

  Pia jerked into action. Taking off across the room, she ran naked into the bathroom. The paper thin door wouldn’t be able to stop him if he wanted to go after her.

  Zoran watched her run, his head clearing of the pleasurable fog she’d worked around him. He felt the wetness of her on his body. But, he could also detect her fear of him and was mortified by it. He heard her scurrying across the bathroom floor to get away from him. Looking down, he froze. What had he done? The wetness he felt was her blood.

  “Pia,” he groaned hoarsely. The evidence of his deeds glared at him from his still risen shaft. What had he done? It wasn’t lost on him that he, who’d sworn to protect her, had been the one to hurt her. Never had any of the women he’d been with bled. Remembering how unusually tight she had been, the desire drained from his limbs. His body burned and he ached to go after her, to protect and comfort her. He walked toward the bathroom, unsure what to say.

  Zoran stood outside the bathroom door for a long time, feeling the rush of her agony wash over him and believing it was his doing. He wanted to run away from the torture of it. He didn’t run. He stayed, moving to a chair and opening himself up to the torment of it. He made himself take in her suffering. Then, he heard her cry, a soft sob she tried to muffle. He cursed himself for a monster, truly hating himself for the first time in his life.

  * * *

  Pia cowered on the bathroom floor, panting in apprehension. He
r stomach throbbed and twitched with each movement, but she ignored it. She’d been in worse pain. What scared her was the look on his face when he’d done it. He hadn’t been the commander she was used to dealing with. His face had contorted in bittersweet agony. His eyes had glowed pure gold with an intent she didn’t understand. He’d wanted to control her, to conquer her and claim her. Pia couldn’t relinquish that kind of control. Staring at the door, she waited to see if he would come for her. He didn’t.

  As she relaxed, she realized her body didn’t hurt as badly as before. There had been pleasure before the pain, a sweetness that stirred in her limbs anew. Looking down at her body, she saw blood on her thighs. The doctors had said something about stimulating her internal tissues, of the medicines affecting all her underlying structures. Had they done something to her sex? Is that what they’d been trying to say as she drifted in the twilight of drugged sleep? She stumbled toward the hot spring. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she saw her ugly face staring back at her. She saw the blood on her chin from the fight.

  Princess Pia, she thought with a look of utter disgust. You’re no more a princess than a batidae is a prince.

  How could he have looked at her like he had? She could barely bring herself to look at her reflection.

  With angry jerks, she cursed herself for what she was. She pulled at her hair, hating herself for cutting it, for disfiguring herself more in his eyes. How could he look at her? How could he need her? She didn’t deserve it.

  Pia stepped into the bath, scrubbing angrily at her skin to wash the blood away. And when the blood was gone, she kept scrubbing, trying to wash the pain from her aching heart.

  Chapter 20

  Pia awoke the next morning on the bathroom floor, curled in the warmth of Zoran’s overlarge robe. Her body was so stiff from the hard stone that it took a moment before she could even move. Her eyes opened, automatically going to the door. She’d stayed up most of the night, watching to see if Zoran would come after her. He didn’t, and Pia wasn’t sure that what she felt was relief.

  Taking a deep breath, she pushed to standing. Her stomach twinged slightly and she remembered all too vividly what had caused the ache. Going to the bathroom door, she lightly slid it open. Hesitantly, she poked her head outside.

  “Pia?”

  Pia jumped to hear her name. Glancing over, she saw Zoran was sitting on the couch. Her first reaction was to slam the door and continue hiding out like a coward. But Pia wasn’t a coward. She stood tall, regally wrapping his robe around her trembling body as she looked at him. Her confidence wavered as she saw his handsome face, and she had to look away.

  Zoran looked as if had waited all night for her. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin and stepped out of the bathroom. There was an awkward silence. Pia’s hand tapped along the outside of her upper thigh. When he didn’t speak, she glanced up.

  “Pia...?” he began, his voice full of questions. There was a rift between them and neither one knew how to cross it.

  Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She hesitantly walked toward him. Zoran didn’t move. Stopping several paces away, she said the only thing she could think of, “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

  Slowly, he stood and said, “All right, I’ll go, Pia.”

  When he turned from her, Pia had the strangest urge to run to him. Her eyes devoured him now that he walked away. Zoran disappeared into the bedroom. When he came out, she hadn’t moved. He’d changed his tunic, donning another black one.

  He looked at her from across their home. “You’re free to leave. I’ll reprogram the door for you.”

  Pia nodded weakly. She wanted to go to him, but her fear of rejection and ridicule held her back.

  Zoran said a few commands and then turned to her.

  Pia repeated the words, “open” and “shut” at his signals. Her voice was hoarse and strained but the door obeyed her.

  Before he left, he nodded once at her and said, “I’m sorry, Pia. I never meant to hurt you.”

  Pia’s legs weakened as the door shut behind him. She sunk wearily to the floor. Her heart poured out of her and she cried anew.

  * * *

  Zoran had sent word to the field that he would be late. He wanted to wait for his wife to come out of the bathroom on her own. When she did, he hadn’t known what to say to her. He’d seen her fear, felt her rejection, and it hurt him deeply. He still wanted her so badly, and she could barely bring herself to look him in the eye.

  She didn’t want him there. He couldn’t blame her. There was nothing he could say to appease her. How could he even begin to say he was sorry?

  * * *

  Zoran didn’t come home that day. Pia went only as far as the outer halls, stopping to look for him, debating whether or not she should try to find him. She wanted to say she was sorry, too. That she shouldn’t have run away. That she could now remember the pleasure of his touch and wanted to be a wife to him, if he could still bring himself to have her. She turned around each time, too much of a coward to make it to the end of the hall.

  Zoran also didn’t come home that night. Pia waited up for him, falling asleep on the couch sometime during the early morning hours. When she awoke the next morning, she was still alone.

  * * *

  Zoran took the soldiers through night drills, letting them rest in hour-long shifts. The war games were normally great fun, though Zoran’s heart wasn’t in his work. He watched with a melancholy the men could easily see on their leader’s stern face. As dawn approached, Agro, who was always one of the first to volunteer for the night games, drew near him.

  “I’ll finish up here,” Agro said quietly. “Why don’t you go to your wife?”

  Zoran’s expression was all the answer he needed. He shook his head in denial, continuing to yell out his orders. Agro stepped back from the man, clearly hating to see the commander’s raw pain and self-loathing.

  Chapter 21

  Pia lifted her hands in the air, slowly falling back to arch her stomach before her legs moved over into a leisurely back flip. The exercise was helping her sore insides to relax, though it did nothing for her downtrodden spirits. She watched the exercise room ceiling go past as she fluidly repeated the process. On the third try, she froze, stomach arched. Someone was at the door.

  She flipped herself around to her feet. Brushing her hands, as she rushed through the living room to the front hall, she yelled, “Open.”

  Even though she should’ve known it wouldn’t be Zoran, she was still disappointed. However, soon her disappointment turned to surprise.

  “Nadja?” Pia asked, blinking to see the woman she’d known from the ship.

  “Hello, Pia,” Nadja said, her voice soft. Her light brown hair was pulled neatly back and her blue eyes shone pleasantly. She held a small bag in her nervously twisting hands. When Pia only looked at her, Nadja asked, “Do you mind if I come in?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Pia said. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I have been cooped up in here for so long, I forgot my manners.”

  Nadja smiled, her nervous stance seeming to relax. Pia ordered the door shut behind her.

  “Can I get you anything?” Pia began to move toward the kitchen. “I think we have juice.”

  “No, I’m fine.” Nadja looked around the home. “I see you were assigned the princess suite, too.”

  Pia chuckled, relieved to learn that someone as tolerable as Nadja was a princess. She’d been worried she’d have to spend the rest of her life surrounded by women like the brassy Gena talking about breast augmentations. “You, too?”

  Nadja nodded and an instant camaraderie was struck up between the women.

  “It’s so nice to see another woman from the ship,” Nadja said as Pia led her in. “This planet has entirely too many men, which wouldn’t be so bad except they are all so mannish.”

  Pia laughed, instantly understanding. “So which prince did you get?”

  “Olek.”

  “Ah, the ambassador.” Pia nodded
.

  “What about you?”

  “Zoran.” Then to change the subject, she asked, “What do you have there?”

  “Oh!” Nadja lifted the bag. “Before I show you, I have to apologize in advance.”

  Pia frowned.

  “It was my husband’s request,” Nadja said. She reached into the bag and pulled out a hair extender. “He said your husband cut off your hair and asked if I could…” The woman hesitated in embarrassment.

  “If you could grow it back for me,” Pia said with a wry grin when Nadja didn’t finish. The woman nodded. “Zoran didn’t cut my hair, I did.”

  “Oh,” Nadja exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I like your hair short.”

  “It’s all right,” Pia laughed. Nadja had been quiet on the ship, but she found she liked the woman. She was one of those rare creatures who radiated a kind of goodness not often found in the circles Pia traveled. “I guess it’s called disfigurement. It means I shamed myself or something. You should see the looks the people gave me when I went outside. It was like an evil spirit came into their midst. I was waiting for mothers to rush their children away screaming.”

  Nadja giggled. “Well, it’s a planet of men. Go figure they’d come up with a tradition to keep their women looking soft and feminine.”

  “The queen stopped by just to look at it,” Pia continued with vast amusement. “I thought she was going to throw up on me.”

  “Queen Mede was probably mad at her son. She says the princes are a handful,” Nadja admitted. “She isn’t so bad. From what I can tell, her intentions appear genuine.”