“You’re on the royal council, aren’t you?” She wanted to groan.
“As are my brothers and uncles and cousins.”
“Ah, glad to see your honor includes fairness,” she grumbled.
“Question my honor again and I’ll—”
“What, break your word and actually hurt me?” Eve dismissed, sitting up with a superior smile. “Go ahead. Take your best shot. I’d like to have this honor conversation again afterward though.”
“I don’t have to hurt you to punish you, wife.”
Part of her really wanted to forget this intriguing debate and invite him back to bed. Her gaze roamed down over his deliciously firm body. Why did she have to ask about protection before she was able to explore him more fully? She wondered if he’d be bumpy all over when he shifted. And why wasn’t she put off by the idea?
“I think I see a suitable punishment already,” he said. “I won’t mate with you until you say the words I am your wife and you are my prince.”
Eve’s gaze flew up from his groin to stare at his face. “Are you serious?”
“Extremely.” His eyes flickered with gold.
There was that challenge again. Damn, but she was a fool. She was going to take his challenge and issue one of her own. Eve tilted her head to the side. “Good to know, but I’m not so sure I’ll be the one to cave first.”
Standing on the bed, she pulled her nightgown over her head and tossed it aside. She posed before him in nothing but her lace panties. Kyran’s eyes devoured her and his lips parted as he sucked in a deep breath. The gold only increased in intensity as he stared.
“By the way, I like to walk around the house naked. I hope that won’t be a problem.” Eve gave him a superior grin, reaching to absently rub the bottom curve of her breasts. His eyes automatically followed her movement as if mesmerized.
Men are so easy, she thought.
“Well, marriage is about compromises, wife. I am willing to learn some of your customs as well. Besides, I too find clothes to be rather binding.”
She knew what was coming even before he pushed his loose-fitted pants off his hips. Eve stared at his towering shaft. It was full, and so impossibly thick with need. Aside from the size, he looked every inch human. His perfect hips framed it, leading to strong thighs and calves. He kicked his pants aside, letting her look her fill.
“I’m assuming you have maids here? I know you don’t think I’m picking up after you.” Eve nodded pointedly to his discarded pajama pants and yawned.
“No, the servants will see to it. But I must insist you wear more than those hip coverings when they are around. Otherwise, it is a punishable offense and I would be able to do little to save you from it.”
“Great. Good to know. Though it is a shame that I have to take streaking off my list of things to do on this planet while I’m here.” She hopped off the bed, not at all tired. It was night after all—her time to be awake. “I’m hungry. I’m going to go get some food and then take a nice long, hot, wet bath.”
As she said the words, she let her voice dip with meaning and then bit her lip, giving him her most seductive naughty-girl look. Always the adventurer, she had no problem standing before him in her underwear. Besides, this hunky alien prince was just too delicious for words.
Kyran drew his hands up to his hips, pausing to scratch below his navel. “I must rest. A prince’s day is very full.”
“Sweet dreams.” Eve waited for him to break first and give into his desire for her. The electricity between them was so alive it nearly snapped in the air. They were both breathing hard. The subtle scent of arousal was thick. Every nerve in her body was ready for some action.
“M’lady.” Kyran bowed his head in dismissal and walked to the bed. “You know where to find me when you are ready to accept me as your husband and master.”
Eve snorted and walked down the stairs in her lace panties. She paused, listening to see if he would follow. He didn’t. Almost pissed that he’d resisted her, she stomped to the kitchen.
“Damn, barbaric alien…” She continued mumbling, cursing as she went in search of something decent to eat.
***
Kyran lay on the bed, his body taut. Every inch of him was aroused even though the woman frustrated the dragonfire out of him. He listened to her walk down the stairs, his Draig senses so in tune with her that he knew she stopped and waited. He detected her lingering scent. The hunter inside him stirred and primal instinct warred with his logical mind. Did he give into his natural urges and take her? Even as he wanted to, he knew that for the sake of their future together, he must wait for her to give into him.
Groaning, he didn’t try to resist his body’s needs as he reached down to grab his erection. It was so sensitive it actually hurt to stroke. But soon he was pumping his fist over the turgid shaft, working his way to a bittersweet release as he imagined a naked, wet, bathing Eve in her hip coverings.
Chapter Seven
Eve moved down the stone hallway. After the spa bath, she felt much better—even if the only thing she could find to wear was a long dress. As illogical as it sounded, the most believable explanation for her current predicament was that this was not a time slip, or alien abduction, or parallel world, so much as a kind of undiscovered country crossed to by a scientifically explainable magical portal. The dragonshifters used to live on her side of the portal, which is why myths of dragons and shapechangers still existed on her world. They’d left. People had forgotten about them. And now they’d rediscovered their way back across the space ocean like Europeans of old sailing to the supposedly New World.
Some people evolved with dark or light skin and biological features according to their environment. Kyran’s people had evolved into human dragons. The proof of their Earth past was evident in the fact she was walking through a medieval castle. Thinking of this place as a foreign country made it a lot easier to accept. She would simply have to navigate the local customs and laws until she found a way home.
“Hey, better a portal than a space ship,” she mumbled, peeking around a corner. Any idiot could jump into a portal—she assumed it was something you could jump into—but there was no way she was flying a space ship. She could barely drive stick shift in a car.
Giving up on sneaking around, since no one seemed to be awake anyway, she started wandering the long halls looking for a front door. It was by dumb luck that she found the way out. A large barred gate with metal spikes along the bottom edge had been left open. It hung overhead so she could pass under. Beyond that, two oversized wooden doors were open to let a cool breeze in. Only too late did she see the two guards standing watch. They glanced at her but made no move to stop her as she came toward them.
Eve smiled. “Good evening, fello—”
Her face collided with what looked like empty air but felt like a giant electrical shock. It zapped her hard, forcing all her muscles to stiffen violently before she was flung backwards to the hard floor. Seconds before her body struck, she thought, Oh, fuck.
***
“You should have been watching her,” Queen Galina said, not for the first time. She pointed to the unconscious Eve in the palace’s hospital bed.
Kyran averted his eyes to avoid his mother’s irritated gaze. She was one of the last female dragons born and her fiery temper ran hotter than any male dragonshifter. Normally it took a lot to get her angry. Apparently, one of those things was having her new daughter-by-marriage electrocuted by the guard shield.
“This will never do,” the queen continued. “We have to come up with a better integration plan for bringing brides through the portal.”
“To be fair, who walks through the main entrance to a castle without disarming a guard shield?” The king kept his voice even. He unconsciously rubbed the tip of his nose.
Kyran glanced at his bride. The tip of her nose was burnt and blistered. The doctors said she was going to be all right after her shock but expected her to be weak for a few days. What concerned them more was
the way she’d hit her head when she fell. The palace guards hadn’t realized what she was doing until it was too late.
This part of the palace was hardly ever in use. Aside from the occasional mishap, the nearby villagers rarely came to the palace to seek medical care. Shifters healed much more quickly than humans apparently did.
“It’s not so bad,” Finn said, trying to sound encouraging. “Maybe she can wear a face veil?”
The queen glared at her youngest son. “She is still beautiful and she is still a princess.”
“I was being serious,” Finn defended like a scolded child. “She has a skin bubble on her nose.”
“I will tolerate no jests out of you. When she wakes up, if you so much as look at her nose, I will close that portal myself and you will never marry.” Galina let her eyes flash with a gold shift. “And I will cancel all visiting ships.”
Finn paled and looked to their father. The king did not naysay his wife. Everyone knew who the ruling force in that relationship was.
“Kyran, you need to do better,” Queen Galina ordered. “We already discussed that these women would be fragile. They’re not shifters.” She sighed heavily and furrowed her brow in worry as she looked at the unconscious Eve. “But it is clearly worse than I feared. We will just have to enact certain laws and customs to ensure they’re protected. It will take some time, but people will look to the princes on how to act. We need to lead by example from the beginning. I worry that the men will assume they are fierce like dragon women when clearly they can be broken.”
It had taken the queen a long time to accept the fact that her sons would not be marrying dragonshifters, but humans. Once she agreed to an idea, she embraced it fully.
“I will not leave her side until she is healed,” Kyran promised. He thought about her threat to kill herself but did not want to tell his parents as much. If that is what she had been trying to do walking into the shield, she had almost been successful.
“It must be more than that. From now on, whenever she is concerned, you will tell yourself that women are to be protected.” The queen nodded slowly, as if convinced she knew the answer. “You will say it until you believe it. We have all read the historical scrolls about Earth and the human people. Where these non-dragon women are concerned, women are to be safeguarded at all costs.” She took a deep breath, clearly not liking the decree against women but at the same time knowing that humans were not dragonshifters. “Men provide, fight, protect. Women nurture, care and provide a steady household.”
“Like the Victorians from the transmission documents,” Finn offered. “Men rule the outside sphere of the world. Women rule the inside sphere of the home.”
“Documentaries,” the king corrected. The human’s historical records had been most helpful.
“Clearly, that is how these delicate women are used to being treated,” the queen agreed. “It has to be the will of the gods. I realize the answer as surely as if the gods had come down and whispered it in my ear.”
“Finn, come, let’s see the Var princes off. They ride for home this morning.” King Severin patted Kyran’s arm before leading Finn out of the palace hospital.
“You could not have known she would be so delicate,” Queen Galina said to Kyran when they were alone. “The gods would not have blessed you if they did not want you to have her as your wife. Now that it is done, you cannot find another.”
“I don’t want another,” he said. “I want Eve. Only Eve.”
“It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it?” The queen smiled. “That connection you feel will only grow. Soon she will be a part of your soul. That is what marriage is.”
Chapter Eight
“Good morning, Rudolf, all ready to lead Santa’s sleigh tonight?” Eve mumbled. She stared at her nose in the mirror and gingerly poked at the tip. The blister was gone, but a scab had replaced it. She wore one of Kyran’s tunic shirts with a belt around her waist to fashion a dress. The skirt hung to mid-thigh and the top was baggy. It actually didn’t look half bad, and it beat the stack of renaissance faire gowns she’d been given as an alternative.
“Come.” Kyran crossed over his living room so swiftly that she barely had time to gasp before he swept her up into his arms. Instantly, he started running for the front door in a panic. “Do not worry. Do not worry.”
Eve caught her breath and lightly hit him on the arm. “What the hell is wrong with you? Put me down.”
He came to an abrupt stop. The man actually looked confused. “You called me Rudolf and asked if I was ready to slay for this Santa. The surgeon said to watch for signs of confusion and…”
Eve slowly shook her head. “I was talking to my nose, and I’m not crazy. Your doctors can’t do anything to help me anyway.”
He released her and she slid down his body to stand on her feet. “You were talking to your nose?”
“Not my nose, but my face, oh, you know what I mean.” Eve covered her face with her hand. Though the wound no longer throbbed, it looked awful. He’d been caring for her since it happened—bringing her strange foods that looked like moldy bread and something that came out of the rare fruit section of the grocery store. “I’m not confused. I’m irritated, and frustrated, and I miss my guitar, and I’m not even sure why I’m still here with you. Well, except for the fact I’m not going on stage looking like this.”
He said nothing, which was a change from his constantly reminding her that they were married.
“You’ve been hovering,” she said, somewhat playful, somewhat irritated. Eve wasn’t sure what she wanted out of him—well, besides a trip back through the portal. “Scared I’ll escape?”
“Scared you will injure yourself,” he corrected.
“How many times do I have to tell you it was an accident? I really don’t want to die.”
“Then what would you like to do?” He smiled meaningfully, and she knew he waited for her to say the words “I am your wife and you are my prince” so they could have sex. It was a tempting way to pass the time, but her stubborn mouth would never let the words out. He always looked at her like that, with his steamy come-hither eyes and eager expression. His breathing deepened as if he was on the verge of exploding out of his clothes like a wild beast. “Or what would you like me to fetch you?”
It took Eve all of two seconds to come up with a list. “Out of this castle. A cheeseburger. A latte. No, three lattes. My guitar. My clothes. A hair tie. Blow dryer. Fresh air. A—”
“Come. How about I take you out of the castle.” Kyran seemed eager to please her as he crossed toward the bedroom and came back holding one of the my-lady gowns. “Dress.”
Eve looked down at her outfit. “I am dressed.”
“You are, uh—” Kyran eyed her naked legs, “—half dressed.”
Eve arched a brow.
“It is customary if you are to make an appearance as a Draig Princess that you wear…” He held up the dress for her with a hopeful expression.
Eve shook her head in denial.
“Whereas I have enjoyed your indecent display here in our home, I cannot allow other men to see your legs so exposed.”
Eve crossed her arms over her chest.
“They will get the wrong impression.”
Eve tilted her head to the side. “If the sight of my naked legs is going to inflame your people, then that’s on them, not me.” Before he could defend the Draig honor, as it looked like he was about to, she added, “However, I will compromise. Get me a pair of those pants and I’ll wear them.”
Eve knew not to push her attitude too far. If she wasn’t careful, she might not be let out of his home. But she also wasn’t the type of woman to bend her personality to fit others. She was who she was.
When he didn’t answer right away, she said, “Need I remind you that you stole me from my planet. I get that a portal trip is probably like crossing the street between two places, but at the same time, it’s a whole freaking other planet. I think I’m being a pretty good sport about this. M
ost women would be freaking out right now, crying and talking nonsense. But not me. I’m holding it together pretty well, I think. So, in light of that, I’m thinking if I want to wear a pair of freaking pants then you should let me have my freaking pants.”
What started as a reasonable tone ended in near hysteria.
“You are right. I will find you pants.” Kyran nodded and disappeared out the front door.
Eve sighed. Well, maybe she wasn’t handling this as well as she wanted to believe.
***
Kyran held the pants for his bride in one hand as he strode into his father’s royal office. The king looked up at his approach. “Is the princess well?”
Kyran nodded. “I believe so.”
“That is a relief.” The king motioned that he should sit. “What brings you to my office?”
Kyran obeyed the silent gesture. “We did not go about this bride thing right. I do not think women are still used to being stolen as they once were.”
“Some adjustment is to be expected.”
“It is more than that. She keeps asking for things that I do not have—her Earth clothes and something called a cheeseburger, which I recall from the mini shows as being a giant food that women enjoy eating half naked very slowly.” Kyran thought of Eve’s beautiful legs. He would very much enjoy getting her a cheeseburger.
“Are you asking for permission to reopen the portal?”
Kyran nodded.
“We cannot open the portal so that you may find food for your bride when she has food here. The timing must be right. The humans cannot know we visit them, and our shifters cannot know the portal works as often as it does. Traffic through must be regulated.”
Taming the Alpha Page 24
