by Lucy Lyons
“Are you okay, Captain?” asked Reanne.
“He nearly starved himself to death in the prison,” said Tem.
“That was foolish of you, Captain,” scolded Reanne.
“You were not there,” croaked Calvin.
“Well, you are here now. Can you walk?”
“I’ll walk just fine. Evan will help me.”
“Just don’t let my mother know what you did. She is not above administering punishment these days, and that is the last thing you need.”
“And just what is our Queen above these days?” said Tem sourly.
“Very little,” said Reanne. “Which is why it was dangerous for you to come here.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tem
“He truly did not know he was half dragon?” asked Reanne as she lit the lamps in his room.
Tem was focused on Astrid’s distress as she settled into another wing that served as guest quarters. He did not hear Reanne’s question at first.
“What?”
“Oh, Tem. That little human has you wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she?”
Tem groaned. “It is more than that.”
Reanne stopped what she was doing and regarded the dragon.
“How?” she asked.
“I thought it was a myth.” His voice sounded tortured even to him.
“What myth?”
“Bonding.”
Reanne sucked in a breath and this confirmed Tem’s worse fears.
“How do you know?”
“How do I not? I can’t bear the thought of being apart from her. Even now I just want to go to her room. I can’t bear the thought of her being near another male.”
“Well, that’s just lust. It’s normal for males and I imagine that being in that place you’ve been denied, and that’s fueled the lust.”
He shook his head.
“No, Reanne, you don’t understand. I hear her thoughts.”
“What?” said Reanne, now truly shocked.
“Yes, and what’s more, she can hear mine.”
“And do you feel what she feels?”
“Yes,” he said almost as a whisper.
“Oh, by the Gods, this is a disaster!”
Tem sank to the bench by the bed.
“You think so?” he said acidly.
“My mother will have a fit. There will be no protecting the girl from her.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“Does the girl understand?”
“She’s enamored, but no, she does not know the consequences of this.”
“Oh, by the triune Goddess. Tem, tell me you haven’t completed the bonding.”
“No. There was no time.”
“Well, that’s one good thing. It gives us an opportunity.”
“To what?”
“I’ll take her away, perhaps to America. I’ll take Evan too. Perhaps—”
“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HER!”
The force of his response shocked Tem, but he was standing now, towering over Reanne and shouting at her. He was one microsecond away from shifting into dragon form.
Reanne backed away.
“Tem, keep your voice down. I might understand this, at least part of it, but mother will not. And it will be your Astrid’s death.”
“Even if I do not complete the bonding?”
“She would be safer if you did. If she was claimed as property—”
“Astrid is most definitely not that.”
“Yes, but by our law, that is all she can be. You know this. Why am I explaining this to you?”
Tem put his face in his hands. “I never expected any of this. I’m five hundred years old, for heaven’s sake, have known hundreds of women, and then, then this tender shoot, a breath of wind crosses my path, and I lose it altogether. I must be getting senile.”
Reanne scoffed. “Hardly. You are not a tenth of the way there.”
“Well, I won’t live that long now, will I?”
“Is that really your main concern?” asked Reanne gently.
“No. It is the thought that she’d die at all that kills me.”
“Ah, so. Then there is one thing you must do.”
“What is that?”
She sighed. “You know.”
Tem indeed did know and a part of him wanted Astrid very much. But to carry through with the bonding? To join their souls for all time?
“Why?”
“So my mother doesn’t kill her.”
“What that make a difference if Rhea kills me?”
“It is a gamble either way,” said Reanne. “And I cannot tell which one carries the greatest odds you’d come out of this alive. But I cannot help but think along the lines that you do. What is between you and the human goes beyond the laws of men and dragons… there is a deep purpose here.”
Reanne stepped within inches of Tem. “And maybe that’s a better purpose than what my mother has in mind for you anyway.” She bent and kissed him on the cheek.
“Out of all the dragon males, your passion runs the hottest. It is why my mother wants you to father the next generation. But your heart was made to love only one, and I think you have found her.”
Reanne quietly and gracefully exited the room, leaving Tem alone with his thoughts.
And in his thoughts was Astrid, a beautiful young woman that had no idea what was in store for her. She was now a fugitive from her own people, in the middle of nest of dragons that would kill her upon their Queen’s command.
It was an unholy mess.
What is between you and the human goes beyond the laws of men and dragons… there is a deep purpose here.
Tem couldn’t imagine what that would be and Reanne’s words did not comfort him. But what he did know that, since the first time had Astrid touched him, his heart beat in time with hers.
And as he thought about this his mood plummeted to dark depths that he never imagined existed. Even during his most hopeless moment in prison, he had never felt this lost or helpless. It just wasn’t in his nature.
And then he realized it was in Astrid’s. He was feeling her emotions and he couldn’t bear it.
Before he realized he was doing it, he was striding the halls of Rhea’s palace to Astrid’s door. He ran past beautiful frescoes and ancient sculpture, down the marble faced walls and floors, to the wing where Astrid was housed. He stood there at the polished teakwood door, unsure of what to do. His head told him to turn and go back to his own room, but every other part of him wanted, no needed, to be with Astrid.
The door tore open and there stood Astrid with tears streaming down her face.
“Tem,” she said shakily, “I was going to look for you.”
“And how would you have found me, eh?” he said with a smile. Tem felt great relief just at seeing her. “There are four hundred rooms in this palace.”
“Four hundred?” Her eyes grew wide.
“Yes, not counting the kitchen, the dining room, the throne room and the pool.”
“Pool?”
“Well, actually it is an underground cavern that is fed with hot springs. I’ll take you there sometime.”
Tem felt her mood tumble again, and she turned and fled into her room.
“Astrid,” said Tem. He followed and shut the door behind him.
“What am I doing here, Tem? Your Queen hates me and each time she stares at me I get the feeling she wants me dead.”
“Oh, fuck,” said Tem. He stood inches from her now, though she had her back to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned his forehead to her neck.
“She won’t hurt you. I won’t allow it.”
“But what she was thinking— Tem, she expects you, and Reanne, oh—” she made little noises in her throat.
“That’s an old plan, and one I rejected a long time ago, Astrid. And it’s thoroughly imposs—Wait. You heard Rhea Gentrix’s thoughts?”
“Sure, Tem, like I can hear yours, and Calvin’s, and Evan’s, though his are a
little harder to catch. Reanne’s for some reason I can’t, or maybe, I just didn’t know she was there until she showed up—”
“Wait. Stop,” said Tem. This was impossible. How could she hear Rhea’s thoughts, or anyone else’s besides Tem’s? He had never heard of anything like this before.
Red hair. Green eyes. Impossibly stubborn.
Dragon.
Tem kissed the back of her neck and she sighed. But he wasn’t being romantic.
Human. She tasted so human. Her passions ran as hot as her blood.
Astrid leaned her head back against Tem’s shoulder.
“I feel much better now you are here.”
Tem leaned into her and started a rocking motion, almost as if they were dancing. “Hmmm,” he hummed. “Beautiful Astrid, lovely Astrid, with the pretty red hair. How can it be that I met you?”
“I think,” she whispered, “I was looking for you.”
“Me?”
“Oh, not you, Tem Rawlins, specifically. But you, the essence of you. The dragon Lord. My grandmother was from Ireland and she’d tell me stories of dragons and how our ancestors served the dragon Lords. She told me how our family, at least the women, was graced with the ability to read the dragons’ minds so we could better help them. We were the seneschals between the dragons and humans, the gatekeepers, and we mediated their relationship. Some called us ambassadors, my grandmother said, others called us traitors to our race. Of course, I thought she was a dotty old woman, until tonight, that is.”
Tem had not heard anything like this story before and he figured that Rhea Gentry had some explaining to do.
“So, what happened?”
“A dragon Lord and a human woman fell in love, and neither dragons or humans liked that very much. The was a great battle between the dragon Lord’s followers and the dragon Queen…”
Astrid sucked in a breath. “That was Rhea Gentrix, was it?”
“Rhea has always been our Queen,” he said gently.
“She killed that dragon Lord,” said Astrid with a pained voice. “Oh, my God, Tem. Oh, my God. Get away from me! Go away! Don’t let her see you here with me!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Astrid
Astrid was beside herself in fright. The last thing she wanted was Tem harmed on her account. She struggled against him, trying to find a way to break free and put distance between them.
But Tem didn’t let go of her. Instead he pulled her closer to him so that the globes of her bottom rested against his hips. Her frantic attempts to get away resulted in her shimmying against his body. But he held her fast and Astrid became very aware of not just the dragon’s heat against her back, but his arousal as well.
“She won’t hurt me,” he whispered hotly in her ear. “And with what you know about her, she can’t hurt you either.”
Astrid gasped as Tem pushed his hips and the sheathed length of his cock between the cheeks of her derriere. But Tem held her tightly so that she couldn’t wriggle away.
“Ssh, ssh, relax. I can handle Rhea.”
His voice was soothing and she stopped struggling. Astrid was so very aware of his hot breath on her neck and the strength of his arms holding her. His intoxicating scent, hot and male, hung around her and she couldn’t help but breathe it in. Her senses spun dizzyingly and Astrid melted against him.
Part of her knew she was succumbing to the seductive power of Tem’s dragon, but another part of her yearned for his touch. When the servants first led her away from Tem, she had nearly panicked. At first, she didn’t know if it was fear from being in a new place. But the longer she spent away from Tem, the more her anxiety had grown. But now, with his body pressed to hers, she understood why.
Grandmother had never told her about this intense yearning to be near a dragon.
This went beyond a wish, or a desire. She had never felt need shake her to her very core like this; as if she couldn’t touch him she would die. But his touch, instead of satisfying her, fueled a deeper hunger for more. He stroked her hair and her body shook under his caresses, yearning for his hands to touch her flesh. She craved the brush of his fingers on her breasts, her stomach and, God help her, between her thighs. A little sound escaped her throat as Tem nibbled on her ear, which sent an explosive jolt through her.
It was too much. She couldn’t make sense of this and she desperately wanted to slow this down, to understand what was happening.
“You said you would explain things to me,” she said.
“I think,” he said in low voice that sent tingles down her spine, “you’ve explained more to me in a few short sentences than my family has told me in my entire life. They made it sound like humans always hated us, but that wasn’t the truth.”
And sharing thoughts?
There were rumors, as I said, almost myths, of certain humans who could do that. But I never heard of the seneschals, so there was nothing to connect it with.
But you heard something about that?
It was more in the context of having a special bond with a human.
A romantic bond.
Yes.
But I can speak to many dragons.
Yes.
So what we have isn’t romance?
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Tem, whispering in Astrid’s ear. He stroked her hair and she leaned into the touch. “The heat from your body travels through me like electricity. When we were in that cell, your hands kindled a fire, not just in my body, but in my soul. Do you know how rare that is, to touch a dragon’s heart?”
“Funny. I’ve studied dragons all my life but I find I know nothing of a dragon’s heart.”
He turned her around to face him.
“Up until now, I thought I did. But I find I was wrong.”
Tem bent his head and covered her mouth with urgent hunger. The heat of his mouth on hers sent shivers of naked desire down to tips of her toes. She took his questing tongue greedily and caressed it with her own. His hands cupped her face, holding in place as he took his fill of the flesh of her mouth.
Her knees wobbled under as waves of sensual pleasure washed through her body. The world slipped away into one sensation after another as Tem broke the kiss and worked his way down to her breasts. He cupped one, and squeezed it. In Astrid’s lust filled state, that one moment sent white heat tingling between her legs.
With a wicked glint in his eye, he unbuttoned her shift and peeled away the top to expose the creamy and round flesh of her breasts. Tem fingered the tips of her nipples and felt them harden by desire with his thumbs, making little circles around them. Finally he flicked his thumb against the nub, now over sensitized by Tem’s attentions.
A little noise escaped her throat and instinctively she pushed her hips to connect with his. His shaft pulsed beneath his clothing and Astrid wanted to feel more of him.
Soon. He sent this single word as if he was unable to say more. Tem’s mind was aflame and he was in the same state as she, wanting, needing, a primal urge filling him that he could not control.
Astrid did not want him to.
Soon. He urged again as a plea. She sensed that as much as he wanted her, he was holding back too and Astrid did not understand why.
Oh, my Astrid, you cannot know. We do not do this, like this. Not since the beginnings of our race.
His words made no sense, but then again what drew them together didn’t either. Tem wanted her and she returned that feeling wholeheartedly.
We’ll be bound together for the rest of our lives. Do you want that?
Did she? She hardly knew. And right now her thoughts were too scrambled to think. Astrid dropped her hand to his hard shaft.
Tem groaned.
I know I want you, Tem.
He sucked a nipple sharply into his mouth and her breathing sped as her heart did a dance in her chest. Tem nipped the nub with his teeth and Astrid gasped. With a swirl of his tongue he laved away the pain and a wave of shivers rolled through her body.
“Please,” she pleaded.
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Astrid swore she heard an approving rumble from Tem’s chest. He walked forward, pushing her back, one step, then another, and a third and fourth. Something hard hit her back; a wall or one of columns of the big room.
Tem fingered Astrid’s prison guard uniform.
“Time we get rid of this,” he said and, reaching behind her, grasped the dress on either side and ripped it in half along the back seam as if it were tissue paper. The remnants fell at her feet and revealing that Astrid wore only a black lace garter and her black stockings.
His eyes raked her body and fell to her nearly naked hips. Tem fingered one of the straps that ran down her waist to her upper thigh.
“Astrid, you are full of surprises. I haven’t seen one these in a long, long time.”
She shrugged. “You were in prison for twenty-four years.”
“Before that,” he said huskily. “Where are the panties?”
“Laundry.”
“Lucky laundry,” he said. “Fortunate me.”
Astrid was totally exposed and vulnerable to the sexy dragon and as he raked her with an intense gaze filled with lust, she quivered. How did just a look wash her with pleasure? It was if she was an instrument and all he had to do was pluck any part of her to draw out her pleasure.
Tem brushed his fingers against her mound crowned with reddish hair and she whimpered.
“You like that?” he said.
“Yes,” she breathed.
“This is so glorious. A true redhead.” His fingers explored the cleft of her mound inciting her desire to a level she had never experienced.
“Spread your legs.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Spread your legs,” he said in a seductively low voice and she could not refuse. He dropped between her legs and kissed her mound.
Your perfume is so sweet.
Astrid gasped as he buried his tongue in her cleft. He lashed her sensitive flesh with long, questing strokes, seeking pleasure spot. And when he did, the fire that ran up her spine nearly overloaded her brain.
“Oh!” she whimpered as he continued his sweet assault. Without thinking she grabbed his dark hair and pulled him closer.
You want more?
