“Have a seat,” Kodran said to her.
“I’m not speaking to you,” Rosamund said, deliberately sitting several seats away from him.
“Yes you are. You just did.”
“He is correct,” Dot-R said as the skimmer lifted off.
“Now I’m not speaking to you either.”
“You just spoke to me,” Dot-R pointed out.
Rosamund snorted and looked away from them, staring out the viewscreen as they flew.
Then she gasped in amazement and delight.
They were heading towards what looked like a small town, and flying above the town, there were dragons.
There were dozens of them, their ruby-red scales catching the light, their broad wings slicing through the air. She imagined they were probably guarding the town, but as she watched, one of them tucked in his wings and rolled into a glorious spiraling dive, for the sheer joy of flight. Another dragon followed him, and another, and the three chased each other through the sky in an aerial game of catch-me-if-you-can. Brief blasts of golden fire flashed off the bellies of the clouds.
It was just like a scene out of her favorite fairy tales.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Kodran said. “Our clan only settled here a few months ago, but construction on the new colony is going quickly. We have named the planet Farza, and the colony is named Shimra.”
“It’s amazing. I mean, I’m still not speaking to you. Don’t say it!” she added, as Dot-R started to correct her.
The area was mostly lush jungle, but a huge area had been cleared. There were buildings lining the streets of a small town, and houses scattered throughout a large forest.
When they emerged, the sun was shining and the air smelled sweetly perfumed.
They landed next to an enormous building built from stone – probably a good idea if your people could breathe fire, Rosamund thought. Its spires and crenellations made her think again of the illustrations in the storybooks she’d loved as a child. She didn’t let it show on her face, but inside she was jumping up and down and squealing and all but peeing her pants. She was still really mad, but come on…dragons swooping through the sky above a fairy tale castle. It was something she’d never dreamed she’d be able to see in real life.
“This is my family’s home, and also our meeting place,” Kodran said. “And now, my heart’s fire, it will be your home too. We will live and love here, and you will teach our little ones to fly from the top of that tower.”
Rosamund opened her mouth to respond that all she could teach anyone about flying was how to go splat, but before she could, she was distracted by sudden noise and movement.
There was a large crowd of people standing in front of the building, and when they saw Kodran and Rosamund and Dot-R, they started waving frantically and shouting. Hauntingly beautiful music streamed through the air, and there was a banner stretched between two poles.
The crowd, Rosamund noticed, was mostly male. This was the result of the Population Wars; generations of females had been wiped out.
Rosamund pointed at the banner. The crowd was rushing towards them now. “Look, they’re throwing you a welcome home party!” she said.
Kodran didn’t look pleased at all. In fact he looked alarmed. “I believe the appropriate expression is ‘oops’,” he said. “We, ah… I’d like to take you on a tour right now. Immediately.”
Prenzal walked up to them, glanced at the banner, and shook his head in disgust. “Sir, I told you that you should have just returned her to Agora,” he said, scowling. “Now it’s too late. I expected this would end badly.”
“Too late for what?” Rosamund asked as Kodran grabbed her arm and tried to drag her away.
A group of small children ran up and surrounded them, shouting happily. The girls wore little tunic dresses with embroidered flowers and the boys wore tunics and pants with embroidered dragons.
“Look how excited they are to see you! That’s so sweet!” Rosamund said. She wondered if the scared-looking woman from the ship and her little daughter would be there too. She didn’t see them anywhere. Everyone here had red scales.
A regally dressed couple was waving at Kodran from the front steps of the building. They both had crowns, and wore tunic outfits of gold with capes flowing behind them.
Kodran pulled harder on Rosamund’s arm, dragging her several steps. She pulled away from him.
“Wait! They’re calling your name!” she said, pointing at the royal couple.
“Faster,” he said, grabbing at her arm again. “We need to move faster.”
“Kodran! You are being extremely rude!” she chided him.
All of a sudden, she was completely surrounded by the crowd…who swept her off her feet, and began running away at full speed, shouting at the tops of their lungs.
They were carrying her towards some kind of clearing. She cried out for Kodran, but the shouting was so loud, and the crowd was so thick, that she couldn’t see or hear him anymore.
Now they were rushing her towards a platform in the middle of the clearing…
Prenzal had said it was too late. What were they going to do to her?
Before she could shout again, they were setting her roughly down on the platform…
Chapter Eight
…And putting a crown on her head and draping a cape over her shoulders. They quickly tied the cape around her neck and showered her with flower petals. Some of them blew smoke into the air in fantastic, twisting configurations.
Kodran fought his way next to her. His hair was rumpled and he was out of breath. He threw his brawny arm around her shoulders, and the crowd shouted even louder.
“Kodran?” she said, smiling through clenched teeth.
He gave her an apologetic smile. “I tried to warn you. I tried to help you escape before it was too late.”
“What is happening here?”
“This is the mating celebration. It’s traditional. Apparently, after you proposed to me on Agora, word spread very quickly.”
Again with the proposing! Rosamund took a deep, angry breath. “For the love of God, I did not—” she yelled.
She realized that everyone had gone silent and was staring at her. Kodran’s parents, along with a tall young woman who looked a lot like Kodran, had pushed their way to the front of the crowd, and they were watching her intently.
She couldn’t humiliate him in front of everyone like this.
“—expect this kind of welcome!” she finished.
The crowd burst into huge cheers.
She gave Kodran a dirty look. “I will get you for this later, I swear,” she muttered.
“Is that Earth code for ‘I will make love to you all night long’?’ ” Kodran asked hopefully.
“Nope.”
“I was afraid not.” He gestured off to their left. The crowd was carrying over an elaborately carved carriage without wheels – like a Victorian sedan chair, except decorated with dragon carvings. Rosamund and Kodran climbed in, and they were carried through the crowd.
“What happens next?”
“We circle the building three times, and then there is the traditional banquet.”
“How are you going to explain it to everyone when I go back to Agora?” she asked, looking exasperated.
Then she saw the look of deep hurt on his face; it stabbed into her heart. He didn’t want to hear her talk about leaving. He was still so sure, deep inside, that she’d marry him and live here with him in his fairytale castle, teaching their children and grandchildren how to go splat. She could see the heartache in the depths of his hypnotically green eyes.
“I know that you’re lying to me,” she said with exasperation. “How can we even talk about building a future together when you’re hiding things from me?”
She couldn’t tell him about the Draell woman and child she’d seen hiding on the ship, because she’d promised not to, and she didn’t know if it would put them in danger. However, that wasn’t all he was hiding.
“You
and your crew are being very secretive about something. There was something you didn’t want me to see when you made the first landing on your planet. There was some reason you wanted me to stay in my room, and I think it was because you didn’t want me to see what – or who – you were unloading.”
He avoided her gaze, looking out the window of their chariot. There was a sea of happy, cheering faces out there.
“You didn’t really buy medical equipment on Agora, did you?” Rosamund prodded him.
“We did buy medical equipment.” He faced her again. “Put your hand on my heart.”
She put her hand on the left side of his broad, strong chest, and felt an instant rush of arousal. He closed his hand over hers and moved it to the right side. Oops. Alien biology.
“Tell me what you feel?” he asked.
She didn’t dare tell him what she felt. There was a dampness between her legs, and her nipples had swelled into hard, aching buds of desire. “I don’t know,” she lied, blushing.
“Close your eyes,” Kodran intoned, his voice deep and rich. “Open your mind.”
She obeyed, and suddenly the cheers of the crowd and the sweet scent of the sylvan air fell away.
She felt as if she were experiencing his feelings. They rolled over her like a tidal wave. Kodran felt overpowering and unquestioning love, and fierce protectiveness, and an intense sexual attraction. And now she felt it as if she were inside his head.
Kodran’s voice vibrated through the air, as if coming from very far away. “I am not lying to you. We did buy medical equipment.”
She felt it to her very core. He was not lying.
The intensity of the emotions she felt was making her dizzy. He loved her. He barely knew her, but he loved her. He wanted her, and desired her.
After so many years of feeling unwanted and unattractive, it was really hard for her to believe in herself, but she was trying. She’d spent the last year and a half with Talia constantly telling her how pretty and smart and nice she was. It had been like free therapy – frequently over margaritas.
She shook her head, trying to clear it. “But where were you taking the medical equipment? Who was it for? Why did you drop it off so far away from where the rest of you live?” And who were that woman and child on the ship?
“Someday, I may be able to tell you more. Right now I cannot. I can only tell you this. I know you, I know your heart and soul. I know that you are a good person, who cares about others. And if I were able to tell you everything, you would agree with what I have done.” With her hand on his heart, she knew that he was not lying to her.
She sighed. “Well, I guess that’s the best I’m going to get right now.”
They were still being jostled along, and she tried to remember how many times they’d been around the house now. She thought it was the second time.
Outside, she saw fields of some kind of bright blue corn-like plants stretching away in neat rows, next to orchards of trees with massive globes of purple fruit. She couldn’t concentrate, though; she could feel the heat of his gaze like a wave of warmth washing over her, and she remembered Kodran feeding her slivers of the fruit’s sweet flesh as they hung among the stars, alone together in the vastness of the universe.
She glanced back at him.
“Why are you staring at me?” she asked.
A slow, sensual smile curled his lips. “I am simply admiring the luscious curves of your body. The way your eyes soften when you are thinking of me.” He leaned close and all but purred, “I know you were thinking of me. I was admiring how inviting your lips are. And how soft your skin is.” He began stroking her arm very lightly with his fingertips. His hand was massive, but his touch was feather-light.
Sparks of sensation snapped along her nerves from the soft friction between his fingerprints and her skin. Her nipples tingled as a flush of arousal bloomed on her throat and chest. When Kodran’s eyes dropped to her breasts, she knew he could see the tightly furled buds pushing against the fabric of her dress. Slick need clenched her core, and her lips parted as she caught her breath.
She shivered with pleasure. “I’m not sure that you should…umm….”
He arched one thick eyebrow. “So you want me to stop?”
“I didn’t say that.”
That earned a smug grin. “So you want me to continue.”
“I didn’t say that either!”
“You are very contradictory, difficult and challenging.” He smiled fiercely. “I like that in a woman.”
“You do, do you?” Her breath was coming in pants now. She moved away from him and pressed up against the wall of the carriage.
“Yes – I did not know that until now. But I have never enjoyed myself more than I am right this minute. And my pleasure will only increase…because I will be giving you pleasure.”
“If I let you.”
“Of course.” He nodded graciously. “But I can assure you, you will.”
Now he wasn’t stroking her anymore, and she craved his touch, but she damn well wasn’t going to ask him to touch her again.
He grinned at her.
“Enjoying the ride?”
“Nope.” She crossed her arms and pouted, looking out the window.
“I feel your heart, and I know you are not telling the truth.”
“You bastard!” She punched his arm.
He nodded. “Well, it is true that my parents were overcome with passion for each other before the mating ceremony officially took place.”
“Ewww, I do not want to picture your parents having sex. Also, you know what I meant,” she muttered.
“Yes, I did,” he admitted with a grin. “The translator works quite well.”
A short while later, they were being hustled into an enormous ballroom, where several tables were set. The tables ran the length of the room. Metal serv-bots, humanoid in form, glided around the room serving drinks.
The tables and chairs were made of the same elegantly twisted branches Rosamund remembered from Kodran’s quarters on his ship. Fires roared in enormous stone fireplaces on either side of the room. Some kind of animal was turning on a spit above each fire. Perhaps it was considered bad manners to charbroil your own dinner at the table by breathing on it. The table was decorated with garlands of sweet-smelling flowers, and the walls were hung with tapestries of red-scaled dragons soaring through the skies.
Dot-R was standing across the room, talking eagerly to one of the male serv-bots.
Rosamund tapped Kodran on the shoulder. “She is underage and needs a chaperone assigned to her when she’s not with me,” she informed him. Kodran spoke to a female serv-bot, who nodded and moved across the room with surprising speed. When she reached Dot-R and spoke to her, the male serv-bot hurried off, leaving Dot-R standing there with her hands on her metal hips, glaring at Rosamund.
Kodran led Rosamund to the two throne-like chairs at the head of the table, just as his parents rushed up to greet them. He introduced them as Nelka and Ferenc. They were accompanied by a tall, regal young woman, whom Kodran introduced as his sister, Lina. Like her mother, Lina had waist-length black hair, with elaborate braids and ropes of glittering jewels woven into it.
His parents looked her up and down as Kodran led her to her seat.
“I approve,” said his mother, Nelka. “She looks very fertile.”
“Mother!” Kodran glared at her. The air around him shimmered with heat, and Rosamund covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“What?” his mother said, looking innocent. “Is it so wrong that I am looking forward to having grand-eggs?”
“I imagine they will be fierce fighters, defenders of the realm,” Kodran’s father said approvingly. “She will have many young. Ten, maybe?”
Lina glanced at Rosamund with amused sympathy. “Welcome to my world,” she said. “I have not yet met my heart’s fire, but my parents have been pushing me to give them grand-eggs since I was a hatchling.”
Nelka blinked innocently. “What is the harm
in wishing for my daughter’s happiness?”
“You were trying to arrange for my betrothal in fledgling school. It was creepy,” Lina scoffed.
Nelka did not look the least bit ashamed.
As Rosamund settled into her chair, she saw Kodran looking across the room in annoyance. Prenzal was sitting at a table, scowling at them.
“I’ll be right back,” Kodran said. He stalked across the room.
Lina sat down in Kodran’s chair. “We must start planning your fitting for your wedding gown,” she said. She glanced at her parents, who were still standing there, checking out Rosamund’s rack, but not in a sexual way – more like an “Oh good, she’ll be able to nurse them babies” way. A note of urgency crept into her voice. “Really. We must.”
“No pressure there,” Rosamund said.
“Well, there’s also the fact that you would be the first human female to have mated with a Draell, and if it succeeds, it will help bring our race back from extinction.” Lina smiled at her encouragingly. “But no pressure at all, really. Oh, here comes my darling brother. I can see you look a bit overwhelmed. Please agree to mate with him – I would consider it a personal favor. Did I mention how handsome and charming he is? I mean, of course I don’t think he is, but plenty of other women tell me that.”
“What other women?” Rosamund spat out before she could stop herself. She felt a sudden surge of fury like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and was halfway out of her chair before she even realized it..
Lina gave her a triumphant smile. “Got you,” she said. “He is indeed your heart’s fire.” And she stood up to make room for her brother.
Chapter Nine
Kodran stood by the enormous arched doorway of the room where Rosamund would be sleeping that night.
Rosamund didn’t know if she was pleased or relieved that the next part of the traditional Draell mating ritual called for her and Kodran to sleep in separate rooms.
Apparently, there was a very specific list of events in what the Draell called the Lamori. The Lamori tradition, roughly translated by Kodran, was what happened after a woman proposed to a clan leader.
The Dragon Claims His Treasure (Starcrossed Dating Agency) Page 6
