Sold To The Dragon Princes: The Novel

by Daniella Wright

  “What brings you here so late, Oscar?” Nathan asked as the settled into the front room. Oscar swallowed. Iris had sent him there with very specific instructions.

  “You will go and call a truce with your chum or you will not step foot back in this house,” Iris had threatened. “Your daughter married a man to save your business but you and Nathan continue to squabble and your differences remain unresolved. Do you feel no shame?”

  Oscar had hung his head, realizing the truth in Iris’ words and begrudgingly rode to Nathan’s house, carefully planning what he needed to say.

  “I…I would like for us to resolve our issues, Nathan,” Oscar choked, trying to sound sincere but the edge in his voice was apparent.

  “Well that is wonderful!” Genevieve announced, entering the salon with the drinks. Nathan raised and eyebrow, satisfaction lighting his dark eyes. Oscar was overcome with annoyance.

  He thinks I am apologizing to him! Oscar realized but before he could speak, Nathan’s wife intercepted as if sensing the potential for events to go awry.

  “I think we must all focus on what is most important here,” Genevieve told them. The men looked at her and she sighed.

  “The business, gentlemen, the business is in debt. What will we do to put us right with the banks?”

  “I will call in all the credit we are due,” Oscar suggested, blushing at the thought. He knew the task was apt to be daunting as the rich were the most difficultly parted with their money.

  “I will speak to a bank in Nassau County to see about extending our credit until we make things proper.”

  The men stared at one another, unsure of what else to say. Genevieve clapped her hands together and smiled.

  “Wonderful!” she declared. “Imagine how happy Roman and Emmaline will be to discover they are no longer required to loathe one another.”

  Roman lay in the sun, his body suspended in the blissful spot between sleep and wakefulness. He could smell the sweet spring air, hear the chirping of birds but his mind was filtering in and out of consciousness, unsure if he was awake or asleep.

  He had arrived home from school to an empty house and he admitted he felt a small sense of relief. He no longer knew how to act in Emmaline’s presence, the passion they had shared a week earlier beginning to seem like a distant dream itself. He was exceptionally sleepy that afternoon.

  I will have a nap in the gardens, he decided. He had not had a chance to enjoy the serenity of the gardens nearly as much as he had desired since they had moved into the five-bedroom home on Trails End. He lay in the grass, relishing the lull of Mills Cove in the near distance, willing slumber to overtake him. Just as he was drifting off, he heard a door close. He found himself tensing slightly.

  Just return to sleep. She will not pay you any mind. When you wake, you can arrange for your own meal as usual and have a bath. You smell of last night’s bourbon.

  His ears remained pert for a moment but he soon realized that Emmaline was not coming outside. A flash of disheartenment flew through him but he shoved it aside.

  You must learn to harden yourself to her rejection. It will get easier with time.

  A small gasp escaped his lips and his eye lids flittered open. Darkness had fallen and he still lay in the grass, a tingling sensation travelling up his body. He did not immediately know what had woken him but as the haziness began to dissipate, he became aware that something was tugging at his manhood. He propped himself up and looked on in stunned surprised as his wife kneeled between his legs, gently kissing his slowly growing member.

  “What are you doing?” Roman whispered and Emmaline turned her green eyes on him, her tongue darting out to lick his shaft quickly. He responded, growing to his full size and Emmaline’s pupils dilated. He sat up on his elbows but before he could move, Emmaline had put him deeply into her throat. He froze, worried that he might release but he steeled himself and watched in fascination as her lovely head began to bob down against him, her windpipe constricting and restricting accepting his hugeness with slick wetness. He moaned, his head falling back as her movements became faster and more deliberate, her tongue joining her sopping mouth. He felt his sack tighten as he grew closer to climax but Emmaline stopped suddenly, gently wiping the saliva from the side of her mouth, her green eyes boring into his. He reached toward her but she was expecting the movement, pushing him down as he had once done to her. She pinned his hands against the grass, leaning forward to press her lips against his and they shared a deep, passionate kiss. He wriggled a hand free of her grasp to entwine it in her silken hair but before he could flip her onto her back, she lowered herself onto his ready hardness. She wore nothing beneath her skirts and Roman had never been so aroused in his time. She teased the top of his head with her damp lips, sliding her throbbing nub against him until her could take no more, pushing himself into her from underneath. A cry escaped her lip but she lowered her hips to meet his violent thrusts, slowing him so she could grind against him. She watched his face, contorted in ecstasy as they fell into a rhythmic dance of flesh and hot wetness, both growing dizzier as their pace increased. Finally, Roman could stand no more, gently lifting Emmaline by the waist and jamming into her as she sat suspended in the air. Frantically he pushed, relishing her cries of mercy until they were both a wet mess of nectar, not knowing where Roman’s started and Emmaline’s stopped. He lowered her against his quivering manhood, their eyes still caught in each other’s gaze. Suddenly, Emmaline hopped up, replacing her dress over her naked parts and retreated toward the house.

  Roman watched after her with longing but he dared not call after her. He knew things would only return to the same heavy strangeness as they had before. He would be a fool to get his hopes up again. To his surprise, she turned to him before entering the kitchen and gestured for him to follow.

  “Are you intent on laying there all night?” she asked. Roman shook his head slowly, unsure of what she wanted.

  “No…” he replied with a question in his voice.

  “Well hurry along then,” she told him, turning away. “I made supper.”

  Emmaline glanced furtively at her husband over the flicker of the candles and wondered if she was making a mistake.

  I cannot fight the desire I have for him, she thought mournfully. Will father ever forgive me for betraying him this way? I am falling in love with the son of his sworn enemy.

  Yet over the past weeks, she had been unable to hide from her feelings. It was clear that Roman felt the same as she but her stubbornness had kept her from requiting his affections. The pull she felt between her father and her husband was devastating. She did not know which way to turn.

  It the fault of our parents for throwing us together. What else could have occurred? We were bound to feel for one another.

  Emmaline was conflicted, waves of guilt overriding the intensifying love she was growing toward her husband.

  What will become of us now? Perhaps without the tension we will find we haven’t as much as an attraction to one another. Perhaps I am concerned for no cause. This may end as abruptly as it came about.

  Emmaline did not believe it.

  Chapter Seven

  Their love had become clandestine, shrouded by the constant fear that their fathers would learn of it.

  “We must continue to act as we always have in their midst,” Emmaline warned Roman but he was disgusted by having to hide his feelings toward his wife.

  “We are married!” he protested. “How it was before was unnatural. This is the way a wedded couple should act.”

  Emmaline had looked at him, her luminous eyes fraught with tension and Roman had faltered in his conviction.

  She loves her father truly, he thought, a mixture of adoration and sadness flowing through his veins. He could not be the reason to cause a riff between a woman and her father. Every night, their lovemaking grew more passionate, alleviating Emmaline’s initial fears that they would grow tired of one another. They had finally found each other but only in secret. They
maintained separate quarters but each dawn found one in the other’s bed, curled in a mound of naked limbs and secure breathing.

  “How much longer must we keep up this charade?” Roman grumbled one Sunday morning as they washed and dressed for church. “When will those two old fools come to their senses and remember they were once the best of friends?”

  Emmaline did not respond but she had often wondered the same. As time progressed, she feared that it may never happen, that Oscar and Nathan would never reconcile.

  “Perhaps it will be for the best if the business is lost,” Roman continued, running a brush through his dark hair, a frown on his face.

  “How can you say such a thing?” Emmaline demanded, a shocked look upon her face. “The store is our birthright, our future. Without it, what will become of our families?”

  Roman paused and met her eyes in the mirror.

  “I am an educated man, darling. I can endeavor to find work in many fields, not simply follow in my father’s footsteps.” Emmaline gazed at him, shame coloring her cheeks.

  “I have no doubt in your abilities, my love,” she replied, shifting her eyes. “I worry about what will become of my mother, father and brothers. The store is all they have ever known for income. How will they survive?”

  A silence met her question. The answer was obvious; they would not.

  “We shall not let the store fail,” Roman told her with more reassurance than he felt. Emmaline smiled tightly but she took little comfort in his words. Neither her mother nor father had made mention as to the status of the shop’s finances and she understood their silence to have ominous implications.

  “Has your father spoken to you regarding the bankers and their outstanding loans?” she asked nervously.

  “As a matter of fact, he wishes to speak with me tonight regarding that very subject,” Roman replied and Emmaline’s head jolted up.

  “Is that a fact?” she murmured. He nodded and she could see the underlying stress in his face.

  The store is folding. Our families are soon to be desolate. What will happen then?

  There was no doubt in Emmaline’s mind that if that were to occur, neither of their fathers would forgive the other for its failure.

  If it fails, so will our marriage for we cannot live pretending to loathe each other forever. It will take too much of a toll on us. How could we bring children into this world believing their parents despise one another? How could we bring children into this world with their grandparents at odds with one another? It would never work.

  As if he could sense her sudden apprehension, Roman crossed the room and gathered her hands in his.

  “Do not fret, darling,” he told her softly. “All will work out as it meant to be.”

  Eagerly, Emmaline allowed for herself to be pulled into his arms, wishing his words to be true but in her slightly cynical heart, she did not believe.

  You cannot know what the future holds, she told herself. Enjoy the moments you have with Roman in the present. If the business fails, you will find a way to help mother and father and the boys but you must deal with that when the times arrives. If the time arrives.

  “Good evening, Roman, Emma,” Genevieve called cordially, opening the door for the couple to enter. The older woman offered them kisses on their cheeks and shooed them inside. She paused to stare at Emmaline, her blue eyes twinkling.

  “I daresay you look radiant, Emma,” Genevieve told her coyly. “You wouldn’t have a surprise to share, would you?”

  Roman laughed and took his mother’s arm, steering her from the foyer and into the front room where his father sat sipping on a brandy.

  “No, mother, no surprises this evening. Unless of course you have something planned?”

  Genevieve and Nathan exchanged a look, something which did not escape the keen eye of the younger Carters.

  “Hello son. Emmaline,” Nathan offered, gesturing for them to sit. “It was a wonderful service today at church, was it not?”

  “Indeed,” Emmaline murmured, accepting a small glass of port from her mother-in-law. “I do enjoy when the reverend preaches of love and hope.”

  “You two promptly disappeared after worship, however. I was hoping to speak with you, Roman.” Emmaline and Roman exchanged an embarrassed glance. They had almost not made it home, their bodies grinding against one another in the back of the carriage as the coachman tried not to hear Emmaline’s small cries of joy. She could almost feel Roman’s fingers teasing her holes as she sat on the settee with her in-laws. Roman cleared his throat, lost in very much a similar thought as his wife.

  “Ah yes, we had much to do at the house this afternoon,” he answered truthfully. “But I am here now. What did you wish to discuss, father?”

  Nathan took a swig of his brandy, his eyes pensively watching the young couple.

  “Has something changed?” he asked finally.

  “Changed, father?” Roman asked, confused.

  “Yes,” Nathan replied slowly. “You seem…happier.”

  Emmaline choked on her drink and began to cough. To her chagrin, Roman hurried over to her side to rub her back.

  “There there,” he said soothingly but she shot him a warning look. Immediately, he recognized his mistake in showing too much caring and backed away.

  “Oh,” Genevieve gasped, her hand covering a small smile. “You are in love!”

  Emmaline’s coughing fit subsided but she began to shake her head as she regained her composure.

  “No!” she choked. “Of course we are not!”

  Genevieve clapped her hands in happiness and looked at her husband.

  “They are in love with one another, Nathan!”

  Before he could respond, there was a knock at the front door. Emmaline looked at Nathan in panic.

  “That is preposterous,” she told the older man. “Our marriage is strictly an arrangement. You needn’t worry about us getting too close.”

  Nathan looked stricken his gaze flittered to his son who had gone pale.

  “Is this so, Roman? You have resisted falling in love with your wife because of the arrangement?”

  Roman looked confounded, torn between lying to his father and disappointing his bride.

  Genevieve returned to the room, still smiling broadly. The younger Carters gasped as they saw who followed them into the salon.

  “Father! Mother!” Emmaline cried. “What are you doing here?”

  “They have been invited for supper, just as you have,” Nathan replied. “We all have some business to discuss.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Please, Emmaline, strike that terrified expression from your face,” Genevieve pleaded. Emmaline tried to oblige but she felt fear and consternation surging through her.

  This can only mean they have decided to dissolve the business, she realized, her heart heavy. She blinked away a sudden onset of tears and glanced furtively at Roman. His expression masked her emotions.

  “Everyone sit down,” Nathan ordered. Oscar and Iris took seats and Genevieve fetched them drinks.

  “Roman, Emmaline, we called you here tonight to let you know we are letting go of the business,” Oscar told them.

  “Father, no! There must be something we can do to salvage the losses!” Emmaline cried, leaping to her feet. Oscar held up and hand and pointed at her to sit.

  “Allow me to finish,” he continued. “Nathan and I have been friends since we were children. Never would we have ever believed that such petty squabbling could lead to the demise not only of our friendship but to the near destruction of our families. We reached such a low level that we almost ruined another generation but thankfully, your mothers have such sound voices of reason.”

  Roman and Emmaline stared at Oscar, uncomprehendingly. Nathan continued where Oscar had finished.

  “When your mothers suggested the union between the two of you, both Oscar and I were appalled. We loathed each other so much that we did not see how perfect you were for one another. Instead, we slowly c
hipped away at your potential happiness with our insignificant selfishness and now look at you. You refuse to love one another because you are worried of how we will react. That is shameful, repulsive. Even children do not act so recklessly with the ones they love.”

  Nathan paused and the youngest stared around the room, their hearts pounding with what they were hearing.

  Could it be true? Could they be finally giving their blessing so that their children may be happy? Emmaline wondered in amazement. Their smiling mothers confirmed their fathers’ words and Emmaline suddenly felt her body heave in relief.

  “Oh, father,” she mumbled, rushing to throw her arms around him. “But that is no reason to dissolve the company! Surely there are arrangements we can make, people we can call upon to help us! Our standing in the community must mean something!”

  The parents chuckled as Emmaline drew back from her father’s embrace but she did not understand the joke.

  “This is no laughing matter,” she said sternly. “The shop is all we have known. It is our livelihood, our birthright. You cannot give up on it now!”

  Nathan rose to his feet and approached his son.

  “We are not dissolving Carter-Andrews,” he assured them. “We have managed to square away our differences with the bank. Oscar has collected on all the debts owed to us from outstanding customers and with that money, we were able to bring us back to our proper standing.”

  “Yet you said you are letting go of the business!” Emmaline protested, glancing again at her husband. Roman was equally confused and looked to Nathan for an explanation.

  “Yes, we are letting go of the business,” Nathan agreed. He reached into his trousers and withdrew a key, placing it firmly in Roman’s hand.

  “Oscar and I are retiring from the shop. Going forward, the store and its contents are your responsibility. Of course your siblings will help you but the crux belongs to you.”