“When we’re alone, I’ll transform my hands into their human guise,” he said.
“Is it a taboo to have human hands in front of the court?” I asked.
He nodded. “It’s part of the royal presentation to show certain aspect of one’s dragon self. So to have human hands would be like coming to court in my sleeping clothes. Frankly, it’s annoying. The scales dull my sense of touch. I can barely read with dragon hands.”
“You can read with your hands? Raised letters?”
“Yes. I can’t read paper but I can read sheets. Paper here is precious and very fragile—we can make it out of some of the reeds that grow in our lakes, but it’s poor quality. Usually when dragons send letters and messages they have a metal dragon take a paper-thin piece of metal and etch the sheet. It also gets sort of embossed on the back, so I just have my metal shapers emboss it deeper so I can read the embossings instead. You know, at first I learned them all backwards before Erimon realized what had happened… When I’ve read them, they smooth the sheet over and start again. I’ve also had some of the letters altered so they’re easier to feel. I’m afraid I might be changing the language. I’ve heard the court is starting to use those letters now…”
“Oh! That’s very interesting. I would never have guessed you’d have a way to read.”
“It actually started with your language. Before that, I just had readers, but I wanted to learn the human tongue and go back to the words again and again, for practice. So Erimon, in the library, made little cards for me with human words. But before I could use them, he had to teach me to read!”
“You learned my language very well, for not having any humans around…” My words were a little sharp. We were going down yet more stairs. I knew Aurek would carry me down them in a second, but I was just so stubborn. I would rather deal with stabbing pains in my foot and weird aches in my knees than ask for help.
“Some of the the scholars speak and read it. It hasn’t been entirely forgotten. We have books in your language.”
“Still.” I must admit…Aurekdel has to be pretty intelligent and naturally curious. I’m not sure I could have mastered a language with no native speakers around.
We reached the bottom of the stairs, where warm humid air brushed my cheeks. Steam wafted from pools lined in pale blue tiles. A bath attendant waited by a rack with sponges, oils, fans, robes, pumice stones and other things you might want in your bath. The room smelled very clean and torches burned on the walls, glowing on the tile. It was the brightest room I had seen here. I saw one large pool and a smaller bath, with a doorway leading to an even larger pool.
“These are the famous baths of Hemara,” Aurekdel said. “Warm, healing waters are tapped out of the rock and piped in here. The soldiers are very grateful for these when they come back from battle. Behind that wall are the common baths. This is the King’s Bath. The little one is cool, if someone has a fever or needs hydro-therapeutic treatment.” He told the attendant, “You can leave us now and guard the door.”
The woman nodded, smiled at me, and left.
“Now…” Aurekdel’s hands transformed into human hands, the scales and claws disappearing. I actually thought the dragon hands looked interesting, but I also felt some tension inside me ease when I saw him with human hands.
He brushed his fingers my cheek. “Himika…I just want you to relax. We’ll get used to each other. Try to let go of your fears. You’re in good hands. Sex can be painful if you’re not eased into it, but I intend to take my time with you.”
He lifted the crown off his horns and set it carefully on the cart with all the bath stuff. Then he took off his wedding robe and hung it on a peg. Another robe made of a thinner fabric went underneath the first, but he took that one off too, and stepped out of his shoes.
My heart was pounding so hard that my knees swayed a little. His body wasn’t quite as muscular as Seron’s, but still, he had way better abs than a scholarly blind king had any right to have. I mean, every bit of him. Arms, legs…all long, lean and strong. Aurekdel was in peak physical condition. All the dragons had skin that looked a little sickly to my eyes when they were in my own world; they never saw the sun. But Aurek’s skin was faintly golden and in the torchlight it was beautiful.
He was wearing leather underwear that hinted at a generously sized, errr…
My brain was turning to mush. What can I do? Run away?
His hand messed with his hair, trying to sort it out after taking off the crown. “Usually dragon women are purring at me by this point,” he said. “Your silence is going to kill me.”
“I, um…I…”
My mind flashed to Oszin stroking me between the legs and the feeling that came over me then, and I flushed down to my toes. The grasshoppers in my stomach were back.
Aurek walked over to me and put his hands at the collar of my over-robe. “May I…?”
“I…”
“I can’t see you,” he said. “The bath will feel wonderful on your aching joints.”
“I—I guess.”
Man, did I sound like an idiot all of a sudden. I really didn’t know if I was excited or horrified. He definitely didn’t remind me of the Emperor anymore.
He slid the robe off my shoulders, brushing my hair back, folded the first garment over his arm, and then circled me to untie the ribbons that held my dress shut in back.
He wasn’t really touching me any more than a handmaiden would, and sure, I guess he couldn’t technically see me, but I felt very exposed. As his fingers worked the ribbons I wondered how he even knew how to remove the Gaermoni dress.
Oh gods, did Raia tell him how it fastens?
Now he slid off the dress. I was wearing very scant undergarments. Too scant, it seemed to me now: a piece of cloth pinned around my breasts to smooth them out into the willowy silhouette fashionable in Gaermon, and short bloomers with a drawstring waist.
He brushed a hand down my back. “Good enough. Are you wearing anything on your feet?”
“Just slippers. I can get them off.” I had to clutch onto him hard when I lifted each foot to remove them. Then I was a little shaky. He put one hand to the small of my back and kept a grip on my arm as his foot edged out and found the steps leading into the water.
Oh, it really was the most luxurious temperature, and deep. As I walked into the water it came up past my breasts.
“I feel so light! You’re right—my whole body feels better.”
“Did you ever swim in the ocean?” he asked. “You live by the sea, don’t you?”
“No. The ocean has powerful waves. Father worried I would get dragged under…”
“No worry about that here. This is a place you can always come to relax and exercise.”
“I wish we’d had pools like this in Gaermon. I could have gotten stronger even with my condition…” But even as we talked, he was so close to me that I was very conscious of what this was really about. I didn’t know what to do or how to begin.
Aurek seemed aware of this too. “You don’t really like to be touched, do you?”
“I never used to mind being touched. It’s just that the Emperor wanted to marry me, and he was—forceful.”
“Had you ever been intimate with anyone before?”
“No…”
“Curse his hide. No wonder you’re so quiet. Do you know what happens?”
“Sort of. I know it will hurt. I just want to get it over with.”
Aurek huffed. “I really don’t understand this curse. Virginity is so awkward. The first time I had sex, I had no idea what I was doing. My advisors didn’t want to explain. I didn’t have parents to have that conversation. Seron wouldn’t even do me the favor of having sex first and reporting back…”
I couldn’t help but giggle. “I thought dragons were so open about these things.”
“Not that open.”
“How did you know what girls were like without being able to see?”
“I didn’t. Well, I knew the basic idea but
I had no idea there were so many folds to get through.”
“Did the girl know what she was doing, at least?”
“No. We were both sixteen. She worked in the kitchens. I used to sneak off and see her after the morning king business. It was really a disaster. We’re all young once…”
“How old are you now?”
“Twenty-nine. A bit more experienced, now.” He grinned. “All for you.”
I got nervous again. “What do we do?”
“The spell will be broken with the dragon king’s seed,” he said. “So…we can’t be too half hearted, if we want you to be whole and well in the morning. I need to lose myself inside you. On my end, it won’t be hard. But I want to make sure you’re not uncomfortable. I don’t want it to hurt you, Himika…” He slid a hand up my back. “Maybe it would help to get used to my touch first.”
His strong hands worked my back muscles and shoulders, and I melted right into it. It felt too wonderful to resist.
He really was taking his time with me. I certainly wasn’t without hesitations about him and this entire world, but at least, if I had no choice, he had genuine concern over whether I was enjoying it.
The warm waters seemed to enhance the deep caress of his fingers from the small of my back to my cheeks, down my arms to my hands. Tingling sensations jolted through me when he touched my hands, all the way down between my legs. I started flushing, but I also felt taken care of, all the aches and pains melting away. In the water, I didn’t feel like my bones were all wrong. Maybe this was how it would feel all the time once I was healed.
His hands now unfastened the strip of cloth from my breasts. I stiffened nervously.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I think you are ready for more pleasure…do you agree?”
My breath was soft but quick. I was very aware that he could hear it, and what it must be conveying to him.
“I wonder how long I would wait for an answer.” He grinned.
He slipped his hand past my waistband and the moment his hand brushed that spot, I let out a little involuntary moan. My body remembered what Oszin did to me before, and it wanted so much more. It was very strange for anyone else to touch me there, and yet…this did feel very different from the Emperor baring my breasts and touching them without asking, and then getting angry at me for looking uncomfortable.
Aurek himself seemed so much more comfortable with the situation, too. The Emperor wanted to make me feel small. Aurekdel seemed to be aiming for the opposite.
“Mm…” He made a low, pleased growl in my ear. “I want to hear more of that.” His finger stroked me with razor focus. He knew just where to touch. Oszin wasn’t like this. I whimpered as pleasure shot through me.
There seemed to be no going back.
However I might hesitate, however I might wish I had Oszin instead, it was not as different as I guessed for Aurek to touch me instead. At least, it wasn’t different in the negative way I expected… He was so authoritative now, with the preamble out of the way. We stood in the water together, him behind me, and as he stroked he lifted me up. I was weightless, my body held against his. I felt scales sprout on his finger and the little ridges made me see stars.
He kept touching me there, letting me sink into feeling before he pushed it a little farther, a little harder, his finger now circling my entrance before going back to the other place. He was letting something build inside me so slowly that I couldn’t imagine refusing what it promised.
“Please!” I gasped.
He stopped and set me on my feet.
That wasn’t really the sort of ‘please’ I meant.
“Himika,” he said. “I must tell you something now.”
“Oh?”
“In the dragon kingdom, we have a tradition that the king’s champion is devoted to the king and queen…in more ways than one. I want to share you,” he said. “With Lord Seron.”
Chapter Fifteen
Himika
I jolted. “Share me? But I married you! Will you ‘share me’ with anyone you like?”
“Absolutely not. Only Seron. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I know and trust Seron completely, and he has sworn himself to me. He refuses to keep any women. I want to reward him for his devotion, but also—” He kept talking while I tried to protest. “I want to make you happy too. Seron is the best man I know. He is completely faithful and true. He would probably make you a better husband than I would, to be honest. However, it’s even better if he can join us.”
“I don’t think so! I’m not the priestess to be taking more than one man at a time!” I snapped, but…
That wasn’t entirely true. When I met the priestess, I was in complete awe of her. I wasn’t even allowed to have a single man and she could handle four, and then five? I wondered how it worked. They must overwhelm her on one hand, but they were also so devoted to her…
Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be overwhelmed like that.
“Really? You seemed to have some attraction. You got to know him more than me.”
“It—it wasn’t exactly like that. He couldn’t speak the language very well, and—“
“Seron is also a better appetizer,” Aurekdel said. “His cock is unenhanced.”
“What do you mean, unenhanced?”
“I’ve had mine scaled. Dragon women like the sensation of the scales on a dragon’s cock, but it’s a little too rough in human form, so there’s a process wherein you can develop the scales under your human skin. It just creates a soft ridged effect. Dragon women are crazy for it.”
“I don’t care what dragon women like!” I jerked back. “You knew that thanks to your spell, when or if I ever showed up, I would be totally inexperienced, and you’ve been spending the last thirteen years banging dragon women and tricking out your cock for them?” I screamed, just as Seron walked into the room. I threw my arms around my naked breasts.
He immediately took a step back. “Uhh, bad time?”
“No,” Aurekdel said, with perfect calm. “Very good timing, actually. Has it already been an hour?”
“I gave you an extra quarter,” Seron said. “Now, please, by all means elaborate on why this is a good time. Because I’m happy to go.” He looked at me with one eyebrow raised, and I realized in a rush that despite all my protests, I was glad Seron was here after all. Very glad.
“No,” Aurek said. “Seron, you can’t fool me. I know you’re developing an affection for this girl. Join us. Himika…I told you tonight that I want your happiness above all else. And believe me, this is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish. I need to get my seed into you so our lives can truly begin. Someday…I’ll make a bet with you right now. You’re going to be begging for my cock.”
“I’ve never begged for anything. I’m a princess. I’ve definitely never asked for that.”
Now Seron chuckled. “I really don’t know that I want to be in the middle of this.”
“Seron,” Aurek said. “I want you to be very tender with her, and take her first.”
“What? I can’t—“
“Her body should adjust to you first. She’s already getting close.”
“Not anymore!” I said, but it wasn’t quite true. My body was still buzzing with the touch.
Seron unfastened a few clasps of his robe, which was more surcoat-like than Aurekdel’s more long, formal layers of clothing, and then stopped after revealing just a long sliver of his chest. I was getting used to his normal expression being somewhere between grim and exasperated. “Princess, say the word and we’ll stop all of this and put you to bed unmolested. You have days or weeks to get used to the idea before we go this far. This entire thing was Aurek’s idea.”
“That’s true,” Aurek said. “If you tell me no, I will always stop. If you tell me ‘I don’t think so’ while you ogle Seron’s body, I might guess it’s your Gaermoni manners talking.”
“How did you—I’m not—“
“He’s just a good guesser,” Seron said. He crouched
beside the edge of the royal bath. “The decision is yours, Princess Himika. Don’t let him make it for you.”
“What do…you want, Lord Seron? And don’t you answer,” I told Aurek, because I could see his mouth open.
Seron looked away. “Shining crystals,” he murmured. “If I didn’t want you, it’s safe to say that I would want for no woman. I’ve been protecting you for weeks. You’re beautiful, but I thought you were no dragon woman. But you have proved yourself to be unfailingly brave in the face of a terrible duty. I can see you’re in great pain sometimes, but you don’t complain. I think maybe this prophecy knew what it was talking about. Aurek always believed in it, but I never did before.”
“Oh…” I met Seron’s eyes.
I wondered if in some odd way, Seron’s eyes spoke for Aurekdel as well as himself. There seemed to be so much in them. And even though Aurekdel couldn’t see it, I had this feeling he knew exactly what went on. That must be the benefit of Aurekdel and Seron having such a long and close-knit relationship. I knew this from having a twin. Rin and I always knew what the other was thinking. We didn’t even have to be in the same room. If someone mentioned something about Rin to me, I instantly filled in the blanks.
Seron yanked off his leather boots and dropped the coat atop them. He slipped into the water with us, and both men stripped off the last of their clothes.
The water was starting to feel a little too warm, but the distortion of rippling water meant I couldn’t get a really good look at them below the waist yet. The water came up to Aurek mid-chest and even with Seron’s height it concealed that much. Maybe that was for the best. This is too much for a girl like me with such a sheltered life! Two beautiful men, a king that shines like gold and one a tall warrior who blushes faintly blue. Father really did stick me with quite a task…
“Now then…,” Aurek said. “Can I make you one request?”
“Maybe.”
“Please let me hear how happy Seron makes you. I need something to pin my imagination on.”
My mouth open, but I was a little speechless again. Aurek had that effect on me. Seron put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want to be too rough on you right now, Princess. Let’s sit here.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set: A Fantasy Romance Page 11
