Chapter Eleven
Blake found her in the solar standing in front of the large bay window overlooking the ocean from the eastern side of the island. She wore a simple green dress, short in the front and long in the back. A pair of white crochet sandals covered her toes. He recognized them from the kind they made down in the village on the coastal side of the island.
She’d turned her face from the setting sun and smiled at him. All day long, his mind distracted him with visions of her sultry eyes, coy smile, and shapely body.
He’d beaten her at her own game of seduction. Damned if he would let her leave him again.
Not now.
Not when she’d cited the promise in their union, given him a piece of her, shared with him Melsunia’s gift. He moved beside her, slipping his arm around her.
“I see you found me.”
“I will always find you.” He caught a strand of her hair, twisting if around his fingers.
“It’s not like I can go far.”
At least they were making progress. Slow. “If you are talking about Sigurd standing outside the door, he worries about you. He missed you, too, when you disappeared.”
“I suppose I should thank you for the new clothes. Sigurd insisted I splurge a bit. Especially now that I am the lady of the manor and all.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t make it to the village before. Naomi was a bit occupied with cleaning up after the dinner party, then or ceremony, and none of us could have expected Olaus to behave as he did.”
She leaned back against him. “I’m sorry someone got hurt. There is a reason why we are band from bonding with dragons.”
“It was selfish. It is selfish to punish others for the actions of one. When a dragon finds their life mate they are bond for life. It does not matter if their other half is human or dragon. Because of revenge, jealously, perhaps fear—dragons are forced to suffer by never becoming whole.”
He couldn’t explain it to her. Didn’t know how he could tell her what if felt like to have her near, to be one with her. It completed him. Satisfied an ache he’d had until the day he’d met her. Like a wound finally healed, that even his dragon mate couldn’t sooth during their half century together.
“My mother used to tell me the story of the dragon rider who fell in love with his dragon. He had a wife and she became jealous, so jealous she tried to kill the dragon. Only the dragon protected herself and the man’s wife died. Soon the dragon gave birth to the man’s child, one that could shift between his human form and dragon side. The dragon’s saw this as a curse and sought to retaliate against the other human riders.”
“Nothing more than an old tale, but to a child a good bed time story. There have been songs written. We dragons came here as a gift from the gods to mankind. A gift so sought out, we became hunted. No more than a prize to human kind we had to blend in and become as they. So, you see, each side has its theories.”
“And your theory?” She tilted her head, allowing him to brush his knuckles down the side of her neck. Beyond them, the sun darkened and dipped low.
“I believe there is a bit in truth in both. Why else would our kind still be hunted and our fui a well sought prize? Some humans have dedicated their lives to protecting us, while others….” His hand paused at her shoulder. “They hunt for greed and take what does not belong to them. Even if it means taking innocent lives to achieve what they desire.”
She looked back over her shoulder at him. “Like your wife. Melsunia.”
“She was one of a kind.” He had loved her, though she showed so little love for him. He long forgave her for refusing to bring the child into this world as the humans did. Her greatest treasure had been their fui, and to see it, feel it attached to Emily, formed a knot in his throat.
“You never mentioned ever having a wife.” She glanced away, not before he saw the pain flicker in her eyes.
“Once the dead are gone, we don’t speak of them again.” He read the confusion in her eyes. “Finding a dragoness of the same breed to mate with is a rare gift, as is to hold one’s fiu.”
Emily rubbed the egg through her dress. She stared at the tapestry hanging on the wall near opposite the window. “You understand then why I took it?”
“And what would you have done with it if I’d let you get away?”
“Taken it to my father. He’s an oologist. The eggs are hatched and the young ones placed within the families of the keepers. Aunt Margaret raised Jacques as my parents raised my foster sister Ash. It’s our duty to keep the dragon race alive.”
“You never told me you had a dragon in the family.”
“What difference does it make?”
He cupped her chin, angling her face towards him. “Isn’t that why you left me? Because of who I am?”
Her lips twitched with indecision. “I don’t want to talk about us.”
He got the impression it pained her, but he needed to know. “I showed you my dragon.”
“I gave you my—” she stepped away from him, closer to the window in direct line with the disappearing sun, and he felt her about to confess her heart belonged to him.
He moved in front of her, leaned in, and touched her forehead to his. She sighed. “My mother died.”
He placed his hands on her hips, forcing himself to find contentment in her closeness. This close and all his mind could focus on was her lips. “You should have told me. I searched for you.”
“I couldn’t take that chance.” She tilted her face up, bumping their noses. “Do you have any idea what it is like to be stuck between two worlds?”
“I’m a dragon living in a human world.”
“And I am a descendant of a long line of dragon riders who have been called into debt for the price the dragons had to pay on our behalf. We could never be together. It’s was forbidden long ago. It’s still forbidden. This union of ours, it won’t ever become accepted with our families.”
Not in his mind. Nor in his heart. “Father Armand has recorded our marriage as has been done for centuries by the human world. You allowed me to claim you years ago. You are mine. I won’t let you go.”
“This is beyond you and me. I had no choice. I have been trained all my life to take my place amongst the Dragon Keepers. When my sister Ash was brought to us, I didn’t want to be bond to the debt. It’s why I left to have a life of my own, but then look where it got me.”
“The old ways will soon fade. There are not many left, like Olaus, who are strong enough or wish to enforce the ancient laws. You and I have been bond together since the night in my tour bus when you gave yourself to me.”
“But if the old ways no longer are enforced…” Her words drifted south, along with all the blood in his body.
“You’re still mine,” he finished, his lips brushing against the curve of her neck where he’d given her his love bite years ago.
“There is still the matter of the fiu between us.”
“It’ll hatch soon. Naomi tells me a few weeks at most.” He led her over to the wall seat. Slipping his hands under her skirt, she placed her knees on the velvet cushion to straddle him. As his tongue swept across her bottom lip, a needy whimper came from the back of her throat.
Gripping her hips, he pushed up, fitting himself against her sex. He rocked her forward and they moaned in unison. She pulled at his t-shirt, rolling it up to expose his hard-muscled chest. She splayed her hands under the fabric, gripping his shoulders. “I can’t go back.”
He pushed back the wave of hair falling across her cheek. “Your place is here now.”
“You don’t understand. The egg.”
“Is mine. You’re mine.” He growled with frustration. Heat flushed his veins as his dragon awakened. He tugged her hair bringing her mouth back to his when a movement caught his eye.
A few feet away, Sigurd rocked back and forth on his heels. His hand shielding his eyes, he said, “Umm… Just wondering if we should grab supper down in the village tonight. You know, since Naomi isn’t here.”
Emily rested her forehead against his shoulder. He eased his hand out from under her skirt. Her ragged breathing matched the tempo of his strumming heart.
“It’s alright Sigurd. You can look now.” Emily let her hands drop away from him and he pulled down his shirt.
“Yes. Well…,” Sigurd looked as scarlet as Emily’s cheek felt against his neck. “What shall we do for supper?”
Carefully, Blake helped Emily stand. She turned and crossed her arms, standing in front of him. Out of Sigurd’s view, he adjusted himself. “Where’s Naomi?”
“Don’t know.” Sigurd shrugged. “Thought you would know.”
“Isn’t she with Garth?” Emily asked.
“She returned with Bogdan after they got Garth settled up in the mountains. Poor guy took a beating from old snout, didn’t know the old wheeze had it in him.” Sigurd kept his gaze shielded.
“He’ll be out of hibernation soon enough. It won’t take long for him to heal. If Naomi isn’t with him, then she must have gone to the market down in the village,” Blake said.
Emily walked up to Sigurd and pulled his hand down. “Fear not, there is at least one other person in this manor who knows her way around a kitchen.”
“And who’s that?”
Emily punched Sigurd playfully in the arm. “Talk to me like that and you might have to starve.”
The sooner they got Sigurd and the others fed and accounted for, the sooner he could satisfy a hunger of his own.