Jade froze. From a distant corner of her mind came the notion that she should say no, because this man would honor her will, but she couldn’t talk, wouldn’t talk. If she did, then Dragon’s lips would never touch hers. Her enemy was that kind of man. She knew it, deep inside her heart, that he would never take what wasn’t freely offered.

The pressure of his thumb deepened against her skin, touching something inside her, provoking a tsunami of feelings that sent her senses reeling. A moan formed in the back of her throat, but she didn’t let it out. Instead, she closed her eyes and tilted her chin up, inviting him to close the gap.

The moment his lips brushed hers, tears welled behind her eyelids.

She had never been kissed before.

He felt like velvet, warm and soft, but also refreshing, and moved against her lips with slow movements. Her heart exploded in her chest when his tongue traced the seams of her mouth, back and forth, then gently pushed, demanding entrance. Suddenly, her training kicked in, reminding her that she should take full advantage of the moment and bite his nose, his lips, even his tongue, but she didn’t.

Goosebumps covered her skin as if she were falling, even though she was strapped to the bed. Dizzying vertigo spun her head, but amidst the assault of sensations she had never experienced before, her mouth parted for him. His tongue entered her, caressing, stroking, awakening a side of Jade she had repressed a long time ago.

She arched her back, pulling at her restraints, needing to touch him, needing him to touch her. Only his hand splayed against her stomach and his mouth united them, and it wasn’t enough.

His lips kept sliding over hers in a subtle dance that ignited her senses, stoking the flames of her desire to unbearable heights until she couldn’t help but whimper. His tongue prodded deeper inside her mouth as his thumb slid lower, edging closer to her mound without moving further down. The pressure titillated Jade, causing the fire consuming her body to burn hotter.

“Dragon—” she whispered when he leaned away, severing the contact between them.

She opened her eyes and found him staring at her, a look of wonder in those ultramarine pools that had gone a shade of blue so bright it blinded her. Only then did she realize what she had just done, and shame replaced the swirling emotions keeping siege to her body and mind.

For the first time in her career as an assassin, Jade had surrendered to her enemy.

“Don’t,” he said when she shied away from him, and his command was the sweetest of whispers. “What happens between us is nothing to be ashamed of.” The hand that had coaxed her visceral reaction left her stomach and traveled up to her face. Caressing her cheek with tender strokes, he cupped her chin and dipped his face low, capturing her lips with his.

This second kiss broke through her barriers faster than the other one had, and it had taken little to yield to him the first time.

For once, Jade’s body commanded her actions, shutting off her mind. His mouth encompassed her entire universe, the softness of his lips meeting hers as he led her down an unknown path. For all her years of training, she was grossly unprepared to stand up against this man’s demands. Had she been in possession of her brain, she would have hated herself for being so weak, so easily manipulated by the mere hint of what could happen between lovers. But her body craved for his touch and didn’t care.

The door opened, Dragon cursed and jerked away from her before addressing the source of the interruption with a harsh, “Valerian—”

His lieutenant answered from the entrance, “I knocked.”

The second guard came into sight, peeking from behind the lieutenant. “Dragon—” His eyes darted from Jade to Dragon, who was now sitting at the edge of the bed, his back to Jade, one hand clutching the duvet in an iron grip.

“What is it, Lars?” Dragon barked.

“One of the sentinels at the bridge hasn’t reported for the quarter of an hour check.” Walking around the lieutenant, Lars stepped in.

“I’ve already sent guards to investigate,” Valerian said.

“Why aren’t you with my betrotheds?” Dragon’s posture was straight, but his immense shoulders rose and lowered, betraying how upset he was.

“We are.” Valerian’s eyes cut over his shoulder at the room behind him. “We brought the princesses here—”

Commotion ensued, and a high, feminine voice demanded, “Let me through.”

“Alongside fifteen guards,” Valerian finished. He gazed at Jade, then focused back on Dragon and tilted his head. “Do I let them in?”

“How dare you!” could be heard from behind the two men.

A second, gentler voice said, “Please, we just want to know what’s happening.”

At Valerian’s raised brow, Dragon’s head lowered in assent. The lieutenant turned and gave a short command. A moment later, he and Lars moved to the side as two young women burst into the bedroom.

Eyes as wide as saucers, a blonde with curly locks and a curvaceous figure stopped in the middle of the room, looking from Dragon to Jade. The woman studied Jade with a narrowing gaze that soon ended in a pronounced frown. “Who is she?” She brandished her pointed finger with as much skill as Jade handled her knives.

Jade noted how the imperious beauty’s first question wasn’t why her husband-to-be had a woman tied to his bedposts.

“An assassin sent to kill me,” Dragon answered, eliciting a gasp from both women.

Somehow, the High Lord’s answer pleased her. He had given Jade her proper place.

“An assassin? Here?” The blonde’s finger pointed at the bed. “Don’t you have cells?” She shook her head, sending her curls bouncing on her naked shoulders. “Interrogators?” A delicate shrug followed her next words. “Surely you have people to take care of such things.”

Jade bristled at the way the woman gifted her with a malicious glare when she said such things, and felt the urge to reveal that just a moment ago the High Lord had been kissing her.

“I heard assassins are the most dangerous of mercenaries,” the tall brunette said with a timid voice. She had been silently watching, a step behind the blonde as if she wanted to remain in the shadow. “I’m sure you are more than capable of defending yourself, High Lord, but maybe it would be safer if she was taken somewhere else.”

“Thank you, Gilda, but I assure you that the situation is perfectly under my control,” Dragon said.

Jade shivered. She didn’t know about the rest of the manor, but she had been under his control for sure.

At the blonde’s not so subtle sneer, Dragon added, “Lauren, if you fear for your safety, Valerian and Lars will escort you back to King’s Ridge.”

As the haughty princess blanched, the lieutenant’s expression morphed into something that looked much like hope, but he was fast in suppressing the emotion in favor of a blank stare. Before the man could hide his feelings, Jade caught his fleeting glance aimed at the brunette, who promptly lowered her gaze to the floor.

“No, there’s no need to send us back. We’ve just arrived, and delaying the wedding wouldn’t look right,” Lauren said, her demeanor humbler than a moment before. Still, she managed to throw daggers at Jade with her eyes. “Although I don’t think Gilda and I should be in the same room with an assassin.”

“I agree.” Dragon nodded at Lars. “Escort them to the spare bedroom and stay with them. Take with you all but two men.”

Lars bowed at the two women, opened his arm to the side to indicate the door. “If you’d follow me, princesses.”

Lauren sent one last withering look Jade’s way, while Gilda’s eyes lingered for the briefest of moments on Valerian before stepping outside.

“The assassin will be here shortly,” Dragon said, turning slightly toward Jade.

There was no point in denying the truth and she nodded, already coming to terms that her life was about to end, but not before enduring unbearable pain.

Under the judging eyes of his lieutenant, and to Jade’s surprise, Dragon’s hand left the mangled fabric of the duvet to gently rest upon her cheek.

“I won’t let the assassin kill you,” he said.

Warmth spread from his palm to her face and propagated through her body, thawing the forgotten corner in her heart where her trust in humanity resided. Frozen and shriveled, that side of her had been under lock and key since she was but a girl and her family sold her.

“I won’t let the Academy hurt you,” he added.

This man meant every word he said. She could feel it in the ripples of awareness created by the joint action of his promises and his touch. Unbidden, tears welled in Jade’s eyes.

“Dragon—” Valerian walked closer to the bed until his large presence hovered like a dark cloud over both Jade and Dragon. “What are you playing at? She’s your enemy.”

“She won’t be hurt.” Dragon’s words were clipped, but his hand on Jade’s cheek was soft, his thumb gently massaging her jaw. His other hand reached over her head, brushing her wrist before moving to the bedpost.

“What are you doing?” Valerian asked.

“She can’t fight the assassin all trussed up.” Dragon’s fingers deftly worked for a few heartbeats, until her hand was freed from the restraint, and he guided it down to the mattress.

Rushing blood tingled her extremity, causing her pain, but she didn’t move. The lieutenant’s body was taut like a harp string, coiled to spring on her at the least provocation.

“This is insane.” Valerian started pacing.

Dragon freed her other hand, then turned to her ankles before caressing her numb legs to speed up the awakening process of her limbs.

“I know you won’t betray me,” he said, his eyes the color of the clearest pools of water on Celestia.

Jade knew she should have said, “I’ll kill you,” but with each passing second it was becoming harder to fight him. Her survival was at stake, and the only thought left in her brain spoke of unbridled passion with no regard for her wellbeing.

The High Lord was like a flute of aged Amarillian, exotic, sense-altering, and sometimes fatal. Distilled from the berries that grew on the flanks of the Tomolan volcano, the substance was deceivingly sweet. Vermillion bees pollinated the flowers with a natural hallucinogenic that was impossible to remove from the final product, and that could on occasion speed up the drinker’s heart rate to a prohibitive pace. At the Academy, assassins in training took the Amarillian, daring to prove they were fearless. Jade almost died after downing a crystal chalice of the burgundy brew, but she remembered her last thoughts before succumbing to the dark embrace of the poison; she had never felt so alive. Every inch of her body tingled with renewed energy, and pleasure engulfed her as she drowned in a sea of sensorial stimuli.

This is how Dragon made her feel.

She had never thought she would ever again experience that kind of high, but here she was, staring into the eyes of a man who was going to be the end of her, without taking advantage of the fact that her hands and feet were finally free. This close, the side of her palm could easily crush his windpipe.

Instead, she remained still.