Dragon Actually (7 page)

It took her several moments to get her breath back; by then he reached out to help her stand. She slapped his hands away and dragged herself up so she knelt on the hard ground.

She glared at him.

“What’s that look for? It’s not my fault you weren’t fast enough.”

Annwyl punched him in the face. “Was that fast enough?”she snapped.

Now he glared as he clutched his slightly wounded nose.

Annwyl pushed herself to stand up, but the spasm in her neck and shoulder forced her right back down. She moaned in pain and the knight looked at her.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.” He moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. His touch sent shocks through her body. Annwyl tried to push his hands off, but he ignored her.

“Stop being difficult.”

His strong hands glided across her shoulders and quickly found the spot at the base of her neck where her muscles bunched into tight knots. “Gods, girl. There’s a huge knot here.” His thumb pushed into the flesh and Annwyl’s body jerked.

“Oi! Painful!”

“Sorry.”

“No you’re not.” She stood up while trying to pull away, but he pulled her back.

“Must you be so difficult? If you give me a moment, I can fix this.”

Annwyl gritted her teeth.

The knight chuckled, his hands massaging muscles on her shoulder. Annwyl bit her lip and barely stopped herself from moaning. The man had the most unbelievable hands she ever experienced. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on something—
anything
!—that could distract her from the feeling of him touching her.

The muscles loosened under his big fingers and she found herself relaxing . . . grudgingly.

“You know, you still don’t know my name.”

“And I still don’t want to know.” When she left the glen with Fearghus she never wanted to see this man again. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.

“Such a difficult girl.”

“I’m hardly a girl.”

“Oh. Sorry. Do you prefer old maid?”

Annwyl clenched her fingers into tight fists.

“There’s that knot again. It just got worse.”
What a surprise.

The knight pulled her arm out, massaging it all the way down. He stopped at her tight fist. “Unclench.”

She glared at him but didn’t answer. He slapped the back of her hand. “Ow!”

“I said unclench, woman.”

She opened her hand and he began to gently massage each finger.

“You don’t like me, do you?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Do you like the dragon?”

 “Of course, I like the dragon.”

“What do you mean ‘of course’? No one likes dragons.”

“Then why are you here?” He opened his mouth to answer but abruptly stopped. Annwyl nodded knowingly. “I see.”

“You see what?”

“I know what’s going on.”

“You do?”

“You don’t fool me.” She pointed at the crest on his surcoat. “That army hasn’t been seen in over twenty years.”

The knight looked down at his crest as if seeing it for the first time. Annwyl watched as an unruly bit of black hair fell over his eye. She longed to touch that hair. Longed to feel it move across her naked flesh.
I am completely out of control!

“Really?” He sounded so innocent or at least he tried.

“Yes. Really. Where did you find it anyway? Some castle you robbed? Or the dragon’s den? Knight my ass. You’re a mercenary. A blade for hire. The lowest of the low.”

The knight let out a deep sigh and looked away from her. Ha! She caught him.

He loved the humans’ complete inability to see anything even when it stared them right in their faces. He knew what it was, too. Their logic. How could anything the size of a dragon turn into a human? Humans understood nothing of ancient Magick and how powerful it could be.

For a moment, he really thought that Annwyl figured it out. Still, he remained grateful she hadn’t. He knew he shouldn’t lie to her and, in the beginning, he really hadn’t planned to. He trusted her now more than he trusted anyone, but her reaction to him as a human male completely confounded him.

She wanted the knight but hated the knight. Cared for the dragon but, not surprisingly, didn’t seem to have any other feelings than general friendliness.

Annwyl continued to be the most complex creature he’d ever met. And, when he wasn’t staring at her chest or rear, he found her intelligent, delightful, and extremely funny. Just a joy to be around. But only the dragon seemed lucky enough to see that side of her. When he came to her as the knight, he found her surly, foul tempered, and downright rude. He still found her a joy to be around, but probably because he liked how she smelled when she became angry.  A musk all her own that forced him to fight his erection every time he caught a whiff of it.

Annwyl, the things I could do to you . . .

He needed to focus. Right now. Right this second. Or he would end up doing something very stupid.

He cleared his throat and released her arm. “Feel better?”

“Yes.”

“And . . .”

“And what?” He raised an eyebrow and Annwyl scowled. “Thank you.”

“Now that wasn’t so hard was it?”

She turned away from him and he caught sight of that lovely rear again. He slapped it with the palm of his hand. Annwyl stopped. Gritted her teeth. But did nothing.

He came up behind her. “Good,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re getting better. You want to beat me to a bloody pulp but you’re able to restrain yourself. Nice.” He desperately wanted to touch her, but he fought the desire as best he could. He had no idea his human body could be so hard to control.

“Now,” he barked gruffly. “Let’s start again.”

“So.” Morfyd placed a bowl of stew in front of Annwyl. “Tell me about your Brastias.”

Annwyl frowned. “He’s not
my
Brastias. At the moment, he’s no woman’s Brastias.” Annwyl’s frown quickly turned to a grin. “Interested?”

“What?” Morfyd started. “No.”

“Oh, then you are just being nosy.”

“Oh, forget I asked.”

Annwyl dug into the hearty stew. After her long day with the knight, her body demanded sustenance.

“Is it hard to be with all those men? All day? Every day?”

Annwyl drank some of Morfyd’s wine. She knew no threat of infection remained, but the wine still tasted unbelievably delicious.

“Not at all.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. Just let one of the men touch you inappropriately and you take his arm off right at the shoulder joint. Then, as he’s bleeding to death, you slam his face into a few things, and you’ll find the other men leave you alone.”

Morfyd stared at Annwyl with wide eyes. “What?”

Morfyd cleared her throat. “Nothing.”

Annwyl could hear Fearghus coming, the cave shaking with each mighty step he took. She didn’t look up from her stew until he entered her chamber. “Lord Dragon.”

“Lady Annwyl.”

“I was wondering when you were going to come and visit me.”

The dragon barely glanced at Morfyd. “Don’t you have somewhere to be, Morfyd?”

“No.”

The dragon bumped her chair with one of his talons. She glared but stood up. “Fine. I’m heading back to the village.”

“Good idea. All those sick humans for you to take care of.”

Morfyd sneered at the dragon while addressing Annwyl. “See you in the morning, Annwyl.”

“Have a good night.”

Annwyl finished off her stew, then turned to the dragon, a chalice of wine in her hand.

“So, Lord Dragon, what are your plans for this evening?”

He adjusted his body awkwardly and the end of his deadly tail landed gently in her lap. “Well, I thought we could do that thing again.”

“That thing?” Annwyl desperately fought a smile as she ran her hand across the scaled tip. Its very edge shaped like an arrowhead and as sharp. She briefly wondered if the dragon ever needed to sharpen it with a stone. “Do you mean talking?”

“Yes. Yes. Whatever it is called.”

“You like talking, don’t you? Just admit it.”

“I like talking to
you.
And that is all I will admit to.”

“Fine. No need to get testy.” His snout moved close as well. Without even thinking about it, she rubbed her hand over it. And the dragon let her. “So tell me more about your family.”

“Don’t you get bored with my family stories?”

“Not at all.” She leaned forward and looked at him, her hand once again resting on the tip of his tail. “Waiting.”

Fearghus sighed. “Well, one time we shaved our baby brother’s head.”

Annwyl burst out laughing.

Annwyl hit the ground. Again. She had to admit it. She grew tired of seeing the world from the flat of her back.

She winced as the pain shocked through her head. The knight had hit her with the back of his hand, the sword he held adding to the power of the move.

“I think you broke my nose.”

“Probably.” He stood over her, staring into her face. Suddenly she silently cursed herself for removing her shirt while they trained, the rocky dirt digging into her bare back that the bindings did not cover. “No. I just pushed it out of joint a bit.”

Annwyl began to stand but he pushed her back down. “Calm yourself.” He tossed his blade aside and straddled her hips. She watched him with narrowed eyes as he rested the lower half of his body against hers.

He leaned over and took her nose between both of his big hands. “This may hurt a bit.”

He adjusted her nose back into place with a “pop.”

“
Ow
!” She slapped his shoulder.

“Don’t be a baby,” he admonished with a smile. “So, while I’m down here, any other aches or pains you need me to assist you with?”

Annwyl needed him to get off her because she didn’t want him off her. She wanted him to run his hands over her body. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted this man inside of her. And the thought absolutely terrified her.

“Get off me.”

“You know the magic word.”

Annwyl rolled her eyes. “Please,” she bit out between clenched teeth. The man continued to try what little patience she possessed.

“Now. Now. You can do a little better than that. A little nicer please. Perhaps mean it.”

“Oh, come on!”

“Unless . . .”

“Unless?”

“Unless you don’t want me to move.” He leaned in closer. “Unless you want me to stay right here.”

Bastard, it seemed like he could read her thoughts. Just having him on top of her caused her blood to race. And she had the strangest throbbing sensation between her thighs. Not unpleasant, but definitely disconcerting.

“Well,” he persisted.

But she couldn’t answer him. She couldn’t speak. If she did, she truly feared what the hell would come out of her mouth. Instead, she stared into those dark black eyes of his and wondered if his sweat would taste salty on her tongue.

He allowed more of his weight to rest against her hips, and she bit the inside of her mouth to keep from moaning out loud. “Answer me, Annwyl.”

She swallowed, hard, and forced herself under some kind of control. Dammit, she was a warrior. The leader of one of the toughest rebellions in known history and still she let some knight completely confuse her.

“Get your ass off me . . . please.”

He stared at her stunned, then threw his head back and laughed. He jumped up, grasping her arm and pulling her up with him. “You never fail to amuse me.”

“I’m glad I can be so entertaining.” She quickly picked up her shirt by the stream and pulled it on over her head. She needed something to hide the hard points of her nipples. The bindings were not helping with that. “I think my nose has gone through quite enough this day. Besides, it grows late. I must go.”

He took hold of her wrist. “Are you sure?”

“I said so, didn’t I?”

“That’s not what I asked you.”

“I don’t have time for this.” She hated how desperate she sounded at the moment, her entire body responding to his touch. Screaming out for him to explore every bit of her flesh.

“Don’t leave.” His voice low. Enticing.

“One of us needs to go.”

He smiled at her. “Why?”

Her eyes traveled the long length of him, taking in the expanse of his wide shoulders, the muscles bulging under his chainmail. “Trust me on this.”

He moved in closer to her. He still held onto her arm, but his fingers began to move along the flesh. Traveling up her arm. Her breasts tightened. Her nipples became painfully hard. Her breath quickened. She wanted this man. Gods, did she want him. More than anything before in her life. And he knew it. She could tell by the way he looked at her. The way he moved into her, his body nearly touching hers.

“You
really
need to go.”

He lowered his head, his eyes on her lips. “Really? Are you sure?”

She watched as his mouth lowered to meet hers.

Clearly he’d lost his mind. And he blamed the girl for it. In the beginning, he had no intention of doing anything more than training. But with those green eyes of hers staring up at him and that body calling out to be taken, really, what was a poor dragon to do?

Kiss her, of course. At least that was the plan as he brought his head down to taste her, but he felt a sharp slap as a hand covered his face.

“Hold it.” Annwyl reared back from him as she pushed his face away with her hand.

He pulled back, surprised.

“Exactly what do you think you’re doing?” She radiated anger. Although not her usual rage. It seemed something else altogether.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” She pushed him by his shoulders. “What do you . . .” Push. “Think you are . . .” Push. “
Doing?
” Shove.

He felt his back slam into a tree and he gritted his teeth. Was he seriously letting some human push him around his own glen? As he watched her readjust the bindings under her shirt to make sure her breasts didn’t slip out, he realized that the answer was yes. Yes, he was letting some human push him around. But not just any human. Annwyl.

“I’m not some whore you can just grab and take as you like.”

He took a deep breath. “I know.”

Annwyl blinked, surprised by his answer. “Um . . . well . . . so long as we understand each other.”