Dragon Lords 4-Warrior Prince (23 page)

"It’s not..." she tried. Her lips tightened and she didn’t finish.

"Who was your father to you? Why did he give you that scar? Why do you owe Galaxy Brides all that money? What are you running from? Why are you here, Pia? Why?" Zoran shouted. He was tired of trying to figure her out. Tortured, he ground out, "Why did you marry me?"

"That’s not fair," Pia whispered. "You made me marry you. I tried to end it, but you wouldn’t let me."

"I don’t believe that!" Zoran said. His breathing became labored as he tried to control himself. He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to say anything he might regret. "I can tell you want me. I can smell your desire for me even now. So don’t tell me you--"

"You won’t tell me what I deserve to know," Pia interrupted, not wanting to hear him finish. "But in return would have me bare my soul? It’s not like we’re in love, Zoran. Yes, I’m your wife and I’ll be loyal, but don’t act like we weren’t an arranged marriage. You bought me from a corporation! I’m paid for, that’s all you need to know."

"If you want to know my feelings, all you have to do is ask me and I’ll tell you," said Zoran. The thought didn’t seem to bring him pleasure and Pia wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what he had to say. "I’ll be honest with you about them."

"Let go of me," Pia demanded instead of asking. She gazed steadily to him, staring him down. She ripped out of his arms. "How dare you yell at me? I don’t owe you an explanation for any of it. It’s none of your business what I did or who I was before I got here. I don’t ask you about your past. All I ask is that you trust me now. That you tell me what is going on. Why are we in danger? Why was the royal family attacked? Why do we need to fear the Var? Who are they to us? Nothing I ask has anything to do with your past. It’s a threat to us now."

"You want my complete trust?" Zoran questioned. His gaze bore into her.

"Yes, by all means," Pia answered wryly. "I have done nothing not to deserve it."

His brow rose, thinking of several instances that he could used to dispute that fact. Instead, he asked, "And you will give yours in return? I have your promise?"

"What do you mean?" Pia questioned wearily, sensing a trap.

"I mean you’ll tell me everything and I’ll tell you everything. Both of our questions will be answered honestly--no refusals this time."

"Why does it matter?" Pia asked, touching her face, feeling the smooth texture as she remembered her scars. She thought of the dead Rayvikian. She thought of her parents. She thought of the life she’d led. She didn’t think he would understand it. He came from such an honorable people. She didn’t think he would see her life as honorable.

"It matters, Pia, because you are my wife."

Pia gulped. She wondered how long he would want her for a wife after she told him the truth. But, as she looked at him, she was tired of lying and hiding.

"Shift," she requested softly. Tears came to her eyes.

Zoran’s brow narrowed in confusion.

"Just shift," she insisted, grimacing in light annoyance that he didn’t automatically obey her.

Zoran slowly shifted to take on the Draig. His golden eyes looked at her swirling like molten lava. Pia looked at him carefully. Now changed, his chest heaved with deeper breaths. Pia went to him, lifting her hand to his face. She felt the roughened texture of his dark skin.

Zoran’s gaze bore steadily into her. He felt her heart slowing. He felt her loneliness and her aching. To his surprise, she almost relaxed as she felt him in Draig form. He was careful to keep his hands back from her.

Closing her eyes, Pia continued to touch him, feeling his neck, as she said, "My parents were stationed on an Earthbase on Dagar Twelve. It’s one of the moons in what’s known as the Dead Man’s quadrant. It’s called the Dead Man’s because everyone on the base didn’t exist on record--anywhere. According to the Earth government, the base didn’t exist. It’s where I grew up."

Zoran held very still. Her eyes opened to look at him and she drew slowly back, letting her hand fall as she sat on the bed. Zoran didn’t dare shift back. She actually seemed more comfortable talking to him like this and he wasn’t about to do anything to make her close herself off again.

Pia took a steady breath. Zoran was still strong and strangely attractive. But, without the handsome human features or the tormenting look of his brown eyes, she could relax enough to speak to him.

"My parents were spies and assassins," Pia continued. "My father raised me. My mother was killed on assignment when I was about one. Ever since I could walk I was trained to be in the family business, as were the other children on the base. Then, when I was fifteen, the Earth government changed power and thus their politics. The Dagar base was forgotten for about a year, written off as a testing lab for mutated diseases. But, when it was discovered what we really were, the government decided they needed to cover us up. They sent a cleanup crew to kill everyone on the base--including children, babies, even the animals. We never saw it coming. Everything was destroyed."

"But you escaped," Zoran’s rough dragon voice probed.

Pia stood and touched her side. Running her finger over the length of her scar beneath her red dress, she said, "All children on the base were outfitted with locators. If anything happened, if we became injured when we were out on the training courses or in some simulated assignment, the locators would go off and a personal medic droid would come retrieve us. They’d drag us to a safe hideout underground and doctor us up. Let me tell you, those droids came in handy and were well used. That’s how we started the game of guessing each other’s wounds. We had nothing better to do in the recovery unit."

She smiled wryly and shrugged as if it were a normal upbringing.

"My father was good man, Zoran. He was gone a lot on assignment, but he believed in what he was doing. During the attack, he became trapped beneath some rubble. I tried to pull him out, but I wasn’t strong enough. He must have known something was wrong because he told me he loved me, grabbed his knife, and gave me this." She pressed her hand to her scar. "I saw him and the rest of my home blow up as the medic droid was dragging me away to safety."

Her eyes turned sad and she sat back down. Pia lightly traced her cheek with a delicate finger. Zoran moved silently to sit beside her. She blinked in surprise to see him shift back to human form.

"I think I like you better the other way," Pia admitted. "It’s not so intimidating."

Zoran would’ve laughed if she wasn’t so serious.

"Anyway, ah, after I got out of recovery, I learned most of my friends were dead, everyone I had ever known was murdered, save for a remaining handful of people. Since we didn’t exist, we had nothing, no one, no planet. The assistant director of the base took us under his wing. He had a lot of contacts and he got us out of there. We each gave ourselves a new name, complete with galactic ID’s and fake birth certificates. I became Pia Korbin and, before we knew it, we were up and running again as a rogue agency for hire. I was sixteen."

Pia stopped talking. Her eyes were wet but she didn’t cry. She lay back on the bed. Lifting up one leg, she unzipped a boot and then the other.

"Why Pia Korbin?" Zoran asked, watching the long line of her legs stretch into the air.

"My mother was Pia. My father was Korbin," she answered simply. "Pia Korbin."

Leaning back on his elbow, Zoran questioned, "What was your name before that?"

Zoran listened to her story in fascination. He wasn’t really sure what to think. All he knew was that he really wanted to kiss her, pull her into his arms, and never stop.

Pia chuckled, kicking off her boots. "Seven. As in, seventh child born on the base, born on the seventh of the seventh Earth month."

"You became an assassin?"

Pia sat up. She suddenly realized how much she’d revealed to him. "I think I’ve told you enough. You should be satisfied with that. I more than answered your questions. You know how I got the scar."

"Pia," Zoran began. She was so beautiful in her red satin dress. It accented her tanned skin, hugged dangerously seductive to her curves. He wanted to touch her.

"It’s late," she said. "I’m tired."

"No, you’re not," he stated. When her brow rose, he added, "In Draig I can detect such things."

Zoran didn’t want to tell her that he felt bits and pieces inside of her--that when she broke his crystal, they were forever joined. He didn’t want her knowing she felt inside of him, if she would just open herself up. Until he had her trust and she his, he didn’t want her having the power to use his emotions against him. He wasn’t sure what she would do with such a power.

"I’m tired of talking about this," Pia corrected wearily. There was no use in denying it since he seemed so sure. She wondered what else he could detect in her. Could he feel the treacherous longing in her body? Could he sense her desperate need to be held by him? "Where did you learn to dance?"

The question took him by surprise and he stared at her.

"I never danced before tonight," she said. "It was fun. Thank you."

Zoran came edged closer to her. "You are a natural."

Pia flushed. "I had a good teacher."

He moved closer. "There are other things I would teach you if you’d let me."

Pia couldn’t look away. "Do you really want me to kiss you? Or are you just being nice?"

That brought him up short. Her face was deadly serious, but her words had been soft. Carefully, Zoran asked, "How can you not know the answer to that?"

"I guess I do," Pia said, a deep sadness welling up within her. She stood from the bed and began moving to the closet to change. "I can’t say I blame you. I understand perfectly. I mean I never was very pretty, even before the accident."

Pia froze mid-stride. Her arms dropped and she closed her eyes, biting wearily at her lips to keep them shut.

"Accident?" he probed, standing behind her.

"Your Draig must be off tonight," she mumbled. "I have to be tired. I’m rambling and not making any sense."

Zoran forced her to turn around and look at him. Pia’s chin lowered to face the floor, not wanting to watch him force himself to touch her. He slid his hand down her arm to her waist to run his thumb over her wound.

"You think because of a little scar, you’re not pretty?" he asked, awed.

"I think I’m not pretty because I’m not," Pia answered matter-of-factly. "I have no grand illusions. It’s not like they taught a course on self-delusion in between tracking and hand-to-hand combat."

Zoran’s hand continued to caress over the red satin, wanting nothing more than to peel it back from her flesh.

"I know you want sons and are duty bound to," Pia hesitated, "do this. I know you’re honorable, Zoran, and will always do your duty. I only hope I didn’t tarnish your honor by what I told you. I won’t repeat it to anyone. And, really, none of the old crew knows I’m here. It’s not like they’re coming anytime soon for a visit."

"Pia, the medic told me that you," Zoran hesitated. Pia pulled away from him. Her face grew hard. Voicing a suspicion that had been forming in the pit of his stomach, he continued, "He said that you appeared to have had some kind of surgery recently. Is that why you owed Galaxy Brides? Is that why you had to agree to come here? To repay a debt?"

The expression on her pale features was enough of an answer. His heart dropped into his stomach.

"I want to understand," Zoran persisted. "Did something happen on one of your assignments?"

Again, her face answered yes without speaking. She held deathly still.

"You had to change your face, your appearance in order to disappear?" he questioned. "That’s what the surgery was, wasn’t it? You had to hide your identity?"

Pia nodded. Aside from the small gesture she didn’t move.

"Is that why you don’t want to be married to me? You were forced to come here and thought to get rejected so you could get out of your debt, but I chose you and ruined your plans?" Zoran felt as if his heart was ripped out of his chest. He wanted her so badly, but for her he was the losing side of a gamble she took to save her own life.

"You’re very perceptive," Pia said, her tone cold. "Although, you got one fact wrong. If you didn’t choose me, I would still have my debt. Whether it was you and this planet or some other guy somewhere else, in the end I would be married. That was the deal with Galaxy Brides."

Zoran closed his eyes and turned away. She’d been forced. He couldn’t bear to look at her. It hurt too much.

Pia, misunderstanding his withdrawal, said, "I’m sorry you’re the one who had to get stuck with me, Zoran, I truly am."

Zoran didn’t move. Pia crossed over to the lights and dimmed them. He tensed, wondering what she was doing. His eyes shifted to see clearly in the dark. She found him easily, running her hands over his shoulder. She brought her fingers around to feel the front side of his tunic over his chest. Feeling her way down his unmoving body, she unbuttoned his tunic front and pushed it down his arm, baring his chest. His breath deepened. He watched her face carefully, knowing she was blindly feeling him in the dark.

"You said you wanted me to touch you," she whispered. Pia’s fingers ran over his chest, willingly touching him. She glided her hands over his stomach. She found the waist of his pants and slowly worked them down over his hips, bending at the knee to take them to the floor.

Zoran wanted her to come to him willingly, but not like this. Not because she was the unlucky participant in a contract, not because she had a debt to fulfill. He wanted her to want him. It was a bittersweet ache she stirred. Though he smelled her desire and knew she did want him with her body, it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted her to want him with her mind and her heart. She trembled slightly and he saw her bite her lip. He didn’t move.

Pia took her hands and ran them over his calves and knees. She caressed her fingers delicately over his heated flesh, feeling the hair-roughened texture of his legs, moving up to intimately touch the sides of his hips.

"Is this how you wanted me to touch you?" Pia closed her eyes and swallowed. She couldn’t see his expression, only felt his breathing deepen and stir against her.