The Impatient Lord (11 page)

Mirek felt a
strange blend of excitement and concern filling him. This woman was nothing like he’d imagined. He saw the mischief in her eyes. She liked games. She liked adrenaline. She liked playing with fire.

“
Come on, dragon man—” she pouted, “—make with the naughtiness.”

Mirek could only take so much teasing. He
’d wanted her since he first saw her, and the months of waiting had been hell. Then there were the years of failed festivals before that. He rushed forward. She made a small noise of surprise as he grabbed her arms. His lips met hers in an instantly deep kiss. The taste of her fruit-sweetened lips drew his tongue forward.

For an instant, she didn
’t respond, merely stood frozen in place as he released his passion onto her. The dragon in him loved the challenge. The man in him warned him to slow down. She may be willing, but her culture had insured she had little experience. Mirek couldn’t really care less if he had a virgin bride. It was something he’d never really thought about in his years of waiting to be blessed, for he knew when the time came his wife would be all his and sexual pasts didn’t matter.

She pulled her head back and gasped for breath. “
Go easy, dragon.” Gentle hands cupped his face and the caress instantly encouraged him to slow. There was a vulnerability in her he’d never detected before. His wife had many layers, and he was eager to discover them all.

Mirek
relaxed his grip on her arms and moved his fingers up along her throat. Before he felt the hard thread of her pulse, he heard it in his head. His senses were keenly aware, though he did not shift into dragon. The Draig did not make love in dragon form but they could use its power of enhanced senses. Mirek smelled her desire for him. He tasted her sweet lips like fine fruit wine. Her body trembled beneath his touch, the softness of her naked flesh against his chest and stomach. The deep intake of her breath whispered past his lips, almost tickling him.

Never in his life had he felt so connected to another person. It was a primal thing, innate, beyond conscious understanding. Tiny, invisible th
reads joined them, pulling them together from that very first moment he looked at her. His crystal had glowed and he’d just known she was meant for him. It was this pull that had made him claim her, and now that he kissed her the feelings only intensified. She was his destiny. The gods knew what they were doing.

* * *

Riona had absolutely no idea what she was doing. As she’d stared at the medical report, years of pent-up frustration and stress had released inside her. She’d been living with a giant anvil over her head, secretly wishing that fate would take her long life out of her hands. The knowledge of her freedom from her past flowed through her. Even if the reports were wrong, maybe it was time to start her biological countdown and live out a natural humanoid existence.

When Mirek
’s lips touched hers, it felt right. Actually, it felt wicked and wonderful. The shock of his warm skin to her breasts caused tiny explosions of pleasure to erupt beneath her flesh. She’d had pleasure before, but never from actual physical contact with a man.

Mirek
slid his hands to her breasts, cupping them before gliding lower to her hips. He pulled her firmly against him. The hard length of his arousal beneath his breeches pressed along her stomach. Riona wasn’t one to back down from adventure. By the way her heart thudded in her chest and her blood raced in her veins this was definitely an adventure.

He stepped forward, forcing her to walk back toward the couch. When her naked ass hit
the furniture, she tried to pull away. Before she could lie down, he swept her into his arms and changed directions. She bounced in his arms. A small laugh escaped her as he took the stairs leading to the bedroom.

The shades were still drawn from when she
’d been sleeping and the dim light added an intimate atmosphere to the moment. He placed her on the bed. Each of his movements seemed strained, as if he held back. Despite all her brave teasing, she was glad he was gentle with her. This was new territory.

H
e crawled over her and kissed her lips as if that single act was the most important thing in the world. Mirek wrapped his arms behind her back, holding her tight as he lifted her shoulders off the mattress. “Are you sure this is what you want? This is not a reaction to shock from reading the reports?”

Her
arms were trapped between them, but she managed to caress his jaw with her fingertips. “This is the one adventure in my life I thought I could never have. We’re adults. I’m willing. You’re willing.”

“
We’re married,” he inserted.

“
Ah, well…” She looked to the side and scrunched up her nose. “I won’t lie to you. I really have no intention of being married.”

“
But…?” In his surprise, his hold loosened and she fell back on the bed. Her head bounced on the mattress but it didn’t hurt. “The gods have shown us. My crystal glowed when I saw you. Didn’t you feel the pull?”

Riona had felt it, so much so that she
’d mindlessly followed him on stage. “I already admitted I was attracted to you. I think it was your eyes. They’re so gorgeous. And you are very physically pleasing to look at. If you want the truth, I think you are confusing lust with love, or at least with the will of the gods. I’m not judging you for it. You can’t really help that there are not a lot of females on this planet for you to have fun with. As for me, I have only had intimacy with transmitters meant for long-distance lovers.”

“
But tradition, the gods…”

“
Maybe your people made up traditions to ensure you married with little fuss, just as mine made up traditions to keep young adults from fooling around.” Riona saw her logic hurt him. This was not the conversation she wanted to be having. But he’d given her a dose of reality. Perhaps he needed one as well.

He closed his eyes and held his breath. She wond
ered at it but said nothing. Her body tingled where he touched her. The heat of his leg combined with the tickle of his breeches to tease her sex. When he opened his eyes, he said, “My impatience did this. I should have been stronger and waited for the next festival to claim you. This is why you doubt me and cannot feel our connection.”

The feelings of arousal built. She couldn
’t seem to control her leg as she restlessly caressed his hip with her thigh. The muscles of his chest beckoned her hands to explore. There were so many emotions inside of her that she couldn’t filter them all. Relief was the most prevalent—relief that she was not immortal. Then there was lust, a hard desire as if her brain’s tight hold on her body had finally given way, bestowing its silent permission to allow her to feel. Beneath that was uncertainty and worry mixed with a tiny thread of fear that this was all a joke and the Draig had her sister under a spell and was trying to do the same to her. If a yellow plant could make her that sick, what else did these guys have on their planet that could affect her?

His body responded to her thigh
’s persistence and he rocked his hips forward. Lust overtook all else and suspicions simply fell out of her head.

“
Logic tells me to wait, but when I am with you, patience never seems to be an option.” He circled his hips again. “These months have been torture—seeing you hurt and unable to do anything about it.” He pressed harder, simulating the sexual act through his clothes. “And now having you here, naked, willing to take me in you.” He thrust again, gasping and shivering. “If this is a test from the gods, I fear I will fail.”

“
Can we leave them out of it?” she asked, her muscles tightening. “I really don’t want to think about supreme beings right now.”

He reached for his waist
, and seconds later her thighs were able to work the material off his hips. The brush of hard naked flesh created a myriad of unexpected sensations. His arousal fit against her sex, sliding in her body’s natural response. With an artful motion, he readjusted his hips to bring the head of his shaft to her opening. She stiffened in anticipation. Her heart beat so loud she couldn’t hear anything else.

Mirek slipped inside her, letting her feel the tip of him. The cords in his neck w
ere strained, attesting to the fact he held back. Riona closed her eyes and drew her hips up to search for more. The small physical discomfort was nothing compared to the pleasure. He withdrew only to come back a little deeper. It took a few strokes, but she learned his rhythm and met it with her own.

Mirek held his weight off her by pressing his hands into the mattress by her side. She wanted more and tried to
force him deeper with the thrust of her body. When he would pull away, she wrapped her legs around him and held tight. The motion had the added benefit of angling her body to compel him deeper.

His eyes rounded. She locked her ankles and kept him from
withdrawing. As her sex adjusted, she couldn’t help but rock her hips in tiny circles. He stayed deep, his body filling and caressing her in a way she’d never dreamed possible. The faster she rocked, the better it felt, and the more torturous.

Mirek took her lead, pushing back to grab her hips. The motion lifted her off the bed and onto his lap. He sat ba
ck on his feet as her legs were forced to release his waist. Gravity locked her onto his shaft, helped by the forceful grasp of his hands. He kept her tight against him, letting her have only the smallest of movements inside her sex.

Riona leaned her face
into his. The sides of their noses touched. She panted for air as his breath fanned over her cheek. Deep green eyes looked into hers. Though the room was shadowed, she detected the brightness of them. She loved their color, the starkness of it, the piercing intensity that shot through her and enhanced the pleasure in her stomach.

Her h
eart beat fiercely and she felt the familiar rush of excitement that overtook her whenever she was about to do something marvelously wild—win a tournament, sneak though security, fly a landship at lightning speeds. The rush in her veins made her feel alive.

The pleasure built. Her body jerked almost violently. She gave a weak cry and deep tremors exploded between them. Mir
ek’s breath caught and his head fell back. He became stiff and then gripped her hard.

Their mingled breaths filled the silence. He let go and she slipped off his lap and fell weakly into bed. Mirek collapsed next to her, lying on his back.

“That was better than a trip through the Jeyer Obstacle,” she panted, unable to help the wide smile.

“
I have no idea what that is, but I’ll take it as a compliment.” He turned his head so he faced her.

Riona met his gaze.
Deep relaxation turned her bones to liquid and her limbs to useless weights. “Yes. It’s a good thing, dragon man, a very good thing. And it’s something I think we should do again very soon.”

A low growl sounded in the back of his throat. She inhaled sharply in surprise as he pushed up and over her with li
ghtning speed only to begin eagerly kissing her neck. “As my lady wishes.”

“What happened to you?” Alek eyed Mirek in concern. “Did you have to wrestle negotiate with the Syog again?”

“
My wife.” Mirek stopped his slow, ambling walk and leaned against the corridor wall. Not that he would complain, but Riona had taken to intimacy with a vivacious force he’d ever dreamed possible. “She’s, ah, fully recovered now.”

Alek quirked a brow. It took him a
long moment to understand what was happening. His concern turned into hard, full laughter. He clutched his stomach and bent over, struggling to breathe.

“
What’s going on out here?” Bron appeared from the scroll room, holding a stack of yellowed parchments. He eyed his brothers curiously.

“
Lady…learned…sex…balls,” was about all of Alek’s answer they could understand.

Mirek grimaced. He should have known better than to admit soreness to
one of his brothers. Why hadn’t he lied and said he’d been getting his privates kicked in a Syog ball racking negotiation? It would have been an easy lie. Those aliens were rough on the manhood, even if they used a semi-protective plate. No one would have questioned his claim. They would have still laughed at him, but they would have believed him.

“
Mirek?” Bron asked in concern.

“
Riona, ah—” Mirek began.

“
He can’t handle…his wife,” Alek interrupted in merriment. “He’s walking like this.” Alek ambled around the hall like an old man with a cane, stumbling all the more in his fit of laughter.

Bron arched a brow and nodded his head. “
Nicely done. We’ll have another nephew to add to the family soon. Well done, brother.”

“
If she didn’t break him,” Alek inserted. “I always suspected you were a little soft, Ambassador. All that flying in space and drinking lady wine with the aliens.”

Mirek shoved Alek into a wall. It didn
’t stop the laughter as the man slid to the floor. “At least I don’t smell like a ceffyl herd.”

“
I deserve that,” Alek admitted, not bothering to stand as he grinned up at them. A change had come over him since his marriage. He was happier and smiled more. Whatever Kendall had done to her husband, she’d managed to tame the stubborn man.

“
You’re going to tell everyone, aren’t you?” Mirek sighed, not really worried. His wife wanted him. That was a good thing. Actually, she wanted him…and wanted him…and wanted him…and—

“
Oh, yeah,” Alek nodded. “Everyone.”

“
Alek,” Bron broke in. “Maybe we should keep this to ourselves. If my wife is any indication of how the women were raised, her sister will not like being talked about in such a way. She will consider it insulting.”

Alek instantly agreed. “
Of course, I didn’t think of it like that. I would never gossip about my sisters if it made them uncomfortable.”

“
Thank you,” Mirek mouthed. Bron nodded once.

“
Have either of you seen the updated communications plans?” Bron asked, nodding at his armload. “We’re having a hard time locating some of the buried mountain lines to see if they’re salvageable. Aeron wants to get the construction plans finished before the baby arrives and keeps asking if they’re lines or transmit boosters. I honestly have no idea how they work.”

“
Why don’t you just grab a line on one side and pull?” Alek asked, shrugging. “See where it leads. If it doesn’t lead anywhere, I’d say we have transmit boosters. I don’t know what a transmit booster looks like, but we can send the boys out to look for one in the trees or wherever.”

“
Apparently checking the line that way will take longer. Aeron ordered a ground imager but it won’t be here until after the baby comes. She is
very
focused on getting this done. Now.” Bron looked at them hopefully, an almost desperate plea on his face as he wanted to please his pregnant wife. “So have you seen the updated plans?”

“
Updated as in the ones from fifty years ago?” Mirek frowned. “Did we even have plans? I don’t ever remember seeing them. I seem to remember Sper just making it work. He’d go out with tools and come back later with everything working again.”

“
Alek?” Bron prompted.

“
No clue,” Alek said. “I think Sper kept all the plans in his head. When he died, he took the information with him. Though, come to think of it, after he died the network stopped breaking down so much. I wonder what that man was doing?”

“
Intergalactic transmissions,” Mirek answered. Sper never married, never even tried to marry. He was a very rare exception to the Draig culture in that way. “Something he called moving, moodies, movies?”

“
Blast!” Bron frowned. “That’s what I was afraid of. Aeron is not going to be pleased. She is a very organized woman.” To Mirek, he said, “She was always like that, but it’s getting worse. At first, she just arranged clothing in the closet according to styles and color. But then I caught her trying to alphabetize your giant trade agreement reports in my office in the middle of the night.”

“
Wait until your bride starts hiding your favorite throwing knives,” Alek said. “I wish Kendall would merely reorganize reports.”

“
I believe that is part of the joys of pregnancy,” Mirek offered. “I’m told women do that kind of thing.”

“
Kendall is doing many strange things. When I threw a couple knives in the house she scolded me for ruining the wood on the new throwing post. Then she tried to take away all the sharp objects and put them really high in the home so not even I could reach them. How’s it going to be a throwing post if I can’t put weapons in it and soften it up for my boy to learn? And how is my son going to reach the weapons if they’re glued to the ceiling? You’d almost think she didn’t want the child to have a sharp blade.” Alek took a deep breath and lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Then, as I’m rubbing her wonderful giant belly and tell her I want at least thirteen children, she tried to hit me with a plate of chocolate and an ore sample she was looking at. My Kendall is not a violent lady.”

The
fathers-to-be shook their heads, completely at a loss.

“
One visiting dignitary told me he and his wife called it nesting,” Mirek said. “Toward the end time women start doing strange things to the home. They can’t help it. You should probably help them. I don’t like the idea of my pregnant sisters climbing high and lifting heavy objects. They seem a little off balance of late when they simply walk down the hall.”

“
Like a baldric slaughtering prey to make nest bedding,” Alek concluded. “That actually makes complete sense. Perhaps that is why she is putting the knives up high. She’s building a nest.”

“
Nesting. Aeron has been taking all the covers and pillows and surrounding herself with them at night. And quite frankly, some of the strange things she’s been eating resemble food a baldric might enjoy—not in taste so much, but it looks disgusting. I think you may be right, Mirek. We should find a way to help them with this nesting process.” Bron shared a determined look with Alek.

“
At times like this I miss our mother. She would have told us what to do,” Mirek said.

“
How hard can it be to build a nest?” Bron’s bearing seemed lighter than before. “Mirek, thank you. I’m glad someone in this family understands these women things.”

Alek stood and spoke toward Bron.
“You know, now that Mirek has something else to occupy his time, I’m guessing we can finally tell him we don’t really read those report things. No reports, nothing for your wife to organize.”

Mirek
’s expression fell. “What? You nagged me for months to make fully detailed accountings of my trade missions and then you begged me for more…”

Bron smirked and looked guiltily away. Alek began laughing anew.

“Do you know how tediously boring those things are to write?” Mirek demanded.

“
Not as boring as it is to read all two hundred pages of them,” Alek answered.

“
You had me inserting dignitary eye color and breathing patterns,” Mirek growled and made a move to hit his brother. Alek dodged the somewhat playful attack and jogged down the hall away from them.

“
You’re lucky I don’t feel like chasing you right now.” Mirek turned to Bron, unamused.

“
To be fair, we never really thought you’d agree to do them, and then it just became kind of funny to see how much we could get out of you. You do take your work very seriously, brother. After a while, we didn’t have the heart to tell you to stop.” Bron held the parchments in front of him like a shield.

Mirek grumbled by way of an ans
wer.

“
Where are you heading? I figured you’d be locked inside with your bride. Do you have an appointment coming into our airspace?”

“
No, all my appointments are via communications devices. Is Vlad home? I have some updated orders I need to tell him about. I want to make sure we can handle it while manpower is diverted to cleaning up the mine toxins.” Mirek reached over his head and stretched his sore stomach muscles. His wife might be insatiable, but he could hardly protest that she wanted him—in a variety of interesting ways and positions. “Vlad is at the mines with Kendall. Clara is here helping Alek with the ceffyls. Their new breeding program seems to be going well. Soon the far pens will be full of solarflowers and ceffyl babies.”

“
And the mines? How’s clean up? I haven’t heard anything recently,” Mirek asked.

“
Alek doesn’t want Kendall out there so close to her end time with the pregnancy. She, of course, ignores him and goes anyway. And now that her parents are no longer gracing us with their presence, Clara will go to Mining Village to stay with Vlad. I’m not sure when she leaves. They want to have the baby there with Arianwen as midwife.”

Mirek was excited for his brothers and
prayed that he too would someday have a child to add to the family’s good fortune. Though, after what the Medical Alliance doctors had told him, he wasn’t sure if and when that would happen. Mostly, he tried not to think about it. “It makes sense that he would want to be near the village where he was born. And the miners love Lady Clara as their new protector goddess of the mines. It will be good for morale to have a village baby born after the alien invasion.”

“
I’m going to get these old plans to Aeron. They’re not the newest version by any means, but maybe it will help her figure out what she needs to. She’s been sad today and won’t tell me why. I thought with Riona waking she’d be ecstatic. Though marriage is teaching me the more I think I know about women, the less I really do. I will consider this nesting and figure out a way to help her.” Bron adjusted the papers in his arms. “Since it appears Riona is well, we should have a celebration. Since we had to cancel the mining festival this year with everything happening, I think the people would love the chance to meet our wives. You should also send one of the runners down to the palace to deliver the news to the king and queen. They asked about you last time I was down there to discuss possible peace treaty implications with the Var. They’re worried about Riona as well and will be pleased to hear the family is finally complete.”

“
Good idea.” Mirek nodded. “I’ll send a messenger today. And I’ll send word with Clara to the mines so Vlad will know about the new orders.”

“
I’m sure it will be fine. We should have some surplus ore left over.”

Mirek didn
’t bother to tell the high duke that surplus often went away really fast when mining operations were stopped for long periods of time—like the months it took to clean up the mines from the Tyoe chemical dump.

Instead, Mirek said, “
As to a celebration, maybe not so soon. The princesses are all pregnant, my sisters are pregnant and the new Breeding Festival is coming up in a few months. There will be much to celebrate, and finally a reason for Alek to reveal the contents and location of great-grandfather’s liquor stash.”

According to family legend,
their great-grandfather had broken into the Var palace and stolen several bottles from the cat shifter king’s liquor storage. Alek had found where it was hidden and had lorded it over his brothers ever since, teasing them with what he claimed was a very fine bottle of Qurilixian rum.

Bron started to walk only to stop. “
These are politically strange times, are they not? I think the gods waited to bless us this year on purpose to give us support and hope. We had aliens trying to take our mines. They kidnapped me and tried to poison the land in the process. It looks as if we will reach a peace settlement with the Var now that King Attor is dead.” He shook his head. “Though I welcome an end to our planetary battles, I don’t foresee peace lasting long. King Kirill is Attor’s son, and I doubt we can ever trust a cat shifter.”

“
As long as they stay on their side of the planet…” Mirek let his words trail off. He didn’t really see peace lasting either. They had been warring with the Var for a very long time, so long that many didn’t even know why they were fighting. Luckily, the brothers didn’t see many battles being so far north. The king preferred they handle off-planet relations at the mountain fortress.