The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

DEMIR

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Lara was jealous right now. When I caught her gaze for the first time I could tell she hated seeing me next to Camelia and other ladies. And I loved seeing her like that. At least in that way, I could be sure that she felt something for me.

After the dream from last night, all I could think of was her. It was extremely hard not to go to her room and claim her on the spot when I woke up. So I kept myself busy. Luckily, the emperor’s job had no end, and I managed to find loads of papers and tasks to deal with. Anything to keep me away from her. Anything to keep me from thinking about her. Anything not to go crazy from the range of emotions she made me feel.

Well, clearly it didn’t work that well because I was on my way to see her when I bumped into Camelia and her usual attire. The brunnete used to be my lover a couple of years ago. She managed to keep my attention for a decade and stay in the shadows, just the way I preferred it. So, I gave her a title and married her off to a duke. Which gave her an even higher title. And that was supposed to be it, only that it turned out that I was mistaken about her. She truly believed that we were going to last more than that. And now I had a Duchess on my hands that kept bothering me whenever we saw each other.

However, today I was thankful for that. Because it was Camelia who brought that jealousy fire into my soulmate’s eyes.

I wasn’t going to push it too far, though. Lara seemed very happy when I threw away the little note. And I loved to see her that way.

I was leading her by hand and she didn’t try to take it away. It was an amazing feeling to be able to walk like that together. I needed that closeness with her. And I really hoped that she was going to like the surprise I prepared for her.

We stopped and I got the silk scarf out of my pocket. Laura raised her brow at me questioningly and a chuckle escapes me.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “It’s absolutely innocent. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you see everything at once, right?”

“Fine,” she sighed but there was a vague smile on her lips before she turned her back to me. I stepped closer to her, using this rare moment to inhale more of her wonderful scent of sea breeze and jasmine that was still intoxicating me every time. In the best of ways.

Carefully, I placed the scarf over her eyes and tied it at the back, briefly touching her shoulders while fixing her hair and thanking all the gods since she was wearing an off-shoulder dress today in a delicate shade of lilac. She trembled under my touch and I held back a growl that was willing to leave my body. The dragon was roaming inside.

Then I took her hand again and started guiding her to the doors.

I led her to the very centre of the grand room and signaled to the servants to leave us alone. When the last of them disappeared, I leaned towards her face so that my lips were almost touching hers. And I knew that she felt my breath on them as her cheeks turned into a lovely shade of pink, bringing all kinds of inappropriate thoughts into my head.

“Are you ready?” I asked her and she shuddered, biting her lower l*p. This time a growl escaped me and the blush crept to the tips of her ears as she nodded.

With one swift move, I removed the improvised blindfold and she started blinking, trying to adjust to the light.

And then she gasped at what she saw and started twirling around to have a better look. Her eyes sparkled and that’s when I knew that I chose the right surprise for her.

“Brighta, the Goddess of Light!” she exclaimed and I snorted, “What is this magical place?!”

“This is my personal library,” I told her, “Only members of the Royal Family can use it. And now you can do it too.”

“Unbelievable!” she was still admiring and I stepped away, giving her time and space to explore.

This was always my favourite place in the palace. Endless rows of bookshelves with tall arched windows filling the hall with light all day long. The stone floor was actually the map of the kingdom and the ceiling was painted with the stories of my parents’ love. This library was my father’s present for my mother and they both were spending hours here together. I was still a child when I was coming here looking for them and finding them sitting together on the windowsill or on one of the sofas, reading or talking…

And chaos knows I never brought a woman here before. Even when I thought that I was in love, I never let anyone else here… It never felt right. Yet when Lara and I were talking about books back at Akyria in front of that fire, all I did was imagine her here. With me.

And now when she was brushing her delicate fingers over the old tomes, she felt like she belonged here.

“Oh, Goddess!” she exclaimed and got one book out, “I always wanted to read this one!”

“Which one?” I came up to her and she turned to me with excitement in her eyes.

“Ardenia’s Flame!” she produced the book and this was so not what I expected. “Ardenia’s Flame” was an ancient book by one of the greatest poets of the early noetic period, Sentar Roen. However, it was later banned in pretty much every country as people became more prudish everywhere. There was a time when it was a prohibited read even in the Gerdian Empire. And we were always of very open views… Long story short, Ardenia was a nun who turned out to be a daughter of a noble. And when her father decided to take her back home and marry her off to a man of his choice, she discovered a whole new life full of… pleasures. She even discovered those pleasures with multiple men. And later, she discovered that pleasure can come from pain as well… Everything was described in every single detail and Roen was not trying to choose words carefully when he was depicting the events. That was something I didn’t expect Lara to choose in a million years.

Then again…

“Why do you look at me like that?” she asked, biting her l*p again. She had no idea what the book was about. Oh, this was too good!

“This,” I cleared my throat, “This book is not something I’d think you would be interested in.”

“Why not?” she gazed at me with her innocent blue eyes, “Ardenia was one of Brighta’s disciples, wasn’t she? A warrior maiden and one of the first female Warriors of Light!”

I just couldn’t help myself.

“Uhm, yeah,” I nodded, “That’s it. I am sorry I underestimated you. You are going to love this one.”

“Thank you very much,” she bowed her head formally and moved to the window, “I am going to start this very moment! I can read here, right?”

“Yes,” I smiled, “You can do whatever you want. Unless you can’t tolerate my company, of course. I spend a lot of my time here.”

I picked the first book that I touched, without even looking at it, and followed her. She was getting cozy on one end of a huge windowsill that had pillows for extra comfort, and I sat on the other end, secretly watching her and pretending to read myself.

“And who recommended you this book?” I asked.

“Gideon,” for a second she got sad and I regretted that I asked her, “I saw it once in his office and asked about it. But he said that I wasn’t allowed to read it. It was for Warriors’ of Light only. And I wasn’t one.”

“And it was the exact same book?” I just wanted to make sure.

“Of course,” she snorted, “I have an extremely good memory! I remember the title and the author, and even the cover is exactly the same!”

“Well, here you can read it freely and discover all the secrets of Warriors of Light!” I said, trying to hold back a laugh really hard, “Enjoy.”

It was less than ten minutes when her face started turning red. I waited, watching her in secret. And every time she gazed at me, I was back at my book. With the most serious face I could master.

But after half an hour, she closed the book with a clap. Even her ears were flashing and she looked at me with fury.

“You knew it, right?!” she practically growled at me and I burst out laughing.

“We gerdians don’t judge!” I winked at her, “Although I have to admit that Warriors of Light surprise me more and more with every passing day!”

“Despicable!” she threw the book at me and I barely managed to dodge because I was still choking with laughter.

“Hey, what did I do?” I demanded.

“You did this on purpose!” she looked furious, “To watch me make a fool of myself.”

“And what exactly makes you think that?” I asked.

“Your book is upside down!” she pointed out and I saw a spark of light on the tip of her index finger.

“Lara, just remember that attacking the Emperor inside of the Palace is a serious offense,” I snorted and immediately got hit by a small charge of her Light. It still hurt me and I pretended to be angry.

“Well, now you leave me no choice!” I stood up and made sure that she saw my eyes filling with dark flames.

She squeaked and ran to hide between the shelves. And I chased her. I let her believe for a while that I didn’t know exactly where she was hiding every time. Just until I had her exactly where I wanted her.

I appeared behind her when she was already panting, and grabbed her by her waist, lifting her up and spinning a few times with her in my arms, while she screamed and laughed, “Let me go!”

“All right,” I chuckled and fell onto the soft rug in front of the fireplace with her landing on top of me.

This was the closest we’ve ever been and her weight felt so comfortable on top of me, our eyes on each other and so many emotions in them. And then her lips appeared too close and touched mine suddenly as a wing of a butterfly touches one’s skin…