The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I didn’t know why I did that. My lips touched his just for a second but that was all the permission he needed to roll me over and cover my mouth with a hot and greedy k**s. It felt like he was waiting for this moment for a long time and although I clearly could push him away, I didn’t. I started it and I didn’t want it to end. What was wrong with me?

Or was it even wrong when it felt so good?

I didn’t notice how my hands laced around his neck and how my fingers entwined in his hair, making him growl softly as he deepened the k**s. I lost myself and so did he… Yet none of us wanted to be found.

“Mine,” I heard him mutter while he was tearing away for just a second and that made me open my eyes wide.

I hope he didn’t take it as me asking him to touch me? He couldn’t possibly think that it meant more than just a k**s…

“Demir,” I put my hand on his chest to stop him when he was about to k**s me again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with worry in his eyes while holding my face in his palms and caressing it with his thumbs. Tingles erupted from his touch and I was about to give in to the feeling again… yet the sensible part of me wanted to make some things clear.

“It’s not… I am not…,” I mumbled, trying to gather inner strength and feeling embarrassed beyond belief, “You know?”

“I know,” he smiled sadly and quickly sank down to steal one last k**s, then exhaled heavily and rolled off me, falling right next to me on the soft fur rug. “I know,” he repeated, but this time it felt like it was more for him than for me.

“I’m,” I cleared my throat as my voice didn’t sound right, “I am sorry…”

He looked at me quickly and dark flames flashed in his eyes but dies down quickly as he blinked a few times.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said as he rolled to a side and leaned on his hand, “I understand…”

“You do?” I lifted my brow and looked at him again. He couldn’t possibly know what I was going through right now.

“I think so,” he nodded, “It’s all very new to you and you don’t know what to do with those feelings and emotions. And I don’t help much as I don’t have much control… But I… It’s hard for me too, Lara.”

“You have plenty of experience,” I wanted to snort but it came out more as a whimper. I probably looked pathetic.

“Is that what you think?” he chuckled and I felt a slight pain somewhere in my chest when I realized something…

“How old are you?” I asked him all of a sudden and his smile faded.

“Age is just a number, Lara,” he coughed and I sneered.

“Oh, Goddess of Light, you are pretty old, right?”

“What matters the most is that I am still healthy, strong, immensely good looking…”

“And modest,” I continued for him, “I had a grandfather who was 98 when he died. Are you older than that?”

His lips clenched until they turned white from all the pressure and I knew that I was right.

“Oh, Brighta!” I tittered, hiding my face, “You so are!”

“It’s different for gerdians and dragons!” he protested and I burst out laughing.

“No, really,” I asked through tears, “How old are you exactly?”

“How old are you?!” he tried to revert the situation but I had nothing to hide in this regard.

“Nineteen,” I say firmly and look at him with a challenge in my eyes, “And now – spill it!”

“So, I am a bit older than you,” he rolls his eyes and stretches the words, clearly trying to think of something, “We knew that already! Does it make such a great difference? What’s important is that we get each other and…”

“I’ve read that gerdian live a couple of hundreds of years,” I interrupted his awkward speech, “Are you about two hundred?”

“Well,” for the first time ever I notice some kind of blush on the emperor’s face and it made me giggle.

“Three hundred?” my mouth opened in shock and now he looked properly terrified.

“Four hundred?” I couldn’t believe I said the words.

“Just slightly above that number,” he confessed and we both looked at each other in shock.

“Unbelievable,” I whispered, “You could have been my great, great, great, great…”

“Lara, please!” he stopped me, looking completely broken, “It’s different for us. We have longer lives, yes. But that comes at a price. Reproduction for gerdians and dragons is complicated…”

“I bet!” I nodded, “Is everything even working after so many years?”

I realized how wrong that sounded when it was too late and dark fire appeared in his eyes again.

“Don’t make me prove to you what’s working,” he growled and I bit my l*p.

How many little idiots like me did he bring to his magnificent castle? How many of them did he bring to this library? How many did he k**s? I bet there were hundreds! And I was just one of them. A speck of dust in his life. I would be gone and another silly girl will be lying under him on this carpet, feeling so special in his arms.

I sat up and he did the same.

“Lara?” he tried to touch me but I flinched away.

“You know,” I said trying not to look at him very hard, “I am a bit tired. I think I’d better return to my room and have some rest there.”

I stood up and started walking away fast when dark flames appeared before me right when I almost reached the exit.

“I think I know you well enough by now to see when you came up with something ridiculous in that brain of yours,” he said calmly, “Tell me what’s bothering you. It’s not just my age is it?”

I replied nothing to that. I wasn’t admitting that I got jealous for the second time today! And this time of women I didn’t even see…

“Lara, I bet you know at least some people who are about your deceased grandfather’s age?”

“Yes,” I admitted quietly.

“And are all of them people with extreme wisdom who can teach you how to live your life properly and not be mistaken in one bit, who saw and did everything they ever wanted and that was worth trying?”

“No,” I wasn’t sure where he was going with it.

“That’s because age is just a number,” he repeated himself, “Only the body of regular humans gets old but the soul inside has no age. Some are wise by the age of 40, for some all life is not enough no matter how long they live. Our life span is longer, the body stays strong until the very end and we die only when the dark magic inside of us is drained.”

“But it’s the whole experience that you had!” I burst out, “How can it be compared with mine?!”

“It can’t and it shouldn’t,” he smiled, “You are only starting to live and I would like to accompany you on that journey. Lara, for most of my life I was either learning how to be an Emperor or working as the Emperor. I still have plenty to experience too.”

“Not the same,” I sighed, feeling like a little whining child and hating myself for it, “You already had your first everything with someone else and… I bet there were plenty of girls… I just…”

He cupped my face, not letting me finish, and looked into my eyes.

“Everything I have with you is the first time for me,” he said in the most serious tone, “I’ve never had a soulmate before, and believe me, everything I have with you is beyond special to me…”