Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition (31 page)

Olek let the flap fall shut behind him as he followed her inside. He resembled a stalking beast after his prey, relishing the anticipation of the hunt.

Nadja turned from him and was again met with the giant bed. She recoiled from it as if it was covered in poison. It occurred to her how intimate this night really could be. Stumbling back, she bumped into an incredibly hard chest.

She jolted in panic, scurrying away from the solid, warm muscles. Her eyes darted around, taking in the three corners of the enclosure. In the first, there was a bath drawn, the steaming water coming out of the basin. A sweet perfumed scent rose with it. Folded towels, bath oils, and rinses were neatly arranged at the side.

The next corner had a table full of chocolates, fruits and cream sauces. A bench with cushioned seats stretched along the side, resembling a couch. An earthen wine jug was set in the center. Feeling the heady consequences of the liquor she had drunk too much of at the feast, she turned away from the food.

The third corner, behind the bed, was harder to see from her position so she ignored it. Feeling rather than hearing Olek coming up behind her, she again panicked. Swirling to face him, she held up her arms and backed away. Her hands shook. This was not how she imagined being alone with a man would feel like. She always assumed it would be like reporting to one of the robot guards, or talking to a dignitary at some function she was forced to attend.

But Olek was half naked and smiling at her like he knew every thought in her head. Did he somehow realize she liked looking at his oiled chest, to the point where she made a conscious effort not to? Could he know that when his hand had briefly held hers, her nerves had tingled, were still tingling? That the idea of his kisses both excited and terrified her?

Merriment poured from his gaze and she blushed to see it. He held back, standing tall as Nadja studied him. Before she realized it, her eyes were traveling a seductive journey of discovery over his taut chest. Already his small nipples were hard buds. His flesh dipped in all the right places only to rise and swell with each of his shallow breaths. There was no fat on his chiseled form and she doubted they employed beauty services to remove fat cells on a planet like this. His body was all natural. She bit her bottom lip, absently chewing at it as she looked him over.

His broad shoulders carried his strong arms with ease. They were arms that could crush her if he so chose. The metal band on his biceps would have fit on top of her head like a crown. Looking closer, she saw that the jewelry was shaped like a dragon winding over flesh.

Nadja looked at his covered face. He did indeed appear bold and strong like a dragon.

“Are you pleased?” he asked confidently when she didn’t move. Again, his smile was alluring and light. She could tell by the expression that this was a man who laughed often.

She blinked nervously, trying to erase the image of tight flesh burning into her memory. He took a step forward, moving as if to touch her.

“No,” she commanded, her eyes narrowing. Her words stopped him. Her breathing deepened. “Just stay back a moment.”

His head tilted to the side, waiting for her command.

Nadja took another deep breath, trying to control her undisciplined emotions and wild heartbeat.

“I don’t think there is a need to do any of…” She swallowed nervously and looked at the bath and then the bed. Shivering, she tried to lift her hands to cross protectively over her chest and grew frustrated by the binding straps. With a frown, she tugged the belt off her arms. “I meant to say, I know the tradition of this night is to prove yourself a worthy mate by a display of your…”

As Olek arched a brow, she saw the shifting beneath his mask. His eyes dipped to focus on the way her breasts bounced with her jerking movements. She freed herself from the arm ties and left them to hang at her waist.

Swallowing over her embarrassment, she crossed her arms over her chest to break his gaze, and uttered, “Your prowess.”

The grin widened over his amazingly firm lips. Those lips weren’t fair. No man should look that delectable. Nadja made a small sound of distress before continuing. She knew he wanted her to choose him for her husband. It wasn’t fair. He couldn’t really speak until she granted him permission. The only way to grant him permission was to accept him as a husband. Hurting his feelings wasn’t a great way to start off their possible life together, so she tried to speak carefully.

“I am telling you, there is no need for that. I am not concerned with…” Nadja felt like kicking herself. The words sounded weak and trembling. Normally she could speak with soft confidence, always reasonable and logical and well-phrased. Her voice came out in hot, breathless pants. What was he doing to her? Her body felt like it was on fire, like she needed to take off her clothes and jump into a snow drift. She started to sweat. Absently, she fanned her face, trying to concentrate. Forgetting where she had left off, she repeated, “I am not concerned with your prowess—
ah!
”

Olek boldly whipped his loincloth from his hips and dropped it to the fur-lined floor. His feet parted. His arms fell to the side as he held still. He stood naked and proud before her, inviting her to look her fill of him.

Nadja inhaled deeply, unable to speak. Her eyes rounded into large spheres. She couldn’t look away. The size of his mild erection was very much in proportion to the rest of his oversized anatomy. She stretched her fingers, eager to touch his cock, to have it touch her. The center of all her aching began to pulse with desire, becoming scorchingly hot at the idea. She’d dreamed of such things, on those lonely nights far away from any spaceport. Fear kept her from acting. But now? Now there was no medical reporting system to stop her from doing what she wanted.

To her mortification, an extremely playful grin spread over his mouth when she didn’t turn away. His naked body flexed as he took a single step forward, the movement powerful and predatory. The muscles of his stomach led to rock hard thighs and hips. Nestled beneath a narrow treasure trail of hair, which climbed down from his flat navel, his blatant arousal grew in size and strength. His hands lifted to his naked hips, the fingers tapping lightly against his flesh as if to point at his rising cock. She thought he might touch himself.

Nadja gasped and tried to look away but couldn’t. She waited to see what he would do next. She’d read once that men could harden themselves at will. It never happened on the operating table.

She felt like her body rocked on undulating waves and she night have to catch herself to keep from falling. Olek looked nothing like the men on her father’s operating table. They had been floppy. He was solid, massive…
oh
.

His hand slowly slid forward. Nadja was disappointed when he merely scratched his stomach and brought his fingers back to his hip. He didn’t move, letting her eyes look their fill. And she was looking. In fact, she could do nothing else.

O
lek watched
his lovely bride carefully, enjoying the way her lips sucked between her teeth, as she tried to utter whatever it was she was trying to say. She fluttered around nervously, which only made the dragon instincts inside him want play. Round blue eyes stared at him as if he were a serpent waiting to strike. Since her gaze had kept dipping to his fur loincloth, Olek took it as an invitation he wouldn’t dare to refuse and pulled the clothing off. The results were slightly comical, but mostly endearing.

She looked away several times only to have her eyes dart back and her lips move, though nothing audible came out. If he wasn’t careful, this flushing innocent in front of him would faint dead away. Already he could see she had stopped breathing altogether. Yet, despite her intense interest in his cock, her fingers fisted in front of her, as if ready to strike him if he were to pounce. Olek gave a very arrogant chuckle, unable to help himself. What man wouldn’t feel a little overconfident when a beautiful woman was rendered speechless by the look of his naked body?

“Are you pleased?” Olek asked, trying to keep a deep growl of passion from his voice. The words held much more meaning than before. They were a testament to his mounting desire. If she kept looking at him so eagerly, sucking at her bottom lip with such concentration, he would defy all the gods and take her right there and now.

The woman snapped her mouth shut and spun away. She flung her hand frantically behind her and weakly commanded, “Get dressed. I told you I don’t have any interest in…that…
thing
.”

“You are not pleased?”

She wouldn’t be able to see his spreading grin and possibly didn’t know that he was teasing her. A sound of distress left her and she hugged her arms around her body.

“Do I not please you?” he insisted when she didn’t answer.

“No, you’re built fine…ah, finely built, Olek, really you are. It’s just I don’t put much stock in these things. I think we have more important—
oh!
”

Olek couldn’t stop himself, determined to prove her shy words wrong. The little ornery dragon inside him made him do it. When she fluttered so nervously, he couldn’t resist teasing her. With her body so close, he couldn’t stop from touching her. Many grand and wicked ideas filled his head. He moved to nuzzle her delectably slender throat with his parted lips, lightly poking his tongue against sensitive flesh. She trembled at the contact.

Olek grinned alongside her neck, whispering “I do please you.”

Olek was toying with her, just a little. He couldn’t help it. This delicate creature fluttered so nervously, that he imagined she might try to take flight like a tiny bird and dart away from him.

His bride belatedly jumped away, rubbing where he’d kissed her as if to remove the feel of his moist touch. He could tell it didn’t work. He knew it. She would try to deny it.

“Stop that, you one-track barbarian,” she demanded heatedly.

That stopped him short. He studied her, wondering if her harsh words masked her anxiety. Or was she really annoyed with him?

She glanced back at him, taking another quick peek. Her words stunted, she ordered, “Get dressed.”

“Choose,” Olek said instead. The one word harder than he’d intended.

“I-I can’t choose, Olek,” she answered. “Not yet.”

His bride backed further away from him. Olek stepped with her, not bothering to cover himself from view. What did she mean by “not yet”?

She came to the side of the tent and was forced to stop. She couldn’t escape. There was no where she could run that he couldn’t find her. Already her scent was in his head. Every sense he had, focused on her. His eyes narrowed, shifting slightly so that he could focus on her neck. Her pulse beat wildly beneath her skin. His ears picked up the frantic rhythm. Olek was careful not to let her see his dragon-shifting abilities. Too many brides had been frightened by the beast in the past. Besides, his people didn’t want word of their special talents spread over the universe, so he couldn’t show her until after they were married.

He lifted his hand to gently stroke the backs of his fingers over her cheek and neck. His touch paused below her ear, near her racing pulse. Continuing to caress her, he tenderly insisted, “Your name.”

His bride blinked, as if under a spell. Maybe she was. The light glow of the crystal caressed her face, pulsing with the power of what was between them. But Olek didn’t need an amulet to tell him how he felt. He knew the first moment he saw her. This woman was meant to be his.

She gasped for breath and looked momentarily confused.

“Your name,” he repeated, making sure he used the Old Star language. He was usually pretty good about that, but this woman had him completely enthralled. It was possible he would accidently slip into the Qurilixian tongue of his people.

Leaning over, he kissed the corner of her lips. His bride stiffened, not returning the caress. Her widened eyes stared out at him. Olek closed his eyes and smoothly brushed his dry lips over the length of her mouth, hoping she would part her lips. The pulse quickened beneath his gauging fingers. Olek detected the stirring of her desires in the intoxicating perfume of her sex. His cock tightened, begging its owner to answer the call of her pussy.

The shape of her breasts beckoned his hand. How could he deny himself the pleasure of the soft mounds? The backs of his fingers trailed over her collarbone, dancing along her quivering flesh. She slowly lowered her gaze, as if her lids had suddenly become too hard to hold up. Olek drew his fingers over her porcelain flesh, dipping over the top curve of one breast, deep into the valley, and then over the second. He didn’t grab or caress like he desperately wanted to, instead letting her get used to his closeness. She shivered anew, goose bumps rising along her chest.

He slid his fingers over her skin another time, passing over one sweet mound and then the other. When her breathing deepened and he could hear the heart hammering in her chest as if it was his own, he grew bolder. His finger slipped between her flesh and the silk of her gown. Starting at the side, he drew along the bodice, plunging deeper with each passing second. As he reached the center, her nipple was already half erect, awaiting him.

Olek took a deep, agonizing breath as he curled his finger around the bud and pulled it up to rest on the top edge of the gown. Then, continuing on, he did the same with the other side.

His bride’s eyes flitted up to him as his finger continued to curl in an aimless pattern, not touching the liberated centers again. When he had her gaze steadily caught in his, he deliberately looked down, letting her see that he watched her body’s reaction to him. His mouth parted, blowing hot breath onto her skin. Her nipples budded to hard erection.

Gasping, she pulled her head back from him to break the torturous contact, and closed her eyes. The tent’s wall blocked her escape.

“Choose,” he urged her.

Olek nearly groaned in disappointment, when she pulled up the bodice with a fidgety jerk to hide the round gems of her nipples from view.

She placed a hand firmly on his chest, He had kept distance between their bodies when he touched her, but if she asked him to he would have gladly closed the space to give her what every screaming nerve in his body begged him to. It was as if his body recognized her completely and wanted her to fulfill every need.