Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition (88 page)

Her expression must have answered for her.

“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 you’d be rejected so you could get out of your debt, but I chose you and ruined your plans?”

“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. An exclusive bridal contract.”

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

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 could feel inside of him, if she would just open herself up. Then she would know his heart was broken. He felt as if the organ had been 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.

Until he had her trust and she had 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. Zoran had 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. She was so beautiful in her red satin dress. It accented her tanned skin, hugged dangerously and seductively to her curves. He wanted her and he couldn’t have her.

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 the front side of his tunic. 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 and arms, 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 guide 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 feel him stir against her.

Zoran saw her vulnerability clearly in the dark. When he didn’t answer, too enthralled by her to speak, she ran her fingers up his sides to feel his broad shoulders and neck.

“Do you still want me to kiss you?” She leaned in to cautiously kiss his chest.

He nodded. She couldn’t see the gesture.

“Like this?” Pia whispered. She kissed him again. Zoran’s breath caught, but he didn’t stop her. She lifted her hands to her dress and slowly drew the satin from her shoulders. It whispered over her body as it pooled on the ground, leaving her gloriously naked.

Zoran tensed, his cock already hard with desire.

“Did you still want to touch me?” Pia whispered. She stood vulnerable and naked before him. “Zoran?”

Zoran’s hand tightened and lifted. He didn’t want her like this, standing before him like a human sacrifice. He didn’t want her as a whore he paid for. For, surely, that’s how she felt. Why else would she be offering herself to him all of a sudden?

“You don’t have to do this, Pia,” Zoran said. He ached to hold her. His body burned with desire. Turning away from her was the hardest thing he’d ever done. He went to the dresser and searched for a pair of light cotton pants. Finding them easily in the dark, he turned to find her clutching the red satin to her chest. He imagined she felt relief. “I’m sorry if I made you feel you had to repay your debt to me in such a way. I never wanted to force you to do something you didn’t want to do.” He couldn’t let himself look at her. If he did, his resolve would crumble and he would go to her. Weakly, he said, “You can have the bed, Pia. I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.”

With a whispering slide of the door, he left her. Zoran crossed naked to the bathroom, clutching his cotton pants. Tonight, a cold shower wouldn’t be enough to drain the throbbing need from his loins or the torment from his body. She’d pushed him past the point of no return.

If he couldn’t release himself inside her, then he would do the only thing he could. He would end the physical need with the fantasy of her in his head. And the other, more torturous suffering, he would bury in his chest and pray that the pain didn’t kill him.

P
ia had hoped
the darkness would help him forget who she was and what she looked like. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to take her so fast in an effort to get it over with, like the last time. Her heart squeezed until she thought it would burst. Not even darkness helped.

She’d thrown herself at him, offered him everything he’d asked for—touching and kissing him willingly, allowing him to touch her if he wanted. He’d refused and the ache of his rejection was so painful, she could barely hear his words. Not even in the dark was she desirable to him. How could she blame him? Had she told him too much of her past? Was he ashamed to be married to a hired gun?

Pia knew Zoran tried to be a husband to her. He tried to do his duty, but it would seem tonight he didn’t have the energy to pretend. Her body coursed with precarious emotions and she let the pain overtake her.

Pia collapsed on the floor, naked and trembling. Her mouth moved to scream her agony, but only a gasp came out. Rocking in the dark, tears began falling soundlessly out of her eyes. She wanted to die.

Z
oran left with the dawn
, thoroughly exhausted. He’d ducked into the room only long enough to grab a tunic. His eyes had strayed to Pia on the mattress. She slept, sprawled out on the bed. Her arms and legs stretched in every direction.

His duty weighed heavily upon him. If he had to choose between going to fight the Var to retrieve Yusef’s bride, or facing the feelings he harbored in his heart for his uncaring wife, he gladly picked the first. At least against the Var, he knew it was a battle he could win.

About an hour after arriving on the practice field, Zoran saw the two trackers he’d sent after Yusef’s wife. They said it had been difficult, but they found her and her Var captors camping in the shadowed marshes. Zoran knew the area. He’d scouted through it before. It was an awful place. The rotting smell of molding plant life and animal carcasses masked even the barest traces of scent from most of their kind—from all but the elite group of Draig trackers who were chosen for their highly developed sense of smell.

He sent word to Ualan, Olek, and his father that they were to ride out immediately. Yusef still hadn’t awakened and the doctor didn’t sound as hopeful as the night before. The fallen prince was worsening.

Zoran strode across the practice field with only his sword and knife for weaponry. He went to join his brothers, who were swinging up onto their ceffyls. Ualan’s face was red. Zoran knew from his father that Morrigan had recovered enough to open her eyes early that morning. Whatever she’d said to Ualan had driven him from her side like he was being chased by a pack of demons. The rage would serve him well on this mission.

Ualan snarled darkly.

“There will be enough blood for all of us,” Zoran answered in return, seeing his brother’s mounting fury, though not exactly disapproving of it. Gripping the center horn of his mount, he swung up behind the beast’s bare shoulders. The ceffyl’s fanged mouth darted open with a hiss of his long tongue.

“Your wife will recover,” Olek said to Ualan, joining them. “Her mind is well.”

“Not if I strangle her into the grave,” Ualan roared fiercely. His face shifted briefly.

The king rode up beside them. Olek and Zoran exchanged looks. Zoran could well understand his brother’s frustration. He too felt it every time he thought of Pia. How he got the strength to refuse her when she offered herself to him, he would never know. Even now he wanted to hold her. His lips ached to feel her mouth. He pressed them into a hard line to keep himself from feeling anything.

Ualan growled darkly, swearing under his breath as he kicked his steed into action. Murder flashed in his golden eyes as his ceffyl took off. The king looked at his sons. Zoran merely shrugged in return. He had no words to offer his father. He had no words to offer himself. Kicking their mounts, the three men were quickly behind Ualan.

P
ia was
livid to discover Zoran had left to retrieve Yusef’s bride without telling her. She had to learn about it from the queen. Her anger was only made worse by the severe rejection she felt. She’d fallen asleep only after crying her heart out for hours. Her eyes were still puffy and her nose red, but she didn’t care.

Queen Mede offered to stay and keep her company. Pia refused, stating she was going to exercise and take a shower. The queen almost appeared disappointed.

The workout had done little to expend her frustrations. The cool shower did nothing to ease the tension in her body. Late in the afternoon word came around that Zoran and the men were back, carting one very alive Princess Olena. It was the first time anyone had told her Yusef’s wife’s name, because apparently they’d only recently discovered it.

Pia smiled, remembering the redhead who had sat next to her at the Breeding Festival. She liked Olena and was glad she was unharmed. Besides, any woman who could aggravate a husband by not telling him her name was all right by her. Right now, anyone who could aggravate their husband, period, was all right by her.

Z
oran didn’t go
home until late that evening. After taking Olena to her unconscious husband, he had visited with the doctors. To his relief, Yusef’s condition seemed to have turned around. His brother still hadn’t opened his eyes, but his coloring was better. They didn’t know what caused the change, but Zoran wasn’t about to question the good fortune.

Looking at his front door slide over his head, he thought,
I need all the good fortune I can get.

Pia came into the room from the kitchen at the sound of the door. Her eyes hardened as she saw his blood-soaked clothes.

“So much for mutual honesty,” Pia ground out.

“Thanks, wife,” Zoran said bitterly. “It’s good to be home. Your sweet concern for my life and my health overwhelm.”

“Oh,” Pia sighed in mock gratitude, “and thanks so much for telling me about going off to fetch Olena from the Var. I’m so glad we had that talk last night about honesty and answering questions. Your forthcoming nature has overwhelmed me. For a while there I thought I was the only one honoring the bargain.”

Zoran’s eyes darkened. He was in no mood for this.

Pia clearly didn’t care, as she stated sarcastically, “Oh, wait, that’s right. I was the only one being honest last night.”

“Honest?” Zoran snarled, barking the word at her like a wild animal. “You want honest, wife?”

Pia trembled as he stalked across the room to her. His bloodied hands gripped her light cotton shirt and he nearly lifted her off the ground in his irritation. Her angry, defiant face excited him.

“Then tell me honestly to my face that you don’t want me,” he said.

Pia’s chest heaved, drawing his eyes down.

“Tell me the truth. Tell me that you only offered yourself to me last night to pay off a debt. Tell me you truly didn’t want to marry me and you are only toying with me,” Zoran demanded. He wanted the torment to end. He wished she’d just reach in and grab out his heart. He wanted her to stomp it beneath her boot—anything to kill its painful beating.

“Oh, yeah?” Pia thundered back. “Then you admit that all I am to you is a bought and paid for whore that you are duty bound to sleep with for the sake of producing your sons.”

“Fine whore you are,” Zoran said. Taking her hand, he roughly pulled it to his erect shaft. “A whore will usually slake a man’s desires, not boil them to erupting and never follow through. If you are a whore, you’re a lousy one, wife.”

Pia snatched her hand away. “Don’t you blame your condition on me. I offered to be a wife to you last night. You rejected me, not the other way around. I can’t help it if you aren’t attracted to me. I turned off the lights. I tried to make it easy on you. Any suffering you have is now your own doing. I wash my hands of it.”

“Reject you?” Zoran fumed, coming closer. By all that was sacred, she was a beautiful temptress. “You were acting like a sacrifice. There’s no passion in you for me. Do you think I relish the idea of forcing you to my bed?”

“I know you don’t relish the idea of taking me to it!”

“By all the gods, woman,” Zoran roared in disbelief. “Are you truly so stupid?”

Pia backed up, hurt. Her injured hazel eyes stared silently at him.

Zoran stalked her, not letting her get away. “I have done nothing but try to get you into my bed since the first moment I met you.”

Pia gulped.

Zoran motioned to the couch. “Gods’ bones, to my everlasting shame, I even practically forced you into it.” He thought of her blood on him. When she was backed against a wall, he stopped before her. “It’s you who wants none of me.”

Pia trembled.

Softly, he reached a hand to her cheek and continued in an agonizing whisper, “You pushed me out of you, Pia, when I wouldn’t leave your silken depths. You ran from me screaming. Is that how you would have me take you? Would you have me ravish you? Take you unwillingly? Force you to my bed until you tremble in fear at the very thought of my presence?”

Pia did tremble, but it wasn’t with fear.

“Is that what you want from me?” Zoran insisted. “Because even now I could do it. My body is on fire all the time for you. You’re distracting me. All I think about is touching you. I can’t even work anymore without seeing your beautiful face taunting me.”

Pia’s mouth opened to protest.

“Argh, no!” he yelled, shaking his head. “Do not yell at me for calling you beautiful. I don’t know what happened to you to make you so damned unaware of your power over men, and may the gods help me, I don’t really care. All I know is that you are exquisite and I would have you.”

Pia’s mouth closed.

“I know I cannot conquer your unfeeling heart toward me, Pia,” he whispered, tormented by his obsession for her. “But, please, tell me how to win you. What do I have to do to make you want me as I want you?”

Pia hands hesitated, lifting to touch his chest. A ragged breath left her. “Zoran, please, I...I never meant to hurt you.”

“Then you don’t want me?”

“No,” she sighed. He tensed about to walk away. “Wait.”

He stopped, turning to bore his eyes into her, searching.

“Let me finish,” Pia said. “No, it’s not that I don’t want you. It’s...I never meant to act like a sacrifice. I never meant to torture you.”

His heart skipped with a thin trail of hope.

“Before I met you, no man but one even approached me,” she whispered. Tears came to her and she pushed past him, as if needing the distance. “Oh, I don’t want to tell you. I should’ve just stayed away from this whole mess. I never should’ve allowed you to marry me. You don’t deserve this.”

Zoran turned.

“Urgh,” Pia began, taking a steadying breath to keep from crying. “Fine. I don’t know where to begin.”

“Why did you come here?” Zoran didn’t move, listening carefully for her words. They were soft but she didn’t turn to him.

“I told you that I was an assassin and a spy. I had unique qualifications that, ah, allowed me to get into some very seedy places. It’s not like we targeted good people. We targeted slave traders, mass murderers, cannibals, torture artists—some of them so horrific it makes my head swim to remember what they were capable of.” She turned to him, her eyes pleading. “I know it may not matter to you, seeing how I’ve taken many lives, but I never killed an innocent person. It’s important you understand that.”

Zoran nodded and crossed his arms over his chest.

“My last assignment ended about two months before I arrived here. I was sent to Rayvik. It’s in the Ice Galaxy. My target ended up being a rival to the mayor of one of the biggest industrial cities. He’d hired us to wipe out the competition. But, when I saw what sort of man the mayor was, I retreated and didn’t finish my mission. I reported back and was waiting for my orders when...”

Pia’s eye narrowed.

“What?” Zoran urged.

“I got drunk. It was stupid. The mayor’s son thought it would be fun to drag me out into the alley and rape me. I killed him and ran away. The Rayvikian mayor owns a torture club and there’s a hefty price on my head to get me there alive. I contacted Galaxy Brides and here I am.” Pia’s voice was cold as she quickly finished the story. “He was the only other man to ever...try to...be...”

Pia waved her hand, dismissing the statement. Zoran already knew the man hadn’t been successful in completing his task.

“What unique qualifications did you have?” he asked quietly.

“Last night I didn’t tell you everything. After my father cut me, and the droid was hauling me away, there was an explosion. I was hit.” Pia turned to study his reaction. “I was burnt over sixty percent of my body. Since the Rayvikians were looking for a scarred woman, and the surgeries to correct it would be exceptionally expensive, I had no choice but to become a bride. It took the Galaxy Brides’ doctors two weeks of constant surgery just to smooth the scarring out.”

“So it was either me or terrible death,” he concluded.

“I’m sorry, Zoran,” Pia whispered. “I know it wasn’t what you wanted to hear, but now you know everything. I understand if you want to send me away.”

“Where would you go?”

“I don’t know. I have some contacts. I could feel around for a job. As long as the doctors didn’t take my picture, I’ll manage to disappear. Not too many people have seen this new face of mine, and even though the doctors said this is how I would have looked if I hadn’t been scarred, I don’t think anyone from my childhood would recognize me.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked, carefully studying her.

“No,” she whispered.

“What do you want?” Zoran asked, taking another step forward.

“I don’t know.”

Zoran easily sensed that she was lying.

“Take off your clothes,” he ordered her.

Pia blinked, meeting his bold gaze. When she didn’t act, he went to her.

“Take them off,” Zoran stated more firmly.

“Why—?”

“Do not question me,” he broke in. “Just do it.”

Pia stiffened but obeyed. Slowly lifting her cotton shirt over her shoulders, she then pushed off her pants. She kicked them aside.

“Don’t move,” he demanded in a whisper. “I want to examine you.”

Pia stood tall. Zoran didn’t touch her as he inspected her with the exactness of a commander to his very lovely female soldier. He took steps around her, his eyes devouring every curve. When Pia tried to turn and see what he was doing behind her, he snapped, “Eyes straight.”

Pia’s breathing deepened. Zoran took a hand to her backside, cupping it in his palm. She tensed.

“Very nice,” he murmured in a low, possessive tone. Giving the fleshy mound a squeeze, he said, “Firm.”

Pia jumped, trying to move. Suddenly, teeth were on her neck, biting lightly. Zoran let his fangs grow slightly to press in warning on her soft skin.

“I ordered you not to move,” he whispered. “If you give me reason to, I can rip your throat from your neck.”

Pia held still. Leisurely, his lips took the place of his teeth, and kissed her before pulling away.

“What are you—?” Pia tried to ask, her voice weak.

“Silence,” Zoran demanded. He’d heard enough of her words. It was his turn. If it killed him, he was going to make her realize that she desired him as badly as he did her—even if that meant ordering her about to do it.