The Princess' Dragon Lord Read online

  Chapter Two

  Diana awoke to the lingering, warm tingle that came from being kissed. A lot. Her lips and tongue were being caressed, the smooth glide of another tongue inside of her mouth, lovingly licking her deep, made her arch forward for more. Her breasts were being squeezed, her body caressed. The scent of arousal was in the air, thick and musky, which drove her body wild. Hotter and hotter until she could hardly stand it.

  Her heart pounded like it was in a race, and her legs and arms, her whole body, trembled from the warm release of pleasure that usually came after making love. It rushed through her and bloomed in a release that made her shudder and moan.

  She sank back into her pillows and sighed, catching her breath with a smile on her swollen lips. That had been the most intense sex dream she'd ever had. That had been the most intense orgasm she'd ever had. Too bad she didn't get a lot of either.

  Diana released another breathy, satisfied, exhale, and then opened her eyes to look around. Her buzz left her as she took in her surroundings, and the fact that she was on a bed that wasn't hers. It didn't look like something the park had for first-aid either.

  She sat up again, ignoring the twitch in her still sensitive sex as her survival instincts kicked in. Uh, where was she?

  There was a roughly carved red stone wall all around her. There was no light bulb or fire anywhere that she could see, but the cave that she was in, if it could be called a cave, was as bright and dry and warm as her own living room. Minus all the rock, of course. The domed ceiling stretched high above her. Like, several stories high above her, and it didn't seem to be connected with any of the four stone walls around her.

  She'd been in the park, last she could remember. Hadn't the trees just been chasing her? It seemed like a stupid thing to be pondering, but that's what they'd been doing.

  She reached behind her head where she remembered bashing it in under the water. There was no bandages covering her hair, only a slight bump. No bigger than a mosquito bite. After falling fifty feet into water and rocks, that shouldn't have been possible. It wasn't possible.

  "You have risen."

  Diana spun, her eyes wide and heart surging into her throat so fast her head rushed from the adrenaline.

  A man, in incredibly large, handsome man, stood between the uneven rock that acted as her doorway. The long curtain that was her door pushed to the side by his outstretched hand, connected to a well muscled arm, as he leaned against the stone frame. He was half naked, wearing only a pair of boots and brown leather pants that were tight on his thick, muscular thighs. That left practically nothing to her imagination as far as how his body looked.

  Wide shoulders tapered down to slim hips. He had abs so deep she thought she could climb them like a ladder, and a chest so large it reminded her of a cover model on the old romance novels in the library. His muscles shined bright with a thin layer of sweat, as though he'd just come in from a jog. Long, red-brown hair that nearly matched the stone fell to his bare shoulders in crooked waves.

  He. Was. Huge.

  His eyes, those big eyes that were the same color as his hair, were half lidded with lust. That musky smell she'd inhaled during her dream was back, and it was making her own body react to him. Her sex swelled and her nipples tightened. A wolfish smile pulled on his full lips. They were puffed out and ever so slightly reddened in the way that happened when someone used their teeth to bite down on them. They looked like he'd been kissed, recently.

  "Finally, I have been kept waiting for you, princess. It was difficult with the noise you made."

  He spoke with an accent she couldn't place. So strange, but it was so familiar. She must've heard it in a movie sometime before, but she was hardly worried about that right now. Diana's dream came back to her as harshly as a slap to her face.

  Her dream, the sexy dream with a sexy someone, had not only been a dream, but a recollection of something she'd done. With him. And she was still in the man's bed.

  Diana went in a flying leap to the other side of the stiff mattress, keeping it between herself and her kidnapper. "Where am I? Who are you?"

  The cocky grin slipped away, and the man's eyes widened. "I—what is the meaning of this?”

  He stepped forward.

  “Stay back!”

  The incredulous look in his eyes was still in place. “Diana, do you not know me?"

  "No, I don't. Don't come any closer!" she yelled when he tried stepping forward again.

  Thankfully he stopped in his tracks, but he was still looking at her with that expression that was quickly turning into kicked puppy sad. "What sort of spell is this? You know me. I am your husband. Lord Azoth Dracamire of the dragon clans."

  That did it. She pointed her finger at him. "You are out of your fucking mind is what you are. I said don't come any closer!" she snapped as he took another cautious step towards her.

  "Diana, miva sakkra, please,"

  He started talking some more in that language she didn't understand, but sounded so familiar, almost as familiar as his accent. It was giving her a headache, of the pounding variety, until all she could hear was the pulsing inside her head. Colors began dancing in front of her eyes.

  "Shut up!" She put her hands to her ears, not for the noise, but to drive off the pain in her skull. It barely did anything.

  Her husband? The dragon clan thing, and calling her a princess, she could overlook as some kind of weirdo nerdy cosplay thing, even though this guy didn't look the cosplay type, but her husband? He was a fricken' lunatic.

  "Forgive me,"

  His hand touched her shoulder. She jerked away and again flew across the bed in a blind panic. She hadn't even noticed his approach. Her clothes were all in place save for her jacket and knit cap, but her feet were bare. Where were her hiking boots and socks?

  He looked ready to cry at her reaction, and that panicked her all the more. She was rejecting her crazed stalker, and it could be a matter of seconds before that sadness turned into rage and he decided to chop her up.

  Diana recalled losing her bag and the radio while being chased. The bag filled with her supplies was an annoyance to lose, but all were replaceable. The radio that the park rangers had given her, the only chance she had to call for help and let people know she was missing, could not so easily be overlooked.

  She ran for the door.

  "Wait!" He called.

  Yeah right. She threw aside the heavy cloth that was the door and kept right on going, pushing her legs to go faster as she heard his footsteps following behind her. "Princess! It's dangerous! Come back!"

  She didn't stop. No goddamn way, thank you very much. She ran through the narrow halls made up of more of that red rock. It was like running through a maze, but there had to be a way out, everything looked so open above her with no actual ceiling over the walls. There was, however, more of that red rock, way high up. There was something beyond this.

  "Princess!"

  "Get away from me!"

  He was catching up to her. She could practically feel his panting breath on the back of her neck. He was going to catch her! Then, yes! There it was! An opening that led to a larger, brighter space outside these small walls. She could see it! She was almost there!

  The man behind her screamed. "Diana!"

  She just made it to the doorway when a giant, hard something fell into her path. She couldn't stop. She hadn't even time to scream before impact. She just ran right into it, the force of her weight knocking her back so that she fell on her ass. It was like another stone wall had slid down in the way, stopping her like she'd activated some sort of trap in an Indiana Jones movie. She looked up at the…scales?

  A wall of giant, glittery red scales blocked her path.

  But walls didn't move like this one did. The scales shifted, revealing a large, golden yellow eye, the size of a basketball, with a single, sharp black slit acting as the pupil. It was looking right at her, and she could see her own reflection, staring in horror back at her in that eye.

&nb
sp; She couldn't move. The sight shocked her into immobility and the only sounds that left her throat were airy squeaks.

  A snake. A giant snake. She hated snakes and lizards and anything with forked tongues.

  Then the creature shifted further and stood up. Its entire scaled body came into view over the thick stone walls. A giant reptilian hand with black claws gripped the top of the stone just beside the doorway, cracking it and causing several tiny pebbles to burst free.

  It was the biggest lizard she'd ever seen in her life. It had wings.

  It was…a dragon.

  It spread its wings, massive things that were the size of the creature itself, and from its narrow mouth a long, red, forked tongue slipped out and wiggled at her before being sucked back inside.

  She shook on the spot, unable to move with fear. It just had to have that tongue.

  Maybe it was like the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. If she didn't move, it wouldn't see her.

  Nope. It bent down its huge neck over the stone walls, and tilted its massive head sideways to better look at her, kind of like how some birds did when staring at their prey. Diana saw her reflection in its giant eye once more. It blinked at her.

  She looked behind herself to see Azoth standing there. His fists were clenched and a snarl marred his handsome features until he was almost ugly with the anger on his face.

  Azoth's anger wasn't directed at her, thankfully, but at the dragon. He was going to save her. She was so glad to see him.

  He marched in front of her, keeping his eyes on the dragon, which backed off as the man stalked forward and punched it in the snout.

  The creature released a pathetic cry at the strike, but it didn't open its mouth to gobble up the man in one swallow like any other monster would have.

  "Beast! You'll not come any closer!"

  The dragon's wings fluttered shut, pressing closely against its scaled back and stomach in a movement that reminded Diana of a dog tucking its tail between its legs. It slipped back over the stone wall and sulked off, away to wherever it was the creature spent its time in this place. She could feel the vibrations of its clawed footsteps against the red stone as it moved farther and farther away.

  Even as it walked away, it still glanced over its massive shoulder. At her.

  What was it staring at her like that for? She wasn't the one who'd punched it in the nose.

  Only after it had gone a certain distance did Azoth turn to look at her. There was sympathy in his eyes. He lowered himself to his haunches in front of her. It did little to minimize his sheer size, but at least now she could see his face without craning her neck up at him. He did not touch her, though his hands continually moved forward and pulled back, as if he was struggling with the urge to just grab her and hold on tight. "Are you well, love? He didn't frighten you, did he? I'll not allow him to touch you."

  Diana lifted her finger—she couldn't seem to stop it from shaking—to point in the spot where the dragon had once stood. "That—that was—"

  Azoth took her hand and held it close to his heart. "I swear to you, he will never harm you again." His other hand went out to her face, his thumb tracing the long scar that ran diagonally down between her eyes.

  She snatched her hand back and scrambled up and away, suddenly remembering who this man was and what he'd done to her as the fear of the giant lizard simmered down. "Get away from me!"

  Azoth stayed down as she got up, more of that sad expression on his face.

  "Why did you bring me here? Take me back, right now."

  He stood slowly. "Princess—"

  "Stop calling me that!"

  If Diana, in any universe, had ever been a princess, she would've have known it. Princess Diana! Yeah right. It was too ridiculous. There was only one Princess Diana in the real world and it certainly wasn't her.

  "I call you that because it is your name, Sweet. You are my wife, princess of the fae and dragons. Why can you not remember me?"

  "I am a grade school art teacher, and you are a World of Warcraft rapist freak."

  He recoiled as though she'd slapped him and kicked him in the balls. "I—I am not," then he took on that angry expression she'd been so fearful of seeing. Shit! She shouldn't have said that.

  "Diana! I have never forced myself onto any woman, ever! Do not make such accusations!"

  "What do you call what you did to me then?"

  He flew up faster than her eyes could see, his large hands on her small shoulders, pushing her back against the stone walls with an angry shove that knocked the wind right out of her.

  His eyes were stone cold on her. "You appeared her from nowhere, soaking wet, wearing these ridiculous garments," he said, his nose curling down at what she currently wore. "You knew me on sight, called me by my name. You. Know. Me."

  She shook her head. If she accused him of lying, or being delusional, would he go off the deep end and snuff out her life right here and now? She didn't dare speak.

  He pushed himself away from her. "I can see that whatever spell has taken hold of you is strong. I know not what miracle brought you back from the dead—"

  "Dead?"

  He ignored her. "But I am grateful for it. Even if you do hurl insults at your husband, whom you claimed to love so much. Perhaps that is my fault, however."

  "No, wait. What was that part about being dead?" She shrank against the wall, trying to inch away from him.

  He noticed, there was no doubt in her mind about that, not with the way his eyes scrutinized her as she moved, but he didn't say anything about it.

  "I believe what I am about to say will only frighten you further, but perhaps you are owed the truth. It may even help restore your memory. Mayhap that is the cause for such a lapse. Reincarnated souls rarely recall anything from their previous lives."

  "Will you get to the point!" she yelled.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. "On our wedding night, more than a millennia ago, I lost control and transformed into the beast you just saw, my dragon half. I am ashamed to admit that I attacked and killed you that day, along with most everyone in your family."

  Chapter Three

  "Can you say that again?"

  Azoth clenched his hands into large, boulder sized fists. "I—very well may be the one responsible for your lack of memories. I know not everything that happened as I was overcome by some other force, but the day we wed, we drank from our wine goblets, sealing the pact we made to each other, and..."

  His jaw clenched and he shook his head.

  "And what?" Diana demanded, allowing her voice to become hard. In no way did she believe what he was saying, but she needed to hear the fantasy that he was making up for them. It's the only way to determine whether or not he really is dangerous, she told herself.

  He looked at her, his red-brown eyes soft and pleading. "I have no memories of what occurred after. I awoke to discover that I had transformed into my dragon counterpart, and that I had gone on a rampage that nearly destroyed all of the fae nobility, including my bride."

  He touched the space between her eyes again. Dazed, she allowed it. “Likely, that is the cause for your scar.”

  She swallowed hard. He kept on saying dragon half and counterpart. “You're saying you and that...thing out there,” she didn't want to say the word dragon. “are one in the same?”

  He nodded. “I had never known before that losing control could be possible. Whenever I transformed, the dragon was always a part of myself, never separate in mind or spirit. Then I transformed and he—we—” he didn't finish, but his eyes went back to her scar.

  Everything went kind of hazy on Diana at that point. She tried to tell him that he was mistaken, that she'd gotten the scar when she was a little girl and fell off her bike, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded or not. The floor suddenly rushed up to meet her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  Azoth’s hands took hold of her, slowing her descent, and he gently shook her shoulders, as though trying to wake her, but she hadn’t fainted. “Dia
na! You are not well. I will return you to bed.”

  His words suddenly woke her up. She slapped his hands away. “No!”

  He recoiled. “I will not put my hands on you if that is your wish, but you must not be up and about. The shock…it is not good for you.”

  She didn’t like his assumption that he knew what was good for her. She didn't like that her body warmed and tingled in the most sensitive places she had whenever his hands were on her. She didn’t like him period. “Just stay away from me.” She was more than happy to sit on the floor, away from him, and away from that creature out there.

  That was one command he didn’t seem to want to respect. He knelt in front of her on one knee. He wasn’t close, but he wasn’t far enough away in Diana’s mind. “Princess, you must believe that I would never have reason to cause you harm. I…” He put his fist to his heart. It made a dull pounding sound on his chest, then he shook his head. “I have no suitable reason for the actions of my other half. After the attack it had been discovered that a servant planted a potion in my cup, but that is hardly excuse enough. I should have fought for you, I know this. Diana, please,”

  It was the way he said her name, the way his voice rumbled, that made her look at him. His rust colored eyes were begging her. He looked like his heart would shatter if she said the wrong thing, and stupidly, her own heart ached for him.

  She didn't even know him, but she felt sorry for him, and his pain.

  That giant lizard outside these stone walls, that dragon, that wasn’t a robot from a movie set, was real. That thing was too big to be fake, moved too naturally to be made out of mechanical pieces, and its eyes were too alive. It had a soul.

  Some of this was real, but, “You had sex with me. I never asked for that.”