Page 3 of Dragon Valley
“You act like I starve you,” I muttered as I unfolded my net and proceeded to sweep it across the water. “A little help would be nice!” I yelled to Azel.
“And what fun is there in being nice?” he laughed, lifting his head from the ground. His stomach muscles flexed with the movement, creating shapely ridges I tried not to stare at.
“My dragon not toasting your ass!” I threatened.
He lazily rolled up to standing, smiling all the while just to piss me off. We secured the net around the fish and hauled our catch to the bank without incident. That was, until he playfully shoved me back into the stream. I lost my footing on the slippery rocks and fell in up to my shoulders.
“Azel!” I screamed, gasping. “You ass! It’s still so hot.”
“Relax, it’s cooled down enough,” he said, sinking in beside me. “Just like the hot springs up at Dragon Peak.”
He reached under my leather tunic and tickled my sides, then wrapped an arm around my waist when I tried to squirm away.
“Stop, let me go!” I scream-laughed at his torture but he was merciless.
I twisted around, looking for Dusa who decided to bother Ryo much in the same way Azel was messing with me. She flicked one of his dangling claws with her tail and quickly backed away to jab again at his exposed belly.
Traitor.
I went limp in Azel’s arms, hoping that would stop his tickle attack.
“Why do you do this to me?” I whined dramatically, rolling my head back to rest on his shoulder. It felt nice and sturdy cradling the back of my skull like that. If I had to be honest, the whole experience of leaning back on him with his arm around me felt good. Really good.
“I could ask you the same thing, Nadi.” His voice tickled my ear, and those words made my heart stop.
His hands stopped tickling me but they still wrapped around my waist under the hot water. I lifted my head off his shoulder and turned slowly in his arms to face him.
“What do you mean?” I asked, although unsure if I wanted to know the answer.
“Nadi,” he repeated, lowering his warm brown eyes to my lips. My childhood nickname no longer felt playful or teasing coming from that mouth. It was a man’s mouth with full, sensual lips and surrounded by a light dusting of hair that promised to grow into a full, dense beard in a few years.
And that mouth spoke my name intimately, with a man’s desire.
“Nadi, you’re beautiful, you know that?”
“What?” My lips trembled. Whowasthis man? For years he called me Nadi the Lion Girl because of my big mane of tawny hair. Coupled with my pale skin and green eyes, I stood out like a sore thumb among my people. Other girls said my ancestors went to bed with outsiders and that was why the women in my family looked pale and fair like them.
In Dragon Valley society, any perceived association with outsiders was considered a huge insult. We stayed with our people because outsiders did not understand us. I knew from a young age I was different and not because other girls had tanned, flawless skin that never burned and hair that fell like black waterfalls.
The first time I came face to face with a dragon, I no longer felt like an outsider myself. I knew what I was meant to do. I wouldn’t be like other girls and become some man’s third or fourth wife. I’d climb on that creature’s back and see the world if it killed me.
“You’re beautiful, Nadi,” Azel repeated, cupping my chin in his hand. “I mean that.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
I simultaneously hated and loved the feelings blooming in my chest. I wanted to lean into his touch but also pull away and forget that everything was changing between us. The innocence of our relationship was dead. Whatever this new feeling was, it both thrilled me and scared me all at once.
“Because it’s true.”
He tilted my chin up but I couldn’t face him, it was too intense. My heart was going to beat its way out of my chest at any moment.
“What do you want from me?” I stared straight at the hollow of his throat between his collarbones, wishing I didn’t feel the urge to kiss him there.
“Right now?” His hand fell away from my face. “I want to know what you’re thinking. What you’re feeling.”
“I’m confused,” I admitted. “You’ve never talked to me or touched me like this. We were best friends, nothing more. And now that’s changing. It’s weird to me.”
“It’s called growing up, Nadi,” he said gently. “We’re at the age where we take on the most responsibilities. We care for our elders and start having families of our own.”
