Page 19 of Lady Dragon
KIREK
For a moment, Kirek thought Samansa would refuse to take her hand—was the princesssoafraid of blood?— but then the downed girl let loose a little breath and gingerly slid her fingers across Kirek’s red-stained palm. Kirek felt something streak through her at the featherlight touch, and it wasn’t disgust over the other girl’s cringing nature. It was more like the crackle in the air before a lightning storm, except the charge went right through her scales—skin.
Just like when the princess had kissed her.
Abruptly, Kirek hauled the princess to her feet, making Samansa gasp at the suddenness and fetch up against her chest. She steadied herself with a hand that couldn’t quite reach Kirek’s shoulder and instead settled near her breast. When Samansa saw where it had landed, she snatched both her hands away as if burned.
“Oh! I didn’t mean to touch you there,” she said, her eyes wide with nearly more horror than had filled them at the sight of the assassin’s demise.
Kirek gave her a quizzical frown. “Are chests places you shouldn’t touch?” She could think ofoneplace on her chest she didn’t want touched, but she was unique in that, and Samansadidn’t know much, if anything, about the Heartstone, nor had her hand been particularly close to it.
“Well, women’s chests in particular.” Samansa grimaced down at her own chest, which was peeking over the top of her dressing gown—more with each inhaled breath.
“Because women have these?” Kirek pointed right at the princess’s soft mounds of flesh. “Breasts?”
Samansa’s face flared bright red, which was answer enough.
Kirek nearly laughed. “I barely possess the same—I’ve seen men with larger than I have. Besides, aren’t I about to see you naked, and you me, in the bathhouse?”
Blood only rushed more freely to the princess’s face as she stammered something mostly incoherent about that being different.
“In any case, I’m a dragon, and not bound by the same restrictions.” Kirek scoffed. “At least your overwrought embarrassment about anything to do with human bodies has made you forget this one.” She flicked a red finger at the armless corpse behind her, and then regretted giving the reminder when Samansa’s face went from flushed to ashen in a heartbeat.
Instinctively, Kirek’s hand shot out to steady her, even at the risk of receiving another strange shock, in case the princess was about to fall over again.
“Don’t look at it,” Kirek commanded, and then, because she could think of nothing better to say, “look at me.”
Amber eyes met hers, and now there was that shock again, as if there was a current between them. So it didn’t only have to do with touch;eyecontact lead to the odd sensation as well. Strange, these bodies. But Kirek didn’t break her gaze or pull her hand away until Samansa’s breathing steadied and somecolor returned to her complexion. Surprisingly, the princess’s plump pink lips even turned up at the corners.
She said with a hint of her previous levity, “It doesn’t entirely help that you have blood splattered all over your face.”
The girl always managed to surprise Kirek, if only because her reactions made no sense.
“As do you.” Kirek raised a brow. “Your amusement is better than your screaming, I’ll grant you that.”
The princess swallowed, drawing Kirek’s eyes to the delicate flesh of her throat. “I’m about to start screaming again, if we stay here much longer.”
Kirek’s hand dropped from her shoulder to her arm, taking her by the elbow and steering her away from the carnage, toward the baths. “Let’s go, then.”
Miraculously, the bloody scene outside caused the baths to empty of all but the two of them, even Dara, after they summoned the guards. Instructing the princess’s terrified lady’s maid, who couldn’t seem to decide if she was more afraid of potential assassins or thelady dragon, Kirek sent a message to Jamsens about what had happened, since the princess wasn’t quite able to put it into words. Samansa did, however, assure Dara and everyone else that she was fine, that she was more than protected with Kirek—which made a strange warmth seep throughout Kirek’s chest as if she were already in the baths—and that she was going to get cleaned up. After that, they were alone. Kirek’s sharp ears picked up Jamsens’s deeper tones outside, insisting he should enter to verify the princess’s safety, but the female guards stationed at the door refused himentrance and told him to leave the premises. Kirek couldn’t help smirking.
Samansa had even commanded the female guards to remain outside—likely for Kirek’s benefit. Kirek had admitted she liked bathing alone, after all. It was thoughtful, but also odd that they obeyed the order, just as Jamsens did.
Humans and their silly rules that kept them from doing their duty. How inefficient, how dangerous, to leave the princess alone in here with a dragon, female though she was.
Except… it was also true that the princess was safer with her than with anyone else. At least, for now. And for a brief flash, Kirek hoped it could stay that way.
What was shethinking?
Glancing at the princess, Kirek understood that this girl could be her ally… or her prey. Soft flesh, ripe for the plucking. Her claws would so easily rend that silken skin.
Kirek flinched, casting the thought from her mind. She didn’t need to consider that. Not yet.
She realized a moment later that she had been standing frozen, her eyes fixed on the princess’s neck, and she suspected the flush coming over Samansa’s face had less to do with the heat of the baths and more with her awkwardness at being perceived. Least of all the potential danger of Kirek’s regard.
Again, human rules made no sense.
Without further ado, Kirek stripped off her bloody leathers, bundling the princess’s red-stained mark of favor carefully within and tossing them aside for later cleaning. She heard a soft gasp from Samansa, but Kirek refused to turn and catch her expression. She didn’t want to see whatever she might find in the princess’s face, whether gross fascination for the dragon’sdebased form or, perhaps worse—admiration. The princesshadonce called her handsome, and while Kirek had found it insulting then, she didn’t like the confusing sensations that the thought stirred in her strange flesh now. So she ignored it and Samansa both as she slipped into the steaming water.
