Page 35 of Lady Dragon
The princess grinned before she even turned to see the cat jump up onto a chair. “Oh, him? That’s Thoman. He wanted to meet you. I very much think you’ll get along.”
“I’d sooner get along with a fish,” Kirek said, her daggerlike gaze tracing the cat as he leaped back down and sauntered toward her.
“What a happy coincidence! He also loves fish.” When Thoman twined himself around Kirek’s ankle, the princess stammered with more urgency and less teasing, “But—but please don’t hurt him! He’s been with my family for years.”
Kirek tried to glare at her while shaking off the cat—gently—but Samansa could tell her heart wasn’t in it. “I won’t hurt him, though he shouldn’t test me.”
Samansa felt herself frowning. “How are you? Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing is wrong,” Kirek said, but she still soundedoff. “You’re sure you weren’t followed?”
“Only byhim.”
Thoman began purring loudly and rubbing his cheek on Kirek’s leather-bound calf. The dragon girl managed to more successfully glare down at him, her eyes glinting dangerously. He, of course, didn’t get the message and carried on with singular intention. Samansa hoped Kirek wouldn’t hurl her cat out the window and claim, very dragon-like, that she thought he would land on his feet.
“I assumed because you wanted to meet like this, alone and in secret, there must be something… important?” Samansa hedged, even as her heart picked up speed. If there was nothing bad, then perhaps it was something… good?
“No, I…,” Kirek began distractedly, and then refocused on Thoman’s ardent efforts to make his face one with her leg.
Curse that cat, Samansa moaned to herself and then said, “Well, was there something…anything…you wished to discuss with me?”
“Yes—well, not entirely.”
This was so strangely imprecise for the dragon girl, so uncharacteristically off-balance. Samansa’s heart beat even faster.
“It seems like there’s something you want to do, or say,” the princess began slowly, moving incrementally toward Kirek, as if not to frighten her away, “and you just don’t know how to go about it.”
“Something like that,” Kirek muttered, but she was still mostly focused on Thoman, who seemed to be pinning her in place. Samansa could almost thank him now, since his attentions let her ease herself ever closer.
“Maybe we can figure it out together,” the princess said in a near whisper, once she’d almost closed the distance.
Kirek’s eyes widened as Samansa took the final step to stand right in front of her.
“I don’t think—” the dragon girl began.
“Just be quiet, Kirek, and letmebe the brave one for once,” Samansa hissed with more ferocity than she’d intended.
With even more ferocity, she seized the back of Kirek’s neck in both hands. Right before the princess closed the distance between thementirely, she saw the dragon girl’s hand twitch reflexively for one of her daggers. But then it froze.
Because, by that time, Samansa had dragged Kirek’s head down and pressed her lips to hers.
Kissing her.
At first, the dragon girl stood as still as a statue—but at least she wasn’tstabbingher, the princess thought wryly, before her logical thought processes dissolved in a fizzing burst of warmth like sunlight.
Because Kirek was kissing herback.
The dragon girl started tentatively, her normally hard-shaped mouth going soft against the princess’s lips. Her tongue tasted her slowly, as if to see if she liked the flavor.
And then the dragon girl’s arms wrapped hard around her, and then she was kissing the princess like a storm. Like they were once again fighting each other in the courtyard, neither of them giving ground, only getting closer and closer, gasping, hands moving frantically over each other…
Until Kirek suddenlystaggered, clutching at her chest and looking at Samansa with wild eyes. The dragon girl’s breath left her in a raggedwhooshas if she’d been punched in the gut.
No, she looked as if the very sky had fallen on her.
“Are—are you all right?” the princess stammered. She touched her tender lips. “I should have asked first. Did I do something wrong?”
“Yes. But it’s not you,” Kirek croaked, folding over and wincing as if she was in pain. “It’s me. I just—ohskieshelp me.”
