Dragons Among Them (Kingdoms of Fire and Ice) (13 page)

“Well, there you go.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“There’s a saying where I come from: behind every strong man is a stronger woman,” she said. “If Edana is as wonderful a country as you say it is, she’s probably had a lot to do with it.”

Zayne threw her a curious glance. “If you truly are the simple peasant girl you claim to be, Adelaide, then you are wise beyond your years.”

She shrugged. Wise wasn’t something she’d been called before. Loner, outcast, silent type—those were names she was more accustomed to hearing. Then he asked the question she’d worked so hard to avoid on the long ride yesterday.

“Tell me about your parents. Surely they helped shape your wisdom. What are they like?”

“My parents?”

Damn, she’d come so close to not having to speak about them. Addie should have known the question would eventually come up, especially since she’d been drilling him with questions right and left. But his answers were fascinating, far more so than her own, and his voice highly addictive. She’d wanted him to keep talking, not the other way around. “Oh. Well, I—”

Zayne stopped up ahead at the crest of a small hill and stretched an arm across her path. “Stop.”

Addie drew next to him and breathed a sigh of relief. Her home life was one of her least favorite topics and talking about it might cause a royal like Zayne to think less of her. The scene before them now easily supplanted the memories of her less than perfect childhood: a beautiful valley cloaked with sprawling fields of lush green grass and edged with forest for as far she could see. A simple stone cottage stood maybe two hundred yards away from them, an island amid the sea of green. Its thatched roof was thick and crisp, and its windows swung open to receive the cool morning air. Chickens roamed the yard, their soft clucking barely audible from this distance. Above them hung a long clothes line, heavy with laundry gently billowing in the slight breeze.

Zayne crouched low beside her. “Wait here.”

He started forward, but Addie caught his arm. “W-what are you doing?”

“The clothes. You need to cover up, and I need a disguise.”

Heat rose to her cheeks. “I wouldn’t have to cover up if you hadn’t shredded my dress,
sire
.”

A look of amusement flitted across his face. “Both our attires would draw attention should our paths intersect that of another. We need to blend in if we are to remain unnoticed, my lady.”

“So, what? You’re going to run down there and steal those poor people’s clothes?”

Zayne cocked a brow. “’Tis not stealing if I already own them.”

“You do not already own them!” she hissed.

“My father rules over these lands. As such, he is entitled to take from his kingdom as he sees fit.”

“And since you’re his son, that makes you entitled to do the same.” Her voice came out flat.

“Exactly.”

“It’s not fair.”

“
Fair
does not ensure our safety. Those clothes will.” He started forward again.

“I’ll scream.”

He stopped and spun to face her. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me. If you try to sneak up and take their clothes, I’ll scream before you get there.”

Zayne ran a hand through his long mane and turned back to her. “What is it you wish me to do, then? Knock on the door and ask to borrow a disguise?”

“Of course not. Look, I know it’s important for us to lay low, but you should repay them somehow. Trust me, it sucks when what little you have is stolen from you.”

The prince studied her for a long moment, his gaze growing narrower. Clearly, his patience was wearing thin. But instead of backing down, she lifted her chin and folded both arms across her chest. No way was she going to stand by and let him play the role of royal bully.

“Fine.” He pulled a coin from a satchel at his waist. “This would be enough to buy thrice as many clothes at the market. Will that be enough to ensure your silence?”

“Ah, a most noble gesture, Your Highness,” she said with a nod. “Though, if they aren’t my size—”

“Oh, I’ll make them fit,” he growled, then ducked and began to snake his way through the tall grass toward the clothesline.

With a snort, Addie settled onto the ground and watched Zayne move with the stealth of a lion stalking his prize. As he drew near the clearing that served as the cottage’s small yard, his progress slowed. Now, each step was calculated, cautious. Was this what it was like to watch him hunt? To stalk his prey in dragon form?

A shiver ripped through her at the thought, and her longing to get back to Indiana resurfaced. She didn’t belong in Edana, or Forath, or any other dragon-infested lands. It was dangerous here,
dragons
were dangerous. The calculated look in his eyes only moments ago reminded her of that. And yet the farther he moved away from her, the more space that came between them, the harder it was for her to breathe.

Oh no. No, it couldn’t be. Had she really gone and fallen for the one man she couldn’t have? Addie tipped her head and scowled at the clouds. If this was some sort of cruel, cosmic joke, she sure as hell wasn’t laughing.

* * * * *

Impending war. His disapproving father. A fiancée with a heart made of ice. Korey’s death. Worry after worry swirled through Zayne’s head as he returned from his clothing quest. How he’d found the strength to shut them out last night was a mystery.

Ah, but that wasn’t true. Addie had been his strength, his distraction from reality. Whether from her close proximity or from her never ending stream of questions, it seemed that wherever she was, the rest of the world and the worries that accompanied it faded to nothing.

But alas the sun had risen, and he’d held fast to his promise to help her get home. After yesterday’s ambush, he knew better than to try to cross through Forath’s gate again. What he didn’t know was why they’d been attacked. Only one in the kingdom was sure to have the answer—Berinon, Edana’s high wizard—and it was his wisdom Zayne sought today.

The journey to Berinon’s woodland cottage on foot would be slow and tedious, but without a proper steed, there was no other way. Addie, he knew, would do her best to keep up. After spending but a day and a half with the lass, he knew she wouldn’t shy from the challenge. What he hadn’t anticipated was how difficult it would be not to touch her along the way.

When they set off at dawn, he kept his distance as he led her through the forest surrounding his lair. More than once he caught himself intentionally slowing so she could draw closer. But each time as her wildflower-and-sunshine scent washed over his senses, Zayne forced himself to move ahead. So long as she was within a few paces of him, the arrangement was tolerable. Uncomfortable but tolerable. But when he left her to acquire their disguises, his anxiety grew with every passing moment until he returned to her side.

How was it that someone so small in stature could affect him so? Strengthening his confidence with but a few soft words? Chasing worry from his mind with a single smile? Magic or otherwise, the power Addie held over him was inexplicable yet undeniable. So how in bloody hell would he be able to keep his promise and return her home? The thought of her leaving, of him never again seeing her crystalline eyes, pained him like a sword to his heart.

“It’s not fair, you know,” she grumbled as he handed her the confiscated peasant’s dress. “You get to wear pants, while I’ll have to navigate through the woods in
this
.”

Zayne started forward, wanting to get them deeper in the woods before anyone saw them—they’d already stayed too long in one place for his liking. He moved slowly, though, drawing strength from Addie’s proximity. “Had you expected me to offer to wear the dress?”

“No.” A coy look came upon her beautiful face. “But if you’re offering…”

He chuckled. “I am not.”

They continued on for several moments, following a narrow stream he knew would soon lead them to the wizard’s cottage, before stopping to change into their disguises. When he was certain they were alone, he stripped off his silken shirt, tossed it aside, and reached for the one he’d taken from the valley home. Its fabric was stiff and scratchy against his skin, and though it had been recently washed, the scent of body odor still mingled against the floral smell of the peasant’s lye soap.

Zayne held his breath, tugged the tunic over his head, then chanced a look at Addie. As he hoped to find, her gaze was fixed upon him. Her mouth snapped shut at the realization she’d been caught staring. With a scowl, she turned away and wove her arms into the stranger’s dress.

“There were two pairs of pants hanging on the line, you know. My wearing this will just slow us down.”

Her mention of clothes slowing them down brought back memories of last night and what he’d done to yesterday’s gown. His resolve to keep a safe distance between them began to waver as he considered bringing the same fate to this new dress. Though, if he didn’t learn some restraint, he’d owe money to half the countryside by nightfall.

He stepped forward to catch the dress before it came down over her head. “Ah, but there was but one shirt. And unless you planned on sharing mine…”

“Um, no. But I could have worn it, and you could have traveled without one. You know, like you were overheated or something.” She lowered her arms, the dress still bunched at her wrists. “Don’t workers ever take their shirts off in your kingdom?”

“Indeed, they often do. But I feared that option might have delayed our passage.”

“And why’s that?” she asked.

Zayne removed his scratchy shirt and tossed it aside. “Because the sight would surely have been a distraction.”

“That’s a bit vain, Your Highness, even for you.”

“Perhaps.” He stepped forward to close the distance between them and took the dress from her hands. “Shall we test my theory?”

Addie’s eyes widened. “W-what are you doing?”

“Merely proving a point, my lady.”

She backed away, but for each step she took, he pursued her farther. Soon her back was against a tree, and she had no place left to go. Zayne brought his hands to either side of her shoulders, boxing her in.

The pitch of her voice rose. “And that point would be what, exactly?”

“That if we had followed your plan, never would you have been able to resist me.” In one swift motion, he lifted both her wrists overhead and pinned them against the tree.

“It’s hardly fair to say I’d be unable to resist you,” she said, her eyes dark, “when you have me restrained.”

“Have my actions displeased you, my lady?” He grazed her earlobe with his lips. “I heard no complaints when I did this last night.”

“That was then. This is now.” Her breaths came faster as she struggled against his grip. “I thought we had a deal.”

“We do.” He nuzzled the hollow beneath her ear and drank in her scent. “One I intend to keep.”

Oh, how easy it was to forget all else when he was so close to her, to leave logic behind and let the beast in him take control. Addie began a retort, but Zayne silenced her with a kiss intended to leave little doubt in her mind as to his intentions. Instead of turning her face away, she opened her mouth to him. Their tongues began an intimate dance, its tempo rising as the kiss deepened, intensified.

He freed one hand to explore her glorious body. His fingers traced their way along her cheek, her neck, over the top edge of her tight black top. He broke the kiss to allow his mouth to follow the same path, and nipped through the fabric stretched taut over her peaks, rising and falling with each of her ragged breaths. She issued a small mew, and the prince slipped a hand under the hem of her shirt. He needed to see her again, to taste her.

“Zayne,” she whispered, an urgency in her voice.

Oh, how he despised this fabric. It seemed intent on clinging to every one of her blessed curves. “Patience, my lady.”

“Zayne, stop.”

At that he froze. Surprise and disappointment warred in him until he heard what had alarmed her as well—the sound of approaching hoofbeats. He stepped back to draw in a breath and clear his senses of her heady scent. They were too close to the lone road running through this portion of the forest and would surely be seen if they didn’t move and do so quickly. With a curse, he snatched their disguises from the ground and grabbed her by the hand.

“Come.” He led her toward a dense cluster of overgrown bramble.

She complied in silence, and when he knelt on the ground behind the vegetation, she did the same. They were safe from view, but as the sounds grew closer, Addie began to shake like a leaf. He drew her close and wrapped an arm around her trembling body.

“You trust me, do you not?” he breathed.

She buried her head against his chest and nodded.

“Then fear not, my Adelaide, for never would I allow any harm to come to you.”

Zayne pressed a kiss to the top of her head then shifted his attention to the approaching riders. There were several of them, all traveling at a fast pace. A relief, as these men were in too much of a hurry to be searching for anyone.

As the caravan came into view, he spied five horses total. Two leading, one in the center, and two bringing up the rear—a security pattern, intended to protect the middle rider. But who of import would be this far from the castle so early in the day?