DPOV
I groaned as I sat down in my chair in my library. She had been here less than a day and was already affecting me so much. I can't believe I was aroused and hard just by touching her back and then again when she slipped into the water. Granted her body was perfect, but still, I normally had more control over myself.
Speaking of her back, I didn't understand what had happened. I had seen her wounds when she came in. The lashes were deep, and I was sure they would scar. But when I removed the leaves, there wasn't a single trace of them on her now flawless back. My sister was a gifted healer, but she wasn't that good. I was starting to wonder who this girl was.
I had been lurking around in the dark watching her bath. Yeah, this girl had me lurking. I nearly rolled my eyes, but there was something about her I couldn't quite place. She seemed so relaxed and peaceful when she was floating around in the warm water. But once she discovered the beam of sunlight I was mesmerized. She didn't just look beautiful; she looked angelic. She had her eyes closed as she was soaking up the sun's rays. I could almost see her complexion change from my position. Like the sun brought back a little color to her face. That spot in the lake was also my favorite spot. I usually only swam towards it when I was human. The beam was too small to do much in my Dragon form.
Another thing I didn't understand. I could have said I was the Dragon that saved her. She didn't seem to realize he and I were the same person. I knew humans didn't know Dragons had a human form and we would like to keep it that way, so I should keep it from her for the sake of my race. I also told myself she would probably feel safer with someone of her own kind. Even if she hadn't shown the usual fear most humans did when she was about to pass out, it didn't mean that she wouldn't be afraid when a large snout with even larger teeth came and woke her up - even if she did ask me to thank the Dragon for her. I have never met a human that thanked a Dragon.
Shoot... yes. Thanked... no.
What I didn't understand was why I was taking her feelings into consideration. I was a Dragon and she could either deal with that or not, but somehow I wanted her to feel safe here. I wanted her to relax. I wanted her not to be afraid of me. I wanted to stop being such an emotional sap in her presence. For God's sake, I was two-hundred and forty years old. But I had never felt like this.
I had left before she climbed out of the lake and started to dress, although I had a hard time dragging my body away. I had settled for the library so I could emerge myself into a story of someone else's life instead of having to deal with my own, even if that life were of a fictional character.
But even that reprieve from her was short lived as she came looking for me only moments later.
She looked fresh and clean. Her hair was still wet, but she had let it hang across her back so it could dry. The white shirt was a little big on her, as were the pants. I had done this on purpose so it would cover her up a bit more, but as luck would have it, it showed off her assets to perfection. The pants were tight around her legs, they were just way too long, but it displayed her toned and slim legs and ample hips perfectly. The blouse was hanging loosely over her upper body, and it did obscure most of her breasts. But because it was hanging loose, it also was hanging more off one shoulder showing her clavicle, which I found surprisingly sexy. The blouse opened up in a low V because of that as well, so I got a small view of her cleavage as the binds weren't able to hold it all in.
I thought I couldn't get any more turned on than I was by a clothed woman when she walked toward the bookcase and turned her back, and more importantly her ass to me. I nearly abandoned all reason and took her right there against the bookcase, but was able to restrain myself. But her perfectly round sculpted ass was just begging me to touch it.
I had to grab a book to busy my hands so they wouldn't do exactly that.
"So did you have a nice bath?"
She moaned, and I lowered the book down to my groin to hide my excitement... Again.
"It was amazing, and just the right temperature. I don't think I ever want to leave here."
There was a sad smile on her face as she said those words. Perhaps because she knew she couldn't stay. I was a private Dragon. I had grown up with my sisters and more than enough people around, but I preferred my peace and quiet. And she was definitely disrupting that, so why was I so pleased to know that my cave appealed to her?
"But I have to. I have to get back to Lissa."
Lissa? Who is Lissa? It then dawned on me that she must mean Lady Dragomir, and I stood up from my chair.
"Are you crazy! You can't go back. That boy nearly killed you, if you go back he will try again."
She shrugged.
"Maybe, but I still have to go back."
"What could be so important, you would risk your life for?"
She sat down on the coffee table with a large sigh. I had sat back down again after my outburst.
"Lissa. I was training to be her handmaiden, but not just the kind that brushes her hair or does up her dress, although I still have to do that. I was training to be her personal bodyguard disguised as a handmaiden. All Lissa has is me. Her family died two years ago, and now she is the sole heir. One of her father's friends is ruling in her stead now, but she will rule once she turns eighteen. She needs me. I need to protect her, that is my duty."
She didn't seem to be particularly glad about this duty, but I could tell she genuinely cared for Lady Dragomir.
"And how are you going to perform this duty when you are dead?"
She simply shrugged again.
"I am sure everything will work out. Lissa will appeal to Jesse. He wouldn't be able to do anything officially and any unofficial stuff I should be able to take care of myself. I should have been able to do that yesterday, but I suppose I failed there. I failed Lissa."
I didn't understand how she could look at yesterday as a failure. She had shown so much strength. I wouldn't just save any human. She needed to realize she was special.
"Why did he do that in the first place? What happened?"
I had a pretty good idea what happened to for him to torture her, but I was curious about the events leading up to it.
She leaned back with her hands on the table staring at the ceiling, looking at the intricate patterns of rock before she finally answered.
"Jesse is a ass, but a rich and Royal ass. Not as rich or as Royal as Lissa, but still he thinks he is something special. And I would have to agree; he definitely isn't like most people. He believes he has a right to whatever he wants and what he wanted yesterday was to boast about the fact he had been with every handmaiden. Except, I hadn't been inclined to aid him in his conquest. I had heard stories from the other girls.
He is a douche, but a pretty douche, and he didn't have much trouble getting some of them to his bed. Some he simply lured with the promise of a good night, although I heard that was highly exaggerated. Others he actually wooed, telling them he loved them and that they were the only ones for him and that he would make them their bride and seeing he was committed anyway, it wouldn't be improper to consummate those agreements beforehand. Of course, when he was done with them he dumped them as fast as he could.
I had been the only one that eluded him. I had no interest in him. I had heard enough from the other girls to stay away from him. He didn't seem to take kindly to that, so he tried to get me alone and force his way to the claim that he had had all the handmaidens.
He has no idea I have been trained since I was a little girl to defend Lissa, so he was easy to take down. I hoped I kicked him hard enough to do some lasting damage. However, Jesse is never alone. His guards were onto me in a second, so I high-tailed it out of there. I ran as fast as I could, but they caught up with me. I took a few of them down, but eventually, they were just too strong. I was just too weak."
I had witnessed the last part, and in no way had she been weak. She had started the story being slightly relaxed and open, but now she was sitting on the edge of the table with her hands in her lap, looking ashamed of her lack of strength.
"Years of training and it wasn't enough. Alberta, the head handmaiden - she is also one of us, a trained guardian - she taught me everything she knew from an early age, but it wasn't enough. My skill wasn't enough."
"There were a lot of guards, no matter how strong you were, you couldn't have beaten them that easily," I said, trying to convince her of her strength.
She got up from the table and threw her hands in the air.
"Well, that is just perfect - because I am sure that when people come to assassinate Lissa, they'll only send one or two at the time. That way, I actually might have a shot. I need to protect her, Dimitri, be it from one or a hundred assailants. And I couldn't even protect myself."
Don't say it, Dimitri. What she is asking is impossible. You need to get her out of here and back to her life and out of yours. Just don't say it.
"I could teach you."
Stupid idiot.
She looked at me with gratitude but also skepticism in her eyes.
"You? And what makes you qualified to teach me? What makes you think you have better combat skills than me?"
Almost two-hundred years of training in the Royal Ivashkov Dragon Army, making it to General at the young age of a hundred and eighty, which is barely considered adult in Dragons. The fact that when there isn't a Dragon war to fight, I join human armies to help keep my skills up to standard. But I couldn't actually say any of those things.
"Come on, then. Let's see what you've got, and you can determine if I am worthy enough to teach you."
She tilted her head to the side and placed her hands on her hips, probably to determine if I was serious.
"Okay, but first lunch!"
I chuckled. She may not be a Dragon, but she certainly ate like one.
We sat down at the table, and I started to dig in. A Dragon's diet mostly consisted of meat. Now we had our own fire, so we mostly cooked the meat before we ate it, even if we plucked it from a nearby pasture with our claws. I rarely ate it raw, but I could enjoy a raw bit of cow every now and then. When I was in my human form, I always cooked the meat; I enjoyed more complex flavors when I was human too. I would season the meat and try different methods of cooking. I also ate other things than meat while in human form, while I rarely did that in Dragon form. I especially enjoyed freshly baked bread, and there were a few fruits I didn't mind.
I was ripping off the flesh and skin of a nice juicy chicken-leg and could feel the gravy slid down my throat. I would wipe it off later with a piece of bread. Rose seemed to be enjoying the meat and fruits as well. I saw she had a similar difficulty with the juice from the fruit as I had had with the gravy. I couldn't help but follow the trickle of juice from her lips to her chin, to her neck and down it disappeared into her blouse. She seemed to notice the wayward drop and whipped her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt.
My sisters and I were raised to be proper. My mother especially charged my sisters with being lady-like. I don't think she had particularly succeeded, but Rose's table manners were a far cry from that of my sisters. Now I knew she had been properly instructed and had seen Lady Dragomir eat with perfect table manners on more than one occasion, so it was refreshing to see that this seemed to be the real uninhibited Rose. And I only liked her more.
After lunch, I took her out of the cave. Just outside the cave was a nice flat piece of rock, big enough for my Dragon form, completely secluded from everything. It was on the side of the mountain where no mortal ever came, and down below was a dense forest. But the plateau was high enough not to be shaded by the trees. It was my sundeck. I would lay there in the mornings, warming up my scales. The way the mountain was situated and the way the sun rose and went under made sure the sundeck had sun the majority of the day. I had seen Rose eye it with interest, and if she loved the sun as much as I did, I would imagine she would love this place.
We made it down the stony path to the grass and forest below, the descent a work-out in itself. Normally, I would fly back up, but I doubt I would be able to do that now, so we would both have to climb the entire way back up. It wasn't a problem for me. I was well trained and kept up my training even between wars, but I wondered how Rose would do - especially after training with me all afternoon.
I led her to a clearing in the forest. It was covered with grass and would provide her with some padding once I started throwing her around.
I motioned for her to stand in front of me and raised my hands in a defensive posture.
"Show me what you've got."
Now based on what I witnessed with the guards yesterday, she was indeed trained in combat, but could definitely use some polishing. She was a diamond in the rough, and I would take great pleasure in rubbing her until she shined.
Ugh, that sounded dirty... and hot.
She started to attack me, but I easily avoided her punches. She was fast and agile, just like she was supposed to be. But she hadn't utilized it to the fullest of her potential.
She lunged a punch towards my face and it nearly connected. I saw her eyes glow with pride and mischief at her near-success. But it was short lived as I grabbed her wrists, ducked underneath it to twist it around and used the momentum to flip her and land her on her gorgeous, perfect ass.
She groaned, and I stood over her smiling.
"I guess I can still teach you a thing or two."
She got up and swatted down her pants and shirt, clearing the garments from the dirt they had accumulated during the fall.
"Yeah, you are God's great gift to man. Now tell me how you did that."
I laughed at her expression. Both annoyed at me beating her and eager and excited to learn the move.
"It doesn't matter how strong or big your opponent is; you can always use their momentum against them. Even large men have a need for balance. Disrupt their balance and you disrupt their strength."
She rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms in front of her.
"You sound like a wise Sage. How old are you anyway, a hundred?"
Actually I was two-hundred and forty years old.
"Twenty-four years old, and I do not sound like a Sage. What about you?"
"I am seventeen."
God, that was young. Yet she held such age in those eyes. I would have believed it if she was the wise Sage dressed up like a girl. She had so much responsibility at such a young age. As Dragons, you were considered a hatchling at seventeen. Some weren't even able to fly when they were that age. Of course not me, but some. But in human years it was considered almost an adult. Their lifespan was much shorter than ours, and they only had less than a century to do everything they wanted in life. Dragons lived much longer. I was considered a young adult at two-hundred and forty, and most Dragons lived to reach at least a millennia. And don't get me started on my grandmother Yeva. She was ancient.
I suddenly thought about an aging Rose and realized she would probably be dead before I reached my next centennial. The thought sobered me up pretty quickly.
"Let's start with the basics. Grabbing an opponent while he is attacking you means you can utilize their momentum against them. "
I motioned for her to attack me in slow motion so I could show her the critical points of the technique.
She attacked, and I took her wrist again.
"Now you twist the arm to the side, breaking the balance. No matter how strong a person is, they have an instinct to protect the bones from breaking, so they will follow you."
I executed a slightly different technique than I did before. I swiped her hand towards the other side, placing her hand toward her back and then tilting it forward.
"Your opponent has no choice but to follow your movements and dive down, or risk breaking the arm. Also if their balance is disrupted, you can move their body freely. They won't have the grounding to stop you."
I titled it forward a little more, and she bent down. I then stepped around her and spun as I kept her arm locked. The momentum of my pivoting was transferred to Rose, and I released her arm by bending it upwards. She went flying head first and rolled a little further.
She groaned again when she came to a standstill.
"Sorry, I can't really do the last part in slow motion."
She looked at me faully, but still got up and squared off against me again. She was one tough cookie, I'll give her that.
After another few rounds of throwing her on the grass and showing her some more general fighting techniques, I called it quits. The sun was starting to set, and we still had to climb the stairs.
"Come on my little warrior, let's head upstairs."
She glared at me for calling her little, but I saw relief on her face that she was done for the day. I must admit she was holding her own and didn't complain... much. I saw real potential in her.
I headed up the rocky path all the way to the top. I noticed Rose was lagging behind a bit, but was doing her best not to let her exertion show. We made it to the sundeck, and I saw her stop for a moment and catch her breath. She closed her eyes as she took a few deep breaths and bathed in the last sun rays of the day.
The sun was almost down, and I felt that slight moment of anxiety all Fire Dragons felt when the sun was no longer visible. The sun consisted of fire, and so did we. We had always had a symbiotic relationship with the sun, but that one moment of the day when it was here one minute and gone the next always had us on edge. Of course, the sun would be back in the morning, and it was an irrational fear, but all Fire Dragons had it. I took a deep breath and released it once the sun had gone down completely. When I looked at Rose, I saw her expression had changed from peace to anxiety as well.
"Come on, let's get inside. Temperatures can plummet pretty quickly here up in the mountains."