Page 14 of The Dragon's Pet
Vision or dream, whatever was bothering her, it was not fading on its own. And he could do nothing about it while he still stood outside the bars.
“You are being too soft,” he lectured himself as he unlocked the cage and stepped inside. Crouching down on the blankets, he began to comfort his pet, running his hands through her hair and pressing gentle kisses to her lips and cheeks. He could taste the salt of her sadness. Odd how humans expelled minerals when they were upset. It was almost dragon-like in a way.
“Vyktor,” she whimpered his name again. “I’m afraid.”
Now he was sure she was asleep. She would never have admitted fear while she was awake. She had plummeted from the sky, crashed, and been taken captive by a powerful enemy all without showing the slightest bit of fear.
He did not like to see her in this state. Her pretty face was twisted by anguish, tears running down her cheeks. He doubted the dream meant anything of any real significance, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t terribly frightening. She was so young, so tender, and she had been sent to fight a dragon. That was enough to give anybody nightmares. Even in the fairytales, they’d had the sense to send princes, not young women.
“Shhh…” he soothed. “It was merely a dream… go back to sleep.”
She started to settle a little. Her tears dried, but she was still not entirely at peace. Vyktor decided to give up his bed and instead sit down in her bedding with her. Almost immediately, she curled up with her head in his lap, still in that strange twilight state between wakefulness and sleep. He looked down at her in wonder, marveling at the power of her dreams. In her sleep, she had exposed a part of herself she would never have shown if she were fully awake. She had shown him a pure vulnerability and remarkable instinct. Humans were such strange creatures; so base in some ways, and so complex in others.
Slowly, she settled. The whimpering stopped, her eyes closed, and then her breathing became deep and regular. Almost an hour had passed.
“Who is taming who, pet?” He murmured the question down at her softly. It did not escape him that in caging her, he had effectively caged himself. She looked far more comfortable than he was. She was snuggled up in her blankets and using his lap as a pillow while he sat with his back against the hard wall.
This was a problem he had not expected. He had expected to be able to dispassionately condition a human female to follow his rule. He had never imagined he would come to care for her within hours of meeting her.
“You are making my life difficult,” he said softly, stroking her hair away from her pretty face.
In her sleep, she smiled.
CHAPTER 6
Aria woke in the morning to find that she was still naked and trapped in a dragon’s lair. Neither fact pleased her. In the brief moment before she opened her eyes, she’d hoped desperately that she’d dreamed the whole thing and she’d wake up in barracks that smelled of feet and chlorine.
It was not to be.
She was still behind bars and still the captive of the handsome asshole who called her pet even though he knew her name was Aria. And he was standing next to the bars, as if he’d been watching her sleep. Goddamn. Even super-max prisoners got more privacy than this.
He’d disrobed again—apparently dragons only wore clothing for special occasions. It was impossible not to look at his manhood swinging heavily between his muscular thighs, a total distraction.
“Good morning, pet,” he said, making her grind her teeth in annoyance. “Did you sleep well?”
“I slept in a cage,” she scowled. “So, no, I didn’t sleep well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said in a way she absolutely didn’t believe.
“Sure you are.”
He ignored her attitude.
“Did you have any dreams?”
“What? No. What do you care?”
“I’m simply curious, pet.”
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” she said, realizing she sounded sort of petulant. It was a weird situation to find herself in. This dragon, her enemy, was trying to make her submissive to him. He had been honest about that. It meant she couldn’t trust anything he said or did, as it was no doubt in the service of his goal. Even a simple question about dreams was probably some perverted thing to get inside her head.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah.”
He opened the cage door and let it swing wide. Aria stayed where she was, suspicious. She was right to be.
“You will work for your food, pet,” he said. “Pleasure me with your mouth before you fill your belly.”
