Rapunzel emerged from the curtained bed slowly, sliding until she sat on the end of the mattress, her elegant gown rumpled and gathered around her, showing that her feet were bare. “I am a prisoner here,” she told us with wide eyed earnestness. “And have been since the first year of my life.“This is my family home. My father was a landed gentleman with a small farm. Nothing extraordinary, but enough to support his family in comfort. However, my mother became sick, and in desperation, he sought out a renowned witch who lived within Nerith, by the name of Gerveine, who was known to have a magic potion that could cure all ills made of a rare flower.“Gerveine granted his wish, and made him a potion, but in exchange for me,” Rapunzel touched her fingertips to her hair. “As, when I was born, my fairy godmother blessed me with magical hair capable of sewing any wound closed as if it never existed. Gerveine takes a few strands every time she visits, which she sells to kings and heroes headi
“Up to?” I repeated trying for innocence. “I don’t think I know what you mean.”“Mhm. I was very flattered when your parents named you after me,” Daerton stepped over the bench and sat next to me. “And I have been nothing but proud of the young woman that I have watched grow ever since. But I must admit, never so proud as a few moments ago when you manipulated that fool of a knight into doing precisely what you wanted him to do,” he nodded around his smile. “Whilst preventing him from beating your mage to a pulp.”“I… Ah,” I felt my cheeks heat. “Aien isn’t my mage.”“Darling girl,” Daerton drawled. “As a mage myself, I recognize when another of my ilk becomes a liegeman. I remember the moment that your mother won me as her mage. We were traveling in a wagon, watching your father flying overhead, and she compared her crown to a shackle, and herself to a sacrificial lamb. I realized then that my magic was hers, that there never would be another Queen or King whom I could serve with as
He took the soap and lathered his hands generously, before sliding them over my skin. Beneath the slip of the soap, I could feel the slight rasp of the callouses on his palms. As I had done, he stroked over my shoulders and back, down to my waist, before stroking over my chest. His breathing was heavy, and I could feel the throb of him against my back as he moved closer.He cupped me between his legs, his knees bent due to the close confinement of the tub, and I rested my hands upon his knees, feeling the shift of bone, and the tickle of hair against my fingertips. His hands sculpted over my breasts, his thumbs stroking over the nipples.“Oh,” I sighed the moan.“Amazing,” he whispered, his voice catching hoarsely. “So beautiful.”That betraying vocal catch sent shivers of need across my skin, raising my hair. His hand stroked over the soft curve of my stomach to cup me lower, his fingers discovering my secrets. I felt him swallow on his groan.“Tell me…” He swallowed again, fighting
I helped Rapunzel to climb down the vines on the side of the tower.“This is not how I imagined this would be!” She complained to me as we descended.“How did you imagine it would be?” I wondered. I had an idea; my head having been filled with the same stories since childhood. “Liam would ride in upon a noble steed, draw his sword, climb the tower, throw you over his shoulder before descending and whisking you away to the castle that he owns that overlooks a beautiful town and possibly a beach?”“Well… yes actually,” she paused in her climb to look at me in surprise. “Isn’t that the proper way of things?”“Hmmm,” I pulled a face. “Not really. I guess. Maybe?”“Really?” She demanded. “That’s your answer?”“I’m… I’m just not qualified to answer the question,” I admitted. “I am a princess, but I’m fifth in line for the throne. My mother is mostly human, but my father is most definitely not. Most of my siblings take after him, although I don’t. And so, the proper way of things really hasn
The door shuddering against the bolt jerked Aien awake. Our eyes met and we smothered our laughter against each other’s skin, our hair tumbling over our faces as we rolled within the warmth of the blankets, laughter turning to kisses.“Daethie!” It was Tarragon on the other side of the door and that broke us apart. “Open the door!”“Shit,” I whispered sitting up in the bed and looking around the room frantically. Aien slid out of the bed in a tangle of long limbs, retrieving his clothing and pulling it on. I saw his eyes go to the door, but I shook my head. “She will see.”This was Tarragon - not servants, but a dragon with a dragon’s canning. A lover hiding behind the door would not be missed.“Under the bed!” I told him before raising my voice: “A moment Tarra! The door is locked for a reason!” I hurriedly pulled the bed to order and hurried to the wash bowl, splashing my face before dashing to my chest and pulling on my clothing.The bathing box was at the top of the chest, and I g
“Daethie,” Aien stroked my hair back from my face. I opened my eyes. It was still dark, and his face was almost obscured in the shadows of the room, picked out by the fragile light of the embers of the fire. “It’s just dawn,” he told me.I rolled out of bed automatically. It had become the pattern of our mornings, to wake early and leave the castle before it stirred to the day and return to have our evening meal in the kitchen with the servants, avoiding anyone who might have noticed our absence during the day. It would not last, I knew. Our absence had to have been noticed. Whilst they could not find us, they could not punish us for our truancy, but sooner or later someone would decide that enough was enough and would go out of their way to trap us on our way in and out, and demand answers as to what we did.Aien slipped out of the room to go to his own as I used the chamber pot and splashed water on my face before dressing, pulling on my heaviest cloak against a morning that I knew
“It’s snowing,” Aien murmured against my hair. We lay naked in the master bedroom, on top of the covers, the fireplace against the wall crackling cheerfully keeping the room warm although Aien was right and fragile drifts of snow drifted past the windows.“So it is,” I agreed, content to lay and watch it fall.The bedroom was vastly different from how it had been just over a month before. The former owner’s possessions had been removed and placed in chests in the attic, and we had wiped the surfaces clean, evicted the spiders, and had well and truly claimed the bed as our own. Our chests of clothing stood side by side against the wall, the lid of mine still open.The firewood was tumbled over the hearth carelessly in evidence that Aien’s arrival with it had interrupted my unpacking, leading to the breadcrumb trail of clothing strewn over the floor and the two of us lazy and naked upon the bed.“We should get up,” he sighed. “Make sure everything is ready outside before the snow sets i
I decided not to tell Aien about the baby.I loved him. Oh, how I loved him. I could not imagine my life without him. He felt as much a part of me as my own body. I believed that he felt the same and that he, too, imagined a future together. However, neither of us spoke of such things, and the longer that it went without the words uttered, the harder it seemed to be to bring them onto my tongue.There also existed a fear, a small burrowing thing that was nonetheless insistent in its presence – that we hadn’t spoken about such things because he didn’t feel like that about me. Were we friends, companions, who shared our bodies? If I told him that I loved him, that to a dragon marriage was as simple as two people agreeing to be together so to me it felt that we were married, would he tell me that he felt the same and was happy to share that understanding, or would he tell me that he did not return my feelings.If he did not share my feelings, telling him about the baby might force him in