Page 50 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 50

“Where are you going?” Flynn asked as I walked back into the suite freshly showered and in my father’s best clothes. I was fairly sure this wasn’t appropriate dress for an outing, but it was all I had.

“Why are you dressed like that?” Ged asked as he came in after me. He dumped his leather jacket on the table in the centre of the room, then turned to Flynn. “Why is she dressed like that?”

“I’m going out,” I informed both of them. Make that all of them, as Soren and Brom walked in and paused, doing the same double take as the others. “With Christian Bailey.”

“The librarian?” Ged’s head jerked back and he frowned. “Why are you going out with him? And what’s that you’re wearing around your neck?”

“It’s a token,” Soren replied sharply, “and Cadet Wentworth has obviously agreed to allow the man to court her.”

Cadet, not Pippin.

“I would’ve thought that was plain to everyone, including you,” he continued.

“Courting…”

I was regretting this, all of this, but Glimmer just shook her head, then stretched her neck up to stare pointedly at the necklace.

This better be worth it , I said. There are names for women who toy with men’s affections and they aren’t good ones.

You don’t owe anyone anything , she replied sharply. It is up to the males to prove their worthiness. You will not have strong children with a mate you choose out of pity.

Not pity, but… I looked around all of the room, reading each man’s expression. Brom had his emotions carefully packed away as per usual and Soren smiled, even if the warmth didn’t reach his eyes. Flynn frowned slightly, and Ged? Empathy , I told her. Feeling another’s pain as yours and being considerate of that is important.

Sounds like the way of prey to me , she shot back.

“Do you want to leave your beastie with us?” Soren asked gently. “We’ll take good care of her, make sure she gets only the choicest cuts of meat.”

“Probably more than she deserves,” I said with a wry smile.

You’ll stay here with them , I told her, something that made her squawk in protest. You set me on this path. Now I need to walk it .

And as if in acknowledgement of that, there was a knock at the open door.

I felt sorry for Christian then, as he stood there, weathering the collective gazes of all four riders, until Soren who sauntered closer.

“Evening, Bailey.”

“Rider Soren,” came Christian’s reply. “Lady Pippa, if you are?—”

“Before Pippin goes anywhere, we need to have a chat,” Soren said, pushing the man outside the door.

“Soren!” I snapped and went to rescue poor Christian, but Ged moved faster and slammed the door shut, standing in front of it with a smirk on his face when I started to splutter.

“Christian’s a good man,” Flynn said. “He’ll treat you well and going on a date with him will be a good prelude before you start seriously courting.”

This whole thing was a sham, but I found myself turning to face him, my temper flaring hot.

“Prelude?” As I ground the word out, Brom shook his head slowly, then raked a hand through his hair.

“Prelude.” Flynn’s voice was firm, definite, his smile spreading slowly. “Run along and have some fun tonight. Sit through his fumbling attempts to catch your eye and then the real games can begin.”

“Games?”

Apparently I wasn’t able to form full sentences when treated to the sight of this perfect arrogance.

“A queen dragon leads her prospective mates on a merry chase before she relents, letting the male she had already chosen cover her,” he continued. I heard Glimmer’s hum, but this time the noise was an irritating buzz in my ear. “That’s what this is.”

I opened my mouth because words, so many bloody words, suddenly rushed forward in the need to come out, but the door opened. Soren sauntered back in, Christian following him, looking somewhat paler then he had before. Soren nodded and smiled to the rest of the riders, and damn me if they didn’t all trade secretive little looks, like they had some kind of brotherly bond I would never understand.

And I wasn’t going to bother trying.

I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room without saying another word.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Christian. “I apologise for my dress, but this is all I have.”

“Yes, I mean, no…” Christian smiled weakly. “You look quite lovely, Lady Pippa and these are for you.”

I was apparently keeping the flower sellers of Wyrmpeak in coin because he presented me with a posy of purple blue irises.

“Oh, these are beautiful. Irises are my favourite. Thank you.”

“Shall we?” He offered me his arm and I was surprised to feel the strength there as I took it. He might not have been as densely packed with muscles as the riders in the suite behind me, but I still felt a little fluttery in the pit of my stomach.

“Bring Pippin back at a reasonable hour.” Ged stood in the doorway, his fingers grabbing at the lintel, a display of all of his physical attributes if there was ever one. “We’ll come find you if you don’t.”

My eyes narrowed and for a moment, I considered a retort. I chose not to. He wanted a reaction, a response, a reaffirmation of the bond between us, and usually I would’ve been glad to give it. But not like this.

“Where are we going? I’ve yet to sample the cuisine of the capital outside of the keep,” I asked Christian.

It was a lovely little bistro that had been built on one of the docks. The working docklands were off in the distance, the shapes of tall ships coming in and leaving port casting dark shadows against the purple sky, but this seemed to be an area designed solely for pleasure.

“I apologise for the humble venue,” he said as we found a table and he moved to pull out my chair for me. When I sat down, his hands landed on the back of my chair for a second before he took a seat.

“Please don’t.” I looked around at the nautical decor and breathed in the savoury aromas coming from the kitchen. “It’s lovely, and the food smells delicious. I…” I smiled but it felt too fast and with a nervous edge. “I admit, if you had suggested somewhere grander, I would have begged off. The last time I went to a real restaurant, it was with my father, and we had few dining options outside of our family and friends’ homes.”

“Oh? Tell me more about where you’re from.”

Was this what Arabella had enjoyed? It felt strange to think of my stepsister, but part of me wanted to turn around, see if she was behind me, because surely Christian couldn’t be paying all of this attention to me? His grey eyes sparkled with amusement and interest as I spoke, offering up his own tales of growing up on a similarly remote estate, the two of us trading stories with such rapidity I was surprised when a waiter came to deliver our entrees to the table.

“This looks delicious,” I said, not sure if I meant that for Christian or the waiter.

“The bisque is very well done here, but…” He speared a prawn bathed in a sauce that smelled strongly of garlic. “Try this.”

He held a hand under the morsel and offered it across the table to me. I blinked, not sure how to respond other than to lean forward and take the offering. The taste, an explosion of rich butter, salty prawn and sharp garlic, exploded in my mouth. But coupled with that simple pleasure came another much more adult one.

There was an intimacy here, a connection: between the food, my mouth, his eyes watching my pleasure and then a small catlike smile that crossed his face in reaction to my response. He seemed to catch himself in the midst of making that face, returning to his previous attentive manner before turning back to his meal, freeing me to do the same.

Did I taste the bisque? It was lovely, I remember that vaguely, but little else. I didn’t spill the damn soup on my clothes, which was welcome, but… This wasn’t about eating. I knew that vaguely from what I’d been taught. Many a flirtation had been had without a single word said across the grand table at our estate or at that of one of our friends. Meaningful looks traded, utensils handled with undue care, and movements becoming elongated, slow and sensual. To find myself doing the same came as a surprise.

But was it for Christian or was it just me preening under a man’s attention, just as Glimmer did? My uncertainty dimmed some of the pleasure I was feeling, replacing it with confusion.

So I watched him as we talked, as our plates were taken away and replaced by our main meals. Christian offered me another taste of his food, so I returned the favour, spending way too long watching the way those finely formed lips moved as he chewed. We talked about books (he was quietly horrified by my preoccupation with bodice rippers), history (we each discussed the key events of our own local histories) and how my training was progressing.

“You’ve cut quite the figure, weathering Prince Draven’s ire as you have,” he observed as we lingered over wine, our plates already cleared away. “I admit when Father broached me about approaching you, I was taken aback. What on earth could I offer a warrior of a woman?”

“Warrior?” I snorted at that. “You should see me on the training room floor, because that’s where I end up most of the time. The only time I was able to get a hit on the prince was when his back was turned. Oh, bother…”

“Milady?”

“I’m supposed to present myself for training at midnight. What time is it now?”

He produced a pocket watch and consulted it. “It’s just gone nine.” Then he winced. “Past the point I promised to have you back in your suite. Rider Soren was quite insistent about that.”

I let out a little bark of laughter at that.

“Well, now I want to stay out all night to spite the lot of them.”

“Another glass of wine then?” he asked with a gentle smile.

We had one more, but I realised I was at my limit when I stood up and my head swam slightly. I’d been drinking wine at my father’s table since I became a woman, but a year of abstaining appeared to have lessened my tolerance.

“Is everything alright, milady?” Christian asked, moving closer to steady me as I let out a groan.

“I really shouldn’t have drunk that last glass. Draven is going to wipe the floor with me.”

“It doesn’t seem… right that the crown prince would treat a lady so,” he said, offering me his arm again as we walked out of the bistro.

“Right has little to do with anything when it comes to him,” I said, aware I was being impolitic, but that didn’t seem to matter right now.

The walk back to the keep was a companionable one. We chattered away right up until we reached the keep gates and Christian stopped us.

“Tonight has been… unexpected.” He reached up and traced a hand down the side of my face to soften his words. “That wasn’t an elegant way of putting it, but… I never expected to see you in the library, nor for you to accept my token, when I’ve seen you refuse so many others. And then…”

My lips tipped upwards as his fingers slid across my jaw.

“To find you this fascinating, beautiful creature…”

Every woman needs to be called a fascinating creature at least once in her life. To be caught up in a magical moment where your head spins slightly and you’re not sure if it’s for him or just the wine. To have him stare down at you like you are the only woman in the world and then dart forward to press his lips to yours.

And that’s when the illusion of tonight fell apart. I didn’t have a lot to compare it to, but when Ged kissed me, when Flynn did, it was like sparks flew, setting me on fire. Christian was adept at what he did and it stirred… something, but only slightly.

Perhaps this was a slow burn of a thing, I rationalised as we pulled apart, the embers needing coaxing to life, but when I went to thank Christian for the night, as I knew I was supposed to, I saw it.

His smile was gentle, and that was a balm to my soul. He stepped back, every inch the gentleman and then said, “Thank you for this night, Pippa.”

Not Pippin, not Pip, despite me urging him to use one of the derivatives of my name. No discussion of doing this again and I was certain that he wouldn’t bring it up, because, somehow, we both knew. My hands went to the back of my neck, to the clasp of the necklace, and I thought: damn Glimmer for pushing me into this. A woman might have to use her charms to obtain what she couldn’t herself, but potentially hurting someone else in the process? I’d known it was a terrible business when she suggested it and I was 100 percent certain of that now.

But Christian’s hands stopped me.

“Keep it.”

“Christian—”

“Please. I’ll have something to report back to my father, so he’ll think it a fair exchange, but…” He touched the little dragon pendant and I felt a pulse of something, though I didn’t know what. “It looks good on you, as if it is right where it should be. Jewellery fit for a dragon queen.”

He gave my hand a squeeze and then turned, slipping into the keep and leaving me standing there like a fool, puzzling over all that was happening in my life.

Which, of course, summoned Draven.

“Waiting for me at the gates like a loyal hound, are you?” I knew who it was as soon as I heard that acerbic tone. “I didn’t realise you were looking forward to training one on one with me this much.”