Read Online Dragons Realm by Tessa Dawn - Free Book Online Page B

in­de­cently, or per­haps he just wasn’t in­clined to do so. Either way, he tucked in the towel and re­leased it. “You did well, Ahavi.” His voice was a silken purr in her ear, and she shivered at the un­fa­mil­iar vi­bra­tion of his ap­proval.
    As tears of re­lief rolled down her cheek, she bowed her head in re­sponse. She felt open , ex­posed, and in­cred­ibly vul­ner­able, but not al­to­gether des­pond­ent. “Then you are pleased?” she asked, not at all sure why it mattered, other than the fact that she hoped to con­tinue liv­ing, even if this was to be her lot in life.
    “Your es­sence, your heat, is like sun­shine on a cloudy day. It is so much easier when you sub­mit, is it not?” He placed a swel­ter­ing kiss on her bare shoulder. “I can­not help but won­der what all of you will feel like when the time comes.”
    Mina couldn’t re­strain her re­ac­tion. She spun around to face him, un­wit­tingly tak­ing sev­eral steps back. “Please, mi­lord.” She held up both hands to keep him at bay and then im­me­di­ately thought bet­ter of it—Mina did not want to an­ger the dragon, but god­dess have mercy , there was only so much she could take in one day. And this , the idea of sub­mit­ting her body to Dante com­pletely , it was just too much to deal with, far too much to take in. Dante’s cer­tain own­er­ship, his proud pos­ses­sion , his pro­pri­et­ary ways were more than enough for Mina to con­tend with. “I don’t wish to defy you,” she said re­spect­fully, “but you are ter­ri­fy­ing me, mi­lord. And I can hardly bear it an­other mo­ment.” Her white-knuckled grip on the towel turned blue, and she glanced anxiously around the room, search­ing for a place to re­treat.
    Or hide.
    Dante swept his hand along the curve of her chin, traced her protest­ing lips with his fore­finger, and then ges­tured for her to be si­lent. “It will not al­ways be so, Mina. You will come to un­der­stand your role…and mine. You will learn to ac­cept them both.”
    She raised her eye­brows and frowned. “And if I don’t?”
    He shook his head in quiet dis­missal. “But you must.” In that mo­ment, he looked so fiercely pred­at­ory, so in­trins­ic­ally regal, so harshly mas­cu­line yet beau­ti­ful that Mina was caught off guard.
    She tried not to think of his words…
    What they meant for her fu­ture and her life.
    In­stead, she eyed her night­gown, still ly­ing across the cov­er­let on the large, four-poster bed, and wished she could don it with her mind alone. She needed to re­treat some­place safe, to cover her body and pro­tect her heart. She needed to feel in con­trol, if only for a mo­ment.
    As if he could hear her thoughts, Dante stretched out his hand to­ward the ob­ject of her de­sire, crooked the tips of his fin­gers, and ef­fort­lessly drew the night­gown into his open hand from across the room. He handed it to her with grace. “Yes­ter­day,” he said, cross­ing his arms over his chest and lean­ing back against the wall, as if they had been car­ry­ing on a cas­ual con­ver­sa­tion all along, “I traveled with my broth­ers to the vil­lage of War­lo­chia to ex­ecute two trait­ors who were plot­ting against the king.”
    Mina’s eyes grew wide, and she watched him care­fully, even as she slipped the night­gown over her head and above the towel , be­fore re­mov­ing the wool from un­der­neath.
    “While I was there”—he pressed on as if the ex­e­cu­tions were noth­ing more than back­ground in­form­a­tion—“I met a young girl who gave me this.” He reached be­hind his back and re­trieved a fig­ur­ine.
    Mina held up her hands in ques­tion. She stared at the ob­ject for a pro­trac­ted mo­ment, her fea­tures dis­tort­ing with con­fu­sion. “A doll? You met a young girl who gave you a doll ?”
    The corners of Dante’s mouth curved up­ward, and Mina thought