Danil’s Mate(63)
She thought back on their last 45 minutes and blushed deeply. She wasn't really a blusher. Amos noticed immediately and ran a finger over her cheek.
“Reminiscing?” he asked and grinned.
Lucy was momentarily blinded by his smile. She'd never seen it before. It changed his entire face. Crinkled his eyes and flashed his white teeth. Made him achingly handsome.
She leaned forward and kissed him. But she didn't let it draw out. Pulling back, she was immensely pleased by the lust in his eyes. She could really draw it out of him.
“Can I come?” She asked.
He raised an eyebrow suggestively. “I thought you already did,”
She rolled her eyes. “No, I mean I want to come see you shift. I want to see your full dragon.”
He searched her eyes. “Are you sure? It might be scary.”
She stared him in the eye. “I’m not exactly a shrinking violet, Amos.”
He chuckled. “I’m not familiar with that human colloquialism, but I’m sure you're not a shrinking violet.” He reached out and played with a lock of her hair, still damp from their bath. “You're a toughie.”
She flopped backwards. “I used to think I was, but these last few days have really put me through the ringer.”
Amos got up and rifled through her wardrobe. “Wear this, it’ll be cold on the roof.”
He tossed a fur lined coat onto the bed and walked to the bathroom to pull his own clothes on.
Lucy got up and looked through the wardrobe for the first time by herself. Fancy dress, fancy dress, fancy dress. She sighed inwardly. Nothing that she would wear. But spying a small drawer on the side she pulled it open and dug through it.
“Perfect!” she exclaimed happily as she discovered the soft pants and shirt. They were made of a soft fleecy material and she was fairly certain they were underclothes, but better than the Victorian era dresses that she couldn’t even breathe in.
She pulled her clothes on and turned around to find Amos standing in the middle of the room, holding the fidelity cuff in his hands.
She automatically took a step back from it. Amos’s eyes looked sad and weary.
“You have to wear it whenever you leave the room, hatchling. Otherwise the King will take it as a sign of your infidelity to him. A rejection.”
She took another step away. “I do reject him. I’m not faithful to him. I just slept with you for fuck sake!”
Her voice rose. Amos tossed the collar onto a side table and came over to her. He held her face still and looked deep into her eyes. Lucy took a deep breath and let him calm her down.
“Lucy. I know that. You know that. But the King cannot know that. If he suspects us before we can get you out of here, he’ll execute me instantly. And I can’t protect you if I’m dead.”
Lucy felt all the air leave her chest. She gripped Amos’s shirt in her hands so tight her knuckles went white.
“You were serious about that? Protecting me could get you executed?”
He nodded. “It could. We’d be directly defying a tyrant’s orders. We’d be ruining his chances at continuing his family line. I’d be betraying him…” Amos trailed off under the weight of his words.
“How can we do it so you don’t get killed?” she asked.
He smiled a little. “There’s someone we can talk to about that. Who can help us. I think. But in the meantime, you can wear the cuff and act like nothing has changed.”
She could still feel the strangling weight of the disgusting object around her neck. But what Amos said made sense. She had to keep the illusion up.
Suddenly Amos’s eyes lit up. “I have an idea.”
He strode across the room and picked up the collar. He brought it back over to her.
“How would you feel about wearing it if it didn’t symbolize fidelity to the King?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
He snicked out one of his dragon claws on his fingers and Lucy watched in fascination. She couldn’t wait to see him shift fully. He dragged his claw across the gold on the inside of the collar. A screeching sound made her wince, but she couldn’t take her eyes away.
“This is a dragon’s eye,” he said handing her the collar to inspect the etching he’d just scratched on. It was an oval with an x through the middle. “It’s something dragon children do.” He smiled a little. “It’s an oath. Signing it is like signing your name to a contract. Only instead of a contract, it’s a promise.”
“A promise,” she mused and flipped the collar over. On the outside it was still King Dalyer’s fidelity cuff of heavy decorated gold. She turned it back. But on the inside it was smooth and plain, adorned only with the childlike etching. Amos’s promise to keep the King away from her.