Dragon On Top

tip of her blade had dug in a little too deep. “He’s my father. No matter what, I love the old bastard.”

“Aye,” Bram said with a sweet smile. “I can see that.”

She planted her elbow on her knee and rested her chin on her raised fist. “Now I feel bad.”

“Why?”

“Because I should have known. I should have cared enough to find out.”

“And when would you have done that, I wonder? During the Battle of Hoesgyn or perhaps the Battle of Prothero in the Medus Mountains? Or maybe during the Battle of—”

“All right. All right. I get your point.” She gave a short laugh. “You certainly are Lord Know-It-All this evening, aren’t you?”

“Only when necessary. Otherwise I try not to let my brilliance overshadow my giving and loving nature.”

“Do you know that you’re not nearly as arrogant as most of my family?”

“Actually. . I do know.”

She gazed at him. “I’m so sorry I thought. .”

“The worst of me?” he guessed.

“Something like that.” She rubbed her hands across her face. “It’s been a very long few months. And not very good ones, I’m afraid.”

“Want to tell me about it? I’m a very good listener.”

“Tell you? So you can feel sorry for me, too?”

“Ghleanna, you just had a blade to my throat. There are limits to my mercifulness I’m afraid.”

That made her smile. A little. “I’m afraid there’s not much to tell really. I usually spend my time in battle. Dragons have few wars, but humans fight all the time. When one battle ended, there was always another. Another fight. Another war.” She briefly closed her eyes. “But one time. . this one time in a very long decade, I. .” She cracked her neck. “I took a chance.”

“You loved him,” Bram said, so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.

She shook her head. “Gods, no. I didn’t love him. I don’t love him. I’m ashamed to say I was just lonely. And stupid. Very, very stupid.”

“We all make mistakes, Ghleanna. The point is not to dwell on them.”

“Easy enough for you. You probably never make mistakes. When you fart, I bet rainbows shoot out your ass.”

“That is far from the truth,” he said around a laugh. “I’ve made my share of mistakes. Especially with females.”

“Like what?”

“Apparently I’m easily distracted—”

“You are.”

“I don’t need your help in listing my mistakes, Captain.”

“It’s not a mistake. You have a lot on your mind. One just needs to be aware of it so you can be. . managed.”

“You manage me?”

“Quite well. And is that it? Being distracted because your brilliant brain is constantly turning isn’t much of a mistake.”

“I’m always involved in my precious books and papers.”

“Not a mistake.”

“And I spend more time doing things for the reigning queen than I do for anyone else in my life.”

She blew out a breath. “Still waiting on those mistakes.”

“Isn’t being a distractible dullard who’s never around mistake enough?”

“Not to me. Sounds like you’re just very busy. You simply need to find someone who can handle that. Who respects your space without crowding you. Probably someone who has a job of her own so you don’t become her job. That’s where you probably get into problems, peacemaker. You need an independent female who’s not threatened by all the work you’re doing.”

The royal blinked. “You mean someone like you?”

She shrugged. “Sure. If you like, I can introduce you to a few of my cousins. I’m suggesting my cousins rather than my sisters because you don’t want to have to go through the gauntlet that is my brothers. It’s not fair to any dragon.” She raised her gaze, found the dragon staring at her, eyes narrowed a bit. “What? Are my cousins not good enough for you? Because they’re not of royal blood? Don’t be such a snob, Bram the Merciful.”

With a sigh, the dragon stood. “On that note, I guess I’ll go back to bed. Try to get some sleep.”

Ghleanna pulled a key from the top of her boot. “Here.” “What’s this?”

“I reserved the room across the hall for myself but you can use it. See if you can get some sleep in there.”

Bram took the key from her. “Are you sure?”

“We have a long day of walking tomorrow. Many of the nearby towns are too dangerous to fly over. Plus you didn’t get much sleep last night. So go,” she insisted. “It’s fine.”

“What about you?”

“Addolgar will be up soon enough to take my place.”

“But where will you sleep?”

She looked over her shoulder at him and said, “In the room with you. Unless you snore.”

And that’s when she saw it. When he was dragon, his scales just shined a bit more. But when he was human — his face turned red.

“Wh-What?” he stammered. “No. No. I don’t snore.”

“Then I don’t see a problem. Do you?”

“No, no. That’s fine. I’ll leave it unlocked. Good-night.” Then he went into the room and closed the door.

Grinning, Ghleanna went back to sharpening her weapons.

Bram entered the simple room and sighed in relief. Had she noticed his sudden panic? And lust? No. No. He doubted that. She didn’t notice. She never noticed anything about him, including his attempt not to be overeager about the pair of them sharing a room.

Nay. She hadn’t noticed a thing.

Bram stepped into the room and smiled. Quiet. Lovely, lovely quiet. Without bothering to remove his clothes, he fell face first on the bed and tried to push thoughts of Ghleanna from his mind.

Didn’t work, though. She was right there. Like always. Driving him mad.

And then there was Feoras. She hadn’t said his name but Bram knew whom she’d been speaking of. Feoras the Fighter. So named because he always fought to find a way not to have to do anything. Always looking for the easy way ‘round. The easy way to earn gold, move up the ranks, whatever. Honestly, his name should be Feoras the Jealous. He wanted to be where Ghleanna was but he didn’t want to work for it. Not like she had. The constant training; battles with humans as human so she could hone her skills; taking any dangerous, sure-not-to-survive assignment that came her way. No. Feoras wasn’t willing to do that. But he’d still wanted to be a Captain. A Dragonwarrior Captain who received all the best assignments, led the most important battles. When that didn’t pan out, he’d fucked Ghleanna instead. Then ran around telling everyone. Including many of her soldiers in the Tenth Battalion, hoping to turn them against her. Ghleanna had been mortified and had disappeared for months.

But what she still didn’t know was that her troops had not taken kindly to what Feoras had done. They’d not taken kindly to it at all. And they’d gone after him like rabid dogs after a bone. Last Bram had heard, Feoras was still on the run, hiding out somewhere in the Creese Mountains. And Bram hadn’t said a word to Ghleanna about it, because he’d hoped that Feoras would be tracked down and killed in short order so that it wouldn’t matter. It wasn’t very merciful, but as he’d told Ghleanna — his mercy only stretched so far.

Then again, everyone learned that about him eventually.