He paused, an undeniable and hated truth rising to the forefront of his mind. “But no matter how I feel about you, I cannot wed you or give you children.”
“I know,” she rasped. “But having you here and now is enough.”
Her words touched him, and he captured her lips with his own, bestowing upon her a swift, soft kiss. “Once when I was a boy, I dreamed of such things. Of holding my wife each night as she grew bigger with our child. Of teaching my son the skills of a talon. Of my daughter smiling up at me as if there’s no finer male.”
“I want the same,” she admitted. “A family. A place to belong.”
“I know, and I wish I could give you those things, draga. I do. With every fiber of my being.”
* * *
JULIA CLOSED HER eyes, hoping to ward off the joy and pain of his admission. The pain cut deeper than any knife, yet the joy dulled the sting. “I wish I could give them to you, too,” she admitted.
“What a pair we make, eh?” he said with a sigh.
Change the subject, change the freaking subject. If she continued down this road, she would break down and cry. She could tell him how she planned to find a way to break his curse, but why get his hopes up when she currently had no leads?
“Tell me about the women on your planet,” she said instead. “What are they like?”
He nuzzled her neck. “If I refuse to tell you?”
“I’ll give you a karate chop you’ll never forget.”
“Then I will tell you—” he lifted his hands, and she moaned from the loss “—after you give me a demonstration of this karate. My curiosity must be appeased this second.”
“Very well.” She crawled from the bed and pushed to her feet. When she bent to grab her clothing, he tsked.
“Ah-ah-ah, Julia. As I warrior, I know more about combat, and I’m telling you this karate is best demonstrated with no clothing to hinder the movements.”
“You’re sure, are you? Even though you’ve never seen karate?”
“Aye. I’m sure.” Expression mischievous, he propped himself up on the pillows. “Upon my honor.”
“Well, since your honor is at stake and all.” Gathering her courage, she stepped in front of the bed. He watched her as if he couldn’t tear his eyes away, as if he didn’t mind that she was, well, on the plump side.
Of course he doesn’t. I am beautiful, inside and out. Why had she ever let her mother’s voice get in her head, telling her she would never be pretty enough, would never be good enough? Because her mother had seen them as equals. But they weren’t. No two people were alike in every way. Julia wasn’t her mother, and her mother wasn’t her, their ideas of beauty different.
I am beautiful, she repeated. Even naked and covered with strawberry jelly. For all she knew, stick-thin women were considered malnourished on his planet. She grinned at the thought.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked him.
“I have been ready since I first appeared to you.” He crossed his hands behind his head, getting comfortable. “You may begin now.”
Lord, help me. Before she lost her nerve, she performed several moves she’d seen on TV. A high kick. A slash of her arms. She even pretended to chop a block of wood in half. He didn’t laugh. No, when she finished, he growled, “Come do that to me.”
And she did.
Later, she snuggled into his side and said, “So now tell me about the women on your planet. Are all the women as beautiful as Zirra?”
“Zirra is not beautiful. She is ugly. Evil. But nay, most of the women do not resemble her. They come in all different shapes and sizes, colors and temperaments. Just like here on Earth.”
“What about Imperia itself? You’ve spoken of the magic there, but not about the way you’re governed.”
As he petted her hair, he told her, “There is a Great Lord who reigns over the mortals, and a High Priest who reigns over the Druinn. Their word is absolute over their people. Then there are the Elite, the soldiers and the serving class. I served my Great Lord gladly, for he was a wise and just man.”
“So you were a soldier?”
“I was an Elite soldier.”
“And did you, my Elite solider, fight many battles?”
“Aye. You see, at one time the mortals and the Druinn continually warred. Then the two rulers forged a bond of peace, the mortals vowing never to destroy the source of the Druinn powers, the Kyi-en-Tra Crystal, and the Druinn vowing never to hurt the mortals with their magic. Many of the people, both mortal and sorcerer, were against such an alliance, however. Each wanted his own race to rule the other. When I left, a rebellion was brewing.”
“I wonder if it ever erupted and if so, who won,” she said. “The rebels or the kings.”
“The Druinn have many mystical powers, and the mortals outnumber them ten to one. Together, they could conquer anything, yet they were having trouble quashing this resistance.”
“Did the rebels have some sort of magic weapon?”
“Nay, they were simply more determined than most. And the world was quickly losing its vitality. The continual war between races caused cities to wither and many people to die.” Tristan shifted her more comfortably in his arms. “That which once thrived was quickly losing its resilience, weakening the classes and strengthening the rebels.”
“I’m sorry.”
He gently squeezed her hip. “Before my curse, I had been called by my Great Lord to fight the Druinn rebels.”
“So you were consorting with your enemy, weren’t you, when you were with Zirra?”
“We were not enemies at the time. Remember, our kings had just become allies. And besides that, I had always considered a woman a woman.”
“And therefore unable to hurt or overpower you, whatever her origins,” Julia finished for him.
He nodded, twin circles of pink staining his cheeks.
“Do you want to know what happened to Imperia once you left?”
“Aye. I
