Volarn II: Heart of the Dragon

Volarn II:

HEART OF THE DRAGON

By

Myra Nour

(c) copyright June 2003 Mary Nour

Cover art by Eliza Black, (c) copyright June 2003

ISBN 978-1-60394-664-3

New Concepts Publishing

4729 Humphreys Rd.

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

“Thanks,” she said sarcastically, then smiling impishly, threw a handful onto his shirtfront.  A clump hit his jaw, hung for a few seconds before dripping in small plops onto his chest.

She should have known better.  He picked up a handful of mud and she tried to duck his throw.  A large mucky blob hit the side of her head.  Peering between her up flung arms at his laughing countenance, she retaliated with a barrage of mud.

Later, she couldn’t remember who really started the war, but soon palm-sized lumps of oozing mud were flying between them, fast and furious at first, then slower as they tired.

Kasha swiped the area around her eyes, glaring at him when her vision cleared.  He held two handfuls, ready to launch.  “I surrender,” she screeched.  He opened his hands and plopped the mud nonchalantly back into the water.

She was trying so hard to maintain her aggravation, but how could she?  Just look at him, she thought.  He was covered head to waist, all she could see of him above the water, in slimy earth.  Scattered clumps of mire stuck out oddly.  It gave him the illusion of some troll-like creature.  Even his hair stuck up in strange spikes.  She abruptly laughed.  It came on her so strong she had to hold her ribs.

Eric joined her, his laughter booming in loud bursts.  Regaining her feet gingerly, she reached down and scrubbed at the mud caking her arm.  It smeared, leaving watery tracks of organic material.

“I think we can do better by taking a shower under mother nature.”  He trudged slowly onto the level ground at the other side of the pool and she followed suit.  He stood with head back, scrubbed his face with one hand and let the drizzling rain wash his face clean.

She did the same, feeling immensely better once the slime was cleansed off her face.  “Here, let me help,” she rubbed at the clinging earth on his chest, truly intending to aid in denuding his body of the stubbornly clinging particles.

But, her intentions changed after her hands made contact with his firm flesh.  She clenched them unconsciously, wishing she could dig them into his taut chest.  She had no wish to injure him, but she wanted to touch him, deeply, in a way that went beyond mere caressing.

Kasha did not understand this savage urge that overtook her, but she refrained from carrying it out.  Instead, she ran her hands in gentle circles on his brawny front.

He cleared his throat.  “I think it’s clean.”

“Hmmm,” she purred, “but I need help too.”  She turned her back to him, knowing he would have refused to wash her front side in the same manner.  Swiping her hair to the side, she waited for his touch, a weak-kneed reaction firing through when his large hands started scrubbing the mud from her.

He stopped abruptly and she knew, without turning and facing him that touching her had aroused him as well.  She pivoted gracefully, shrugging one shoulder unobtrusively, causing the dress to slip down one arm.

“Your back’s done,” he swallowed and she could almost hear his dry throat clicking together in a painful reaction.

“I’m still dirty,” she shoved the uniform off her completely, standing under the chilling rain with only her tanla covering her lower parts.

She half expected him to turn away immediately, but his tortured eyes stayed glued to her body, just as his feet stayed planted in the wet ground.  She slowly ran her hands over her chest, caressing, not scrubbing the last of the muck from her form.  Her hands played the part of lover, moving gently, pulling at her flesh in sensuous circular strokes.  Even her nipples did not escape her attention, receiving soft touches that made her groan as she watched his face.

It was the heat lighting his handsome features that caused her reaction, not her own touch.  It felt as if the flames leaping from his gray eyes licked her body with fiery strokes.

She dared more, emboldened by her body’s response.  Picking up one of his callused hands, she laid it on one breast, then moved it in strong strokes upon her flesh.  “Don’t you want to help me?”

She groaned again as his hand moved on its own, gripping her breast in a tight clasp.  She removed hers from atop his, now that it needed no further guidance.  Instead, she moved her hand to his muscular chest, caressing him gently.  His chest clenched in reaction and she dared a sultry glance upward.  His grasp on her breast was hard, almost painful, raw as the emotions she saw flit through his lovely pale eyes.

The misery combined with a burning need almost stopped her.  She didn’t want to hurt Eric.  But then she remembered her own life, her own deeply buried needs.  She must find happiness wherever she could, and felt sure she would eventually convince the Earthman he could be just as happy without the seal of marriage between them.

She put the other hand to good use, unclasping her tanla, letting it slide unseen onto the ground.  Then she moved forward, rubbed her lower body back and forth hard against him.  Eric sucked in his breath, looked down, closed his eyes and groaned.

His eyes reopened to stare into her own, fierce, torrid, and agonized.  “Why do you do this to me?”

“It is not only you, but I suffer as well,” her throaty voice brought her own torture into life.

“God, help me woman, I love you.”  He gently grasped her face in both hands, bringing his lips to within a handspan away.  “Do you love me too?” His look captured hers, entreaty written as plainly across them as if a pen had scrawled it there.

“Does it matter?” She whispered, trying to turn his serious thought.  She firmly rubbed his biceps, hoping to sway him toward the physical instead of the emotional side of their relationship.

“It does to me,” he whispered back huskily, his gray eyes more distressed than ever.  “Is this what you want?” His grip hardened on her face and he turned it sideways, swooping down in one fierce move.

His kiss was an attack on her lips, a plunder of her tongue and senses.  Goreth help her, but she was hot, a helpless fledgling in his hands.  His kiss was meant to repel her, but it did nothing but make her want him more.

He withdrew a space and searched her eyes.  “Is this how you want it between us?”

“Yes, haven’t I been saying that all along,” her tone was light-hearted.

It did no good, seemed to have the opposite effect in fact.  Eric’s look turned dark and angry.  Mixed with the heat in his eyes, it was disturbing, slightly frightening, but at the same time extremely exciting.

Kasha and Puff set out to rescue Eric

She stoked Puff’s snout.  “Feeling okay, aren’t you boy?” He stared into her eyes, giving her that happy dragon look of his.  Then just as quickly his golden gaze shifted, became cloudy.  He bleated softly, putting a lilt on the end of his note, one which was his signature call for Eric.  She watched in disbelief as a large drop leaked from one eye and rolled down his long nose.  She caught it in her open palm, stared at the rainbow-hued dragon tear, a thing whispered to be sacred.

Kasha laid her head against his nose, knew her own eyes shimmered with held-in sorrow.  She caressed his jaw with the one hand, cupping the gem-like wetness in her other, and rubbed her head gently against his feathers.  “Please don’t cry Puff, I can’t take it if you do,” she whispered.

She dared to glance up.  His eyes glimmered in the suns’ rays, but no more tears fell.  “Can you read my thoughts?  Am I crazy?”

She didn’t know what to do with the dragon tear.  It was a thing not to be thrown away.  The basami licked the side of her cheek and she realized he had flicked up a tear of her own.  Inspired, Kasha opened her palm and sucked the huge drop into her mouth.  It tasted like a tear, slightly salty, perhaps with a tinge of flower flavoring.

“Will this give me power?” She felt silly after asking that question, especially when Puff cocked his head mischievously at her.

He bleated several more times, that special call for the Earthman.

“Are you trying to tell me something?  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kasha watched in amazement as he spread his wings to their full length, beat them gently, refolded them, then lowered his body into the position he assumed when Eric mounted him.  Puff looked at her, blinked several times, and then bleated again.  As plainly as if he had spoken, he was agreeing with her thoughts--that they should go get Eric.