The Dragon's Price (Transference #1)(63)
Instead of following, Enzio turns to me and says, “I am your sworn protector. Would you like me to stay with you?”
“No. Please go and have a bath and some food.”
He grins and kicks his horse into a gallop, following Golmarr’s brothers.
“Do you think we’re still betrothed?” Golmarr asks. “I made a solemn promise to you at the binding ceremony.” Speechless, I stare after his brothers. “I guess what I should be asking is…Sorrowlynn, if we are still betrothed, would you like me to ask my father to have it annulled?” He puts his hand under my chin and gently turns my face to his so I am looking at him.
“I have to ask you something first.” The pit of my stomach swirls, and the air feels too heavy. “You said when you kissed me by the waterfall that I bewitched you with my magic.”
He nods. “That’s how it feels.”
“What if that feeling is for the dragon part of me?”
His brow furrows, and he runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
I start rolling the leather lace of my shirt between my fingers so I don’t have to look at him. “It feels like you didn’t start liking me until after I killed Zhun—after I changed. What if I somehow influenced you with the dragon’s magic? Or maybe, because I healed you and a part of me went into you, I have bewitched you.”
“You haven’t bewitched me. I love you, Sorrowlynn. It started the moment I realized you were going to try to steal my father’s horse and run.” I look at him, and my eyes fill with tears. When I blink, they trickle down my cheeks. “And then, when you stood in front of your Faodarian nobles and screamed that you would rather be fed to the dragon than married against your will or sent home with your father, I loved you even more.” He takes my face in his hands and rubs his thumbs over my cheeks, over the tears. “That first night in the cave, when you saved my life and got me to the lake, I woke up and your head was on my shoulder. Your teeth were chattering in your sleep, so I put my arms around you to warm you up, and we fit together perfectly. Holding you in my arms felt so right. I knew then that I wanted to hold you in my arms every night for the rest of my life. But when we were with the Satari and you told me you were going to leave with or without me because you wanted to protect them even if it meant you dying…” He stares down at me for a long time, his gaze moving over every inch of my face. “That was the moment I knew you had taken possession of my heart so fully, it would never be my own again. Those things have nothing to do with the dragon’s treasure.”
My heart seems to swell inside of me as familiar warmth fills my chest. I have faced death, learned unimaginable things, and seen part of the world, all at this man’s side. In a mere eight days, I have lived a lifetime’s worth of things with him. I have gained the knowledge of hundreds of men and a dragon. If there is one thing I know with certainty, with all of the dragon’s victims’ knowledge and experiences lending to my minute and inexperienced wisdom, it is that what I feel for this man is intense, profound love. But the most important piece of knowledge stored with the many thousands of things is that love is precious, priceless beyond all treasure, and not to be forsaken. Wars have been waged by men, laws broken, families torn apart, treasures squandered, all for love.
I put my frigid hands on Golmarr’s warm cheeks and stare up into his uncertain eyes. “The dragons have it all wrong,” I whisper. “I have the greatest treasure in the world at my fingertips.”
“What is it?” he asks. His hands tentatively circle my waist.
“Love. Love is the greatest treasure of all, and I love you, Golmarr.”
His eyes slip closed, and a gasp of air escapes his body, as if he were holding his breath. He falls to the ground, kneeling at my feet, and clasps my hands in his. For once, there is no mischief in his eyes; they are more serious than I have ever seen them. Looking up at me, he says, “Sorrowlynn of Faodara, I plight thee my troth.”
I kneel in front of him so we are face to face, and blink tears from my eyes. “And I promise to be true to you, Golmarr of Anthar.”
“We need to kiss three times to make it binding,” he says. We both lean toward each other and our lips touch. When Golmarr starts to lean away from me, I grab the back of his head and hold his mouth against mine a moment longer before releasing him.
Golmarr smiles and kisses me a second time, his lips more demanding, his hand twining in my hair. I sway backward with the power of the kiss and nearly lose my balance. Pulling away, he wraps his arm around my waist and slowly lowers me down into the grass so I am lying on my back, looking up at him, framed by the blue sky.
I trace my hand over his chin and slide it around the back of his neck. “I knew I never wanted to live without you when you walked away from me to fight the fire dragon, but I didn’t realize what I was feeling was love until now,” I whisper. He stares at me with intense, hungry eyes, and then he takes my mouth with his again, kissing me with such need that I pull his body down onto mine. I run my fingers over his back and feel the solid mass of his torso through his shirt, the strength there.
“I love it when you touch me,” he breathes. He kisses the side of my jaw, my ear, and then trails kisses down my neck. The sun burns red against my closed eyes, and his lips find mine again. I am so lost in the physical sensation of Golmarr’s mouth on my skin, on my mouth, of my hands against his body, that for a long time I think of nothing but him. The sun slowly moves farther across the sky, yet time seems to stand still. I almost forget everything but this moment. But not quite.