The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon
Chapter 25

MIRA

I gasp for air at the sudden offer… Or maybe that’s an order even?!

However, Derrien accepts this as an invitation and bends lower to k**s me. His tongue enters me greedily, as always, fingers pressing into my chin and the second hand, that apparently lost the sponge already, is sliding up my spine and stops at the waist. I am shaking in his hands although I am not сold… Just what is this strange feeling? And why is it so hot in here? I feel steam around us lifting up to the ceiling…

I push him roughly, “Stop it!”

“Again?!”, he looks at me startled and I hurry to cover myself, “What’s wrong again?!”

To say that I am in shock is to say nothing. He doesn’t KNOW what’s wrong?!

“You… you… why do you keep doing that?”, I look at him breathing hard, “You bulge into my private bathroom without permission, you touch my naked body without permission, you k**s me again and again – not even bothering to ask for PERMISSION!”

“Permission?”, he stands up, “You know very well what you are here for!”

“How can I forget? You remind me of that all the time!”

“And?”, he raises his brow, “Only because you forget all the time! Or are you willing to be with someone like Dargen? Enjoyed yesterday a lot?”

I press my lips, “Since I am here I don’t enjoy anything!”

“Oh, really? So every time I touch you, you don’t enjoy it…”, he lifts up his chin, looking expectantly for my answer.

“N-no”, I say weakly. Why so weakly all of a sudden? What’s wrong with me? I need to stand my ground!

“No,” he repeats meditatively, and then looks at me again, “So, what exactly do you want, Mira?”

“Currently I want only one thing”, I press my knees tighter to my chest, “And that’s freedom!”

“You know you are not getting that… You are at the Selection!”

“There is a way!”, I almost yell at him, “I know that you lied to me and there is a way…”

“Elaborate, please”, he crosses his arms on his chest, still looking at me and it begins to bother me that the foam starts to die out…” I don’t know of a way a girl can leave the Selection!”

“Then, clearly, you haven’t read the book with your own rules!”, I snort, “If a girl receives an empty jewellery box from all the gerdian participants then…”

I don’t get to finish as he starts laughing. He laughs so hard that I see tears almost forming in his eyes. He is hysterical, hitting the marble sink next to him with his hand at every fit. Gods, I hate that man.

“That’s your plan?”, he rubs his forehead trying to resist another urge to laugh.

“Y-yes!”, I look at him firmly.

“Gods, Mira, you are an interesting girl indeed!”, he clears his throat and comes back to his usual serious self, “You do know that we have an urgent lack of females in our Empire, right?”

“I do”

“You do know that the Selection takes place only once a year, right?”

“I know”

“And you do know that it’s considered an honour to be here, not everyone gets a chance to pick or even have a wife at all!”

“Well, I didn’t know that…”

“Oh, then you are in for a surprise. Although the highest lords can come to the Selection any time they want until they have a wife, for lower-ranked lords and knights, not to mention the commoners – it might be an opportunity of a lifetime! And there are 25 of you and 50 of us…”

“There is 24 of us…”, I add, remembering dead Bella once again.

“Even worse then, Mira. The men who only get this one chance wouldn’t get out of here without a wife, no matter who is left. And you, Mira… you are not just anybody. You attract us.”

“W-why?”, I look up at him and for a moment it seems as if I shouldn’t have asked.

“For many reasons,” he chuckles, “So, Mira there is no chance for you to escape and…”

“Oh, trust me, I will!”, I interrupt him, “I can manage to make 50 men with enormously huge egos send me those damn boxes!”

“You know what,” he smirks, “I would like to see you try. Moreover, if you manage to get 49 boxes from other gerdians, I will give you my own and personally take you back to the Academy you love so much!”

“Really?”, I swim to the edge of the bath and look at him as a child who’s been promised a big present for his birthday.

“Yes, Mira, really”, he comes closer again and brushes fingers over my cheek, “If you don’t change your mind, of course…”

“I won’t!”, I say eagerly, not even bothered by him touching me again.

“Let’s make it a bet!”, he smirks again, “If you win and until the end of the month you get 49 boxes – then I will give you mine and set you free. But if I am right, and you don’t get enough, you… You fulfill one wish of mine. Any wish. Deal?”

“Deal!”, I can’t believe my own luck and stretch my hand to him for a handshake to seal the agreement. He looks at it strangely and then accepts it, but in the end, turns my wrist and k****s me at the top of it. Longer than needed. And very gently…

“Don’t forget, that you can change your mind anytime and just…”

“I will not!”, I interrupt him.

“Of course”, he chuckles darkly and then smirks at me, “Sweet dreams, Mira!”

Dreams? Remembering my last dream makes me shrug… but not with disgust… Oh, Gods, let me forget that dream once and for all.

I return my head back to the edge of the bath and close my eyes. The water is still nice and warm because the room is definitely hotter than it should be. But, oh, well! Tiredness gets to me… That was a long day… So long…

I hear footsteps and know exactly who came back… A hand brushes over my cheek and neck and I hear his husky voice, “Did you miss me?”