The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon
Chapter 32

MIRA

Gods, I wish he was dressed because my face is right back where we have started a minute ago – his naked chest!

“That’s better!”, he says lazily and adjusts my position on top of him.

“Excuse me,” I grit through my teeth, “Just what do you think you are doing?!”

“Sleeping”, he mumbles into my hair.

“Like this?!”, I gasp and try to lift up my head, but he pulls me back in immediately.

“This is the best way”, he chuckles, “Warm and smells nice.”

“Good for you!”, I retort, “But I am going to be late for breakfast!”

“So?”, he asks indifferently.

“So I am hungry! I need to get ready!”, I wine and as if to prove my point, my tummy rumbles loudly. Gods… this is embarrassing!

“I see,” Derrien signs and suddenly rolls on the bed so that my body is under his now. He looks at me intensely and brushes his fingers over my cheeks and neck as if checking something.

“You’ve been missing dinners, Mira”, he states calmly, “Why is that?”

“I don’t like to eat at night”, I say the first thing that comes to my mind.

“Lier”, he snorts, “You didn’t want to meet with the gerdians. Anyone in particular?”

“No”, I blush.

“Maybe you didn’t want to see me?”, he raises his brow.

“I didn’t want to see any of you”, I give up, “Every time I come in contact with the gerdians it ends up badly for me…”

“You’ve lost weight”, he raises my chin, and says with a very serious face, “This is no way to go on!”

“Don’t men love slender ladies?”, I chuckle because this is so not him! I’ve never seen him like this before. For a moment I even forget that we are both half-naked, in bed, and waaaay too close to each other.

“Men like healthy women”, he smiles, “And you look like you are about to faint, little mage…”

“Then why don’t you roll off me and let me go to the breakfast?”, I smirk and he chuckles at that.

“You win, Mira”, he says casually and stands up from the bed, “And from now on I want you to be present at every meal they serve here! You do not need to worry about other gerdians anymore. As long as you wear my necklace, no one would dare touch you. For us… this is like a sign of belonging. Only a gerdian of higher status could do something about it, but no one here is currently higher than me.”

“Even Dargen?”, I look up at him, trying to hide how scared his cousin makes me feel sometimes.

“At the moment – yes”, he says calmly.

“At the moment? It could change?”

“Well, he is a duke and I am an archduke. If the emperor bestows him with a higher title or at least equal then…”

“How likely is that to happen?”, I interrupt him. Now Ryden’s words back at the ball start to make sense to me. When Derrien said that his rank is higher, Dargen said “Not for long…”

“There is a possibility, Mira”, Derrien tells me honestly, “Our emperor has no children, no heirs of his own. Sooner or later he would name Dargen the crown prince. And after that, he’ll pass the crown and the Empire to him.”

“And why not you?”, it slips out of my tongue faster than I manage to bite it!

Lord Derwood looks at me tensely for a few seconds and then says calmly, “Because I have already declined.”

“You declined?”, I jump on my feet forgetting how indecent I look, “You declined the whole empire?”

“I would always serve the Empire. But the ruling is not for me.”

“Oh my Gods!”, I snort and almost choke with laughter, “Are you kidding me? All you do is command everyone around you! You would be perfect!”

“Little mage”, he almost growls in a warning tone and takes a step in my direction, “Since when are you so interested in me? Is that a title you are looking for?”

“Gods, no!”, I splash my hands at him, “Who says I am interested in you at all?! But Dargen! Are you seriously planning to leave the Empire to someone like him? Imagine what he would do with all that power! No offense, but your cousin is a bit… well, to put it nicely, evil…”

“He already has loads of power in the Empire, Mira, and everyone is doing just fine! And what’s that about you not interested in me?”, he comes closer and grasps me by my hands, pulling me closer, “That’s not what you’ve been saying yesterday…”

“After you made me drink the poisoned wine, you mean?”, I raise my brow at him.

“That wasn’t poisoned,” he smirks, “It’s just a very special kind of wine.”

“Uh-huh”, I snort, not impressed with the explanation, “So special it makes the girls here behave like idiots!”

“So special it makes you say what’s really on your mind!”

“That’s what any wine does!”, I retort, “But what you’ve been pouring yesterday made more than that! Why would you even give us something like that? Don’t you want to see who really has feelings for you? What I am trying to say, you are choosing wives here. The ones who would be by your side forever… Don’t you want your future wife at least to like you?”

For a few seconds there he doesn’t say anything. Just looks at me. Strangely. Sparks of magic appear and die down in his eyes, but I am sure now that he is not angry. What is it then?

“Go to your breakfast, little mage”, he says finally and turns away, “After you are done there, I will need to talk to you about something important. Come to my chambers.”

“To be honest, I have no idea where your chambers are, lord Derwood…”, he flinches at my words.

“It’s the next room on the left,” he says and flames of dark magic consume him.