The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 41

MIDAS

If he was unsure before, he is beyond certain now.

This woman will be absolute end of him.

If not by running headlong into danger and dragging him with her, then it would be by torturing him until he went insane with l**t and need.

At this point he is almost certain she is doing it on purpose.

All day he has been trying, more than he has ever had to.

Trying to force himself to think about something else...anything else but his mind refuses to cooperate and has decided to do nothing but play out the events of this morning over and over and over again until Midas is sure he is only but a few steps away from madness

He groans for the one hundredth and seventy fourth time and pushes the papers on his desk away.

Forget concentrating on royal treaties and proposed alliances, he could barely even focus long enough to finish reading a line without the image of her interrupting his flow of thought.

To make matters worse, he has been sporting a raging hard on for the better part of the day.

Whenever he thought he had managed to sufficiently distract himself enough for it to abate, he would replace himself suddenly thinking of her again, would hear his name falling from her lips and just like that, he would be right back where he started. Hard as a rock and very thoroughly turned on.

Safe to say he had spent the entire day in a haze of frustrated irritation.

One hundred and seventy five.

Why in all the realms had he even gone back to the room?

Sleeping beside her had been hard enough.

Before the scent of her and utter exhaustion had finally lured him into blissful oblivion, he had spent the better part of the night staring up at the ceiling, feeling like a stranger in his own bed and fighting the urge to pull her into his arms. There is no question about it, he wants her; more than he has ever wanted anything before her.

He wants to do things to her that would probably condemn his soul straight to the underworld.

But the issue is he does not know how she would react to him and if he is to be completely honest, he is not even sure he wants to replace out.

Midas has never before had to wonder about how a woman would react his advances.

In fact, now that he really thinks about it, he has never even had to make any 'advances' at a woman before.

As it turns out, a crown is all the persuasion most women need and they fell at his feet without so much as his lifting a finger.

They fell when he wanted and how he wanted. They fell even when he did not want them to.

He made no promises and offered them no illusions.

His heart was an unattainable, unreachable goal he neither knew how nor even wanted to give and they all knew it.

Those who did not, found out the hard way.

So for him, s*x had always been simply that... s*x.

Nothing more than a physical act he did once in awhile because dragon king or not he still had blood flowing through his veins.

And this is why he has been trying so hard to stay away from her.

Because he knows...is absolutely certain that nothing will ever be 'just' physical... not with her.

Throw in this damned tether bond into the mix and this entire situation became a recipe for complications and emotions Midas has spent the last one hundred and fifty years of his life trying to avoid. He has no desire to go down that route.

Besides Midas does not trust her and he does not think he ever will.

And this is not simply because of what she has done and how she came to be in his realm but because of what she is.

A very painful memory and his many years alive, have taught Midas what he already knew; that humans were selfish and deceitful creatures who cared only for their own skin not even each other. He will never ever trust their kind.

His father had done so and he and Midas' mother had paid the ultimate price for their mistake.

Sure, over the years, he had made sure the humans paid for what they had done to his family but it did not erase the years of hurt and anger he still carried around.

And he'd be damned if he let her with her seductive blue eyes and entirely too kissable body send him spiraling down that hole.

But his body is not ready to listen to his head and it with each passing day, it was getting harder and harder to remind himself of exactly why he hated her and her kind. And now...one hundred and seventy six...

She just had to go and make matters worse by doing what she did.

He closes the books in front of him, giving up on any attempt at distracting himself.

She is nothing but trouble, coming into his life and turning everything on its head.

Thinking back now, he should never have gone to her last night in the first place.

If he had not done that then he would not have had to sneak out of his own room this morning and he would not have forgotten his sword behind and had to go back to get it.

But her words when he had found her hiding in his study...

"Every night I go to bed thinking you'll be there when I wake up and yet when the morning comes half the bed is still cold and empty. You never come."

And the look on her face when she had said it, head bowed, gaze cast down.

Disappointment? Uncertainty?

Midas is not sure but whatever it was, it had done something to him and against his better judgment he had come to their room that night.

He made sure she had been fast asleep already when he pushed open the door.

He had thought that would make things easier.

It had not.

One look at her long, lashes casting dark, sweeping shadows across her cheekbones, red lips parted in the gentle breaths of one who is deeply asleep and Midas had known he would get no sleep that night. He had found himself sneaking glances at her as he took off his swords and his boots...his armor...his shirt.

There was something different about her and it wasn't simply the fact that for once both were in the same room and neither one was attacking the other.

It was something else. Something that he could not quite lay his hands on yet it tugged and pulled at him, drawing his brows together in a frown of confusion.

It would not come to him, what this 'something different' was till many hours later when his eyes finally began to drift shut in sheer tiredness.

Whatever demons she carried around with her, had been left at the feet of consciousness and now deeply asleep, it was the first time since the moment he laid eyes on her that she had finally looked peaceful.

And when he had eventually drifted away towards the oblivion of sleep's welcoming arms, Midas had found himself wondering if to her he was one of those demons.

He had slept soundly.

So soundly, he almost would not have awakened in time where it not for Er'gan, who of course spared no hits in telling him exactly how ridiculous this entire thing was, stirring him awake at the last second and he managed to leave the room before her eyes could open.

And that would have been the end of the entire thing if had not been for that dastardly sword.

For in his haste to leave the room before she awoke, he had left one of his swords behind.

No harm done. He remembers thinking.

Even if she were to be awake, he is king of his realm and he would not be made to walk on egg shells in his own home.

If anyone should be doing so, it is her.

And arming himself with that thought, he had stalked towards the room.

He would laugh at himself now if he were not so thoroughly aroused and thus utterly annoyed.

If he is to be completely honest he had heard her cries and moans, had known exactly what she was doing even before he opened the door.

Yet he had been powerless to stop himself from lifting his arms, from turning the door knob and pushing the door open.

But knowing something is completely different from seeing it.

So very different.

By all the gods...she had been f*****g beautiful.

Eyes closed...touching herself to his name... hips grinding against the cloth bundles up between her legs.

He had never been more jealous of an inanimate object in his life.

Hands in fist by his sides, heart pounding, mouth dry, he watched her drive herself to a climax.

It had taken every ounce of his self control to stop himself from going to her.

To use his tongue and fingers and show her exactly how much he could make her come undone.

And when she did come, head thrown back in a cry of absolute, s****l pleasure, her hand clutching desperately at the sheets Midas' control had finally snapped.

And it was either leave the room or take her in his arms and f**k her brainless till she melted in his arms, a pool of naked satisfaction.

He almost hadn't left.

Midas also did not see her for the rest of the day. He made sure of it.

Not even to go back and take the blasted sword which of course he had forgotten...again.

The bells ring out for the tenth that time that night.

Midas pushes himself from the table and turns around to stare out the large window behind him, at the stillness of the castle grounds.

The moon is a glittering ball of shimmering white light and he can hear the song of noisy crickets and the far off hooting of a red-beaked mountain owl.

The lights are almost all out in the direction of the capital, and within the castle's walls everyone will be settling down for the night, the Ryders on duty falling into position for the night's watch.

He wonders vaguely if she will be disappointed or relived that he has once again not come to her this night.

One hundred and seventy seven.

A knock, loud and clear mercifully interrupts his train of thoughts.

"Enter."

He does not need to turn to know who it is.

"Your highness."

"You may rise Leo."

The chief Ryder walks up to his table.

If he wonders why the king did not come to the great hall for breakfast or dinner and insisted on attending to matters outside the castle when he should have been behind the castle's walls, Midas does not know but he is sure Leo knows something is not quite right. But the chief Ryder does not pry, he knows better.

He simply goes to the decanter of spiced wine on Midas' shelf and sloshes the dark amber liquid into two glasses.

"You called."

Midas accepts the offered drink and sinks into his chair. "I did."

Leo stares at him for one silent moment. "Shall I hazard a guess?"

"I would say No but I doubt that will stop you."

"Pre-binding ceremony jitters?"

Midas groans.

One hundred and seventy eight.

"Do not remind me."

A grin splits Leo's otherwise stoic face. "The dragon king finally getting married, Never thought I'd see the day."

Midas' drink disappears in one go. "Well, neither did I"

"And to a human nonetheless..." Leo's smile disappears, all brevity gone from his tone. "...are you okay?"

Midas stares at nothing in particular. "If I refuse, the dragon throne will not accept her."

"I would think the thought of a human having any sort of control in the 5th realm would be enough reason for you to want exactly that."

"As did I"

"And yet..?"

His fiery golds lock unto Leo's calming greys.

If Midas knew the answer to that question he would not be sitting in his study, trying to drink his thoughts away on the night before his binding ceremony.

He slides a wooden box with intricate carvings and a silver clasp across the table and towards his only friend.

"Give this to her. Tomorrow morning, before the ceremony."

"Ah, so my presumptions were right, you are avoiding her. Tell me, will you have me marry her in your place tomorrow as well?"

Midas scowls. "Do not think the thought has not occurred to me."

Leo shakes his head and rises to his feet. "You know you do not have to do this. She is just one human girl."

"That's the thing Leo. I am no longer sure if I am doing this simply because I have to..."

"Or...?"

"Or because I want to."