Unwilling to Succumb (The Dragon Lorde #2)

Chapter Twenty-One: Melting Slowly

The tavern was lively with drunken laughter and heavy pattering of feet against the floor. Men and even woman. Yes, there were women in the pub as well! Mind you, I was so preoccupied with the pirates that hadn't even a chance to spot them earlier. But there they had been, hustling around, pouring beer and spirits into men's tankards held high. Their matching brown dresses rustling quickly against the floor, as they rushed away from wandering hands.

In the split time of dancing my feet away, I realized my spur of actions became a jump for entertainment. Because at present, many drunken men were grabbing women passing by, swirling them towards the open floor and directing them into a waltz. Though their feet stumbled more than a foal on new legs, there was a certain merriment glittering in their glazed-over eyes. A cheerful warmth in their sluggish movements. The violin sped up in tempo and the whole tavern began to stomp their scuffed boots in rhythm, even the pirates clapped along.

Lorde Kaede and I joined the merrymaking. Holding onto each other, as we leaped across the floor with the rest of them. Though the only difference being the deafening silence settling between us, the stiffness of my partners movement, our feet battling like foes rather than flowing as one.

"I know this must be difficult for you." I whispered under my breath, towards the man who had yet to utter a word. "To open up-"

"Difficult is not a word that I would use, Miss Emoriah." Lorde Kaede interrupted, sharply. "Thus, if you are awaiting upon a congratulation, be known, you might as well give up now."

I frowned. "I am not awaiting upon any congratulation. I want to only know the truth!"

"Very well, you are correct." Lorde Kaede voiced out, in a tone that spoke of anything but enthusiastic willingness. "I was sent to overlook my father's actions those four years ago."

A smile spilt across my face. This was quite a rare occasion indeed, for not every day would you hear this man deliberately utter a word of approval from that blasted mouth of his. 

"You have always been annoyingly accurate in your presumptions.... especially for a woman."

"If that was a compliment, don't stop now."

"There is no purpose in compliments. I find them to be meaningless and quite impracticable. Why women would swoon over such silly words? I haven't a clue." Lorde Kaede surveyed me with his dark blue eyes, bringing a sensation of wings to flutter inside my stomach. "But strangely enough...."

My smile grew. "Strangely enough?"

"When you were taken away, I believe I grew quite.... restless.

"Did you really?" My green trousers flapped, as I was twisted into a leisured twirl.

His hand clutched over my own firmly. "But now that you are safe and well... I find such meaningless words and phrases crossing my mind, as I look at you now."

"What a shock that must be for you!"

Lorde Kaede shifted his gaze down on me, glaring with vexed irritation. "This is no laughing matter, Miss Emoriah!"

"Laugh? I wouldn't even dare!" I said, sweetly, with a few innocent blinks of my eyes, if innocence equaled to that of an impish creature with an eye twitching misfortune.

Sliding his hands down to my lower back, he pulled me close, until my nose practically brushed against his tailcoat. "I developed to my great disinclination a feeling that I might, to some extent, be entirely enamored by you."

"To some extent? Oh, how promising!" I burrowed my nose into his black tailcoat, breathing in the musky smell of a man, who hadn't had a shower in days. But rather then disgusted I was warmed with reassurance. A feeling that brought a massive smile from my lips, as they spilt from end to end.