The Noblewoman's Bargain with a Dragon - Chapter 1

Lady Emilia watched with keen interest as the two men - one of them her husband - traded blow after blow with each other in the courtyard below.

“And there’s a hit!”

The other burly man with a dark beard stumbled back to his feet as the younger man with brown hair helped him up. “Ach, damn it all. Well struck, my Lord Lucien.

“Declan, no need to call me that,” the other man, Emilia’s husband, Lord Lucien, laughed.

“Sorry...milord.” Declan replied.

Lord Lucien, shook his head. “You nearly had me there, Declan.”

Declan accepted the younger man’s assistance as he helped him up. He let out a deep laugh. “I always ‘nearly’ had you, milord.”

“Or perhaps Declan let you win to boost your ego, my lord husband,” Emilia chimed in from the ramparts above. Lucien and Declan look up at her, noticing her presence for the first time. Declan blinked before letting out a boisterous laugh.

Lucien gave a bemused smirk up at his wife before glaring crossly at Declan. “I do hope my wife isn’t onto something here, Declan. My dear old friend surely wouldn’t let me win, would he?”

Declan put a hand to his chest. “You wound me, milord. I would never.”

“I would not trust it, Lucien. Now that Declan is your captain of the guard, he has all the more reason to ingratiate himself with his new lord.”

Lucien shook his head, looking back and forth between his friend and his wife. “You are both horrible.” They shared a laugh at that.

Later that evening, Emilia, dressed in her nightgown, walked up behind Lucien as he was seated at his desk. He was scribbling away on a piece of parchment with a quill, illuminated by the soft glow of a nearby candle. Gently so as not to startle him, the blond-haired young woman bent down and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him from behind. He seemed happy for the distraction from the reports he was writing, melting into her embrace with a contented sigh. Emilia smiled when he returned the hug.

“This looks rather tedious,” Emilia mused, looking down at the papers he was leafing through.

Lucien nodded. “Mhm. Tedious, but necessary. Worrisome as well.”

Emilia frowned. “Worrisome? How so?”

He opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head and rubbing her hand softly. “I shouldn’t trouble you with this.”

Emilia pulled back, putting her hands on her hips. “Lucien,” she began, her change of tone commanding his attention. “You said we would keep nothing from one another. Do you remember?”

Lucien nodded. “I do.” He drew aside a specific piece of parchment and smiled at her. “You are right, my love. I apologize.”

Emilia sat in the chair next to him with a wry smirk on her lips. “One of these days, you may kill me with your gentle nature, husband.” He grinned at that. “What is it that has you worried?”

He looked back at the parchment he pulled aside. “Troubling reports from the outposts to the south. They’ve sighted movement just over the border to our territory.”

Emilia frowned. “And what else?”

Lucien leaned back in his chair and looked back at her with concern written on his face. “Rumors abound of a buildup of orcs in the south. Apparently some upstart named Karghash the Blackened is rallying the local orc clans to him by force or threats. It could be an army. And given how close the southlands tribes are to our borders, well …you see my concern now, yes?”

Emilia nodded. “My father told me that the orc tribes haven’t managed to unify in over a century.”

“This is true. But if these rumors are to be believed, apparently this Karghash has managed to do so. And Maker knows what he plans to do with this army thereafter. It doesn’t bode well for us.”

There was a pregnant silence between them for several moments. “W- what will you do?” she softly asked.

Lucien rubbed his temples. “I’ve dispatched a messenger to the capital imploring the king to muster reinforcements in the event that we should be invaded.”

“But that will take some time, will it not?”

“Of course it will. But what other choice do we have?”

Emilia paused, looking away with uncertainty. “And what about us? How long can we hold out, if the worst should happen?”

Lucien scratched his chin. “Our local militia is well-trained, and the men respect us. We could hold out for some time, but not indefinitely. I can only hope that the king sees sense in sending forces from the capital to aid us, if it comes to that.”

Emilia nodded, gulping. “Lucien…are you certain that the king would go out of his way for us?”

“What makes you say that?”

She rubbed her arm, taking a deep breath. “...because of me, and my family.”

Sensing her trepidation, he turned to her, taking her hand in his. He stroked the back of her palm with his thumb. “That is water under the bridge, my love. The king pardoned your father and your family. And I loved you from the day I first set eyes on you.”

Emilia smiled softly, leaning over to kiss him on the lips. “You’re far too good to me. I can only hope the king is half as compassionate as you.”

Lucien wrapped his wife in a warm hug. “All will be well, my love. I’ve fought orcs before.” He smiled widely. “And I am a war hero, after all.”

She laughed serenely, feeling herself momentarily put at ease by his easy-going confidence. It was part of what made her fall in love with him in the first place. He always had a way of lifting her spirits when she was feeling gloomy, even if only temporarily.

“Why else do you think I wed you?” she said with a grin. “Not your good looks, surely.”

He shook his head. “Horrible woman.” Lucien leaned forward and snatched her lips in his, and she met the kiss with equal passion.

Pulling away, she saw the familiar look of hunger in his ruggedly handsome face, and she had to admit that she felt the same way. Her heart pounded in her chest and a familiar tingle crept up in her nethers. Without another word, she took his strong hand in hers and urged him to his feet, he eagerly followed her as she led him to their bedchamber, playfully pushing him back onto the fur-covered bed when they reached it.

Emilia turned her back to him, looking seductively over her shoulder. Delighting in the knowledge that his eyes were hungrily watching her, she slipped her gown past her shoulders, sliding it down her slender body and to the floor. She stepped out of the gown pooled up at her feet, turning back to her husband with a shy smile, her hands covering up her breasts.

She dropped her hands and revealed her nude body to him fully, chewing her lip wantonly as she saw the desire on his face. He stood up from the bed and approached her, and she could see that there was already a clear tent forming in his trousers. It gave her a feeling of elation to know that his desire for her had not waned since they’d wed each other all those months ago, and the feeling was mutual. Lucien gently stroked his strong hands up and down her body, ever so slowly sliding up to her breasts, his thumbs tenderly rolling her pink nipples. Her breathing quickened and she felt herself growing more aroused and needy, breathily moaning into the kiss that he planted on her lips while he began stroking her sensitive nipples.

“Lucien,” she whispered as she pulled back from the kiss.

“Hmm?”

“Can you...do the thing with your mouth?” she asked, trying and failing to hide her eagerness.

A wide smile spread across his face. “Oh my, you enjoyed that, did you?”

She chewed her lip sheepishly, feeling rather embarrassed but also excited. A part of her still felt that it was unbecoming of a lady to crave something so sordid. “Of course I did,” she whispered as quietly as a mouse.

But Lucien only smiled again, pulling her in for another kiss. “You do not need to feel embarrassed, Emilia. I can do this whenever you wish me to. I promised as much on our wedding night, don’t you remember?”

She smiled, her cheeks turning bright red. “It is awfully hard to forget.”

On their wedding night, all those months ago, Emilia had been so timid and uncertain. Pleasures of the flesh were entirely a foreign concept to her, and she hadn’t known what to expect. And this was compounded by her marriage to a man who was a stranger to her, aside from what she’d heard of his exploits during the last border war.

But on her wedding night, she’d discovered just how adventurous her new husband could be. She supposed it may have had something to do with his lowborn upbringing and the lack of decorum that came with it. His status had been a cause for concern for her mother and father - the Baron and Baroness Valonia - when the marriage had been arranged. After her father’s role in a rebellion against the king and her family’s subsequent pardon, the Valonia family name had been tarnished and she herself had been tainted by her treasonous father’s reputation. The arrangement for her to marry Lucien - a lowborn peasant-turned knight - had only come about due to a lack of suitable candidates.

Lucien was the only one who would have her, but he certainly didn’t seem to feel the same way when they wed. She had gone into the marriage expecting a boor who reviled her because of her family name and sought only to use and abuse her. Instead, she found herself being wed to a comely man surprisingly close to her in age, who looked at her with adoration upon meeting her for the first time.

And when they consummated their marriage that night, she had still naturally been nervous. The prospect of losing her maidenhood was nothing to be taken lightly, after all. But her new husband continued to surprise her. Instead of just getting on top of her and having his way with her like she’d been led to expect, he’d instead gotten on his knees between her legs, planting kisses along her inner thighs. When he eventually came upon her sex after making her shiver and tremble in all the right ways from the teasing kisses, he began using his mouth on her, and her entire world seemed to slip into one of euphoria.

She learned a valuable lesson that night: don’t judge a book by its cover. By the time he’d wrung three orgasms out of her with his mouth, he’d finally penetrated her after she got to the point of begging him to do so. There was some pain and discomfort from the loss of her virginity, but not nearly as much as she had anticipated. He had taken the time to ease her into the act rather than forcing it upon her like so many other men likely would have. How many of the very same noblemen who turned their noses up at Emilia for her family name or Lucien for his lowborn upbringing would have just stuck their cocks inside her right from the outset? A great many, she suspected.

Since that first night of unexpected passion, Emilia and Lucien made love on a regular basis. Emilia did this not because of her duty as his wife, but because she genuinely had come to adore him in more ways than one. His selflessness and willingness to help his people despite how new he was in his knighthood, and his passion for her. He had not only accepted and continued to heed her council despite her family’s past transgressions against the crown, but he had allowed her to embrace her own body’s passions in the bedroom.

Though they’d wed each other as strangers, she’d come to love this man, and would do anything for him.

Anything.