RPOV

"Roza."

My body felt like a bucket of snow had been dropped on it. Upon my reaction, Dimitri pulled back and for the first time, I seemed to see him. Not his pink skin, nor his silky hair. Not his lips or chin or even his eyebrows. I saw his eyes, and in that moment I knew the truth. Because I had seen those eyes on the Dragon. They were the same person. I didn't know how it was possible, but I knew.

I shook my head and backed away from him. From Dimitri, from Dimka, from whoever he was.

I had gotten up from the bed and dragged a sheet around myself trying to cover up what I had been so willing to give only a moment ago.

I saw fear and anguish in his eyes as I moved away. I knew he had feelings for me. I had seen it in his eyes, and now I understood the same emotion reflected in the eyes of the Dragon, but how could he do this?

"You lied to me. God, I am so stupid. Same scars, same life, the same living space. Even your names are similar. So what is it? Are you Dimitri? Are you Dimka? Are those even your real names or have you lied about that too?"

"No, Rose, my name is Dimitri. Dimka is short for Dimitri. My family calls me that."

Well at least he was honest about one thing. How refreshing.

I started to pace around the cave trying to sort my thoughts.

He got up from the bed, still stark ass naked as he moved towards me. Why did he have to look so good naked? And then I realized this was probably not even his real form. His true self was the Dragon. He probably cast some sort of spell on himself so he could look human in my presence.

"Don't come near me," I practically sneered at him. It wasn't just about him lying to me. I had been having some mixed feelings about Dimka and Dimitri. I loved Dimitri, but I realized I loved Dimka too. But as a Dragon, I knew we could never be together. And now they were the same person. I should have been elated, but all I felt was betrayed.

"How could you? Both of you. I shared everything with the two of you, and you couldn't even tell me I was talking to the same person?"

I stormed out of there, taking my clothes with me. I couldn't be around him. I heard him pleading me to let him explain, but I couldn't hear it right now. There were too many things going on in my head.

He walked out of the bedroom as I was putting on my dress. He had wisely put his pants back on, but his shirt was in the kitchen, so he was still naked from the waist up. But I couldn't see the beauty of his human body, all I could see was the scar. The exact same scar Dimka had hidden beneath his scales. All I could see was the betrayal it represented.

"Roza, please."

I held up my hand to stop him from talking.

"Don't."

I moved to bottom of the cave where I had bound my horse to a tree.

He had picked up his shirt at least and moved down with me. He knew better than to try and convince me to stay, but his next words hit me deep.

"I love you, Roza. If you can believe nothing else, please believe that."

And I knew it was true. But that made his betrayal all the more painful. He might love me. But he didn't trust me.

But I was compelled to answer him with my own truth. A truth I had denied for a while because it would have complicated my life even more.

"I love you too. Both of you."

And with that, I gave my horse a jolt and rode away from him. From the only man I had ever loved. From the only man that had loved me for me. I almost laughed at the irony. He wasn't even a man at all. The only person who could love me was a Dragon.

I had ridden my horse hard and had made it back to the village and back to Lissa in record time. I had come into her room a little breathless. I didn't understand why, the horse had done most of the work, but still it felt like there wasn't enough air in this room.

Lissa saw my disheveled state and immediately stood up from her chair and dismissed the other handmaiden who had been beside her needle-pointing.

"What's wrong?"

I paced the room up and down because I didn't know what to say. I didn't have any secrets from Lissa, maybe except the markings. But I didn't know if this was my secret to share. I am sure Dimitri had reasons to keep from me that a Dragon could transform into a human, at least in the beginning. But how could I explain to Lissa how Dimitri had hurt me without telling her all the details of his betrayal. It came down to if I trusted Lissa with Dimitri's secret. I looked at her and found nothing but concern for me.

"Did something happen with Dimitri? I swear if he hurt you I will make sure he pays for it."

She had her hand balled up into a fist. She was waving it in front of her, and I had to laugh, because Lissa taking on Dimitri physically, was hilarious. Certainly, now that I knew he was a Dragon. Some of that strength would have transferred to his human form.

"He did hurt me Liss. But I know he also loves me. That is what is making this so hard."

I slumped down onto the couch and Lissa sat herself next to me, taking one of my hands into her own.

"Tell me."

I took a deep breath. I didn't even know where to start really.

"He is going to leave soon. His army has been called into a state of readiness."

I actually laughed when it hit me. His Dragon army. I wondered why I didn't know what kingdom he belonged to. He wore human clothes of a country far away. I understood now why he didn't have any colors of his own. Because Dragon's didn't have colors - they didn't wear clothes!

"I wanted him to be my first, Liss. I wasn't ready to let him go. I wanted him. I needed him. Even if we never saw each other again, I wanted him to have that piece of me."

I saw Lissa flinch. No doubt whatever she was imagining he had done it was a lot worse than lie to me.

"He called me Roza."

Lissa looked at me weird. She didn't understand how that would have been offensive in any way. And it wasn't. The way my name rolled off of his tongue and the 'R' rumbled in his chest, the way that one word was laced with so much emotion, it made me feel special. It was the most beautiful sound I ever heard. But now he had tainted it.

"Only the Dragon calls me Roza."

Lissa still wasn't catching up to me.

"Liss, they are the same person. Dimitri is the Dragon just in human form. I have no idea how he does it or what kind of spell he used. I wonder if those markings have anything to do with it, but he lied to me. He made me believe I was talking to two people when he was the same guy. I told the Dragon things about Dimitri and not once did he mention 'Oh, by the way, we are the same person.' I loved them both Lissa. I didn't know what to do with my feelings for the Dragon, but it was him. All him, and he never told me."

Lissa just held me as I silently let the tears fall.

"He didn't trust me enough to know the truth. He didn't care enough to tell me."

She could barely understand me as I was blubbering as I was saying it, but I don't think she needed to. She was there holding me and whispering comforting words to me.

"He told me he loved me."

She pulled back to look at me.

"When?"

"When I stormed off, stark naked from his bed and was yelling at him about lying to me."

She chuckled.

"Then I don't know why he didn't tell you because obviously he is telling the truth."

I was a lot more cynical.

"Or he just wanted to calm me down and get me back into bed to finish what we started."

Lissa raised an eyebrow.

"So you two didn't finish?"

I shook my head.

"We were in his bed, naked and well on our way, but he called me Roza before he could much more than kiss me."

I think I heard Lissa mumble 'what a shame' but chose to ignore it if she did.

"Maybe calm down for a few days and then have an actual conversation with him about this? I am sure he had his reasons for keeping it from you. I mean, I wouldn't tell people I was a Dragon on the first meeting either. They would run away screaming or call me crazy."

I nodded. She was probably right, and I could have almost believed her reasoning if I had never met the Dragon. But I did, and I made it clear I wasn't afraid. He should have told me right then and there who he was.

"I just don't know if I can trust him again. He lied to me about something pretty major. Who says he won't do it again?"

Lissa shrugged.

"I think I could live with a few lies if he were amazing in bed. How did it feel before he blew his cover?"

She was expectantly looking my way, but all I could do was stare. She was resting her head in the palms of her hands and imploring me to speak. I knew Lissa was a sucker for this kind of stuff. Of course, she hadn't had any experience herself. She was virtue incarnate, and she had to stay that way until she was wed, but she wanted to know everything there was to know about it, and by the noises coming from her room sometimes, I would say she was experimenting on her own a bit too.

I thought back to the few moments before he ruined everything. It had been amazing. A smile came across my face, and Lissa squealed. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel his lips on my neck and his hands on my bare back. I had felt his erection sticking into my thigh as he lay between my legs and I remember how desperate I had been to feel him inside of me. His sheer size had alarmed me but also excited me. I could feel heat traveling down to my core just thinking about it.

"It was amazing Lissa. He was gentle for such a big guy, and he didn't rush anything. If he had just kept his mouth shut, I would have been blissed out by now."

I was also a little bitter. Not just at Dimitri, but with myself. Was I overreacting? Maybe I should have let him explain. But then I remember the look on his face as he realized I knew the truth. He hadn't been willing to tell me at all. He was going to go back to his army and his duties letting me believe he was human.

"But it doesn't matter. We weren't going to be seeing each other anyway. He has responsibilities, and so do I. Maybe it was for the best this happened. Saved my virtue."

I knew I was full of shit and Lissa gave me a look that told me she believed that too.

"I need a bath."

I said as I got up from the couch. I need to wash away the events of today and get a clear head. But as I walked to the bathroom I shared with five other girls and the teeny tiny bathtub I was missing the lake already.

I shook my head. It didn't matter if he had told me from the start. It wasn't like we could play house together in that cave anyway. Our lives weren't our own. I belonged to Lissa, and he belonged to his duty as a General.

I wondered what enemies Dragons had. Who would they go to war for? I was beginning to think he made it up so he could rid himself of me when it dawned on me Dragons did have enemies. Other Dragons, Snow Dragons. Dimitri would be fighting Snow Dragons.

The Icelands were a long way away from here, and I am sure Lissa and I would be safe here. Besides I didn't care what happened to a lying bastard like Dimitri.

An image of a dead Dragon body with dull brown eyes as blood flowed out of him came to mind, but I squashed that image away. I didn't know anything about Dragons, including if they had red blood or not. Because in all that time, neither of them had mentioned any specifics.

I had been hauling warm water for a while before I finally was able to take my bath. The lake was fed from an underground source, and the waterfall made sure the water was refreshed. So you always had a warm fresh bath ready for you whenever you wanted.

I slid myself into the bath and just let the warmth engulf me and wash away my thoughts.

I needed to get my act together. In a few months, Lissa would be eighteen, and she would implement her plan to rule with advisors from all walks of life. I didn't have time to dwell on my emotional connection with Dimitri. I had needed him to teach me, and if he was going to war, it meant he was no longer of any use to me. So I needed to move on. I needed to focus on Lissa and keep up with my training. I would have to talk to Alberta to schedule some more training sessions so she could ascertain if Dimitri's teachings had helped. I needed to be ready.

I was determined to put Dimitri out of my mind and fully focus on Lissa, but my mind kept wandering back to those moments only hours ago. And strangely enough, it wasn't the memory of his betrayal that kept making an appearance in my head. It was the moments just before. I felt my core throb with an unsatisfied need that he had unleashed on me. I had never felt anything like it. Sure I had been turned on, and I had even experimented a bit myself when I would find that rare moment of privacy, but this was different.

My body had overidden my mind, and I couldn't do anything but follow its instructions. I wondered what it would have felt like if he had touched me down there. Subconsciously, or perhaps with great intent, my hand traveled down my stomach to my core. I ran my fingers across the top and gasped. I was so sensitive down there. Usually, it took a little while to get to that point. I let my fingers explore the region. The nub on top was so sensitive, every time I flicked my fingers across it I felt a bolt of lightning run along my body. When I traveled further down and found my folds, I noticed they were already slick not just from the bathwater but with something more mucinous. I threw my head back on the rim of the bathtub as a finger slid inside. If the image of Dimitri could already bring me so close, I could only imagine what he could do in real life. I alternated with rubbing my sensitive nub at the top with slipping in and out of my wet folds. I wondered if Dimitri ever pleasured himself. I wondered if he had thought of me when he did it. I was trying to imagine anyone else as I continued, but only his face came to mind. Only his hands were covering mine as I was sliding in and out and I imagined only his cries of pleasure and words of love as he entered me in my daydream.

Did he do the same? Was he now in his bed trying to alleviate the sexual tension that had been built up from our earlier session but was unable to find its release because he had to open his damn mouth? I started to imagine Dimitri on the bed with his hard cock in his hands, moving his hands up and down.

I had seen a man do it once when I was younger. I had stayed and watched from the shadows with great interest as I saw a guard that had just come off duty pleasure himself to relieve some tension. He had dropped his pants slightly, and I was surprised when he took himself in his hands, and he began to grow. His cock had looked hard in his hands and after only a few moments of stroking it rapidly his face had grimaced in ecstasy and his body had jerked and released a white substance. When I had asked the girls about it, they said many men do it if they don't have a wife and cannot find a woman for the night. Apparently, the getting hard was part of the process and the white stuff had been the man's seed.

Was Dimitri's cock hard in his hand now? Did he whisper my name as he was stroking himself? Did he imagine filling me as I imagined him doing the same?

I noticed the feeling building. That familiar coil tightening low in my abdomen. I tried to get him out of my head before I climaxed but whenever I would stop thinking about Dimitri the feeling would subside, so I considered him a necessary evil right now. At least he was good for something. I picked up the pace in the homestretch. I imagined Dimitri moving furiously on top of me as he moved in and out of me and when I imagined Dimitri climaxing, I was lost. The orgasm had built and built, and when I finally let go, I shattered into a million pieces due to the intensity of the orgasm.

I had to catch my breath as I lay in the bathtub. I opened my eyes and cursed.

The markings had returned and why was the water hotter all of a sudden? There wasn't a fire nearby. What was happening? I took a few calming breaths and as my orgasm subsided from my body so did my markings.

"Rose, Rose are you alright?"

Lissa practically barged in, and I tried covering myself up a bit. I didn't know why - we had seen each other naked a lot of times, but somehow I didn't want her to see the markings. When I noticed they were gone, and she didn't see them, I relaxed a bit.

"Yeah, I am fine, why?"

"I heard you curse."

There was a sly, knowing smile across her face.

"After I heard you do other things."

She giggled, and I just groaned as I slid deeper into the bathtub. Well, I had heard Lissa a couple of times, so why be embarrassed?

My motion made some of the bathwater slid over the rim, and I heard Lissa yelp. Some of the water had gotten on her, but it wasn't the fact that she got wet that made her yelp. She seemed to be in pain.

"Rose, that water is boiling, how can you sit in it?"

I saw a small mark on her skin where the water had hit her, and sure enough it was red. It wouldn't be a full burn wound, but she would feel it for a day or two.

When I looked down at the water, I could see the steam coming off of it. The water was just shy of boiling, but I didn't feel it. I didn't burn. As a matter of fact I think it was the best bath I have had in a long time.

What was happening to me?