Page 5 of The Last Dragon King
“Arwen!” Kendal called, and I veered to the right, where all of the young women stood in a long row. They were all in their best dresses and had even applied charcoal eyeliner and beetroot lip color, while I stood in linen trousers and a wet braid that Mother had tried to fancy up with a flower.
Now I felt foolish. Who came to the May Day kissing tent in trousers?
A hunter.
When my father died, it was the middle of winter. I’d never forget the pangs of hunger that following year for as long as I lived. The village gave us handouts here and there, but without a hunter in the family to do a monthly trip or work in the mines, we would have surely died. That year, I made my first trap and started bringing back small game.
Ratin was the lowest animal on the totem pole, but it allowed my mother to grieve and not have to rush into a new marriage to try to put food on the table.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
Mrs. Brenna, who was hosting the May Day tradition, walked towards the center of the room and cleared her throat. Brenna was human, and one of the village seamstresses. She sewed all of our wedding gowns, so making some lifelong matches today was in her best interest. She always wore beautiful dresses that pushed her giant breasts halfway into her throat and distracted all the men.
“Today may very well be the day you meet your future wife,” she told the men, and was met with whoops and cheers. She then turned to the women: “Don’t worry, they get better at kissing as time goes on.”
We all burst into nervous laughter, and a few of the men groaned at her insult.
I lined myself up directly with Nathanial, then the blindfold came down over my eyes.
“No cheating,” Kendal said as she tied it tightly behind my head. I made a slow and deliberate move to raise my blindfold a tiny bit but a hand came down hard, smacking mine.
“This is in the Maker’s hands now,” Mrs. Brenna scolded me, and my stomach tied into knots.
“Young lovers,” Brenna announced, “walk forward and kiss the first person you touch.”
The sound of scrambling feet filled my ears as we all stumbled forward, arms out. I wanted to call Nathanial’s name, but that would seem desperate. I tried to look down and see if maybe I could recognize his boots, but Kendal had tied this blasted blindfold too tight. Before I knew it, I’d bumped into someone, and his arms came around my waist to steady me.
My heart hammered in my throat. This was it.Thiswould be my first kiss.
Please don’t be booger-picking Vernon, I prayed to the Maker, and then reached up, trailing my fingers up his chest to find his face. His body froze under my touch and I almost lost my nerve. Was he scared? My fingers slid over the soft fabric until I reached his neck and then paused, afraid to grasp the sides of his face.
His hands were statue-still at my lower back, and I licked my lips to wet them. In the May Day kissing tent, the girls were the ones who made the first move, and you were allowed to back out if you didn’t feel ready.
Is this Nathanial?
Did he want to kiss me or run?
Rumor had it that all the guys peeked and Mrs. Brenna let them tie their blindfolds loosely. That if a guy got a girl he didn’t want to kiss, then it was a chaste peck, similar to one you would give your mother when young. But if he liked you… rumor also had it that it would make your whole world spin.
I wanted my world to spin.
Because my father died so young, I’d been thrust into the life of hunting and wearing trousers and sharpening my blade. Don’t get me wrong: I liked that life, but it made it hard for the other boys to see me as a kissable girl.
I want to be kissed, dammit.
A lump formed in my throat as nervousness built in my stomach. I swallowed it down and leaned forward before I fully lost my nerve. Trailing up his chin with my thumbs, I felt the stubble and sharp jawline of a man that wasdefinitelynot Nathanial.
I froze, panicked.
Nathanial still had a baby face, no stubble, and his jaw was chiseled but notthatmuch. Upon feeling this manly wide jaw and stubble, I wondered if I should go for his cheek. I was so set on kissing Nathanial that confronted with proof this wasn’t him, I wanted to back out.
But then his lips were on mine as he made the first move, breaking the cardinal rule of the May Day tent. A small electric spark shocked my skin and I gasped. He did the same—both of us inhaling the other’s surprise. Heat traveled down to my core and I leaned forward, deepening the kiss.
His lips were soft and unsure at first, but then they opened and I slid my tongue inside just like Kendal told me to and it collided with his. A small moan escaped him and my world spun as a grin pulled at the corners of my mouth. His hands at my waist stroked a smooth circle on my hips while his tongue did the same in my mouth.
Holy Maker.
This was the best first kiss a girl could hope for. My stomach burned with heat and my heart grew fluttering wings in my chest. The warm pillowy lips on mine made everything in me scream for more.
