[excerpt] (9 page)

One hour later, Lucian sat with his back against that very door, his leg bouncing off nervous energy as he waited to hear any signs of life. Worried, he knocked on the door. “Raven?”

No answer.

“Raven?” He pounded louder.

Feeling the walls vibrate from Lucian’s fists
a-rat-a-tat-tatting
on them, Serina ventured out to the hall.

Annoyance defined Lucian’s face. “She’s locked the door and isn’t responding.”

“I’ll go grab the key. Don’t bust anymore doors down.” Serina tried to lighten his mood, but Lucian didn’t respond. She returned holding the key out. “Here you g—”

He snatched the little skeleton fob from her hand, twisted the key and pushed on the door. It didn’t budge. “Raven?” he screamed.

“There’s a door from my parents room. Give me the key back.” Serina took the key and ran down the hall. “Lucian? Get in here fast.”

Raven’s unresponsive silhouette was a bold contrast against the cold white tile. A steady stream of blood flowed from an open laceration on her calf with a straight-edged razor beside her foot. Serina grabbed a few towels and placed a pressure dressing across the wound, then sent her energies inside to cauterize the wound without anyone the wiser.

Lucian’s jaw dropped. “She tried to kill herself?” Confused he mumbled, “Ray? What the hell are you doing?” He picked her up from the floor and headed back to the bedroom.

Serina eyed Lucian. It was a toss-up as to who looked worse. Serina grabbed a clean cloth and dabbed sweat from Lucian’s brow, then lifted his thick mane of curls from his neck and wiped the cloth across him. “Feel better?”

Lucian gave her a sluggish nod. “Why? Why would she do this?” Once he had Raven tucked in, he walked to the hearth, knelt down, and gathered some kindling. It didn’t take long for the room to fill with a sweet aroma of black cherry wood once the fire took hold. Tired, Lucian rested his head on the side of the bed.

Understanding the type of day he’d had, Serina suggested, “Lucian, why don’t you go freshen up. I’ll make us some hot tea.”

Lucian lifted his head to meet Serina’s gaze. “Better idea. You go freshen up and I’ll make the drinks. I’ve seen your balancing act. I’d like to drink it, not wear it.” He winked. “You’ve done more than humanly possible for us today, Serina. I can ask no more of you.” Lucian stood and walked to her. He snuggled her in his arms and regardless of circumstances, a shudder of need engulfed him. With his head atop of hers, he let his lips linger. This, he could get used to. Forcing himself away, he told her, “I’ll draw your bath. Stay put.”

“Don’t you need Duncan?” Serina asked.

Lucian smiled. “Funny!”

With a few minutes to kill and a sore back, Serina stretched out next to Raven. The heat from the fire found her a welcome target.

After filling the tub with some of Serina’s scented oils and placing rose petals in the water, Lucian sought out Serina only to find her sound asleep beside Raven. He looked over both his ladies. He loved one dearly, since the day they were born. The other, he knew he would love until the day he died.

He grabbed Raven’s toes and wiggled them. “Ray, wake up. We need to chat.”

Serina stirred. “Lucian?” She climbed from the bed and motioned him to follow her. “Come to me.” She opened her arms to him and waited.

Lucian wiped his eyes, but he didn’t move. Because right now—if he moved to embrace her, he was certain he couldn’t stop himself. He needed Serina right now more than he needed air. He wanted to lose himself in the woman and forget the day’s past events, and that wouldn’t be fair to her. When he did make love to Serina it would be from passion and a mutual trust, not sympathy. Lucian stood, took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on her palm. “I’ll send Duncan up now.” He walked out without turning back.

Serina’s arms fell to her sides. Her tears followed, stinging her cheeks. She moped down the hall like a scolded dog with his tail between his legs. Serina wanted to comfort, to hold him close and let him know she was there for him, that whatever he needed she would provide. Instead, she’d been cast aside like a pair of old shoes that were too small or not the right color or just plain ugly.

“Hi, Doc,” Duncan said as they passed. “Guess I’m on watch for the night. Lucian left. Said he needed air, a lot. Want to fill me in?”

“Not really.”

“Anything specific I have to do?” Duncan asked.

“Just be there when she wakes. I’m turning in for the evening.” Serina entered her room, closed the door, threw herself atop her bed and attempted to drown herself in tears.

Chapter Four

Magpies squabbled outside her bedroom window louder than a marching band. Serina pulled the covers over her face. It didn’t lessen the boisterous birds’ cackles, but it did knock out the sunshine telling her it was well past her time to rise and shine. Eyes clamped shut, she attempted to go back to sleep. She found no reason to hurry out of bed and subject herself to one, Lord St. James. She couldn’t face him, certain he’d laugh in her face after his blatant rejection last evening. He was probably still rolling on the ground laughing.

“I must have appeared so fatuous to him. Why would any man want me? I’m color blind, clumsy and
a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
ignorant to men and their needs,” she said to no one.

Her toes wiggled without her doing. “Oh, God no!” She rustled all her courage and inched her way from under the safety of her covers.

“G’afternoon, m’lady. Definitely color blind and clumsy, but ignorant doesn’t become you.”

Serina’s eyebrow shot upward. Lucian had a definitive drawl that one acquires after consuming more than their fair share of spirits.

Lucian stared at Serina from the foot of bed, glassy-eyed, his hair windblown and his breath...Well it wasn’t as fragrant as Serina remembered two nights past. She was willing to bet he’d found Father Butler’s stash of wine and chased that down with water from the horses’ trough.

Serina stared back.

“I’ll say it again, possibly louder this time so as you might respond? I’ll even enunciate. Good afternoon, m’lady.”

“Did you say afternoon?”

“Yes, I believe I did.” Lucian dug into his pocket after his timepiece. When he pulled the watch out loose coins hit the floor and rolled under the bed. “Look. Look there. See it?” He attempted to tap on the face of the watch twice, missing each time.

“You’ve left no doubt where the phrase
drunk-as-a-lord
comes from. You’re groggy!” Serina sat up and grabbed the watch from him. She held it so she could read it. “’Tis only quarter past nine you daft sod, not three forty-five.” Serina tossed the watch back to him. It bounced from his fingers to the floor.

“Why did you throw that at me?”

Serina bit her cheeks, but she laughed regardless. The look on his face was precious. His eyelids drooped obscuring his vision and his pouty lips sulked. Oh, how she wanted to kiss that look off his face, ah but...she almost forgot, she was thoroughly upset with him. Done with the likes of him!

Serina tossed the covers from her bed and began to trudge past the drunken giant.

“Where do you thinks you’re headed?” he asked as he hoisted her in the air and tossed her back onto her bed.

“Away from you.” Serina raced to reach the other side of the bed on her hands and knees, but Lucian caught her foot and dragged her back to him, covers and all.

“What do think you’re doing?” she shouted.

“I want you...” Lucian fumbled as he attempted to secure her hands.

“’Tis good to want, Lord St. James. It gives purpose to a person. Now let me go,” she yelled. “I’m going to check on Raven.” Serina kicked her way free, stomped out of the room and down the hallway.

“She’s not in there, and I’m not deaf,” he mumbled. “Just a wee inebriated.”

The spare room was found vacant. She tramped back to her bedroom. Hands on her hips, she demanded, “Where is she then?” to a second empty room. “Lucian?” Serina spun around. Before she had time to think, Lucian had her over his shoulder, securing her with his hand pressed hard into her bottom as he headed back for the bed.

“You’re insane if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking,” she screamed.

“What?” Lucian scratched his nose with his free hand. “I was last night when I walked out and left you. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“No you won’t because I’m walking out on you—just as soon as you put me down.” She punched at his backside.

“Bloody bugs are out.” Lucian tightened his grip on her bottom while she tried to wrangle herself free. “Physics, my wild rose. Pure and simple. I am bigger and stronger than you.” He slapped her little bum.

“Did you ever hear of David and Goliath, you big oaf? Did you just attempt to spank me?” Serina squirmed unsuccessfully.

“I will if you want me to.” Lucian secured her legs and whipped her around to his chest so she lay in his arms.

He gave her a brilliant grin, one she wanted to knock off his face if she could just get free. He proceeded to toss her flat on her back and cover her with his two hundred-forty pounds of dead weight.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Lucian,” she warned. Lucian’s mirth only enraged her more. “I mean it. Let me go.” Serina began to cry. “Please, I don’t want you…” She never got the chance to finish her sentence,
like this, drunk
.

Lucian covered her mouth with his hand. “Shush! You don’t mean that.” About to cover her lips with his, Lucian stopped and studied her two heads and four wild, ferocious eyes. “I would never hurt you. I just want to kiss you. Trust me...that’s all that could happen right now. I only want to tell you I am sorry I left you last night. I wanted you to want me for me. Pity was plastered all over your pretty little face.”

Serina pushed at his chest, grunting. “Get off me! I need to find Raven.”

“She’s with Duncan at Molly’s. Whatever you did to her helped. She’s back to her old chipper self and spry as the kitten in your kitchen playing with the mouse. Nor did she try to kill herself. Seems she reached for the soap and the blade fell from the window sill and since she doesn’t get on well with blood she passed out.”

“Please get off me? I can’t breathe.” She lied through clenched teeth.

“Not so fast.” He dipped his head towards her, testing the waters. If she truly didn’t want him, he’d know soon enough, when she clobbered him. “Serina?” From behind sealed eyes, tiny water droplets ran off her cheeks. Drops he’d caused. “I’m going to kiss you, just once, and then I’m pretty certain I’m going to pass out.”

“As you wish, m’lord.” Serina was finished fighting both him and her head. Her heart would win this round. Being stubborn was one thing. Being stupid was not an option. When his lips covered hers all her anger, self-doubt and lack of self-esteem disappeared. He moved her to unchartered territories. She’d never lay beneath a man before, and she found this divine until his tongue dragged across her cheek and left behind a slippery cold trail. Then his head bumped into hers, and she heard him snoring—that fast.

“Oh bloody hell. He’s got me pinned beneath him. This is not happening.” Serina took in slow, deliberate breaths of air. With only her fingertips free to move, she twirled them in an upward motion and envisioned a gentle wind to lift and carry Lucian to the other side of her bed. Short of breath and anxious when nothing happened, she spit out, “Any day now!”

Lucian’s snoring intensified, sounding like tiger purring in her ear.

Swearing and thoroughly upset she tried a second time. “Winds of change, pick up your pace. Place Lucian St. James into outer space.”

Everything happened so fast Serina didn’t have time to react. She blinked and Lucian spun horizontally above her, in a cyclic fashion. First, his head whipped past her, then his feet, then his head again, and he kept going like her Victrola at nauseating speed.

Fully awake, he screamed for his life, “M’lady, I beg of you, stop this,” as he grasped at air.

“There’s a slight problem, Lucian,” Serina yelled, “I’ve never done this incantation before. They rarely work as they should. Case in point, of course, being you.” She tried to duck seeing him coming directly towards her.

Lucian latched onto Serina as he circled. Now they were both caught in the windstorm within her bedroom. Lucian’s feet slammed into Serina’s coat-rack. Splintered. Serina’s nightdress caught her oil lamp and tore it from the dresser. There would be no more flicker from the shattered rubble.

“You have to stop this,” he screamed petrified.

Without giving it another thought Serina spit out, “The eye of the storm, a twist of fate, land us inside my garden gate.”

Inside one second, outside the next, and falling fast towards thousands of thorns and roses. “Hammock,” Serina bellowed a split second before they ruined her precious flowers. Never mind looking like a pincushion, the flowers came first. Serina had her priorities.

Serina shoved back her hair from her eyes and caught her breath. “Wow! I’ve never done anything quite like this before. What do you think, Lucian?” Serina asked exhilarated. “Lucian?” She tapped his cheek.

Lucian attempted to focus.

“I can explain,” she said. “You’re not hurt, right?”

Lucian stared in disbelief. He did however, find he fancied the position in which they landed. Serina was buried under him for a second time this morning with her legs spread to both sides of him, and her nightdress scrunched beneath her hips.

“Do you want me to tell you what happened?”

“Serina, after the past two days there’s nothing—absolutely nothing you could say that would surprise me. The cat’s out of the bag. I tried with the ignorance card pretending not to notice a few things, like the way Raven miraculously stopped bleeding last night or this feeling I can’t shake that you were—are still inside of me. And the funny thing—I’m quite sober now, thank you. I can’t even blame this on the wine or the whiskey or the scotch I got into last night thinking my sister attempted suicide after we were both attacked by vampires. This little excursion through the air was fun. We’ll have to get a magic carpet the next time though. Duncan told me I should, by all rights, be popping up daisies, yet here I lie! Not that I mind this position.” Serina opened her mouth to speak, but he placed his fingers to her lips. “Just tell me I haven’t lost my mind. We’ll go slow. I’ll swallow one dose of your reality at a time, Dr. Spencer. Fair enough?”

Serina nodded. “Fair enough. Can we go inside and sit down?”

Lucian bumped noses with her. “Just don’t point at me or say anything that rhymes.” He winked, but he was dead serious.

Pushing his leg off to one side of the hammock to get up, Lucian trapped his foot in between the crocheted knots and lost his balance. They went into second spin. One second he was on top of Serina and the next she lay atop him on the ground hysterical with laughter.

“You are truly something else,” he said as he reached up to brush her hair from her face.

Serina straddled him. Her new perch, she found empowered her. She also found out very fast that this was the direct route to relieve the itchy, tingling between her thighs. She rocked her pelvis over his groin, trying to be inconspicuous. Seems she wasn’t the only one that liked their new position.

He returned her
not-so-inconspicuous
thrust with one of his one. “What’s up?” he asked, his voice low and seductive.

“I am.” Serina jumped, her face flushed. “I’m going inside. I can’t do this here.”

“Do what?” he teased.

“This—outside.”

“Oh, but you could do it inside?”

“What was that name your sister calls you every chance she gets?”

“Imbecile.
Touché
,” Lucian answered with a nod of his head.

“Yes, that’s it. You coming in or sitting here alone?”

“I’m up too,” he announced as he brought up the rear.

Seeing a significant rise in his trousers she thought, that you are. “I’ll be right back. I need to change.”

****

“Where to begin?” Serina made herself comfy on her couch next to Lucian. “As you’ve witnessed, I was able to heal you and Raven because of special powers. I can also read people’s minds. I read all four of you.”

Lucian couldn’t help it, he fell more in love with her as the day went on. Every move she made stole his breath, like the way her lips curled higher on one side or the ever-present twinkle her eyes held. His favorite was the way she nibbled on her lower lip when she looked at him as she did now. “You’re a nosey little witch aren’t you?”

“There’s more…”

He sighed. “Isn’t there always!”

With her lips slightly parted and her eyebrow arched, she finished, “Anyway, with the three of us doing blood exchanges we are all now connected to one another. I can hear you if you call to me and vice versa.”

Lucian couldn’t focus on anything other than how the sleeveless, black, lace blouse Serina wore accentuated her breasts. With each breath she took he watched, mesmerized by the rise and fall of her creamy flesh. Oh, what his tongue could do for her if strategically placed on or around her nipples.

“Remember, m’lord, I can read your mind.”

A coy smile swept across his face
. Nabbed
! “You’re not the only one, Serina, albeit it’s different for me. Raven and I and our cousin, André have always had a special way to communicate with one another. Ever since we were children we’ve been able to read one another’s thoughts. André’s mum was our mum’s twin. Runs in the family I guess.” Lucian took her hand in his and stroked her fingers.

“Lucian, see if you can read my mind right now.”