Night's Awakening (7 page)

Her gaze lowered to the floor for a moment. “I’ve never been so reckless or careless before with my partners. We didn’t even use a condom. I didn’t even think about it.”

“You willna catch a disease from me.”

“Nor me,” she hastened to add. “As for the other—”

“Other?” he interrupted her.

She frowned at him as if he were addled. “Pregnancy.”

“Ah. Um…I doona believe you need to worry about that either.”

“You doona believe,” she mimicked in a Scottish accent. “Forgive me if that doesn’t relieve me. I assumed I’d have kids when I married, but I’m not ready for them now.”

“Trust me, Elena, you doona need to worry.”

“Can you not have children?”

It was difficult to explain. No Dragon King had a child. Their women might get with child, but the babe never lasted to term.

Guy shook his head in answer.

“I see,” she said, and walked slowly to the tray of food on the table near him. She picked up a chip next to the sandwich and nibbled at it.

He could see how her eyes kept going to his tattoo. He waited for her to ask him about it, but she seemed content to just look from the head and flames to the dragon tail that ended at his left hip bone. Would she ask to see the rest that was on his back?

Guy wanted her to see it. And more than that, he wanted her to ask about it.

“Do you like working with gems?” he asked into the silence.

She smiled and reached for a sandwich half. “Oh, yes. I love finding them and discovering what will be their perfect shape for jewelry.”

“Do you design jewelry?”

She laughed, the sound like music to him. “No. I’m not that creative. As much as I love the gems, I’m useless in anything other than determining what kind of gem it is and how best to use it.”

“That’s no’ useless.”

Her gaze lifted to him. “Many think what I do is boring.”

“Tell them to bugger off.”

She laughed again, and he found he wanted to keep making her laugh. He loved the sound. It filled him, which was odd because he hadn’t thought anything was lacking in his life until recently.

“There are those of us who actually go looking in places all around the world for gems,” she continued.

“What kinds of places?”

She shrugged and swallowed her bite. “They’ll dig in the earth, shift through rock and water, and even go into caves.” Elena’s voice faded as her eyes got large. “Oh, my God. Could that be what Sloan was after? Were there gems in the cave?”

Guy frowned, his mind working. There were gems deep in the earth, but none of them had ever tried to work them from the mountain. They had no need of gems.

“It’s a possibility,” he said, and looked at the door. “They should be returning soon. I need to see what they’ve found.”

He hated to leave her, but if she was right, it could explain what Sloan had been doing in the cave. But it wouldn’t clear Elena’s name in Con’s eyes. Guy feared nothing would ever clear her name.

Elena didn’t have long to wait before her clothes were brought to her by an older woman who not only didn’t look her in the eyes, but didn’t speak either.

She tried not to make more of it than it was and quickly put on her own clothes. Though they were a reminder of Sloan’s death.

For the next hour, Elena hobbled around the room. She’d sprained that ankle before, and it had taken several days before she could put any kind of weight on it. The pain that had filled her when she was first brought to the mansion was gone. Just a little twinge every now and again.

It was just odd to have an injury heal so quickly. Then she remembered Guy’s hands after he’d brought her down the cliff. There had been so much blood. For a moment, she thought she might have seen his wound heal, but she must have imagined it. Right?

Elena looked down at her ankle. The conversation she’d heard outside her door about midnight flights came to mind. There was something going on at Dreagan. Whatever it was, they wanted it kept private.

She checked windows to see if she could escape. The windows opened, but it was a sheer drop from the third floor to the ground. A fall in her current condition would only make things worse.

A glance out into the hall showed that someone stood at the stairs. She couldn’t tell who it was, but she saw the shadow. Which meant, she couldn’t walk out of the mansion as she’d hoped.

“Well, hell,” she mumbled.

She wasn’t keen on waiting around to discover what Con would do to her. Guy might believe her, but she could see the others weren’t so open minded.

The fact that they were hiding something was obvious. But what could it be? Drugs? Money laundering?

She quickly threw out those ideas. There was money at Dreagan, but none of the people she had met were the drug or money-laundering type.

It had to be something different, something she wasn’t thinking of.

“Guy said it was life or death for them,” she muttered.

After another hour of trying to determine what the mystery was, Elena felt her ankle throbbing from all the walking. She’d been on it too long. With a sigh, she returned to the bed and stared at the ceiling.

She licked her lips, her heart racing as images of her and Guy in the shower played through her mind. The man knew how to touch her, knew how to give her the most wickedly intense pleasure.

Her breasts swelled just thinking of him thrusting inside her. She might have always played it safe, but up until she met Guy, she’d never wanted to throw caution to the wind before.

With him, however, everything had changed.

Everything.

And it scared the shit out of her because she realized what the attraction meant.

It meant she was likely to do something rash and reckless again. Which could be why she wasn’t too upset about having to stay locked in such a gorgeous room, hoping Guy returned soon.

Alone.

“Please be alone,” she whispered.

Chapter Eight

Guy walked out on Con and Rhys. It was the first time he had actually walked away from Con before. But he couldn’t stand to listen to them think of ways Elena was plotting against them.

At least Banan was gone. He’d been sent to London to see what he could learn of Sloan, Elena, and PureGems.

Guy paused outside Elena’s door. Con had asked him why he defended Elena. It wasn’t as if Guy could tell them he’d slept with her, that she occupied his thoughts until he saw her everywhere.

How he wished Hal were there so he could talk to him. But he had to go it alone.

“Bloody hell,” he murmured.

He put his ear to the door but didn’t hear Elena. She’d been left alone nearly all day. Surely someone had gone to check on her. It hadn’t been his intention to be stuck in the mountain with the others, but with her information, it was necessary.

Guy opened the door quietly and peeked in to find the fire dead and the lights out. It stayed light out well past midnight, and with the large windows, there wasn’t a need to have the lights on.

He stepped into the room, his gaze riveted on Elena, who lay sleeping on the bed. Her blond waves were stretched out on some pillows, and her injured foot once more raised upon others.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Con whispered from behind him.

Guy sighed. He should’ve known Con would come looking for him after he stormed out.

“You believe her?”

Guy nodded.

“Would you stake your honor on it?”

Guy hesitated and turned to look at his King over his shoulder. “I’ve followed every order you’ve ever given us, even when it meant turning against one of our own, even when I knew Ulrik was right. I sent my dragons away because you said it was the best thing for them. I gave you my dragon magic to help put a stop to our feelings. When was the last time I asked for anything, Con?”

“Never,” Con answered without hesitation.

“I’m asking you to trust me now. You weren’t there when we found Elena.”

Con sighed. “Nay, I was no’, but that doesna mean she’s no’ a good actress.”

“You can no’ fake fear like that. Maybe with words, but no’ in how she reacted with emotions and actions. She’s innocent in this.”

“Then you need to prove it. I have to take action. You understand that. No one can know what we are.”

Guy looked into Con’s black eyes. “I do understand, Con. And if it isna Elena?”

“Then we discover who was behind Sloan getting onto our land and into the mountain, but if it is Elena—”

“What are you going to do?”

Con placed a hand on his shoulder, his mouth tight with weariness. “It’s no’ what I’ll do, Guy. It’s what you’ll do.”

Guy waited until the door shut behind Con before he looked at Elena. He knew what Con wanted. Part of them being dragons was that they had magic. Guy’s specialty was erasing memories. There was no way he’d wipe Elena’s memories. If he did, what they’d shared would be gone.

But she’d be safe.

He leaned back against the door, but movement on the bed caused his gaze to turn to Elena. Her brow was creased and her sage green eyes worried as she looked at him.

“What would they make you do to me?”

Guy briefly shut his eyes and wished the conversation had taken place somewhere else so she wouldn’t have overheard it. “It doesna matter. I’m no’ going to do it.”

“If it doesn’t matter, then tell me.”

Guy pushed off the door and walked to the window beside the bed. He looked out over the land he had walked since the beginning of time.

There had been a era when he’d not had to keep what he was a secret. When he’d been able to take to the skies whether the sun was shining or the moon out.

Now, only the moon saw what he was, and then only briefly.

“You wouldna believe me if I told you,” he said.

The bed creaked and then he felt her behind him. He prayed she didn’t touch him, because if she did, he wouldn’t be able to keep from taking her again, wouldn’t be able to stop himself from laying her on the bed and ripping her clothes from her body.

“Try me.”

Guy inwardly laughed. If only she’d have touched him, then he wouldn’t have to think up some lie. He didn’t want to lie to her. But he had no choice. No one could know what they were.

“I can no’.”

“Because you think I won’t believe you?”

“Because of what you’ll think of me after.”

He hadn’t realized that’s how he felt until the words left his mouth, but they were the truth. Guy didn’t want her looking at him with revulsion or worse…fear.

Suddenly she was between him and the window. Her gaze searched his face before she said, “I know something is going on here. Despite being locked away, I’ve been treated with kindness. If you were so worried about someone discovering whatever it is here, you could have left me to die in the mountain.”

“That’s no’ our way.”

She glanced down and then placed her hand over his heart. “What is so different about you that being with you makes me forget about trying to find a way out or contacting anyone? What is it that…draws me to you?”

The desperation in her voice tore at him. He threaded his fingers in her hair and cupped the back of her neck. “I wish I knew.”

“Please. Tell me I’m not the only one feeling this. Tell me you don’t have a hundred women at your beck and call.”

At that moment, he’d have told her anything she wanted to know, and what she asked for was too simple. One side of his mouth lifted in a smile. “I’ve no other women, Elena.”

Her shoulders drooped as she turned her head away. “But I am the only one feeling this, right?”

The only way to make her understand was to make her feel. Guy took her mouth in a fierce, all-encompassing kiss. He ravaged her lips, plundered her mouth.

He seized…her.

Her arms came around him as she moaned. His already heated blood blazed with need, a need only she could quench. Being so near to her, he couldn’t stop touching her, didn’t want to stop.

His hand ran down her back to grasp her buttocks and lift her against his swollen cock. He ground against her, desperate to be inside her once more.

With a flick of his fingers, he raised her shirt so he could touch her bare skin. She was warm to the touch, her skin smooth as silk.

All it took was that one touch of her skin and then they were a tangle of limbs as they peeled off each other’s clothes. Guy heard a rip of something, but paid no attention.

He drew Elena to him and kissed her while he backed her against the bed. When her knees hit, he leaned forward and carefully laid her down.

Her hands ran down his chest and back up again. Her lips were parted and moist from his kisses. With her blond hair spread around her, she looked like a sacrifice. For him.

“Elena,” he whispered, and kissed her deeply.

Elena wrapped her arms around Guy’s neck and held on tight. She was being reckless again, but she couldn’t seem to help herself when it came to him. And she didn’t want to.

It felt good to give in to the hunger, the desire for Guy. His kisses made her forget everything but him, and his touch drove her to such heights of ecstasy, she didn’t think she’d ever come down.

Beneath her hands, the muscles of his back and shoulders moved and bunched, his power evident in each shift of his body. She ran her feet along the back of his legs, feeling the sinew and the strength.