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A black dragon swooped in from out of nowhere and caught me in a rush of speed just before I hit the ground. He set me down a few feet away and quickly transformed back to his human form. I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes, willing my heart to slow and the nausea to go away. Julian conjured clothes for both of us, and then helped me to stand.
“Th…thank you,” I said.
He ran his hands down the length of my arms and stepped away from me quickly, as if he was afraid to touch me.
“That was less than impressive, Rena. You’ll have to do better next time.”
I snarled in his direction. I was itching for a fight and Julian was as good of a target as any, but he turned and walked away, leaving me impotent in my rage. As if I weren’t there. As if the two of us hadn’t spent the most incredible night of our lives together.
“Come, Rena. Esmerelda will tend to your burns and then we must talk.”
I’d had enough. I was just to the edge of the breaking point, and I couldn’t be responsible for what I might do if anything else traumatic happened to me.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
Julian turned around and arched an eyebrow. “We do not have time for you to play games, Rena.”
“I’m not playing. If you’d like me to go somewhere with you then you might try asking. You might try even saying good morning first.”
He looked at me strangely. “You are displeased with me.”
“You’re very astute, lifemate.”
His expression turned hard, and I knew that I’d somehow hurt his feelings. It would be wise to remember that Julian was as new to being a lifemate as I was.
“I’m not displeased,” I corrected. “I wanted you to kiss me. To speak with me as if what we shared mattered to you. But you didn’t. You just walked away and acted as if I didn’t matter in the least.”
“I saved your body from considerable damage. If you hadn’t meant anything to me, I would have let you fall.”
He moved closer to me until he stood less than a breath away. I could barely see the edge of his own tattoos over the collar of his shirt. “And the reason I do not kiss you is because once I start, I will not want to stop.”
I put my hands against his chest and leaned into him, daring him to kiss me anyway. His eyes darkened with desire. And then we vanished. One moment I was about to be kissed in the garden. The next I was gone into nothingness.
ChapterTwenty
My body was weightless, and it floated across a great void in millions of tiny little pieces. My atoms fizzled back together, and when I was able to get my bearings, I noticed we were somewhere back inside the chateau. Julian backed away from me and headed toward the door.
“Wait, what was that?” I asked.
“It speeds up travel time tremendously, yes?”
“If you like your insides to feel like scrambled eggs.”
I now had proof to the rumors that Julian could travel through time. I wasn’t sure I’d believed him yesterday, even when he’d admitted he could. I’d never seen—or felt—anything like it before. But Julian wasn’t The Destroyer. He couldn’t be. Because a lifemate would know something like that. Right?
“Where are we?” I asked. “I take it these aren’t your private quarters?”
The room was wholly feminine in its décor—Queen Anne furniture, lace curtains, crystal candlesticks. Knickknacks and photographs covered every surface, and a fire blazed in the hearth, making the room toasty warm.
I wondered if I’d ever get to see Julian’s private space. I’d slept in his bed, and I knew what every part of his body felt like against my skin, but I really didn’t know anything abouthim. And I found it a little surprising that I very much wanted to know.
“These are Esmerelda’s rooms,” he said. “She will treat your burns, and then you and I must talk.” He turned his back and left me standing alone in the middle of the unfamiliar rooms. I guessed Julian wasn’t very knowledgeable about morning-after etiquette.
A throat cleared behind me and I turned to see Esmerelda giving me a steady, serious look. It wasn’t one I’d seen before on her good-humored face.
I almost didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t dressed as a gypsy today. Instead, she wore black leather pants and a matching halter top that showed a surprising amount of cleavage for a woman so small. Her red hair curled riotously around her pixie-like face, and large gold hoops hung from her pointed ears. She looked like Bondage Barbie.
“Come,” Esmerelda said. “Let me treat your burns. They must be stinging.”
