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Very funny. I don’t suppose I can get these guys to take me to my own room. It’s not a good idea for us to stay together. The temptation is too great, and the pull between us is too strong.
So you keep saying, but I don’t believe we have a choice in this matter. I’m sure we can find an extra blanket and pillow for you. The floor is probably quite comfortable.
He smirked at my predicament. I growled again and this time smoke curled from my nostrils.
The five Drakán lowered the chairs to the ground. I stood up slowly and faced the bedroom door, more scared than I cared to admit. Every time I mated with Julian I lost a little more of myself to him.
The door stood open, and all I could see was miles of bed dressed in black satin. The crowd of people behind us were eerily silent as they waited to see what I would do.
Julian’s hand pushed gently against my lower back, and I went willingly into the room. It had been too long since he’d touched me, and my dragon rolled through me with joy and desire. He closed the door behind us and shut out the curious eyes of our people. We were completely alone, and I wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor tonight.
* * *
“Why did you ask me about my mother?” I asked once we had privacy. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know, but I was trying to stall what was about to happen. I just wasn’t ready yet, and I’d take all the damned time I needed.
Julian unbuttoned his jacket and slid it off his broad shoulders. He threw it over a black brocade chair and then untied the bow at his neck. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his white dress shirt and untucked it from his pants. The ritual of undressing so casually in front of me seemed much too intimate.
“It’s not important.” He sat down in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing his ankles.
“Oh, I think it is. For a moment, after you saw the torq, you looked at me as if you hated me. I don’t call that nothing.”
“I thought it seemed familiar. It was nothing, Rena.”
He was lying to me. Maybe not lying exactly, but he was evading the truth. Which I’d always thought was the same thing.
“Did you know my mother?” I asked.
The possibility overwhelmed me. I’d always wanted to know more about her, and if Julian had known her all along, my wrath would not be containable. My anger smoldered just under my skin, and the grumble of my roar gathered low in my stomach. The betrayal was harsh and cutting, and I moved to attack just out of instinct.
“I did not know her,” Julian said calmly. He spoke the truth and my anger died down so my fire became a gentle simmer. “It is just as I said. The torq seemed familiar to me. It reminded me of…less pleasant times.”
I nodded and turned my back, breathing deeply to get myself under control. My emotions were all much too close to the surface. There was no reason for my anger to react so quickly. Something was happening to me. I’d felt the change inside me as soon as I’d given the torq to Julian. My hands longed to touch it again.
I pulled a pillow from the bed and went to rummage around in the wardrobe for an extra blanket. I was restless and unsettled. My dragon wasn’t satisfied, and the fire just beneath my skin was jumpy.
I stood perfectly still as I felt the air shift behind me. I could feel the heat from Julian’s skin as he stood just a hairsbreadth away from my back. Our bodies were separated by no more than an inch, but magic danced along our flesh, and it felt as if he was touching me everywhere. I tightened my grip on the pillow until my fingers penetrated the fabric and feathers tickled my fingers.
“No, Julian.”
“Can you really say no, Rena? Your beast calls to me in anguish and need even as mine calls to you. Would you deny them pleasure?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “You are making me someone I’m not comfortable being. I can feel myself slipping further and further away every time I lie with you. I don’t know what powers are yours and what are mine. I don’t know what I believe anymore. You’ve turned my entire world upside down and my family is in shambles. I’m a failure as an Enforcer because The Destroyer is still out there, killing our people and planning to take control of our world. And while all this is going on, all you have to do is touch me and I forget it all. I want to crawl inside you and spend the rest of my life there, and to hell with everyone else.”
His magic moved over my skin and I put my hand against the wall to keep myself from falling over from the sensation.
“That’s not the real me, Julian. You’ve made me something I’m not. An imposter. And I have this terrible feeling that our actions are going to bring the wrath of the gods against us like nothing our Drakán ancestors ever experienced.”
“Fighting against your true nature and your powers is what’s giving you this feeling.” He pulled the pins from my hair and tossed them to the floor, and the thick mass tumbled around my shoulders and down my back. He pressed his nose against it and inhaled its scent.
“You cannot lie to me, Rena. For I’ve seen all of you. Everything you keep hidden in the furthest corners of your mind. You’re afraid of letting your power take complete control of your mind. Fear is an emotion for prey, and it calls out to all predators. I am a predator.”
I dropped the pillow and feathers plumed wildly into the air and floated down softly around us.
“You are so lovely.” He inhaled my scent again and goose bumps pebbled my flesh. “We are trapped inside these human bodies, Rena, but our hearts and instincts are those of an animal. Do you have any idea what I want to do to you right now?”
“Yes, but we are not full-blooded Drakán,” I managed to say. “We are tainted by other blood, and these feelings I have are a result of that blood.”
“Your dragon is stronger than you think. You are more than you think. Just as I am. We are intelligent and cunning. Selfish and loyal. Fighters and lovers. We are Drakán.”
