Dragon's Lair (16 page)

“Nothing much.” Now who was lying?

He touched her neck. “Try again.”

“Since I wouldn't tell him what was in the manual, Nathan wanted to give me a warning so that next time, I'd basically do as he ordered.”

“There won't be a next time.”

“He seemed to think there would be.”

“He's wrong.” Not a trace of indecision colored Braeden's tone. “You're staying here. He can't touch you inside these walls.”

“No.” Alexia shook her head. “I can't stay here.”

“Not that I'm giving you a choice, but why is that?”

“It's too dangerous for me here.”

Braeden pushed her onto her back and leaned up on one arm to look down at her. “Dangerous? What are you talking about? You're safer here than…” His words trailed off as he tipped his head and leaned closer.

She could nearly see the thoughts whirling behind his eyes. It wouldn't take him long to figure out what she meant. Alexia wondered if she'd ever learn to keep her mouth shut. She knew Braeden was so attuned to her that it took only a look or a few words for him to know what she was thinking or feeling.

A seductive half smile curved his mouth. “Does this
have anything to do with the challenge you issued? The one about not sharing my bed?”

Not wanting to see what she knew would be a look of pure male triumph glimmering in his eyes, Alexia looked away. “It wasn't meant as a challenge.” It was meant to keep her heart safe. And now that she'd unintentionally reminded him, her heart might already be forfeited.

Braeden jerked the covers away, then turned her face toward his. Alexia halfheartedly pushed at his chest. “Braeden, don't.”

He laughed and grasped her wrists, and holding them loosely in one hand, he leaned over her. With his lips brushing against hers, he whispered, “Tell me to go away. Tell me you don't want me and I'll leave, Alexia.”

Of course she wanted him. She hungered for his touch in a way she'd never thought possible. She ached to accept the pleasure he offered, to match him thrust for thrust and to lose herself in the magic of his darkening gaze. That would be all too easy.

But tomorrow…next week…next month, when she once again slept alone, she would remember this night and the memory of what she lost would tear her apart.

When she remained silent, he asked, “Is it that hard to decide?”

She pulled her hands free, placing them on his shoulders. “Yes. Yes, Braeden, it is.”

He buried his face in the crook of her neck. His breath against her skin brought a sigh to her lips. “Alexia, I can smell your heat.”

When his mouth closed over the flesh between her neck and shoulder, she shivered. Her gasp echoed in the room. “And I can feel your need.”

Braeden pulled her beneath him and held her face
between his hands. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. She knew what he was waiting for, and when she peered up at him, he finally asked, “What's wrong?”

“I can't.” She swallowed, fighting to tame the tremor in her voice. “I just can't.”

His lips covered hers, parting them, his tongue seeking, stroking, against hers. He deepened their kiss, demanding her response, until she moaned against his mouth and curled her arms around his back.

He pulled his lips away. “You're on fire.”

“Yes.”

Braeden scraped his teeth lightly across her lower lip, sending her need spiraling nearly out of control. “You want me. You need me.”

“Desperately.” She couldn't lie. The magical side of him, the side seething with power, knew what she felt.

Resting his forehead against hers, he asked, “Then why not?”

Alexia shook her head. “I…” Unable to give voice to her fears, she clamped her lips closed.

He gathered her into his embrace and lowered his lips to her ear. She froze, knowing exactly what he was about to do. “Braeden, it…isn't…You don't have to…”

Ignoring her, his hot breath against her neck, across her ear, he fanned the desire to a raging, fevered pitch.

Before she could gather her wits, he ensorcelled her with pure, white-hot lust. It raced through her before she could push him away. And it was so much hotter than she remembered, faster than she expected, setting her limbs trembling, her heart pounding as the unbridled passion coursed a burning trail that throbbed between her legs.

Alexia closed her eyes and gasped raggedly. While her mind rebelled against his unfair seduction, her body
begged for more. She writhed beneath him as he breathed his spell of desire into her, silently beckoning her to respond to the magic he wove.

“You're so hot.” He softly coaxed, “Relax, Alexia.”

When a frustrated moan escaped her throat, he hoarsely whispered, “Let it happen.”

The bed seemed to fall away beneath her as a shuddering orgasm ripped through her. Braeden caught her cry of release with his lips. He ravaged her mouth, plundering, stroking his tongue against hers until the last tremor ran the length of her spine.

Once she caught her breath, Braeden rose and stared down at her. She recognized the question in his eyes, but was unwilling to give him the answers he sought.

He reached out and traced a fingertip over her lips. “I'll be next door.” Without another word, he headed for the door connecting their bedroom to another one.

Alexia's heart took a while longer to settle into a more steady rhythm. While her sexual frustration was temporarily sated, more or less, the knowledge that he couldn't have spelled her that way if they didn't still have a bond tying them together pounded hard through her mind.

And now he was aware of that bond, too.

A
s much as she didn't want to come here, one nice thing about Mirabilus was that Alexia didn't sense anything other than what she saw. In the two days she'd been here, nothing had made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Not a single wispy form caught the edge of her vision.

The only thing that bothered her was Braeden and his odd aloofness. He still slept in the room next door. She'd rather deal with his anger than his sudden avoidance of her.

When he'd offered to join her on a walk today, she'd accepted immediately. She'd failed miserably at remaining impersonal. And now she didn't know what she wanted from him. It really was maddening to be so undecided.

Alexia sat on a stone bench, stretched out her legs and lifted her face to the bright autumn sun. Even though the breeze coming off the ocean was cool, the sun kept her
warm. After being cooped up inside the castle, coming outside was a welcome respite.

She rose and paced the small garden where he'd left her waiting while he took a call from Cameron. She saw that only one path led out of the garden. Braeden was smart enough to realize that she'd take that route. He'd find her when he came out.

Alexia strolled along the well-trimmed walkway into the forest. Not more than five minutes later, she found herself in a small, secluded clearing ringed by oak trees.

A couple of wooden benches had been placed near the center as if surrounding something. Curious, she walked closer.

A flat marble stone, like a headstone to a grave, was set into the ground. The familiar words etched on the face of the stone stole her breath and pierced her heart as surely as any sword.

Here lies the dream that never was. Rest in peace, Matthew Drake.

At the same instant as a moan of agony for the son she'd never held left her lips, Braeden yelled, “Alexia, don't.”

The sound of crunching leaves broke through her pain. Then his arms were around her, forcing her away from the memorial, pulling her tightly against his chest, holding her head against his shoulder.

“I was going to bring you here myself,” he whispered against her hair.

She shoved against him, trying to break free of his hold. “Let me go.”

“No.” He tightened his embrace. “Listen to me. I was going to tell you. I was going to bring you here. This is where we were going to come for our walk. I wanted to explain.”

“How could you do this?” She despised the break in her
voice. She was beyond this. She'd gotten past this pain, had pushed it down into the deepest recesses of her soul. But now, now it tore free with a vengeance that threatened to overwhelm her.

“How could I not?” He rested his cheek on the top of her head. “We came here for our wedding night. We had plans to move here, to raise our children here, to grow old together here, remember?”

She nodded against his shoulder, but before she could say anything, he continued, “How could I not bring the remnants of our dreams here?”

“Why? You didn't care before, so why bring the stone I commissioned here to remind you of something that held little meaning?”

“Little meaning?” The pain in his voice rasped against her ears. “You think I didn't care? You think my anger, my rage, wasn't because of losing Matthew?” His chest heaved against hers. “I was given no chance to grieve. I had a wife to worry myself sick about.”

Alexia cringed at the accusation in his tone. Hadn't she given him time to grieve? She no longer remembered. She'd been so beside herself, so upset, so livid, that she'd never truly noticed what the accident had done to Braeden.

Still, she'd been that way because of his words to his aunt. “You took your aunt's side and left me to look like an insane murderer.” She gasped, her breath rushing painfully into her chest. “You blamed me for his death.”

“Stop it.” He grasped her upper arms and pulled her from his chest. His eyes shimmered suspiciously. But anger hardened his jaw, giving her insight to the emotion raging through him.

“Alexia, we've been through this already. I never blamed you for Matthew's death. Never.”

He'd told her that before, but she knew what she'd heard at the hospital. “Why do you say that? I heard you and Danielle.”

“Did you? Did you hear us, or were you so full of your own guilt that you heard nothing but those few words?”

She tried to jerk away, but he held her fast. “No. Damn it, this is it, Alexia. We're doing this now. Here. I don't care if it takes a lifetime. I never, ever blamed you.”

Unable to chase the scene in the hospital from her mind, Alexia shook her head slowly. “Yes, you did.”

“You fool. I blamed myself, not you. None of this would have happened had we not fought. I started that argument. I did. Not you. It was my fault. Not yours.”

His voice broke. Alexia's focus swung to his face, stunned at the terrible pain dulling his eyes.

He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm before placing it against his chest, over his heart. “I would have given my own life to save his, Alexia. I would have done it for you.”

The truth of his confession pounded hard beneath her hand. She closed her eyes against the pain throbbing in her own chest. “You never believed me. You took your aunt's side.”

“Leave Danielle out of this. I didn't want to believe you. If I had, it would have meant that someone was out to kill my wife. I didn't want that to be true. I wanted you to grieve, to heal, to eventually come to your senses.”

“Alone?” To calm the hysteria she heard in her own voice she swallowed hard before asking, “You expected me to get over it alone?”

“You were never alone. Never. Alexia, I was at your side every minute until you locked me out of our room.”

Defeat settled in her belly. “It doesn't matter.”

He shook her. “Yes, damn it, it does matter. This has been between us too long. Alexia, we never got past that day. Don't you think it's time we give Matthew's memory peace? Don't you think it's time we decide if we're going to move on together or just end it?”

The thought of never seeing Braeden again, of never hearing the sound of his deep voice or even feeling the lash of his anger choked the breath from her. She couldn't have stopped the tears from slipping down her cheeks if she'd tried. “You never believed me.” She closed her eyes against the humiliating tears.

“Then tell me. Tell me now what happened.”

“I was run off the road.”

“Lexi, there was no other car. There were no tire marks, no dents on your car to show you'd been hit.”

She drew in a shaking breath and nearly screamed, “I was run off the road by a dragon!”

“A dragon?”

Anger helped to erase a small bit of her pain, just as it had once before. “You still don't believe me. Every time I mention being run off the road, you look at me as if I've lost my mind. That's why I never told you. I was afraid you'd have me drugged, or worse.”

“A dragon?”

His voice seemed to come from far off. “Braeden?” She stared at him. He frowned in concentration. She repeated, “Braeden?”

“You're right. I wouldn't have believed you.” She tried to jerk free. But he held her tight. “I believe you now. After what we've seen, how could I not?”

While her heart still ached, the pain in her stomach lessened. Relief, like someone had removed a huge weight from her chest, flooded through her.

Braeden must have felt it, because he relaxed his near bruising hold and drew her back against his chest. “Alexia, how could I have believed you then?”

Even then, when it had happened, it had seemed impossible to her. So she had no choice but to give him that much. However, there was that little thing called trust. She could have run from his powers in disbelief when he'd first explained the whole wizard concept to her, but she'd trusted him. He could have done the same for her. He could have given her the benefit of the doubt. “You could have believed me because you knew I would never lie to you. I had no reason to lie about the accident. None.”

Which in the end is what drove the final wedge between them. Braeden had been working almost around the clock and had no time for her. Alexia no longer remembered what they'd fought about that night. Their countless arguments had all run together in her mind.

She'd left the condo in Boston angry and had taken off in the car during a thunderstorm. His aunt had claimed that she'd driven off the road just to get Braeden's attention.

“No, you didn't have any reason to lie. I never believed for one minute that you had intentionally caused the accident. I just couldn't understand how it happened. And I couldn't accept that you wouldn't let me in, Alexia. You shut me out as securely as any door.”

His heartbeat hammered beneath her ear. She hadn't seen it then, but he was right. She
had
shut him out. In her pain she had no room to care for what anyone else suffered. She could barely take care of herself, let alone anyone else.

She stroked his arm. “Braeden, we both made mistakes. I didn't mean to shut you out any more than you meant to not believe me. I needed you. You needed me. And we both
chose to reach inside, to suffer our pain alone, instead of reaching for each other. What are we going to do?”

“What do you want to do?” He rested his cheek atop her head. “What does your heart tell you to do?”

“I'm afraid. Braeden, I can't hurt like that again.”

“Neither can I. So I guess instead of taking that risk, we end it. Just put our marriage to rest once and for all.”

“You mean file for divorce?” Her chest constricted.

“If that's what you want, yes. We both deserve some kind of life, don't we?”

“But…” Did he want a life with someone else? Did he not love her anymore?

“But what? It might be for the best.”

“The best?” The best for whom? Certainly not for her.

“Don't you want to start your life over, fresh and free of the memories that chafe like an open wound?”

She would never be free of her memories of Braeden. Never. All of them, the good and the bad, would be part of her for as long as she lived.

“Don't you agree it would be for the best?”

“Dear God, no. No, Braeden.” She pulled away, gasping in agony at the thought. “No. I don't want to lose you.”

He reached out and cupped her face, gently urging her forward. “Alexia, then start a new life over again with me. Let's see if we can learn to trust each other again, see if we can rediscover what we once shared. Can we do that? Can we try?”

When she'd come to him for safety, she'd known there would be a high price to pay. She'd wondered what she'd have to forfeit to the Master of the Lair.

Alexia now knew that price. Now was not the time to wrap the false bravado of pride and past hurts around her heart. Not when her heart was the price for coming to
him. It was time to let it all go. Time to bury the pain of the past with their son.

She came to him slowly, losing herself in his steady amethyst gaze that silently spoke of promises made long ago.

His warm lips were gentle on hers. His arms held her securely against his chest.

Memories of passion shared, of love given and taken, swept through her, leaving a trail of growing desire in their wake.

To her amazement, she trembled as if this were their first time together. She curled her fingers into his shirt, holding on as he parted her lips.

His kiss was sure and demanded a response as his tongue swept along hers. She moaned softly against his mouth.

His lips left hers to trail a hot line to the soft spot beneath her ear. “I want you, all of you.” The huskily spoke statement sent a heated shiver down her spine.

She sighed. “And I want you, but we're in the middle of the woods.”

“Are we?”

Alexia opened her eyes and tipped her head away from his. To her amazement they were no long surrounded by sunshine or forest.

“Where are we?”

Instead of answering her, he cupped her breast and stroked a thumb across the peak. Even through the layers of fabric, her flesh responded, straining toward his touch.

Where they were no longer mattered. It was fairly obvious now by the stone walls surrounding them that they were in the bedroom. The only thing that really mattered was the flash of hot need building low in her belly.

She tugged at his jacket until he tore the garment off and tossed it to the floor. Hers followed within seconds, her blouse along with it.

A knock sounded at the door. Braeden cursed, then merely pointed at the bedroom door. Alexia heard the distinct sound of a lock clicking in place. She used to find his powers intimidating and a bit frightening. Now they seemed rather useful.

“It could be important.”