Light My Fire (31 page)

“Yes?” He leaned forward, his mouth brushing the
sweet spot behind my ear. Within me, passion, desire, and
love all roared to life at his nearness, answering his silent
call.

“I. . . you . .. Drake, everyone is waiting for us. They
saw us go in here. If we stay to make love—which I admit
sounds like heaven right about now—they’re going to know exactly what we’re doing. And while I don’t care
that they know we’re mated, I really hate to flaunt illicit
sex in their faces.”

He nibbled the edge of my ear, his hands sliding up to
the apex of my thighs, stroking the satin of my under
wear. I squirmed against his fingers, suddenly feeling that
we both had far too many items of clothing on, clothing that constricted and bound and was just plain old in the
way. “What we’re doing is not illicit,
kincsem.
It is recog
nized and sanctioned by the sept.”

My knees tightened around his hips as his fingers
struck pay dirt, sliding beneath the now-damp satin to tor
ment me further.

“Yes, by the sept, but not by the rest of the world,” I
said on a half-sob, yanking his shirt out of his pants so I could stroke the delicious planes of his chest beneath it.

His fingers froze in their beautiful dance of pleasure, his mouth ceasing the delicious nuzzling. He frowned
slightly. “You are speaking of human marriage. You wish
for me to marry you?”

Now, that is a question that a few short days ago would
have had me rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter.
But life had changed since Drake and I had resolved
(most of) our problems. Now it didn’t look nearly so
ridiculous.

“My family is going to have a collective heart attack if
they find out I’m shacked up with you for any length of time without marrying you. So although I don’t want to
run out today and get married, I think that ultimately,
we’re going to have to talk it over.”

“You understand that being a mate is much more bind
ing than a human legal convenience which can be un
made so easily?”

“Yes, I understand, although I’d like to point out that
you yourself mentioned I can be ... er... de-mated, I guess.”

I swear flames flickered in the depths of his lovely
green eyes. “Not easily,” he growled, his fingers sharp
against my flesh. With a polished move, he whipped my underwear off my body without unseating me, grabbing my hips and pulling me forward to the very edge of the
desk. I was pressed so tightly against him, I could feel the thud of his heart. “You are mine, and you will stay mine.”

I melted against him, my fingers dancing along the swells of his chest as I nibbled on his sweet lower lip.
“Sounds good to me. Only”—I sighed and released his
lip—”we can’t now, Drake. Oh, don’t look at me like
that; I want to just as badly as you do.” I squirmed against
his fingers. “As you can tell for yourself. But we can’t.
Everyone is waiting for us.”

As if on cue, the door to the library opened. “There
you are. You are engaging in intercourse again? Has the
woman been tested for diseases?”

Drake sighed into my mouth, gave me a little taste of
his fire that had me mentally damning any circumspec
tion, and reluctantly pulled himself away from me to face
his mother.

“In the future, you will knock before entering this
room.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This house was mine. I do not
knock in my own home.” Catalina swept into the room,
pausing a moment to frown at my underwear lying on the floor at my feet. “That is obscene. Tell your woman to re
move it from my view.”

I started to slide off the desk to retrieve my undies—
not because she ordered me to, but because I wasn’t com
fortable having them lying around as an objet d’art—but
Drake wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close.

“This house is
mine
now, and you
will
knock when
you enter my private rooms. In addition, you will address
Aisling by her name and refrain from giving her orders.”

Catalina smiled and sank gracefully into the nearest
chair, crossing one leg over the other to show off a pair
of elegant and no doubt extremely pricey shoes. “I am thirsty. Have your woman bring me wine. Spanish, not
French.”

Drake’s face darkened with anger, his eyes flashing a warning. “Mother, I have just told you—”

“You know what? I’m going to let you two argue this
out in private while I go grab a late lunch.” I kissed the tip
of Drake’s nose just because I knew it would annoy
Catalina, and picked up my underwear. “We can finish
this discussion later, Drake. Maybe while you’re showing
me the pool?”

“Yes. Later,” he said, his eyes filled with desire.

I smiled to myself as I left the room. Water was the
green dragons’ element, and they had a special affinity
for baths and pools. A large sunken bathtub filled with
warm, scented water was one of Drake’s favorite places
to make love, and I had to admit that I was very much
looking forward to seeing the lap pool he’d told me was
located in the basement of the house.

“Aisling? Telephone.” Pal handed me a cordless phone
as I left the library.

“Thanks. Hello?”

“Bonjour, Aisling, it is Amelie here.”

The tense tone in her voice, so different from her
cheery self when I had called her earlier, signaled that all
was not well. I leaned against the wall and idly watched
the people walk by on the street below. “I’d say it’s nice to hear from you, but I have a horrible feeling I’m not
going to like what you have to say.”

“Non. You are not. The situation here is very bad; very
bad indeed. It is without a doubt that Peter Burke has his origins in the dark powers. No one knows where he has
come from. No one knows who he is. He simply showed
up after the Venediger’s death and stated his intentions to
take the position. We cannot tolerate such a being as he in
control of the L’au-dela.”

My spirits fell. “Dammit. Any idea why he’s trying to
get me in the position of Venediger?”

“No, but I must tell you—the feeling here is very
warm toward you. People are saying that you are a
Guardian, thus you will be able to control him. Banish
him, even.”

I banged my head a couple of times on the wall. Pal,
sitting in the next room, leaned sideways to look at me. I waved and walked to the other end of the hall. “Did you
tell them I’m not interested? That there’s no way whatso
ever I can do the job?”

“Yes, but they do not care. Aisling, I must tell you—I
know you do not wish for this to be thrust upon you, but
I, too, will vote for you over this dark one.”

I groaned. “This is not happening. This is just not
happening.”

“Perhaps if you could agree to be Venediger as a tem
porary situation only,” Amelie suggested. “Only until an
other person, one more suitable, could take the job?”

“No. Not happening. I’m sorry, but it’s just not going
to happen.”

“Then we are all doomed,” Amelie said sadly, and
after a few more minutes of discussion, she hung up. I
struggled with a vague sense of guilt that I should be
doing something to help, but I honestly didn’t see what I
could do without taking on yet another massive responsi
bility.

I straightened my shoulders, put the problem on my
mental back burner, and went to get some lunch.

“Wow,” Jim said, glancing from its plate to the clock
as I entered a small, sunny dining room. “That was fast.
Drake losing his touch?”

“Drake will never lose his touch, not that it’s any of
your business.” I stopped in front of the demon, my hands
on my hips. “What on earth is that?”

“Your panties, I think,” it answered, squinting at my
hip. “Doesn’t it look like panties to you, Rene?”

“Oui.
Very much so. Satin?”

I stuffed the undies I held in one hand into my top, giv
ing Jim a good glare. “Less observation and more explaining. What is all that food on your plate? You’re not
allowed to eat that much! You’re on a diet, remember?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Have you eaten any of it?” I interrupted.

“I was just about to. Hey!”

“No excuses, buster.” I scraped half the mound of
chicken salad, one hardboiled egg, and several small
pieces of garlic-toasted French bread onto another plate,
returning a diminished portion to the demon.

Nora sat down next to me as I took a fork from the sideboard and with a meaningful look removed a small
plate of chocolate cake from Jim’s possession.

“Cake thief!” it muttered, managing to look sullen
even while eating chicken salad. “You owe me after I put
up with being disemboweled and stuff.”

I rolled my eyes at the disemboweled accusation, and
ate the confiscated portion of its lunch.

“I never asked because you were bleeding, but your
fire, it worked?” Rene asked, munching on bread and
thin-sliced steak.

“Yeah, it worked fine. It hit just as I plunged the knife
down, hiding the fact that Jim’s body had disappeared
when I spoke the words sending it to Akasha.”

“Ah. You have learned to control the fire, then. This is
good.”

“Definitely.”

“Aisling?” Pal stuck his head into the room. “There is
a demon at the door for you. It demands you go with it to
meet with the demon lord Ariton.”

I waved a fork of chicken salad at him. “Would you tell Obedama that I’m busy for the next couple of days,
but as soon as I have a free hour, I’ll pop in to visit Ariton.”

Pal blinked twice. “Very well.”

I smiled at everyone in the room as he left. “There’s
something to be said for living with a dragon who knows
how to keep demons out.”

“Mais oui,”
Rene said, helping himself to another hunk of bread.

We spent a few minutes talking about what I’d done
with the imps, Nora suggesting we spend some time going over the more common attributes of several recently spot
ted beings.

I begged off for a quick nap, feeling drained by the events of the last couple of days. En route to the room, however, I heard Drake’s voice saying something to Pal
about the swimming pool. I raced down the back stairs as
quietly as possible, my libido shifting into high gear.

The pool wasn’t hard to find, and, thankfully, had a
door with a lock on it for privacy. I smiled at it as I sat on
a cedar bench and kicked off my shoes, removed my
underwear from where I’d stuffed it into my bra, and
peeled off the rest of my clothes in record time.

Drake liked his water warm rather than cool, so I
wasn’t surprised to find the temperature of the lap pool a
little warmer than normal. I didn’t mind it and swam a
few lazy laps while I waited for him.

“I thought you were tired.”

I swam to the end of the pool and admired the man
who stood leaning against the door.

“I thought I was. Then I remembered this pool and figured a little gentle exercise would do my gore spot good.”

Drake walked to the end of the pool, squatting next to
me. “Is it bothering you? There was no redness this morn
ing. Let me see.”

I swam backwards, smiling. “You’ll have to come in
here if you want to examine my belly.”

His eyes, which had been exhibiting a subtle green
smolder, lit from deep in their depths. He glanced at his
watch. “I have a
chevauchee
shortly.”

“A what?” I reached the steps, lolling around in the water like a seductive sea nymph, flashing signals with
my eyes that I was sure he couldn’t miss. He pulled off
his shirt, carefully placing it on a cedar bench, sitting
briefly to remove his shoes and socks.