Tempered (A Daughters of the People Novel) (Daughters of the People Series) (17 page)

He stuffed his
hands into the back pockets of his corduroys as memory flashed through him, of
young women in armor leading their young men through the streets of Tellowee in
chains.

“The Order is
dangerous,” she said. “They will not hesitate to capture you and use your
position as my lover to manipulate me. I cannot afford to have you unprotected
on the other side of the country.”

“It’s only for a
few days. Surely I’ll be ok as long as I stick close to home.”

She stepped
back, her face as cold and hard as glass. “You are determined to go.”

“I have to. My
mom…”

“Would rather
have her son alive and whole.”

“You’re being
melodramatic.”

“And you shame
me with your defiance. A Daughter who cannot control her own household…”

Aaron’s hands
bunched into fists in his pockets. “What the hell is a Daughter?”

“A descendant of
the Seven Sisters, warriors cursed to immortality for the sin of avenging their
parents’ deaths.” She touched her fingertips gently to his cheek, though her
face remained expressionless. “I am a Daughter, Aaron, a woman tempered in the
forge of hardship and enmity.”

“You’re
immortal?” His breath left him and his mind buzzed.
Immortal
. Merciful
God. “Is this another one of your delusions?”

Her expression
flickered, sagging and reforming so quickly he almost missed the flash of
emotion in the alabaster mask of her face. “If you are determined to leave, I
shall have young Upton select escorts for your protection.”

“I’m a grown
man, Hawthorne, not a child.”

“It is this or
chains.” She turned and paused with her hand on the door. “Know that though
your leaving shames me in the eyes of the People, I shall welcome you home
should you return, and mourn your loss should you choose to remain with your
family.”

“Hawthorne…” He
stared at the rigid set of her back, the droop of her head. “Don’t be like
that.”

“I can only be
what I am, Aaron.” She shrugged, a restless jerk of her shoulders. “It will
never be enough, will it?”

He watched her
go, helpless under the onslaught of questions, the riptide of emotions swirling
through him. Hawthorne, his sweet, beautiful Hawthorne with her steady strength
and frank openness. An echo of Ruby’s words drifted through his mind.
Did
you never consider that she might be telling the truth?
He’d only just
begun to do that when Hawthorne had blindsided him with another revelation.

Immortal
.
Cursed
.
Sweet God in Heaven. Stupidly enough, he’d thought he was ready, and then she’d
dropped another bomb on him. What would she tell him next?

His heart
tripped and tumbled in his chest, and fell, taking him with it. No wonder she
wouldn’t tell him about her past, the way he treated her every time she opened
up. Why did he keep doubting her? Why did she keep letting him?

He pushed
himself off the bed and jogged after her. She turned with her hand on the knob
of her bedroom door and eyed him warily.

“Wait,
Hawthorne, please.” He slowed his steps when he came to Lali’s door and lowered
his voice. “I’m an idiot, a complete and total idiot, and you have every right
to kick my ass from here to Sunday. You can even use your stick, if you want
to.”

A shy smile
tilted the corners of her mouth. “It is a hanbō.”

“I like calling
it a stick. Makes it sound less scary.” He pulled her into his arms, cradling
her the way he should’ve done all along. “Promise me you’ll explain everything
to me soon, all at once so I have time to prepare for it, not in dribbles and
dabs that take me by surprise and leave me stupid with it.”

Her slender
fingers curled into his sweater and her scent surrounded him, roses and woman,
soft and sharp all at the same time. “I shall.”

“I wish I could
make you understand why I need to go home.”

“As I wish you
would heed my words.” She buried her face in his shoulder, muffling her words.
“You will be safe here with my sword to protect you. I cannot guarantee this
should you leave.”

“I know.” Of
course, he did. Hawthorne with a sword had to be close to invincible. He’d
never felt anything other than safe around her, even when he’d thought the
burden of her past had pushed her over the edge into insanity. “Will it really
shame you for me to leave?”

“It weakens my
position considerably.” Her breath sighed through his sweater, warming his
skin. “If Isolde could see my heart in you, others will as well.”

Hope was a
dangerous thing, he decided when his own soared high. “Are you trying to tell
me you love me?”

“I am merely
warning you, Aaron. You are my lover. This makes you a target.”

“So your heart’s
not involved at all?”

“My heart is not
the issue here.”

“Mmm. You give
great non-answers.”

Her laugh was
gentle. “Perhaps.”

“Definitely.” He
tightened his arms around her, aligning their bodies so that they meshed and
flowed together. “What if I said others can see my heart in you?”

She stiffened in
his grip. “Have you not toyed with me enough for one night?”

“This isn’t a
game. I was half in love with you before…” He didn’t want to bring up his own
stupidity at DragonCon, and the repeat he’d made only moments before. “I’m
sorry for reacting so badly. You mean so much to me. I don’t know why I keep
pushing you away.”

“You cannot
continue to do so, Aaron.”

“I know. I know,
sweetheart.” He brushed his cheek against her temple again, as much to comfort
himself as to ease the pain he’d caused her. “Of all the men in the world for
you to wind up with, it had to be me, knee-jerk skeptic, all around doubter. I
wish I could believe you without that getting in the way.”

“As do I.”

Her softly
spoken words cut him to the quick, though he deserved no less. Any other woman
would’ve skewered him by now. That Hawthorne hadn’t spoke volumes about her
character, and her heart.

“Let me tuck you
in. You haven’t gotten enough sleep lately.”

“I am fine,
though I would not mind your tucking.” She drew back and cupped his jaw,
meeting his gaze with her own. “You will share my bed.”

He grinned,
couldn’t help it. “Is this how a Daughter coaxes a man?”

“It is how I
coax you, Aaron.”

He slid his
hands down her arms and captured her hands. “Whatever works, right?”

“Indeed.”

She led him to
her bed and helped him undress. Aaron wrapped himself around her under the
thick covers, protecting her the way she wanted to protect him, ashamed that
the one thing he couldn’t protect her from was his own doubt.

Two millennia of
dealing with men had not prepared Hawthorne for Aaron’s intransigence. In the
past, she had handled her men in one of two ways. The ones who pleased her were
allowed to live. The ones who did not met the sharp edge of her blade. Until
the modern era, there had been no question that a Daughter’s word was law and
that her man would follow it to the letter.

Life had been so
much simpler then.

Hawthorne peeked
at her man where he sat on the couch in her office, creating thumbnails of
pages for their graphic novel. For such a sensible man, Aaron remained stubbornly
blind regarding threats to his safety. Without showing him the evidence in her
vault, he would never fully believe her, but doing so would eat away at what
precious little time they had left before the situation with Isolde and the
Eternal Order came to a head.

The deeper
Hawthorne dug into the connections between the two, the more convinced she
became that her niece was a member of the Order and was working to undermine
the People in some way. Something was coming, though what that something might
be eluded Hawthorne. Her focus had shattered, caught on the problems Aaron’s
presence in her life caused.

He was proving
to be a greater distraction than any of her previous lovers had. Those she had
discarded at will, dispatched with her sword or abandoned when she had taken
her fill of them. Aaron refused to be so easily disposed of. Had she not
already discovered her own inability to rid herself of him? And now, yet again,
she had forgiven him for his continued disbelief.

Why?

It puzzled her
greatly. She had grown fond of him during their time at DragonCon, before he
had rejected her so harshly. Since his arrival in Tellowee, that fondness had
deepened, a natural extension of their blooming friendship and of their
relationship as lovers. But what had it deepened into? Love? Trust? The final
submission of her will?

No, that had not
yet come about, if it ever would. Until she could fully trust Aaron, her will
was her own, a stolid testament to her eternal life and the curse the People
endured.

The sins of the
mother
.

She would never
trust him until his faith in her was equally as strong, and that would not come
about until he believed in her. She would have to lead him to her vault, show
him what it held, and allow him to explore it. He would need time to understand
it, though, time that they simply no longer had, or not enough of it.

The urgency of
her need to have him believe pressed against her, tautening her muscles and
bringing with it a sharp stab of pain in her temples. Two millennia of material
rested within her vault. Aaron would want to explore it in depth, would need to
in order to understand. Would that they could afford such a luxury now. The
longer she waited, the more painful his disbelief, and the more fragile her
heart. Better to get it over with as soon as possible rather than have it drag
out so long.

If she had not
clung so fiercely to her pride, he would know by now. Alas, he was not the only
obstinate one ensconced under her roof. Pride made a stubborn bedfellow, and a
prickly one as well.

Perhaps she
loved him. He shifted on the couch, re-crossed his ankles. His pencil moved
nimbly over the paper in his lap, bringing Una’s story to life in light
strokes. A pang of tender yearning washed over her. Beautiful Aaron with his
gentle eyes and graceful hands. No ill could befall this man,
her
man.

She lifted her
cell phone and punched out the number for BDH Security. Young Upton would have
the means to protect her man while he visited his family in San Francisco. And
when he returned, she would see to it that he never left again, free will be
damned. A Daughter protected those in her care, including stubborn illustrators
who refused to see the danger in the world around them.

* * *

A week before
Thanksgiving, Aaron packed a light suitcase and prepared to leave for San
Francisco for a short visit with his mother. For the past few days, a security
detail had followed him whenever he stepped foot outside Hawthorne’s house.
When he went on a morning jog, someone trailed behind him. When he took Lali to
the library, two men in dark suits with ear pieces escorted them. Next thing,
she’d have somebody follow him into the bathroom to make sure he could piss ok.

The whole thing
was ridiculous. He was a comic book illustrator, for cripes’ sake, a nobody.
Who would want to come after him?

It frustrated
him no end. It had been a long time since he’d needed somebody else to look out
for him, and here Hawthorne was running around like he needed her to hold his
hand.

Which he did,
but not because he was a kid. He dropped his suitcase by the front door and
scowled at it. Needing to hold her hand was proof that he was an adult. He
should tell her that. “Hawthorne,” he would say in a reasonable tone, the only
kind that worked with her, and even that was iffy, “I think I love you and I
need to hold you, which proves I’m an adult. So, lay off the bodyguards
already, would you?”

Her face popped
into his head, the regal tilt of her chin, the impassive gaze. “It is this or
chains, Aaron Kesselman,” she would say. Hell, he didn’t need an imagination to
hear that. She’d said it often enough to his face, like she’d really tie him
down.

And she might.
Hell, it was Hawthorne, the woman who believed herself to be two millennia old
and who could damn well wrestle an alligator, a bear, and a mammoth into
submission at the same time, if she wanted to. One measly illustrator would be
a breeze.

“This or
chains,” he muttered to his suitcase. “Can you believe it?”

“Who are you
talking to Airn?”

Aaron whirled
around and found Lali behind him, peering up at him with curious gray eyes. He
lifted her up and settled her onto his hip. “Myself. Who are you talking to?”

She patted his
face with her tiny hands. “My puppy. Nana said to tell you lunch.”

“Just lunch,
huh? What if I don’t want lunch?” He growled and poked at her belly. “What if I
want to snack on a little girl instead?”

She giggled and
squirmed and shrieked, and he threw her over his shoulder and carried her into
the kitchen, where Hawthorne and Maria were making lunch.

“I found a sack
of potatoes in the hallway,” he said. “Thought you could make a good snack out
of it.”

“I’m not taters,
Airn. I’m a Lali!”

“Taters, Lali.
Good snack food, either way.”

He set her right
side up in her chair and scooted it in for her. The doorbell rang, and Lali
scooted her chair back out, scampering away to answer the door. In the few
weeks he’d known her, he had yet to see her sit still unless she was asleep,
and sometimes even that didn’t slow her down.

He sidled up to
the two women and slid a hand across Hawthorne’s trim waist. Her skin was warm
under her sweater, tempting. The night before, he’d loved her for hours, trying
to cram in a week’s worth of intimacy in one night in a futile attempt to tide
them both over until his return.

It hadn’t been
enough. No matter how often he had her, the need was still there, strong and
alive and ready to feed itself on the low murmur of her moans, the slick heat
of her body, the steady beat of her heart next to his.

No, one night
wouldn’t make up for the week he’d be without her, not by a long shot.

“I don’t have time
for lunch,” he said. “Have to leave for the airport soon.”

Maria tutted,
her jowly face set in disapproving lines. “A growing boy needs his
nourishment.”

“I haven’t been
a growing boy in over a decade, Maria.” He bussed her cheek, sending her into a
frenzy of titters and blushes. “You can feed me extra when I get back, how’s
that?”

Hawthorne’s gaze
was riveted to the yams she was attacking with a thin-bladed paring knife. “Will
you be coming back?”

Aaron’s earlier annoyance
at her overprotectiveness melted away. “Of course, I am. We still have work to
do.”

“And that is all
that holds you here?”

“You know what
holds me here,” he said softly.

“Do I?” She
dropped her knife and wiped her hands on a cloth towel. “You have given me no
assurances.”

“I didn’t think
you needed them. If you think I’d let you go again…”

Lali skipped
into the room ahead of one of Aaron’s bodyguards. “Scootery!”

Security
, Aaron
translated. He gave the suited guard a sour look. “I see the babysitters have
arrived.”

“They are your
bodyguards, Aaron, not your babysitters. You will allow them to protect you
during your family holiday, or I shall not allow you to leave.”

“I’m not a kid,”
he said through gritted teeth. “When are you gonna get that through your head?”

“When you trust
me to care for you. Your life is in danger, love…”

“No…” His
argument ground to a screeching halt. “Wait. Did you just call me love?”

“And I shall not
abide threats to those under my protection.”

“Let’s get back
to the ‘love’ part.”

“Mr. Kesselman,
your flight leaves in four hours.” The bodyguard, a massive, menacing young man
named Colin, gazed at Aaron with a flinty stare. “We won’t have time to get
through airport security if we don’t leave now.”

Aaron bit back a
sigh. Just when it was getting good, the babysitter had to rein him in. “Walk
me out?”

Hawthorne
dropped the towel onto the granite countertop. She walked hand in hand with him
to the door, following Lali.

A whole week
without his girls. Seven days without Lali’s bright chatter and Hawthorne’s
sweet smile, and at least that many nights without her in his bed, warming him,
loving him. Filling him with heat and need and…

What was he
thinking? He’d never make it a whole week without the two of them. He peered
down at Lali and nearly crumbled at the solemn gaze on her normally smiling face.
She raised her arms, and he lifted her up and held her close, bathing in her
little girl scent while a hollow ache settled into his gut.

She wrapped her
arms around him and buried her face in his collar. “I don’t want you to go.”

His throat
squeezed tight. “I’ll be back soon, kiddo.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.
You’ll hardly know I’m gone.”

Hawthorne eased
Lali away from Aaron. He wrapped his arms around them both. “When I get back,
we’ll talk about this whole love thing.”

“I love you,
Airn.” Lali’s voice was muffled where she was trapped between him and her nana.
“I love you lots and lots, bigger than my whole heart.”

His own heart
filled with it, overflowing with tenderness for the two females in front of
him. They’d had him from day one, and he’d been too stupidly blind to see it.
“I love you, too, Lali. And you, Hawthorne. We’re gonna sort this out when I
get back home.”

She curled her
fingers in his shirt and lifted her mouth to his, and as his lips moved over
hers, he was struck with the certainty that he’d follow her wherever she went,
crazy ancient warrior or not.

“Mr. Kesselman,”
Colin said.

Aaron drew reluctantly
away from Hawthorne, kissed Lali one last time, and left before his lead feet
weighted him to the floor of her house.

Behind him,
Lali’s silent tears became sobs. “I want my puppy, Nana.”

An agonizing rip
sliced down his heart as Hawthorne comforted Lali, shushing the little girl.
Colin gripped Aaron’s elbow firmly and bustled him out to the waiting SUV with
a surprising speed, leaving Aaron no time to look back.

The bodyguard
stuffed Aaron into the backseat of the vehicle. Through the door’s window,
Aaron’s gaze met Hawthorne’s.
Be safe
, she mouthed. Not
goodbye
or
come back to me
, but
be safe
. The SUV pulled away from the
curb, accelerating onto the street. Aaron closed his eyes and dropped his head
back onto the seat, shutting out the sight of Hawthorne patting Lali’s shaking
form, her own shoulders slumped, her expression empty

* * *

The trip through
security at Hartsfield International went much more quickly than it had when
he’d arrived, no doubt helped along by his babysitters, who flashed
official-looking badges and spoke in low tones to the TSA attendants. Colin
picked up their tickets while Brigid, a hard-looking brunette with a tight body
and no last name, waited to one side with Aaron, well away from the crowd.

He let them lead
him through the ordeal of modern air travel, ignoring them when he could,
following their flat commands when he couldn’t. The sound of Lali’s sobs echoed
in his mind. Why hadn’t he brought her with him? A quick trip across the
country to visit his mother for a few days, and then he would’ve had the
perfect excuse to come back and spend the holiday with his two girls.