Centaur Rivalry (Touched Series Book 3) (11 page)

Daniel’s voice was still full of confidence, “Oh, Cami, you
do
need a man.  I’ve been waiting in the wings for you long enough.  Don’t worry, you’ll get used to someone who can wrap their arms
and
legs around you when it’s cold.”  Daniel wound his arms around me and kissed me, close mouthed while I struggled to get out of his grasp.

Everyone crammed into the little entryway tried to melt into the paint on the wall to give
Drake whatever space they could.

I could feel Drake’s fury
.  His rage was oozing from every pore on his body, and his thoughts were clouded in a red haze.  Daniel was oblivious to Drake’s anger and moved one of his hands down my side and slid it under the back of my shirt.  Shock registered in everyone’s thoughts as they helplessly watched Daniel’s actions.  My body remained strained, rigid against him.  No matter how I struggled, I couldn’t get away from Daniel.  How had I never noticed how strong he was?

When Daniel eased his lips away from me
, he added one final insult, “It’s okay, Cami.  We’ve got plenty of time to get re-acquainted – all night if you need it, as many nights as you want.  I’m sure Katherine can spare a room.”

Drake’s body started shaking. 
Gage, Bianca, Brent and Jessica all inconspicuously began backing out of the entryway and into the adjacent room.  Catherine stayed in the entryway but moved away from Drake.  His whole body flushed.  A powerful glare was aimed directly at the back of Daniel’s head, then a shout so loud the walls shook, “She’s mine!”

I tried to
catch Drake’s attention while struggling to wrench free of Daniel.  “
Drake calm down.  I chose you.  Calm down.  He doesn’t know what he’s saying.  It’s not like that between Daniel and me
.”  Other incoherent fragments of thoughts were tossed in there, too.  None seemed to have any effect on Drake’s thoughts; the red tint to his thoughts only grew in intensity.

Daniel acted as if
Drake’s declaration had been no more than a whisper, “Yours, huh?  Prove it.  Prove you can be the man she needs you to be.  If not, I’ll take her off your hands.”  Daniel spun me around so I was standing with my back to him, facing Drake.

Drake didn’t speak
; his body was still trembling.  Daniel’s voice egged him on one last time, “That’s what I thought.  You’re like every other Centaur I’ve ever met.  Go ahead and be the tough guy saving the day, and I’ll be the evening entertainment – keeping her warm.”

Drake let out a guttural growl from deep
within.  Everyone froze.  Tremors erupted on his flesh, spots of light danced on Drake’s skin.  The little spots of light grew, then intensified.  Looking at Drake was like staring into Xenon headlights.  I had to look away when the light enveloped his whole body.

It
felt like his skin had caught fire as heat radiated off of him.  I stood motionless, unsure what to do or how to help.  The light’s intensity grew so bright that everyone moved away and shielded their eyes.  Daniel whipped me around, put his back to Drake’s light-storm, and pulled me into his chest.

I tried to listen into Drake’s thoughts
, but it was a mixture of rage and heartbreak.  I couldn’t make out any of his thoughts clearly, and Daniel’s body kept me from getting a look at what was going on.  Daniel’s grip on me eased as he brought his mouth to my ear and whispered, “You owe me big time for that.  You better make sure he doesn’t kick the crap out of me tonight.”

I was confused, “What?”

The brightness in the room diminished.  My eyes were trained on Daniel’s wide smile as gasps sounded all around the room.  I peeked over Daniel’s shoulder and couldn’t believe my eyes.  Drake stood in the center of the entryway – not the Centaur who loved me and willingly sacrificed everything for my safety – but the man.  The man who held my heart in his hand stood in the center of the room, bitterness glaring through his eyes.

Daniel’s hands went slack around me
.  I scrambled around Daniel and threw myself into Drake.  The realization hit me that Daniel had just risked his own life to give me Drake back.  My eyes took in Drake, standing in the middle of the room, naked and bubbling with rage.

Tears stung as they
formed in my eyes – I reached for Drake.  Drake didn’t even notice that my arms clung to him; his glare for Daniel told me he didn’t understand what Daniel had just done.  Daniel stood behind me, his voice full of humor, “Now would be a good time to let him in on what I was doing, Cami.  Like now – before I get bloody.”

Daniel’s
nervous laugh echoed behind me as smiles erupted throughout the little entryway.

I smoothed my hands on either side of Drake’s face
until his ice blue eyes finally focused on mine.  “It’s you.  It’s really you.”  The tears that had formed in my eyes rushed down my face as his arms pulled me tight against his body – his human body.

Daniel still stood behind me as he said, “Yes, it’s all of him all right. 
Katherine, can you give him a towel or something?  I don’t know how much I can see before I’m blinded.”

Snickers
burst out in the room around us.  I heard it, but my heart was already beating in rhythm with Drake’s – strong and fast.  I wanted the others to disappear – to leave us.

Bianca cleared her throat, “Um,
Katherine, I think we should give them a minute.  We should all go inside.”  I wanted to thank her, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away from Drake’s.

Jessica,
Katherine, Bianca, Gage, Brent, and Daniel all walked through the entryway into the kitchen.  Katherine popped back through the doorway and tossed a towel at Drake.  He let it fall to the floor, making no effort to pick it up.

T
here was so much I wanted to say, but my words wouldn’t come out.  A look of horror stared back at me as he mumbled, “I can’t protect you like this.”

“You don’t have to.  We’re safe with
Katherine.”

He shook his head, “For tonight.  But what about tomorrow?
And the day after that?”  He reached down and picked up the towel from the floor, wrapping it around himself.  His feet stayed planted and his expression didn’t change.

I didn’t care about tomorrow.  Or next week.  Or even three days ago.  Drake was here with me right now.  “We’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes.  Drake
– you’re you again.”

“What if the Council’s enforcers come again?  What then?”

Self-preservation should have kicked in.  It didn’t.  My mind refused to play the “what if” game.  Drake was a human.  We were safe right now.  I wanted to shake him.  If he could change into a human, he could change back to a Centaur Warrior.  It wasn’t all or nothing.  This wasn’t a punishment from Zeus – this was a gift from Chiron.

“If they find us, you change back.”

His hollow words hung in the air, “I don’t know how.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

Both his hands gripped my arms, “You don’t understand.  I don’t know how.  What if I can’t control it?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud because I knew my voice would
betray me.  “
I never asked for your protection.  I didn’t ask for you to give up your life for me.  Is it so wrong to just be grateful that you’re normal again?
”

Drake grimaced.  “
Your life is more important than my happiness.  Don’t you see?  If something happens to you, I won’t be able to stop it.”

Hurt registered and I didn’t try to hide it.  I preferred the jealous, rage
-induced warrior – the one who wanted me so badly he forced his body to change rather than risking someone else having me.  Had I fooled myself into believing that’s how he felt?

Maybe I had misjudged Drake?  Maybe he
didn’t want me – at least not the way I wanted him.  My knees began to buckle.  I should have blocked what I was feeling:  the anguish, the utter loneliness I’d been carrying with me for weeks.  I didn’t.  I let Drake feel the rejection swelling inside me.

His expression changed as he took a tighter grip on my arms.  Just as I’d allowed him to feel
the hurt from his rejection, he opened up his emotions to me.  Drake was ashamed that he’d lost control because of Daniel.  He was scared that we’d be discovered and killed because of it.  He was angry at himself for letting his guard down.  But the emotion that chiseled away at all the other competing emotions was the desire he felt for me.  His voice left no room for doubt, “I do want you the same way.”

Confusion took control.  No matter what he said about our safety – he did feel it.  His desire boiled just under the surface, threatening to spill over.  Still holding my arms
, he leaned in to me.  Drake’s whisper was hot and slow in my ear, “You’re mine.”  His hands drifted under the back of my shirt as sparks rained on my skin where his fingers greedily stroked me.  Hungry lips found my neck as his words vibrated against my skin as he repeated, “You’re mine.”

(Camille, Katherine Newton’s Home in South Dakota)

In a fluid motion Drake opened a door along the wall I hadn’t noticed before.  He pulled me into the dark room and shut it behind us.  My eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark, and it felt about thirty degrees colder.  The floor was made of cement – we were in the garage.

His hand returned to the
tender skin of my lower back while his other cupped my jaw.  Drake’s voice was slow, “I missed you.”

His lips were on mine, soft and gentle – not matching
my own building fire.  Drake’s touch fed off my hunger; his fingers dug hard into my back, pulling me fully to his body.  I could feel him, all of him, as we stood wrapped together in the frigid garage.  His voice sent shivers all the way to my toes, “I want you.”  His body guided me up against the metal door we had just walked through, as his other hand went to my face.

Drake’s
lips refused to let mine go.  My heart beat erratically, the sound so loud I could hear the beating of it in my ears.  I couldn’t get the words out, so I answered him in thought, “
You can have me.  Here.  Now.
”  I laced my hands around the towel gathered at his waist, my fingers sliding just under the rim.  His skin was smooth, warm – inviting my touch.

A moan escaped his lips as h
e pressed his body fully into mine while his answer echoed in my mind.  “
You feel incredible.
”

I didn’t care that the door my back was pressed against felt like ice through my clothes. 
I didn’t care that the room was so dark we could have been in a cave.  I only cared that Drake’s body was hot against mine, just as warm as it had been the night I found him shirtless in the woods before a blizzard.  His lips were soft and his muscles rigid.

A soft tap on the other side of the door reminded us that we weren’t alone in the house.  When I opened my eyes
, they had adjusted to the darkness, and I could make out Drake’s face in front of mine.  It was his angry growl that answered the knock, “Not now.”

Katherine
was on the other side of the door.  “When you can untangle yourselves from each other, I’ve left some clothes out here for you on the table.  We’re in the kitchen waiting on you two.”

“Give us a minute.”  Drake’s lips were back on my neck sending more s
hivers through my body.  His lips caressed their way up to my ear, as his teeth grazed the tender skin of my ear lobe.  His breath was hot in my ear as he spoke the words in a heavy whisper, “Not now, but soon. 
Very
soon.”  Drake thrust his body one more time against mine.  A combination of heat and tingles erupted inside me.  His hands slid down both my arms, as he took both my hands in his.  He brought my hands to his lips.  “No one, anywhere, will ever love you the way I do.”

His eyes smoldered in the dark.  I was speechless
– a hot mess.  I didn’t care about the others in the kitchen, the Lost Herd, my grandmother, the Centaurs looking for us.  Nothing mattered in this moment except Drake, and a promise of very soon wasn’t good enough.  My hands grabbed his exposed flesh while I crushed my lips hard against his.  The waves of desire came crashing as I pushed myself away from the door and leaned hard into him.

Another deep moan escaped his lips
, sending a fresh wave of shivers through my body.  I wrapped my arms over his shoulders and hiked my legs around his waist.

If Drake was surprised
, he didn’t show it.  His arms wound around me, holding me in place as he stood.  I buried my face into his neck as my words came out, “I don’t want to go in there.  Stay here with me.  Don’t let me go.”

“Never.  I’ll never let you go.”

His arms held me in a steel grip.  Any other circumstance and it would have bothered me that I couldn’t breathe, but in this moment I didn’t need air.

Drake whispered in my ear as he
eased me back against the cold metal door.  “We’d better get in there before they come looking for us.”

I couldn’t hide my disappointment if I tried.  His lips were soft against my ear, “
You’ve got me for eternity, I promise.  We’ll meet with the others, then it’ll be us – just us.”

Drake eased my legs back onto the floor and reached for the door handle.
  When the door opened to the entryway, light poured into the cavernous garage, nearly blinding us both.

The smell of popcorn permeated the entryway
, and laughter echoed in from the kitchen.  Stepping into the entryway felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket – but given the choice, I’d take the cold darkness of the garage with Drake as my only heat source. Drake put his back to me as he slid his legs into the sweat pants Katherine had left for him on the table.  The brief glimpse of his perfectly sculpted body caught me in mid-breath.  Drake dressed quickly then angled around to face me.

The pile of clothes Katherine had been able to scrounge up were two sizes too small for Drake – I didn’t mind the view.  He stood before me in tattered gray sweatpants that fell just below his knees and a white t-shirt that stretched tight against his chest.  Little imagination was required to see his body through the material of either.  Thank you, Katherine.

Drake saw me staring and smiled wide.  “If you don’t stop looking at me like that
, I’m taking you back to the garage.”

“
Newsflash, you suck at threats.”

Drake
took a step toward me, his arms hanging at his sides.  I moved to wrap my arms around him, but he leaned away and shook his head.  “I want to show you something.”

Confused by his statement
, I stood motionless in front of him.  His voice was deep but quiet.  “Close your eyes.”  I did as I was told.  On instinct I reached out with my mind to see if I could feel any Centaurs in the surrounding forest or anything out of the ordinary.  No danger was near the little house.  The laughter was still going in the kitchen; Brent and Gage were ribbing Daniel for the way he’d helped Drake to transform.  Everyone’s thoughts in the house were relaxed – openly happy.

Drake’s mouth was right by my ear,
his gravelly voice reminded me, “Don’t open your eyes.”  His fingers slid into my hair, smoothing it to the side exposing my neck.  Drake kissed me lightly from my collar bone to just below my ear lobe.  His voice throaty in my ear, “Do you see it?”

In that moment Drake pushed an image of the two of us stretched out on hot
white sand in front of a turquoise ocean.  Waves gently rolled up on the shore.  We were alone, not another person for miles.  A seagull cried out overhead and palm trees swayed in the breeze behind us.  My answer was breathless, “It’s beautiful.”

“
That’s where we’re going.  We’re getting married, tomorrow.”

My eyes snapped open.  “Was that a proposal?”

“No, Love.  It was a promise.”  Drake leaned down and softly kissed me, again.

Daniel’s voice was loud
as he shouted from the kitchen, “Katherine, maybe you can get some ice water for those two.  If you don’t break them up, we’ll all still be sitting here when the sun comes up in a couple hours.”

Drake’s eyes opened in narrow slits, glaring at the wall that Daniel sat on the other side of. 
Saying it more to himself than to me, “I can’t stand him.”

I nuzzled Drake’s neck, “If it weren’t for Daniel, you’d still have hooves.  Play nice.”

I took a step in the direction of the kitchen; Drake grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him – hard.  “It doesn’t mean I have to like him.”  A wide smile spread on his face while the blue of Drake’s eyes bore straight to my soul.

“You don’t have to like him.  He’ll always be my best friend
, so find a way to tolerate him.”  I tugged Drake’s hand, and he followed me into the kitchen where everyone was waiting.

All six of our friends broke out in applause as we walked through the doorway. 
It was Daniel we could hear above everyone else.  He slapped the table and laughed, “Look, it’s Cami and Burly-Barbie.”  I took a closer look at the clothes Drake wore that were stretched so tight on him – Daniel was right, they were women’s clothes.

Katherine
flushed a bright red, “It was the best I could do.  I don’t keep clothes lyin’ around for naked men.”

Gage joined in the jeering, “No
, it’s a good look.  We’re flying commercial tomorrow.  Wear that to the airport.  Maybe there’ll be a female ticket agent, and you can get us free upgrades.”

Drake didn’t look the least bit self
-conscious, “Hey, you’re just jealous.  I make this look good.”

Daniel sneered, “I can see why Cami’s so into you
.  She hasn’t had a boyfriend she could share clothes with before.”

The laughter died out
as Drake strode toward Daniel.  Gage and Brent were on their feet ready to breakup whatever was about to happen.  Drake and Daniel stared at each other.  I was about to try to diffuse them when Drake said, “You can’t stand me.  I get why.  If our roles were reversed, I’d feel the same way.  You didn’t do it for me, but thanks all the same.”  Drake offered his hand to Daniel.

Daniel
looked at Drake’s hand for a few seconds longer than was comfortable.  Gage and Brent’s eyes kept darting between the two.  Daniel took Drake’s hand, “There’s nothing I won’t do for her – ever.  Even if it means pissing off a frickin’ Clydesdale.”

Smirks appeared all around the kitchen
.  Drake gave Daniel a genuine smile, “I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I’d like to think I’m more of a thoroughbred.”

Daniel laughed, “When you started shaking all over out there
, I figured you’d either change into yourself or stomp me flat.  Either way it meant I’d be out of this cold in less than a day.”

I slapped Daniel’s arm, “So, it wasn’t a chivalrous ploy on your part
?  You just wanted out of the snow.”

Daniel smirked,
“The snow’s not so bad, but the cold here sucks.  I always thought of twenty degrees below zero as more of a theoretical temperature in science class.  Who knew people actually lived in this?”

Jessica smoothed her long platinum blonde hair back behind her ear, “You just haven’t been here long enough to learn how to keep warm.”

Without missing a beat, Daniel responded, “I’m a slow-learner.  Maybe you could suggest a good tutor to school me on the finer points of staying warm in these parts.”

Brent’s face looked like he was about to come unglued.  Did Brent have a thing for Jessica?  After seeing
the way Brent had responded to Katherine in the tunnel, I assumed he might have some sort of a crush on her.  He scowled openly at Daniel.  Was it because of Centaur traditions?  Maybe he just didn’t like joking like that?  He was still young by Centaur standards; maybe he thought Jessica was a possibility for him if his betrothal fell through.

Before a second situation had the potential to turn into a brawl, Gage cleared his throat and said, “All right.  It’s been a seriously long day. 
Katherine has graciously offered to let us all stay here at her house.  With her here, we should all be safe for tonight.  Tomorrow morning, once it’s warm enough to drive down the mountain, we’re piling in the two trucks and going to Omaha, Nebraska.  It should take us about eight hours to get there.  That’s far enough away that the Centaurs and Centaurides looking for us up here shouldn’t be able to find us.”

I’d been absent from all the planning sessions
, so other than Drake’s proposal in the entryway, I didn’t have a clue what the plan was.  “Then what?”

“Everyone has tonight to decide.  Bianca and I are accompanying you and Drake to Centauride, South Africa
next week.  We’re going to Cancun until it’s time for the Council meeting.  Brent, Daniel, Jessica and Katherine – you need to decide where you want to go from Omaha.  Money isn’t an issue, so figure out where you’re going before we get to the airport.  We’ll leave here just before noon.”

Katherine
found sleeping bags, comforters, pillows and blankets, and then started sending everyone to their assigned sleeping quarters.  There was a guest room for Gage and Bianca.  Brent was on the couch in the living room; Daniel took the floor.  Drake and I were on an air mattress on the floor in the dining room.  Jessica stayed with Katherine in her room.