Read HeartsAflameCollectionV Online
Authors: Melissa F. Hart
HeartsAflameCollectionV (8 page)
“I was wondering what it would
take to get you back to planet Earth,” Therese said with a soft smile. “Where
did you go?”
Delylah
smiled and kissed Therese on the lips. “Just remembering another time and place.”
Therese lightly smacked
Delylah’s
ass before turning off the jets. “Well, you can
revisit another time. We’ve got to get ready. Did you forget about James
Branagh
?”
Not likely
. The
image of James’ face was branded in
Delylah’s
mind.
She and Therese quickly dried off
and hurried to the walk-in closet in the dressing area.
Delylah
slipped into a pair of casual black
capris
with a
cropped peach lace top while Therese wore a pair of faded jeans and a black
one-shouldered top. Therese opted for her quick but ever elegant topknot while
Delylah
blow dried her hair into a mass of finger curls.
Both opted for simple but dramatic makeup, and as
Delylah
sprayed herself with her signature perfume, she realized that she was actually
feeling a little nervous about meeting James.
Delylah
smiled at her reflection in the mirror. Now that was a first. It had been a
long time since she had felt anxious or uneasy about anything or anyone, but it
had also been a long time since she had met someone who had made such a powerful
impression on her. She realized that even with constant performances and world
travel, her life had still fallen into a measure of a routine. James was a wild
card, a challenge that might not so easily be met.
Almost in response to her
thoughts, a discreet knock rose from the door. Therese glanced at
Delylah
and went to answer it.
“Hey, Darien,” she said, smiling
at Darien, dressed in his signature black, then at the very handsome and more
than a little sexy James
Branagh
, his camera draped
around his neck as though it were part of his body.
“Therese, I’d like you to meet
James
Branagh
,” Darien said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,”
James said, shaking Therese’s hand with a strong grip. “I understand you’re
Delylah’s
right-hand woman?”
Therese smiled. “Jill of all
trades pretty much sums it up,” she said, standing aside. “Please come in,
James.
Delylah’s
very excited to meet you.”
She glanced at Darien as James
stepped into the suite.
“Call me later,” Darien said,
before turning to leave. “We’ve got to go over the schedule for the Canadian
tour.”
Therese nodded and closed the door,
following James to a small sitting area adjacent to a wet bar. James stopped in
mid-stride when
Delylah
appeared and stared at her
appraisingly.
“
Delylah
Fayre
,” James said, extending his hand. “I’ve waited
a long time to meet you.”
Snared by his hypnotic blue eyes,
Delylah
smiled and shook his hand. His touch was electric,
almost sizzling, and the connection she felt was instantaneous. It was more
than clear that James felt the same, and his smile conveyed the obvious warmth
in his eyes.
“I think I’m the one who should be
honored,”
Delylah
said, motioning him to the soft
cream leather couches. “Please sit down.”
“Would you like some coffee,
James?” Therese asked.
“Or perhaps something stronger?
We have whatever you need.”
“Coffee would be fine, thank you,”
James said. “I think the concert was enough of a stimulant.”
“I’ll be right back,” Therese
said, retreating to the suite’s kitchen.
Delylah
crossed her legs and sat back against the couch. It was unusual for her to feel
remotely awkward with anyone, but something about James’ cool, deliberate
behavior clearly signaled that he was in charge of the situation. His
assessment of her was quite obvious, and she sensed it was more than just
professional interest.
“You should have let us know you
were attending the concert,” she said. “We could have provided you with VIP
seating.”
James grinned disarmingly and
leaned back against the couch.
Delylah
couldn’t help
but notice the tanned flesh exposed by the unbuttoned top of his shirt and the
way his rolled-up shirt sleeves clung to the pleasing contours of his muscular
arms. As she glanced at his face, she noticed faint crow’s feet fanning around
his hypnotic blue eyes.
She realized why James had stood
out from the crowd. It was not only because of his height, but from a power
aura of masculinity she could literally sniff, as though the pheromones
literally oozed from his pores. This was no boy hamming it up for juvenile
selfies
filled with silly expressions and even sillier hand
gestures. James was a man far removed from the herd mentality of the men she
had become used to.
“I’m a photographer,” James said,
drinking in her features. “Like you, I exist through my art, and I can’t experience
a connection with my subject from a private booth or sectioned-off row. If
you’ve studied my work, you’ll know that spontaneity is my signature.”
“That’s an interesting attitude,”
Delylah
said, wishing she had paid more attention to his
work. “But one I can understand. I feed off the energy of my audience. It’s a
high unlike anything else, and I feel the music coursing through my body as
surely as my blood flows through my veins.”
Even as she spoke, James raised
his camera and began snapping photos.
Though
Delylah
was more than used to being in front of the lens,
something about James’ candid snapping felt almost intimate.
“You get right to it, don’t you?”
she said with a smile.
“Isn’t that what you do?” James
asked. “Besides, I came to find out who
Delylah
Fayre
really is.”
He
paused and lowered the camera. “And right now, I’m looking at her.”
“Do you like what you see?”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“Interesting,”
Delylah
said, feeling a peculiar heat infuse her body. “Considering you’ve covered so
many other notable people around the world.”
“I pick my subjects for a reason,”
James said, raising the camera once again. “People are always contacting me
about photo sessions, but I’m very selective. I have to feel a connection or
else it doesn’t work.”
Delylah
stared at the lens, envisioning James’ beautiful blue eye behind it. “What
connection do you feel with me?”
“I feel it on many levels, but on
a primitive level, you arouse me. You embody a sensuality that many try to copy
but can’t because it’s too forced, too rehearsed. You also celebrate a raw
sexuality in a way that few other women can.”
“It almost sounds as though you’ve
been watching me for some time,”
Delylah
said,
growing more intrigued with James by the moment.
He lowered the camera and smiled.
“For quite some time, actually.
But I didn’t want to waste
time trudging through the channels of your entourage or waste time on meetings
and endless talk. I wanted the experience to be, and I stress my keyword …
spontaneous. I knew the opportunity would come … sooner or later.”
“So when would you like to start?”
Delylah
asked. “I’m taking some time off before I
head to Canada on the next leg of my tour.”
“We can start now, if you like,”
James said, glancing at Therese as she returned with a tray of coffee, “perhaps
as an ensemble with Therese. I feel the chemistry between you, and I’d love to
be able to capture it.”
Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in
this series
A year after she fled
Mads
and his war against the angels, Tara is making a life
for herself in a large anonymous city.
She is finally beginning to believe that there may be some kind of life
for herself and her son, Fen, but then everything changes in a single terrible
moment, and the war is on her doorstep again.
Mads
has never forgotten Tara, but when he realizes what
she has done and who she has hidden from him, can he ever forgive her?
The library was quiet at night, and that was how
Tara liked it best. She finished the shelf reading and turned in the papers to
the front desk before taking clocking herself out.
It was a long walk back to the apartment, and it
gave her time to think even as she stretched out legs that were sore from
reshelving
books and crouching to find missing volumes. She
wished she could return to her job at the university, but with the war between
the angels and the werewolves reaching a fever pitch, she didn't dare, not when
they had found her once.
It had been a year since she ran from
Mads
, the alpha werewolf who was cutting a swathe of
destruction through the ranks of the angels, using the weapon she had given
him. A year had not dulled the sting of his lies or of the fact that at night,
when she allowed herself to grieve, she still mourned him, still longed for his
arms around her.
Everything had changed that night in Scotland, and
when she had run, with an angel and a mysterious being known as the Three in
One as her unlikely allies, she had run hard. The year had been a difficult
one, the hardest she had ever known, and her travels had brought her to this
large city, where she could disappear into the swell of humanity.
Her life was dark in some ways. She couldn't let
any one get too close, and her ties with her family, tenuous though they had
always been, were now cut for good. She flinched from every dark shadow that
came at her from above, and some days, she was so angry about what
Mads
had done that she could have wept.
Still, opening the door to her fourth-story
apartment, she knew that there were things that she wouldn't give up for the
world.
“
How was he, today?” she asked, hanging her purse by
the door.
In his angelic form, Lukas was inhumanly beautiful
and perfect. When she had told him that there was no place for half-naked men
with tall, broad white wings on the run, he had folded himself inward and
hidden the wings, though there was no disguising his handsome features or his
long, almost completely unblinking gaze. Now he only looked like an amazingly
handsome man in his late twenties, with curly hair and piercing gray eyes. He
wore the jeans and the T-shirt she had purchased for him, and in his muscled
arms, he held a baby that already held Tara's heart in his hands.
She took him from the angel's arms, and Lukas made
a considering noise.
“
He was restless today,” the angel reported.
“Fretful. Usually he sleeps so calmly, but today, it did not matter whether I
held him or let him be, or sang. He senses something coming.”
“
Do you, little one?” crooned Tara, taking one of
the canisters of her milk from the refrigerator. She set the milk on the stove
to warm, and she sat down in the tiny kitchen, rocking him gently.
The baby opened eyes that were going to be a bright
vivid blue, and she touched his petal-soft cheek with one careful finger.
“
Beautiful Fen,” she whispered. “I love you, baby,
don't worry about what's coming. I will protect you, Lukas and
I
both.”
Despite the fact that he was mostly occupied with
childcare and groceries at the moment, Lukas was himself a warrior. Eons ago,
he had been the guardian of prophecies, and when the other angels had gone to
war with the werewolves, he had stood aside. He was nothing like his scarred
and broken brothers, and when she needed him, he had come. He told her that she
and Fen were important, but he could not say how, and when she pressed him, he
looked so sad that she could not stand to ask further.
“
It will be revealed in time,” was all he would say,
and with that she had to be content.
It was a small life that she had with her baby and
her angelic companion. She went to the library to work, she came home, she
cuddled her child, and she tried not to think about the child's father. This
was far easier than being on the run, especially when she started to show, and
she relaxed into the familiarity of her routine as she fed her son the warmed
milk.
Mads
, damn you, you should be here,
she thought emptily.
***
The hills echoed with howls of victory, and
Mads
stood up over his band, howling the loudest.
There were five dead angels on the ground, their
bodies twisted and their wings wrenched. Before, no matter how much they hurt
them, they could never kill the angels. Now, with
Mads
carrying the sword of the great hero
Fenrisulfir
,
that had changed, and the werewolves were slowly, but surely turning the tide.
“
We've won,”
exulted
Kalle
. He was shorter and lighter than
Mads
,
but otherwise, he was his brother's double. He bounced on his feet, as ready to
fight now as he had been a few hours ago, when the battle started.
“
We've won a battle,” corrected Nils, darker and
slighter than either of them. He was the youngest of them now, and he had
always been grimmer. “There are angels yet to fight.”
Mads
cleaned his sword, the thing that had brought all
five angels down while his war band had engaged them, and he grinned at his
companions.
The year had been a successful one, and slowly,
word among the angels had spread. The attacks on their land had lessened.
Discontent with that, the werewolves had gone hunting. It was a brutal measure,
but one that he and the elders of the pack deemed necessary. They had been on
the hunt for more than nine months.
As much as he was homesick, however, a part of his
heart still reached out for Tara. Some nights, he thought the sword was a poor
exchange for the woman he had fallen in love with. He wondered if she was safe,
if she yet lived, and
Kalle
whistled insolently in
his ear.
“
I know what you are thinking, brother,” he said
mischievously. “Let me cure you of your misery. I know a young lady not a day
from here who would make you forget everything that troubles you.”
Mads
' roar was a furious thing, and he swung a heavy
backhanded blow at his brother, who dodged lazily.
“
I'd give it up if I were you,” Nils observed. “He's
got a war to fight, after all.”
“
One that might be ending soon,”
Mads
said thoughtfully.
They had seen fewer and fewer angels, this much was
true, and the twenty men and women in his war band were tired from their long
fight. He glanced around them and saw not only soldiers who he would trust with
his life, but also people who were tired to the bone and longed for their home,
for the cottages of Cairn Rock, where the werewolves lived freely and openly.
“
I'm not done, but the rest of you are,” he said
finally. “There was talk of an angel in Boston, a powerful one. I can't take
the lot of you into the city, so you head home. Nils and
Kalle
,
you're with me, and then we'll make our way home together.”
“
What's one angel?” called Sivan, a tall, gaunt
woman with a single eye. “Come home with us, Chief, celebrate with us.”
There was a murmur of agreement, but
Mads
quelled it with a warning growl.
“
The war's not done yet, Nils is right. I'll come
home when it's right to do so.”
It was a mark of their regard how much they wanted
him to return with them, but he couldn't do it. He knew that if they returned,
he would be surrounded by young werewolf women who wanted a place by his side,
and that there would be pressure from his entire family to marry. Werewolf war
leaders didn't have a long life because of the dangers of battle, and it was
his duty to leave his blood behind in the form of sons and daughters.
He shook his head. There was no way he could
return, not when his heart was missing. He looked up at the clear night sky,
and when he simply thought of Tara's name, he ached.
Boston,
he decided. One last hunt in Boston, and it was
time to get on with his life, whatever he made of it.
***
It was Tara’s day off, but Lukas was no where to be
found. Sometimes the angel would leave for days on end, off on his own strange
errands and tasks, but when she expected him to be around, he always was.
Tara bounced Fen in her arms, biting her lip with
worry. She knew that he haunted one of the large parks nearby sometimes, and
she knew that once in a while, he had mentioned losing track of time, becoming
lost. He had told her he would be with her today to take Fen outside into the
warm summer day, but as the day drew on, and she didn't hear from him, she grew
increasingly nervous.
Tara knew that she could take her son out on her
own, but she also knew that it was safer to do so with a disguised angel
nearby. Finally, she decided that she would go looking for Lukas, and with
that, she rang the doorbell on the apartment next door.
Mrs. Erikson was an older widow who had looked
after Fen before, and she was delighted to take a little bit of cash to watch
him while Tara ran out for an hour. Tara knew that she wouldn't leave the
house, and so she set off for the park at a brisk walk.
To her dismay, the day that had started out so
bright and sunny was growing dimmer by the moment, and when she came to the
park's gates, there were fat drops of rain pelting down around her. She passed
families who were hustling out of the park as she entered, and a feeling of
deep foreboding came over her.
She trotted along the paths because running would
have meant admitting that something was wrong, and everywhere she looked for
Lukas.
Tara was just beginning to give up hope when she
heard growls from nearby and a pained groan. She had her phone in hand, ready
to call the police when she realized that she recognized that groan.
She dashed into the trees and within a few moments,
she found herself in a wilder area of the park, one that was shielded from view
by high rocks and growth, and that was how she found Lukas.
He was flat on his back, and though he was wearing
normal clothes, his wings had emerged from his back, turning his shirt to rags.
Those same wings, strong enough to lift him off the ground, were bent and
pinned to the ground, and standing over him were two gray wolves. He had been
groaning before, but now he was lying frighteningly still.
Her mind tried to tell her that they were wild
dogs, but she knew that they were not, especially when as one, they turned to
look at her, and one of them had a pair of electric blue eyes that she still saw
in her dreams.
“
Please,” she said softly, inching closer to them.
“He hasn't done anything wrong... he doesn't hunt you. He's... he's gentle.”
One of the wolves bared his teeth at her, but the
other, the one with the blue eyes, transformed before her eyes. She realized
very quickly that it wasn't
Mads
, but he looked
enough like her lover that it made her heart constrict.
“
You don't know what you're talking about,” he said
bluntly. “I don't know what you know, but it's not enough. Whoever you are, run
and
hide,
and we won't hurt you. Hurting humans isn't
our business.”
“
He's my friend,” she insisted. “He... he protects
me, please, don't hurt him.”
The wolf by the man's side growled warningly when
she tried to come closer, and she halted, holding her hands up. She was almost
dizzy with fear, with how fast things could change, and all she knew was that
she could not allow the wolves to savage her friend.
She started to speak again, but then a voice cut
through all of it, a voice that she had dreamed about and yearned for the
better part of the last year.
“
Tara?”
She spun around and found herself clasped in arms
that were as strong as steel and her lips taken in a fiercely passionate kiss.
There was no other response possible for her to this man, and she clung to him.
She knew who it was without looking. There was no hesitation in her body and
her mind, and she kissed him back fiercely.
It wasn't until he set her back that she could see
the deep trouble that she and Lukas were in.
Mads
was
dressed for battle, with a sword strapped to his side, and a part of her
wondered how he had even gotten it through the Boston streets at all.
“
He took you,”
Mads
growled, glancing at the angel on the ground. “All this time, I thought you
ran, and one of these bastards took you.”
“
No!” she cried, because she could see Lukas' death
in
Mads
' furious gaze, and she put herself between
Mads
and the injured angel on the ground.
