Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) (14 page)

           
“Nadia, I—“

           
“Please, just leave. I can’t do this right now.” Her voice that had ripened
with anger was now whispery thin. He felt her falling slowly apart, even as he
saw it with his own eyes.

           
Standing there he knew, without a doubt, that she would not welcome any
reassuring gestures from him right now. And even though he hated to do it, he
turned and went back to her front door. Stopping at the door, he turned and
took in her hunched shoulders, head facing the floor while tears brimmed over
her eyes. The power coursing through his body at that moment told him that he
could ease her pain and anger, if only she would allow him to touch her. The
shield she had surrounding her chased that idea from his mind. She would sooner
touch a snake than his hand right now.

           
Clearing his voice he told her, “Don’t hesitate to call me if you need
something, Nadia.”

           
A burst of condescending laughter edged from her throat, but she didn’t reply.
Drake opened the door, and walked out of her house, dreading each step that
took him away from her while she was in this state. He knew he could help her,
but she didn’t want that. He had to acknowledge what she wanted and not push
her, even if that might make her hate him even more.

***

           
There had been many instances in her life where Nadia had felt such horrible
emotion. This surely wasn’t the worst, but now she would remember it as the day
that she had driven a stake between her and Drake.

           
But that was what you wanted, wasn’t it? You needed something to drive you
away from him, something to keep your mind from conjuring up images of him at
every turn, just so you could live a normal, healthy life.

           
Well, now she was stuck in the one scenario she had hoped for. She just hadn’t
thought she would lose Belle over this. But she had. There was no way around it
and after realizing that, things had been a bit better. But her irrational
anger at Drake had burned red hot and out of control when he had come to her
home.

           
All the time he talked to her, the only thing she could see was Lorelei’s body
wrapped tight around his. She wanted to smash the pretty woman’s head in. When
she had accused him of fucking the woman’s brains out, that had been anger
talking-until Nadia realized that he had probably done just that.

           
That sent a wave of remorse flooding through her, but she knew that was only
jealousy making her think that way.

           
With tear-filled eyes, she sipped her tea, and stared out onto her back porch.
Moonlight gilded every edge of furniture, patio equipment, and her overgrown
grass yard. Fireflies buzzed around, their small bodies lighting up the
denseness of the dark. Nadia took another sip and tried to stop her emotions
from overreacting.

           
Just the idea that Drake had been with Lorelei was like a killing blow to her
middle. Nadia wasn’t sure of how many more images she could conjure up with
Drake and that woman, but if her brain flashed one more shockingly descriptive
picture, Nadia just might consider becoming an alcoholic. Being drunk made her
sleepy, and sleeping was the only way to stop seeing them doing the deed over
and over in her mind.

           
God, she had been rude, terribly rude, but what she told him hadn’t been
prettied up at all. Every vehement word had spilled out, and she felt a slight
bit better.

The
tears gathering in her eyes once again mocked her. She knew that she was crying
because of what she had done, rather than what she had lost with Belle. Furious
with her emotions, she wiped her wet cheeks and remembered the shock in those
warm caramel eyes of his when she had basically yelled out his actions with
Lorelei. Apparently he had never assumed his little Nadia would rant and rave
about him having sex before. Now he knew just how hot her temper ran when
stoked. She wanted to crawl under the floorboards.

Other
than admitting just how attracted she was to him, she had just planted a huge
sign on her forehead that screamed JEALOUS. And with Drake being the astute man
he was, she was damn sure he would figure it out real soon.

Then
what will you do?

Nadia
had no idea.

           
Bright and early Monday morning, the first bouquet arrived.

           
The beautiful arrangement instantly made Nadia suspicious, and her suspicions
were confirmed when she opened the card and read Drake’s elegant scrawl:

           
No words can express how sorry I am. Enjoy the flowers.

                                                                                   
Drake

           
 Nadia brought her eyes back up to the spray of Orchids, Tulips, and other
fragrant flowers and met Renee’s wide eyes over the bouquet.

           
“Damn,” she muttered, giving Nadia a look that stated just how surprised she
was. Nadia could agree. She had never received flowers from Drake before. She
ignored the warm glow and looked around Renee to the delivery guy still
standing in the office doorway.

           
“Please return these and you can tell him that it was a lovely gesture.”

           
Renee gasped and the guy shrugged, reaching out to grab the large bouquet and
then he left the office, leaving Renee standing behind him, her mouth working
like a gasping fish.

           
“What the hell?” Renee’s eyes instantly went to Nadia’s face. “Are you sick?
That yummy man sends you flowers,
flowers
, Nadia, and you send them
back?”

           
Nadia told herself that she had bared enough to Renee when she had called her Sunday,
she shouldn’t need to say more. “I just want to go on about my life without
thinking of anything that happened Saturday.” And that was the truth. She
wanted to forget her humiliating actions in front of Drake.

           
She had just sat back at her desk when Renee said from the hallway, “Girl, I
don’t know what you have planned in that head of yours but I have a feeling you
had better line up your next shot. This Drake fellow doesn’t seem like he would
give up that easily.”

           
That was what worried Nadia.

           
An hour and a half later her worry grew.

           
The same delivery guy was back in her office with the same bouquet. “He isn’t
happy and he said to make sure you read the card.”

           
Nadia’s insides trembled, but she brushed it off and gallantly took the card
from between the fronds of baby’s breath and greenery. Apparently this delivery
guy was working directly from Drake’s office for his bold scrawl was once again
on the card.

           
I knew you were stubborn, but this is ridiculous. Just accept the flowers.

                                                                                                           
Drake

           
A slow smirk grew on her face, but she stopped it from forming fully. She
thrust back into her mind
all of the reasons that she
shouldn’t accept this gift from him. Imagining
herself
thinking depressing thoughts of him while she held the flowers to her chest was
what cemented her actions. She would not pine for him anymore.

           
She placed the card back and gave the delivery boy an apologizing glance.

           
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind at all. Every time I leave his office he tips me,”
the young guy told her, and Nadia couldn’t help but laugh as he left the
building once more with the bouquet firmly in his grasp.

***

           
Across town Drake was not exactly good company right now.

           
His attempts at apologizing to the most stubborn, hardheaded little lady this
side of the Mississippi was not working, and he wasn’t pleased about it. The
delivery guy had come and gone three times already. When he came back with the
bouquet in his hands again, Drake gestured for him to leave it with his
secretary and then he could go.

           
She
would
accept something from him as an apology, even if he had to be
underhanded to get her to take it.

           
He pushed papers around on his desk until his phonebook appeared and as he
flipped through, he tried to understand this burning
need
to give her
something in the first place. Could it have been because she had looked like a
wounded black haired angel when she cried Saturday? Maybe it was because even
after his changing over 200 years ago he still couldn’t handle tears from a
woman. Whatever the reason, all Drake knew was that he had a burning aspiration
in his gut to see her happy again, and he wouldn’t rest until he carried forth
on his plan.

           
An hour later Drake was wearing a shit eating grin and feeling about ten feet
taller as he left his office for field work. There was no way in hell Nadia
could return his gift now and just knowing that caused his blood to heat.

           
He adamantly refused to dissect any reason why his body grew hotter when he had
thoughts of her.

***

           
The card arrived the next day in the mail.

           
Nadia slid her fingernail under it and pulled out the heavy vellum paper. The
Saunders Spa was located in one of the ritziest neighborhoods in Houston. Nadia
had done a few write ups on the large business for one of her magazines and she
had loved the neutral elegance of the place. They catered to wealthy patrons,
but every year at a couple of Nadia’s events they would send out gift baskets
that included spa days and other goodies. Her eyes went over the small note and
Nadia remembered meeting Gwen, the manager, at one of her events a few months
ago. Gwen had basically said that she wanted to thank Nadia because since they
had been sending out those goody baskets, their business had skyrocketed and
she had included a day pass for her in the envelope.

           
Dang, she could use this, and it was the thing she needed so that her mind
could be at ease while her body got pampered. Before she allowed her mind to
change, she called the number and accepted the generous gift.

           
The week passed relatively fast, and with no more flowers from Drake. In the
back of her mind, Nadia had hoped she would have seen more, but she knew once
she refused him three times she would not be seeing the lovely bouquet again.

           
You had your reasons to do that.

           
She had, but thinking about it a week later she was seeing just how impolite
she had been to turn down his gift. What really surprised her was how easily he
had given up. Like any other Texas gentleman she knew, Drake was a surefire
charmer and could easily smile or drawl his way past any woman’s defenses.
Since it hadn’t been him delivering those flowers, it was easier for her to
stay immune from his charismatic ways.

           
Anyway, she thought to herself, if he had wanted to charm her he could have
done so Saturday at her house.

           
Just remembering what she had told him that day sent a fiery blush traveling
over her skin. It had to have been more than clear to him just what those
yelled words meant. She only hoped that he didn’t care about her jealousy.

           
Yeah right
.

           
If she knew Drake, and she did, not only had he noticed the green monster in
the room with them that afternoon, he was also waiting for the perfect time to
get to the bottom of things.

           
She sure as heck didn’t need that. Hell, she was barely hanging on by a thread
as things were now. Drake was an intense man. If he wanted to, he would have
her emotions laid bare in mere moments. Saturday, they had been all over the
place, and he had only been there ten minutes. Nadia knew if there was
something he wanted to know, he wouldn’t waste time. The ruthless businessman
and hardnosed animal activist in him would rise to the surface and leave her in
shambles.

           
Pushing thoughts of him away, she focused on the relaxing day she would have at
the spa instead. She would not waste the spa’s generosity on emotions she could
do nothing about. There was no way to change her feelings for Drake. She had
loved him for years and would continue to do so, no matter how much it hurt her
to know that he would never care for her that way.

           
She knew now, after the Donavan incident, that trying to push those feelings
onto another man, or even using another man to hide behind, would never work.
All that had done was waste her time and screwed up a friendship and developing
trust between her and Donavan.

           
There was no way to escape Drake and what he made her feel. She had accepted
it, but she knew her life would be miserable because of it.

***

           
The weeks flew by and surprisingly enough Nadia was so busy that she rarely had
time to focus on Drake. In between meetings concerning photo shoots, headlines,
and hot topic events, Nadia also had her hands full with numerous charity
functions, and trying to stay on pace with other national magazines, all
without losing her sanity.