Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) (17 page)

           
“Are you okay?” He asked her. Nadia sensed his worry, but she also sensed his
laughter.

           
Fire burned in her throat but she managed to croak out a wobbly, “Sure.” That’s
what she got for trying to not state the obvious.

           
Minutes passed, and Nadia realized she didn’t have the need to utter one word.
She studied his dark hair and the way it drooped over his ear. Dark beard
stubble was hidden right under the skin and Nadia wanted more than anything to
feel it against her hands. That brought back images of the last time she
touched him. Her skin burned in reaction. That dance was still making her want
things she shouldn’t.

Her
attention was snagged by a man passing close to her. He walked in the opposite
direction and she noted that it was Donavan. He went towards the buffet and
grabbed a plate, but never once turned and acknowledged Nadia or Drake. It
wasn’t as if Nadia hated his guts, but she would rather not be drawn into his
company. She knew he was a sly one. It was much easier on her well-being if she
stayed away from him.

“I
see you noticed him.” Drake drawled in a low tone from beside her.

“I’m
sure I would have sooner or later. The party isn’t that huge,” she told him,
taking another sip of wine and catching the hard look on Drake’s face.

“He
is one of those people you just can’t trust as far as you can throw him.”

Nadia
silently agreed as she continued watching him. “But he is such a great liar
that you would believe anything that came out of his mouth.” Seems that she
should have caught onto that part of his personality earlier and saved herself
a load of trouble, but at least she learned somehow.

“I’m
glad you aren’t tied with him anymore.”

Her
shocked gaze flew to his. Warm honey colored eyes glinted at her from beneath a
fringe of dark lashes. The wine she was drinking lodged between her throat and
stomach.

“He
basically seduced Suzanne and left her dazed at how fast he swindled some of
her money.”

“The
bastard.
I never really knew him at all, did I?”
Nadia mumbled, feeling supremely sorry for Suzanne. The urge to slap Donavan
rushed through her.

“Just
be relieved it wasn’t you,
darlin
’,” Drake told her.
She turned back to where he was sitting and noted the relaxed look he was
giving off. She didn’t buy it one bit. He always had animal fast reflexes.

“I
see Jacob Ritter is here. There is something I need to speak with him about.
I’ll see you later.”

Nadia
nodded and watched him walk towards the large living area. He moved slowly,
surely, as if he had all the time in the world to get where he was going. She
wasn’t sure why he was actually hanging around with her, when she had expected
him to ignore her after their confrontation.

Slight
movement rustled near her side and Nadia looked up into Donavan’s face. Damn,
the last thing she needed was arguing over how he had been so very sorry about
his screw up with Suzanne. But Nadia pasted a bright, fake smile on her face
anyway.
Keep up social niceties, Nadia…

“Nadia,
you look beautiful tonight. It is so nice to see you.”

She
wanted to cringe but answered politely instead. “Thank you, Donavan.”

“I
still never got a chance to apologize to you without being interrupted.” He
looked perfectly embarrassed and his eyes were like a puppy dog that had gotten
kicked to the curb. Nadia didn’t want to feel sorry for him, but she had known
him for a good while and during that time he had never taken her money, treated
her badly or done anything to make her think he would eventually cheat on her.
Maybe what Drake had heard about Suzanne was a lie. Maybe he was just trying to
make Donavan look horrible to her.

“You
apologized already Donavan, and I forgave you.”

An
earnest look crossed his face. “Please, let’s walk a little. I’ve missed your
company.”

Nadia
quelled the urge to tell him no, besides what could he possibly do with so many
people wandering around? Not only that, she could also feel a few stares in
their direction. She stood up and placed her half eaten plate and wineglass on
the table beside her. “We can walk for a minute, but only to the porch.”

He
gave a charming smile and grasped her elbow as they walked towards the large
French doors behind the buffet tables. “Are you doing okay?”

“I’m
fine, just extremely busy with the magazines and other charity works.” She
started to slide into a familiar camaraderie by the time they made it to the
veranda that wound all the way around the house. Nadia noticed a few people
were on the north side of the porch, she could hear them talking but couldn’t
see them, but she still felt safe.

They
talked lightly for a few minutes. He told her of hearing about her rankings in the
polls with other prestigious magazines and he also said that his accounting
firm was on the up and up about to open up another branch in Dallas. Before
Nadia realized it, ten minutes had passed. The darkness was full now, but with
the soft gas lamps attached to the porch she didn’t feel any fear, nor did she
notice that the other people had left the porch.

When
Nadia finally noticed that Donavan was too close, it was too late. Staring at
his hard face in the shadow of the gas lamp the first true touch of fear slid
into her body.

“I
think I should go back in now.”

A
slight smirk crossed his lips. He leaned even closer. Nadia moved back, but
felt the hardness of the house wall at her back. There was nowhere left for her
to go. “Why would you do that when we are just starting to get reacquainted?”
His hand came up to grasp her right arm as he leaned his much larger body into
hers. She tried to work her legs between his so that she could knee him, but as
he leaned, he pushed her open legs outward, removing that particular threat.

Nadia
wasn’t about to be taken advantage of right outside Darlene Hollis’s house with
a party going on. She shoved with all she was worth. When he stopped stumbling
only two feet from her, his eyes swung in her direction and Nadia was shocked
at the depth of anger she saw there. Battling down a sick feeling in her
stomach, she told him coldly, “Don’t you ever, ever put your hands on me
again.”

The
angry look in his eyes calmed instantly and Nadia started backing away from the
wall of the house and him, not trusting him one bit.

“Now
honey, all I wanted to do was talk. I deserve to have some of your time, don’t
I?”

The
thick underbrush surrounding the house scraped against her ankles, but Nadia
continued her slightly backward walk. She had the awful feeling that if she
gave him the opportunity he might just tackle her in the yard. But no, Donavan
wouldn’t draw attention to this little mix up, would he?

“You
don’t deserve shit from me. I gave you more than what you deserve.”

Feeling
just a bit stronger since there was more space between their bodies, Nadia
turned her back but kept glancing over her shoulder every few feet while her
legs swallowed up the distance back to the front of the house. When she noticed
he wasn’t really following her, just standing off of the corner of the house,
she turned fully and went back into the party, breathing a sigh of relief as
she did so.

Trying
to ignore the painful beating of her heart, she took in a lungful of cool, air
conditioned air and grabbed a wineglass from the tray in the foyer. For about
ten minutes no one really bothered her, and her eyes never caught sight of
Donavan coming in the door, thank God. After twenty minutes, she started to get
her bearings back when she caught sight of Darlene waving at her through the
crowd.

She
was introduced to the grandchildren, who were men her age, and as they all
conversed in the large library, Nadia’s eyes took in Drake’s form over by the
large wall of books. His dark chocolate hair was mussed, as if his hands had
burrowed there repeatedly, and his hands moved slightly when he spoke to the
three other men standing around him. Their conversation was deep and more than
likely businesslike, Nadia assumed. But as she turned back to the sound of
Darlene’s laughter, Nadia realized she felt extremely safe in his presence.

An
hour later she said her goodbyes and almost walked back in the library where
Drake was still talking to the men, but she decided against it. He didn’t need
to know when she left the party. And he probably didn’t care either way.
Shaking her head, Nadia grabbed her belongings from the coatroom and slipped
out into the humid summer night. There were a few other people leaving, so she
didn’t feel alone, until they all left through the front entrance and made it
to the sidewalk. When the woman and man she followed out turned the opposite
way from Nadia, the fear came back. But she shoved it away as nothing more than
paranoia. There was no reason to fear walking to her car, which was parked
around the block from the grand house. This was Beaumont, not Houston.

The
huge oak trees from Darlene’s yard hung over the sidewalk as Nadia walked,
lending the mysterious night air something a bit more sinister and forbidding.
She grabbed her purse tighter against her, fished out her keys so that she
would be ready to start her Rover right up and started walking fast.

When
she turned on the sidewalk, the extremely dark, narrow lane where she parked
screamed at her to go in the other direction. Ignoring the warning and wrapping
her keys around her fingers, like a pair of brass knuckles, she forged on.
Darlene lived in the historic district of Beaumont where the streets were
narrow and there wasn’t that much traffic at night.
Don’t remind
yourself
of that right now,
Nadia admonished herself.

When
she got within twenty feet of her Rover, beeped the doors and saw the light
come on inside the huge vehicle, pure relief swamped her.

With
her heels clacking on the pavement, she raced around the side of the vehicle to
get in, and out of nowhere a huge hand clasped over her lower jaw, silencing
her efficiently, while another hand threw her keys to the ground before she
could set off the panic button. She started kicking immediately which
apparently pissed off her attacker, because he hauled back and slapped her,
hard.

Nadia
slumped, dazed, against her vehicle as her vision blurred before her eyes. Even
sounds were going in and out, whooshing through her head with alacrity.

“Now
that I have your attention you will do nothing to screw this up, do you hear
me?”

He
didn’t say his name but Nadia knew the voice. With her legs trembling beneath
her, her body shaking heavily and tears brimming in her eyes, she needed to get
somebody’s attention. She tried to suck in enough air for a scream when his
hand covered her mouth again.

His
breath ruffled the hair close to her cheek and Nadia cringed away. His palm
tightened against her arm and Nadia knew she would have a bruise there
tomorrow. “Don’t move away from me. You know I have been nothing but patient
with you.”

Oh
please make him stop.

The
whispered litany was repeated in her head when his mouth slithered onto her
neck. “We don’t want any one to intrude on our reunion, do we honey?”

Tears
fell from her eyes when he let go of her arm and used the hand that had covered
her mouth to push away her dress strap. “You little tease. You tied me in knots
for a year, and now I see you making eyes at Thompson? There’s no way I’m
letting you give him what I’ve been very patiently waiting for.”

With
her mind foggy from pain, she took another deep breath and screamed for all she
was worth. The sound reverberated down the small street and deep into the
night, shocking in the silence.

He
hauled back and slapped her again, sending her into another slight daze. “You
little bitch.” With vision murky from his abuse, Nadia stood there confused
while he murmured words she didn’t recognize.

That’s
okay, someone heard me. Someone will come soon.

Her
fear along with his abuse was causing her to float about in this odd state
where what was happening to her seemed like a dream. That was, until he leaned
back slightly and then suddenly, he wasn’t there anymore.

Slumping
against the hard body of the truck, she huddled with her eyes closed, tears
streaming down her cheeks, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane while a fierce
growl reverberated in the air around her. She didn’t open her eyes to look,
terrified as she was by the sound, but just stayed hunched over, rocking
herself on the small road, and wanting so badly to wake up from this horrible
nightmare.

There
was a rough curse, then shuffled footsteps, and Nadia felt tingles shoot up and
down her arms right before a shadow fell across her body. She scooted away on
the pavement as fast as she could and would have gotten past the corner of the
vehicle when the shadow spoke.

“Baby,
don’t do that. Come, it’s me, Drake. Let me help you, okay?”  

The
timber and tone of the deep voice carried to her ears, and Nadia knew it was
him but everything inside of her was telling her, screaming at her to run.
Instead she sat there, in her ruined sundress with no telling what kind of
bruises and dirt stuck to her. She was a huge ball of fear. Trembling, she
looked from the corner of her eye and noticed the tips of Drake’s cowboy boots,
right there in front of her. She could tell he was squatting down beside her,
and all at once she realized she should cover herself, cover up the damage that
Donavan had done.