Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) (18 page)

His
hand reached out to grasp hers gently, and Nadia flinched. She heard a low,
vile curse, but allowed him to grab her hand in his own. He gently, ever so
slowly, helped her up. When she stood fully, her legs gave out, and instantly
she found herself being picked up in his strong arms. She felt a moment’s
hesitation, a cringe against him out of fear, but then at the same time a sob
tore from her chest, and with a small cry she curled into his chest and
shuddered, while harsh sobs tore from her throat.

***

           
Drake clenched his fingers so hard against the steering wheel that he heard a
small ripping sound. With one look he realized he had popped the elegant
stitching on his wheel. Damn. This was his favorite pick up truck. The frayed
ends of the leather cover showed up blue against the immaculate glowing
backdrop of the dashboard.

           
Thank God Nadia was asleep in the passenger seat. He would have no excuse to
cover up his display of rage. He needed this to be a lesson for him.

           
Control yourself man.

           
He did have one good thing to say for himself. Donavan was still alive,
although he probably wished he was dead instead. Drake had maintained some form
of control, enough to realize that he should live so that he could spend the
rest of his sorry life in jail. Donavan was in a Beaumont hospital at the
moment. The broken jaw and fractured arm Drake had given him were nothing
compared to the areas of internal bleeding that were being monitored. He should
be damn lucky that was all he had wrong with him.

           
Drake looked in Nadia’s direction. Pale, watery moonlight illuminated her
profile. Long dark lashes crested the gentle rise of her cheeks, while her
gently upturned nose and bruised mouth quivered with slow, deep breaths. She
was safe now. Safe from Donavan, that was. Drake refused to think about his
certain weakness where this young lady was concerned.

           
He couldn’t even begin to describe the sheer rage, the gut wrenching reaction
that had come over him whenever he heard that high pitched scream and he had
known, deep down, that she was in trouble. With his abilities, he was able to
be at her side in seconds and when he had seen Donavan leaning over her prone
body, up against her Rover, Drake had known then that the bastard had sealed his
fate. Drake had gone into killing mode, not caring who was around, just knowing
that a low, vile, piece-of-shit human, was violating something that belonged to
him.

           
Drake knew he could have easily been found out. Hell, there might be someone out
there tonight that could have seen him change, but knowing that Nadia was alive
and conscious beside him made everything else pale in comparison.

           
Somehow, some way, he had calmed the second he touched Donavan. Rather than
killing, he had inflicted small damage only. To him, that was his good deed for
the day. But it could have so easily turned into a murder scene, especially
when he saw the damage done to Nadia up close. Instead of going back to the
asshole and ending his life, Drake had picked up Nadia and made sure she was
covered, before walking back into Darlene’s house and informing her of what had
just happened right outside her gated yard, while he made sure one of the
guests called the police.

           
The guests had been shocked, outraged, but that was exactly what Drake wanted
after he told them where to find Donavan, out cold on the road beside Nadia’s
vehicle. Now there were no excuses or ugly rumors that could be started that
the fifty or so people from the party couldn’t stop in its tracks. Donavan
would be forever branded an attacker of women while everyone already knew of
Nadia’s gentle, caring nature. Donavan would go down, in more ways than one.

           
That was the only thing about this night that caused him to smile.

           
After contacting the Beaumont Police, Drake had only given them enough time to
ask pertinent questions before bringing Nadia to the hospital where he wanted
her thoroughly checked over. Yes, he had admitted to the police that he’d seen
a woman being abused, and that’s why the attacker was in such bad shape.
Needless to say, Donavan wouldn’t be pressing charges against him. Drake had
taken care of that with a little threat of his own.

           
After an hour spent there and a full exam, Drake found out from the E.R. doctor
that she had suffered two blows to the face which had caused a split lip and
more than a few bruises and small cuts from the ring that Donavan had worn. She
had numerous bruises on her upper arms and a few on her knees, but that was
all.

           
Drake knew it could have been much, much worse. Just the thought sent a deep
burn into his eyes and his gums. He clenched his jaw, forcing his fangs down
and carefully clenched his hands on the wheel.

Seconds
later he covered her hand with his and sent a calming, soothing sleep spell
deep into her body. Since she needed the rest, Drake didn’t feel quite so bad
about his underhanded approach to making her relax. She would sleep the rest of
the night and long into the day, and if it were up to him, he would be there if
nightmares threatened.

           
A slight tingle, much like the one that she felt whenever Drake entered her
personal space, slithered through her body while the dark, starless night
closed in around her, Nadia shivered but kept very still.

           
Tall, mature trees stood like massive sentinels in the dense wooded area
surrounding her. The moon was a small slash of cream against the black backdrop
where no stars shone. Night sounds permeated the still, foggy air around her.
Whippoorwills called and every few minutes a lonely, chill inducing whine came
from the darkness.

           
Wrapping her arms around her shoulders, Nadia peered into the darkness that
hovered around the trunks of every tree in her line of vision. She couldn’t
pinpoint exactly where she was but the only place this wooded that she knew of
was Ridge Lake. The smell of sweet gardenias was thick in the air, and Nadia
knew that there were many of those bushes that lined the wild areas of the
lake.

           
A sound caught her attention. Nadia swiftly turned her head in the direction
and waited. Seconds later she didn’t see anything, but the hair rising on her
arms and that persistent tingle kept her eyes on that particular area. She didn’t
feel apprehensive or afraid. The emotions inside of her at the moment were more
engrossed with the strange surroundings than anything else.

           
Her eyes picked up on a large shadow lingering near the edge of one massive
pine-about fifteen feet from her. She was just allowing herself to move her
vision from the ground up when she realized that it was a man. Even though it
was particularly foggy and highly dark where they were standing she was able to
make out his large frame and the width of his shoulders. As her eyes traveled
up towards where she assumed his face would be, a startled gasp escaped her
mouth.

           
A beautiful glowing gold, something that resembled the deep brilliant color of
a 24 karat nugget, gleamed in the darkness where his eyes would have been.
Nadia was intrigued and fascinated. She knew she probably should feel a deep,
resonating fear, but she didn’t. She wasn’t terrified at all.

           
The large man with the odd eyes moved closer and immediately Nadia felt faint.
Seconds later, she blacked out.

***

           
The house was dark when Nadia woke. The odd dream lingered in her mind, not
frightening or scary, just different and unusual.

           
Sunlight filtered in from her window, just barely illuminating part of the
hardwood floor with its soft yellow radiance. She turned in the bed, opened her
mouth to yawn when severe pain caused her eyes to fly open and her hand to come
up to her cheek and lip. Images from last night flashed through her mind like
an old movie still, showing her again and again just what had taken place.

           
Shuddering, Nadia’s fingers came up to touch the bruised skin on her cheekbone,
and the small gash on her lip. The bastard had done a good job on her face.
Thank God Drake had shown up when he had.

           
As if thinking of him heralded hearing his voice, a slightly raspy, deep Texas
drawl sliced through the quiet of her bedroom. “Don’t fool with that too much
darlin
.’ You’ll start it to bleeding again.”

           
Nadia let her eyes, swollen from crying the night
before,
fixate on the corner of her bedroom, where the voice had come from. Her fingers
stopped fiddling with the swollen flesh instantly. It wasn’t necessarily stark
panic that had her frozen at the sound of that deep baritone. It was more like
awareness, an overwhelming
knowing
that the substantial man sitting in
her small, very feminine bedroom was a devastatingly masculine one. He all but
sucked the very oxygen from the room just because he was in it.

           
His face was in one of the many shadows around the room but Nadia was able to
make out certain things, like the broad, straight blade of his nose, the mussed
ends of his hair and the harsh, uncompromising jut of his jaw. An old, worn
blue tee shirt covered his huge chest while worn, frayed jeans clasped
muscular, hard legs. White socks were on his feet and to Nadia that was almost
as intimate as him being here in the first place.

           
She could barely make out the light, rich color of his eyes from where she was
sitting, but she knew he was looking at her. The knowledge that he had stayed
the night here slid through her veins like warm molasses.

           
Don’t read anything into that.

           
“Does it pain you?” He asked, pulling her back to the present as he moved from
the soft wicker chair in the corner to the side of the bed. When he drew near
Nadia had the automatic reaction to move away from him. It wasn’t as if she
were afraid of him, it was more or less that her conscious made her move before
she even realized she had done it. When he saw her reaction he stopped all
together.

           
Nadia sat there feeling humiliated. Drake had never before done anything to
warrant this behavior from her. She knew the attack last night was what caused
this wary feeling but it made her feel sick to know that he was probably
thinking that she was more affected by this incident than she let on.

           
“Sorry,” she whispered, not even knowing if she had said it loud enough for him
to hear. She didn’t look up at him standing there so close, rather she kept her
hands busy threading the soft fringe of her chenille throw through her fingers.
Apparently he hadn’t pulled the covers back when he had laid her here. Instead
he had covered her with the soft blanket. He couldn’t even bring himself to
change her clothes to make her comfortable.

           
You have known for years how he feels about you. And sexual desire isn’t it.

           
“That’s fine,” he spoke right above her and Nadia had to stop her heart from
jumping out of her chest. “It’s understandable with what happened last night.”
His huge body sat beside her on the bed, but not too close. “You never told me
if it pains you or not,” he told her, gesturing to her face with his right hand.

           
“It throbs a bit, especially my lip.” She dared a glance while he was sitting
beside her. Long, brown eyelashes with tangled ends hovered over caramel eyes.
His cheeks were rough with bristled whiskers, but the look in his eyes kept her
spellbound.

           
Nadia’s heart picked up tempo, and after a few seconds she felt as if one word
from him would send her into some deep, dark oblivion where he was the one
calling the shots. Those light brown eyes of his were full of knowledge,
secrets and things that Nadia would never know the answer to, no matter how
much she wanted to.

           
“You know the doctor gave you a prescription for pain that I got filled this
morning while you slept. If you want, I can go grab you some.” The look in his
eyes was unreadable.

           
Nadia nodded her answer and seconds later her bedroom felt like hers again.
When she was sure he had made it away from her door she plopped down on the bed.
“Damn.” She didn’t need the object of her desire in her home, waiting on her
hand and foot while she pined away in some pool of lust for him.

           
Even though she had known for years how he felt only familial affection for
her, her body and mind still gravitated towards him as if she could change his
mind somehow, even when she knew she couldn’t.

           
Damn, she knew better than to let her mind lead down this type of road. Ever
since her teenage crush on him she knew he had been inaccessible. Hell, she had
never been accused of being stupid, but she knew an unreachable dream when she
saw one.

           
The ceiling above her was not going to give her the answers she needed, but she
stared at it anyway. Seconds later Drake walked in carrying a prescription
bottle and some water. Nadia sat up in the bed and pushed away every salacious
thought she had of him. It wouldn’t change anything and she couldn’t do
anything about it, so she might as well live with it.