Wait for what? The voices in her head should finish their sentences, for crap’s sake.
And now Derek had caught her. Only the truth could save her. But would he even listen, let alone believe her?
Sasha closed her eyes and prayed for the right words, because, somehow, this moment mattered more than any other in her eternal lifetime.
Drawing herself up to her full height, she opened her eyes and met his gaze full on. “You didn’t believe Lance and the others tonight.”
A tightening around his eyes—her approach had caught him off guard. Good.
“You should,” she continued, “because they were telling the truth.”
Derek snorted. “You actually believed that bullshit? Then what were you doing with the stone just now?”
“It’s not that I believed their story. I believe my own story . . . everything I witnessed myself, when the prophecy was spoken.”
Now he unfolded his arms and stalked toward her. He dragged his gaze up and down her body, a sneer on his lips. “You’ve aged remarkably well in that case.” The sneer disappeared behind flat-lipped anger. “You’d say anything to get out of this.”
He reached out to snatch the stone from her grasp. “I can’t believe I—”
Sasha sucked in a sharp breath as the stone emitted a soft glow, swirling grey on grey. Warmth seeped into her palm.
Derek jerked his hand back, and the glow dimmed then snuffed out, leaving a cold rock in place of a magically lit stone. “What the—?”
“Touch it again,” she whispered.
“No.” The word punched out of him. But he reached out anyway. Again, that bright warmth started up.
“Here.” Sasha took his hand and deposited the stone in his palm.
As soon as she released it, however, the glow dissipated once more.
Tentatively, she placed a single finger against the cool, rough surface in a barely there caress. Immediately, the light emanated from inside it, and the stone heated to her touch.
“It only glows when we both touch it,” she said, more to herself than to Derek.
“What does that mean?”
No fucking clue. Because this couldn’t mean what the dwarves thought. She couldn’t be a fated soul mate, or they would’ve found her sooner. And Derek couldn’t be her soul mate because he wasn’t immortal, hadn’t been one of the Knights the prophecy foretold.
Her gaze collided with his, a torrent of questions swirling in the brown depths of his eyes, mirroring her own thoughts, and she stepped back.
“I don’t know.”
Derek stared her down for a long moment, and she held his gaze. Waiting.
Grasping the now-dormant stone, though his fingers didn’t touch around it, he lowered his hand. “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, I believe you.”
Hope fluttered inside her chest like a bird trapped in a cave, beating its wings against the walls to get out.
“What did you mean you saw it with your own eyes?”
A big breath. A second chance. “I’ll tell you. Everything. But it’s a long story. Can we put the stone safely away and go upstairs?”
She didn’t think Derek would agree. But, wordlessly, he turned and secured the stone in the safe.
“I don’t know how safe it is. After all, you got to it.”
Sasha grimaced. “I knew the combination.”
He swung back to face her. “How?”
She shrugged. “I’ll tell you. Everything. I promise.”
“Let’s go.” Taking her by the arm in a none-too-gentle grip, he pulled her to the door and the elevator.
In the flat, she gratefully sank onto the cream-colored suede sofa in the living room. Derek chose to pull one of the armchairs closer, so that he faced her directly. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“Start talking, princess.”
Sasha wet her suddenly dry lips. She’d never had to tell her story. Not even when she’d lived it the first time around.
“My name was originally Snow White.” She gave a fond smile. “My father had a penchant for the dramatic. I’ve been alive for more than fifteen centuries, thanks to the very sorceress who is after the Immortality Stone. I need it to put an end to my life.”
Derek clenched his jaw but waved for her to continue.
From there, the words came tumbling out from between her lips, faster and faster, telling her very long life story.
How her father had been the legendary wizard, Merlin, and how she’d grown up with Arthur. About the Knights, and Camelot, and reiterating the prophecy of the fated soul mates the dwarves had already told him.
She described how Lancelot and Arthur fought over Guinevere. Granted, she left out her own feelings about the king. Somehow, at this point, those feelings no longer held the intensity they had for more than a millennium.
She revealed Morgan’s role and the curse she’d cast over the dwarves and detailed who they used to be. And how that damn curse had bounced back on her, relegating her to her current state.
Her centuries-long search for the stone. Her unending life, and her desire to become mortal again. If she could destroy the stone. Her life as a jewel thief who would steal only one particular stone. She even confessed how she’d taken advantage of Derek’s leaving to search his laptop for information.
Finally, she revealed her biggest secret of all—her ability to compel people to do things. Usually she limited her gift to things that kept her safe or would help her. Like how she’d compelled Lance to give the code to Tristain, who she in turn nudged to write it down and hand it to her.
She glanced at the clock. It was four in the morning. She’d been speaking, uninterrupted, for almost two hours.
She ran a weary hand through her hair. “Your eyes are open, but I suspect you tuned out long ago.”
Derek leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped over his stomach. “Not at all. Do you realize you haven’t touched your mouth once since you started?”
Sasha frowned. “And what is that supposed to mean, Dr. Freud?”
“It means, princess, everything you’ve said is the truth.”
He believed her. She blew out a breath. “I told you. I’m no prince—”
“At least, the truth as you understand it.”
Damn. “You think I’m crazy?”
He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what to think.”
She couldn’t really blame him.
“Any one part giving you trouble?”
“All of it.” He ran a hand over his face.
Sasha closed her eyes. What else could she do or say? Derek had to believe her.
On impulse, she dropped to the floor, knelt beside his chair, and took the hand that rested in his lap. He jerked at her touch but didn’t pull back.
She swallowed. “I know it’s hard to understand. Fantastical even. But everything I’ve said is true, and I can prove it.”
Those seven knights owed her, dammit.
“Oh?” His gaze focused on her with an intensity that stole her breath. “And how do you propose that?”
“We go to the Chevaliers. I tell them my story, but leave out that you already know. If it’s true, they’ll confirm things without any prompting from me.”
Derek was silent so long as he considered her upturned face, she wanted to cry. Surely he was going to say no. Walk away.
“But if everything you say is true, you are fated to be one of theirs.”
Did he not like that idea? The hard light in his gaze suggested that might be the case. “I believe I make my own fate,” she whispered. In one continuous motion, she took his face in her hands and claimed his lips in a possessive kiss.
For a heartbeat he responded, his arms closing around her, pulling her closer. His mouth opening to hers, tongue snaking out to claim hers, until, with a groan, he wrenched them apart.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, still dazed.
“Losing my damn mind,” he muttered.
He
stood, helping her to her feet and then stepping back, putting distance between them. “As much as I want to, I can’t. I won’t sell my soul for one night with you.”
Chapter 13
Derek paced around the flat as the clock slowly inched its way through the hours. How could he not believe Sasha’s declaration? He blew out lightbulbs and generated energy balls.
The stone had glowed when they both touched it. And seven dwarves thought Sasha was one of theirs because a stone told them so. Yet it seemed too good to be true.
Was Sasha really a woman named Snow White whose father was Merlin?
Could the seven brothers who owned Chevalier be the Knights of the Round Table?
Shit, the table. It couldn’t be the original table as told in all the stories about King Arthur. Yet with his energy balls and Sasha being immortal, deduction said it had to be the original, which brought him back to his vision where he saw the table. What was the connection?
God, he couldn’t think straight. So much information had been unloaded on him in the last six hours, not to mention the kiss he’d shared with Sasha. A kiss she’d initiated. The moment her lips had connected with his, all coherent thought had disappeared from his brain.
Man, how he’d wanted to take the next step with her—scoop her up in his arms, take her back to the bedroom, and lose himself within her. But he knew the moment he thrust into her warmth, he would be lost. Everything he thought he knew about himself and his life would be obliterated. No matter how much he wanted her, he had to keep his desires locked away. Hell, she could be the witch in disguise.
He threaded a hand through his hair and stopped pacing to gaze out the window at the London skyline accentuated by the early morning sunlight.
How the fuck had he found himself here? Two months ago, he was happy with the way his business was evolving. Then he’d gotten the contract with Chevalier and his life had turned upside down and inside out.
“Are you ready?”
Derek spun around to face Sasha, so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t heard her approach. He was so far off his game it bordered on ridiculous.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” Even dressed in the close-fitting black clothing—the garments of a jewel thief—she still looked beautiful and tempting.
Unfortunately, she was a temptation he had to keep resisting until he had some answers. After he got his answers, well, then he could figure out what happened next. Until then, they had a meeting to get to and perhaps find out if he’d landed himself right in the middle of an alternate reality the moment he’d stepped into Chevalier’s building.
Jamming the lid on his thoughts, he grabbed his backpack and headed for the door. “Let’s go.”
The trip to the executive floor one level down was swift and silent. The tension from Sasha curled around him, feeding his own. He had no idea what she had to be tense about. It wasn’t as if he were going to blab to Lance and his brothers that, because he’d left his laptop behind in the office for Sasha to copy his files and then fell asleep so deeply that she slipped past without waking him, the stone he had sworn he could protect had almost been destroyed. He would fire his sorry arse himself if the positions were reversed.
The lift doors opened, and he slapped his hand across the door, indicating to Sasha to precede him. As she walked past, head held high, he breathed deeply, catching her sweet scent. His dick twitched behind his trousers. His focus needed to be above his belt buckle, and not below, Derek followed her down the hallway.
The gentle sway of her hips in her tight pants did not help in the least. Clearly, his body wasn’t discriminatory when it came to what it wanted. Regardless of the fact that Sasha was, accordingly to her, more than fifteen hundred years old, certain parts of his anatomy wanted her. Dammit, he would win the battle of the wills between the brain in his head and the brain in his pants.
They stopped outside the conference room’s door; no doubt both were taking a moment to gather their thoughts before entering the lion’s den.
He reached out and turned the handle, but before he opened the door, he gazed deeply into Sasha’s stormy grey eyes. “By the way, I’ve changed all the combinations on all the vaults and sent them to Lance and the others. You won’t be getting in there again.”
He thrust the door open, and this time, he marched in before Sasha. He headed straight for the table, the grey stone’s pull impossible to resist. Derek was about to pull out the first chair he approached, but stopped. Having a head of a round table wasn’t possible. Yet he kept walking until he was at what he believed to be the twelve o’clock position.
No one had spoken since he and Sasha had walked into the room. All the men seemed to be waiting, watching to see what he did next. Dark glowers, crossed arms, and hands on hips didn’t exactly bode well for him.
They had no right to feel animosity. He was the one doing the job for which they employed him. The way they looked down their noses at him fueled a fire inside of him. He ignored the nagging voice about his letting Sasha get past him. At this point in time, Derek didn’t give a fuck about their opinions.
“Sasha has a story to tell,” he started off without the usual pleasantries, ignoring how her head snapped to him. “It’s a story I’m sure you’ll all find as fascinating as I did.” He sat down, the position feeling as natural as breathing. He glanced across the table to where Sasha stood, her eyes narrowed. “Go ahead.”
Her back straightened. He’d been understanding last night. Now in this room, surrounded by these men, he wanted answers, clarification that, as wild as it sounded, there was some truth to what Sasha had told him in the early hours of the morning. She angled her head in a manner that matched her royal nickname.
“What’s this all about?” Haden questioned before Sasha could speak.
Why wasn’t Lance the one asking the question? He trained his gaze on him, but the CEO stood with his arms crossed. If looks could kill, Derek would have a quiver of arrows unloaded in his chest right now.
“Actually don’t say anything yet, Sasha. Let me say something first.” He transferred his study of Lance to the other men in the room. “I found your jewel thief.”
Loud gasps echoed around the room. He suspected the loudest came from Sasha. Derek hadn’t thought he would, either, but the Immortality Stone was at the center of this whole debacle.
“Who?” Lance demanded.
“The person is standing in this room.”
All eyes swung to Sasha. The color drained from Sasha’s already pale face, making the vicious bruise on her cheek stand out more. Regret pierced Derek’s anger.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Waine countered. “I trust everyone in this room.”
Derek pushed back from the table, walked into Lance’s office and headed to the secret safe.
“What the bloody hell is going on here, Arthur?”
Good boy, Lance. He’d have been disappointed if the CEO hadn’t followed him. “I’m getting something out of your safe.”
“I forbid you to touch the Immortality Stone.”
Now that was funny. Derek tapped in the combination on the keypad and pressed the enter button. Ah, the Immortality Stone itself! It remained cold in his hand—the stone only warmed when he and Sasha touched it together.
“I need this stone for what I’m about to tell you.”
Derek brushed past the CEO and returned to the boardroom. He waited until Lance re-entered before taking a seat and placing the stone in front of him.
“Before I tell you who your thief is, I have a couple of questions about this Immortality Stone. You said when a woman fated to one of you touches the stone, it will glow.”
“Correct,” Haden said.
“So all of you in this room believe Sasha is fated to one of you and when she touches the stone it will glow, correct?”
“Yes,” all the men answered in unison.
“You’re wrong.”
“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Tristain demanded.
“Because the jewel thief had it in her hands last night and it wasn’t glowing.”
A second was all it took for his references to register. All of the brothers’ gazes flashed to Sasha.
“You’re the thief?” Eddie asked. “Why?”
Sasha opened her mouth but then closed it before looking to him and crossing her arms over her chest, anger turning her eyes stormy. The lady was pissed.
“Come here, Sasha.” Authority laced Derek’s voice. She remained seated; her eyebrow rose in defiance. Everyone in the room needed answers. He had to know for sure. “Please.”
She huffed out a breath and rose from the chair. His body stirred to life, appreciating the smooth movement and the way her top tightened across her breasts.
“Touch the stone,” he commanded when she stopped beside him.
“What are you doing, Derek?” she hissed beneath her breath, her hands clasped together in front of her.
“Just touch the damn stone, Sasha.”
She pursed her lips, and his own quirked up briefly. “Fine,” she huffed out.
Her fingers lightly touched the stone. Nothing happened.
All seven men around them physically jerked. Sasha winced. Why?
“How is this possible? We saw it glow when you touched it before.” Haden shook his head.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Tristain added.
“Did your prophecy say anything about what may happen if two people touch it simultaneously?”
“No, Derek. And I’m getting pretty tired of what you’re doing here,” Lance said.
“Sasha, let’s do this.” Derek reached out and touched the stone. She placed her fingers next to his. The stone warmed and glowed beneath his touch.
“Seems your understanding of the prophecy and fated souls is off. Now what are you going to do?”
Chapter 14
“Who are you?”
Sasha opened her eyes only to find Lance staring at Derek.
She dropped her hand from the stone, the glow dying the second she removed her touch. “I think the question you should be asking is, who am I.”
Lance’s glare softened, though only slightly, as he transferred his attention to her. He lifted an imperious eyebrow, which she took as a sign to continue.
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