by Donna Grant
Guy frowned, his mind working. There were gems deep in the earth, but none of them had ever tried to work them from the mountain. They had no need of gems.
“It’s a possibility,” he said, and looked at the door. “They should be returning soon. I need to see what they’ve found.”
He hated to leave her, but if she was right, it could explain what Sloan had been doing in the cave. But it wouldn’t clear Elena’s name in Con’s eyes. Guy feared nothing would ever clear her name.
* * *
Elena didn’t have long to wait before her clothes were brought to her by an older woman who not only didn’t look her in the eyes, but didn’t speak either.
She tried not to make more of it than it was and quickly put on her own clothes. Though they were a reminder of Sloan’s death.
For the next hour, Elena hobbled around the room. She’d sprained that ankle before, and it had taken several days before she could put any kind of weight on it. The pain that had filled her when she was first brought to the mansion was gone. Just a little twinge every now and again.
It was just odd to have an injury heal so quickly. Then she remembered Guy’s hands after he’d brought her down the cliff. There had been so much blood. For a moment, she thought she might have seen his wound heal, but she must have imagined it. Right?
Elena looked down at her ankle. The conversation she’d heard outside her door about midnight flights came to mind. There was something going on at Dreagan. Whatever it was, they wanted it kept private.
She checked windows to see if she could escape. The windows opened, but it was a sheer drop from the third floor to the ground. A fall in her current condition would only make things worse.
A glance out into the hall showed that someone stood at the stairs. She couldn’t tell who it was, but she saw the shadow. Which meant, she couldn’t walk out of the mansion as she’d hoped.
“Well, hell,” she mumbled.
She wasn’t keen on waiting around to discover what Con would do to her. Guy might believe her, but she could see the others weren’t so open minded.
The fact that they were hiding something was obvious. But what could it be? Drugs? Money laundering?
She quickly threw out those ideas. There was money at Dreagan, but none of the people she had met were the drug or money-laundering type.
It had to be something different, something she wasn’t thinking of.
“Guy said it was life or death for them,” she muttered.
After another hour of trying to determine what the mystery was, Elena felt her ankle throbbing from all the walking. She’d been on it too long. With a sigh, she returned to the bed and stared at the ceiling.
She licked her lips, her heart racing as images of her and Guy in the shower played through her mind. The man knew how to touch her, knew how to give her the most wickedly intense pleasure.
Her breasts swelled just thinking of him thrusting inside her. She might have always played it safe, but up until she met Guy, she’d never wanted to throw caution to the wind before.
With him, however, everything had changed.
Everything.
And it scared the shit out of her because she realized what the attraction meant.
It meant she was likely to do something rash and reckless again. Which could be why she wasn’t too upset about having to stay locked in such a gorgeous room, hoping Guy returned soon.
Alone.
“Please be alone,” she whispered.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Guy walked out on Con and Rhys. It was the first time he had actually walked away from Con before. But he couldn’t stand to listen to them think of ways Elena was plotting against them.
At least Banan was gone. He’d been sent to London to see what he could learn of Sloan, Elena, and PureGems.
Guy paused outside Elena’s door. Con had asked him why he defended Elena. It wasn’t as if Guy could tell them he’d slept with her, that she occupied his thoughts until he saw her everywhere.
How he wished Hal were there so he could talk to him. But he had to go it alone.
“Bloody hell,” he murmured.
He put his ear to the door but didn’t hear Elena. She’d been left alone nearly all day. Surely someone had gone to check on her. It hadn’t been his intention to be stuck in the mountain with the others, but with her information, it was necessary.
Guy opened the door quietly and peeked in to find the fire dead and the lights out. It stayed light out well past midnight, and with the large windows, there wasn’t a need to have the lights on.
He stepped into the room, his gaze riveted on Elena, who lay sleeping on the bed. Her blond waves were stretched out on some pillows, and her injured foot once more raised upon others.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Con whispered from behind him.
Guy sighed. He should’ve known Con would come looking for him after he stormed out.
“You believe her?”
Guy nodded.
“Would you stake your honor on it?”
Guy hesitated and turned to look at his King over his shoulder. “I’ve followed every order you’ve ever given us, even when it meant turning against one of our own, even when I knew Ulrik was right. I sent my dragons away because you said it was the best thing for them. I gave you my dragon magic to help put a stop to our feelings. When was the last time I asked for anything, Con?”
“Never,” Con answered without hesitation.
“I’m asking you to trust me now. You weren’t there when we found Elena.”
Con sighed. “Nay, I was no’, but that doesna mean she’s no’ a good actress.”
“You can no’ fake fear like that. Maybe with words, but no’ in how she reacted with emotions and actions. She’s innocent in this.”
“Then you need to prove it. I have to take action. You understand that. No one can know what we are.”
Guy looked into Con’s black eyes. “I do understand, Con. And if it isna Elena?”
“Then we discover who was behind Sloan getting onto our land and into the mountain, but if it is Elena—”
“What are you going to do?”
Con placed a hand on his shoulder, his mouth tight with weariness. “It’s no’ what I’ll do, Guy. It’s what you’ll do.”
Guy waited until the door shut behind Con before he looked at Elena. He knew what Con wanted. Part of them being dragons was that they had magic. Guy’s specialty was erasing memories. There was no way he’d wipe Elena’s memories. If he did, what they’d shared would be gone.
But she’d be safe.
He leaned back against the door, but movement on the bed caused his gaze to turn to Elena. Her brow was creased and her sage green eyes worried as she looked at him.
“What would they make you do to me?”
Guy briefly shut his eyes and wished the conversation had taken place somewhere else so she wouldn’t have overheard it. “It doesna matter. I’m no’ going to do it.”
“If it doesn’t matter, then tell me.”
Guy pushed off the door and walked to the window beside the bed. He looked out over the land he had walked since the beginning of time.
There had been a era when he’d not had to keep what he was a secret. When he’d been able to take to the skies whether the sun was shining or the moon out.
Now, only the moon saw what he was, and then only briefly.
“You wouldna believe me if I told you,” he said.
The bed creaked and then he felt her behind him. He prayed she didn’t touch him, because if she did, he wouldn’t be able to keep from taking her again, wouldn’t be able to stop himself from laying her on the bed and ripping her clothes from her body.
“Try me.”
Guy inwardly laughed. If only she’d have touched him, then he wouldn’t have to think up some lie. He didn’t want to lie to her. But he had no choice. No one could know what they were.
“I can no’.”
“Bec
ause you think I won’t believe you?”
“Because of what you’ll think of me after.”
He hadn’t realized that’s how he felt until the words left his mouth, but they were the truth. Guy didn’t want her looking at him with revulsion or worse … fear.
Suddenly she was between him and the window. Her gaze searched his face before she said, “I know something is going on here. Despite being locked away, I’ve been treated with kindness. If you were so worried about someone discovering whatever it is here, you could have left me to die in the mountain.”
“That’s no’ our way.”
She glanced down and then placed her hand over his heart. “What is so different about you that being with you makes me forget about trying to find a way out or contacting anyone? What is it that … draws me to you?”
The desperation in her voice tore at him. He threaded his fingers in her hair and cupped the back of her neck. “I wish I knew.”
“Please. Tell me I’m not the only one feeling this. Tell me you don’t have a hundred women at your beck and call.”
At that moment, he’d have told her anything she wanted to know, and what she asked for was too simple. One side of his mouth lifted in a smile. “I’ve no other women, Elena.”
Her shoulders drooped as she turned her head away. “But I am the only one feeling this, right?”
The only way to make her understand was to make her feel. Guy took her mouth in a fierce, all-encompassing kiss. He ravaged her lips, plundered her mouth.
He seized … her.
Her arms came around him as she moaned. His already heated blood blazed with need, a need only she could quench. Being so near to her, he couldn’t stop touching her, didn’t want to stop.
His hand ran down her back to grasp her buttocks and lift her against his swollen cock. He ground against her, desperate to be inside her once more.
With a flick of his fingers, he raised her shirt so he could touch her bare skin. She was warm to the touch, her skin smooth as silk.
All it took was that one touch of her skin and then they were a tangle of limbs as they peeled off each other’s clothes. Guy heard a rip of something, but paid no attention.
He drew Elena to him and kissed her while he backed her against the bed. When her knees hit, he leaned forward and carefully laid her down.
Her hands ran down his chest and back up again. Her lips were parted and moist from his kisses. With her blond hair spread around her, she looked like a sacrifice. For him.
“Elena,” he whispered, and kissed her deeply.
Elena wrapped her arms around Guy’s neck and held on tight. She was being reckless again, but she couldn’t seem to help herself when it came to him. And she didn’t want to.
It felt good to give in to the hunger, the desire for Guy. His kisses made her forget everything but him, and his touch drove her to such heights of ecstasy, she didn’t think she’d ever come down.
Beneath her hands, the muscles of his back and shoulders moved and bunched, his power evident in each shift of his body. She ran her feet along the back of his legs, feeling the sinew and the strength.
When he rose up on his hands, she lifted her head and kissed down his chest and abdomen, which rippled with tight, honed muscle.
There wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere. He exuded authority and vigor with just a stance. But his hands demanded surrender while his mouth exacted pleasure.
Elena knew she was getting in way over her head, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. She went rushing headlong into the pleasure Guy offered without a backward glance.
She gasped when he cupped her breasts and rolled a nipple between his fingers. Her back arched, her hands running along his trim hips to his butt.
Her fingernails dug into his skin when his hips rocked forward, his thick arousal rubbing against her sensitive flesh. Need flared as she was caught in the pleasure of his mouth on her breast and his rod teasing her sex.
Suddenly his fingers were there, soft and insistent as they parted her curls and delved inside her. Her hips rocked against his hand helplessly.
In and out his finger moved in a steady rhythm. A second finger joined the first. He was absolute in giving her pleasure, and he wanted nothing held back.
As if she could. With one look, she surrendered to him. It was as if her body, her soul knew what her mind couldn’t comprehend.
What she wasn’t yet ready to understand.
His hot mouth left a trail of kisses down her neck. His tongue flicked over her skin every time his fingers plunged within her.
It was driving her mad. Every nerve ending tingled, stretched taut by the need building. She was so close to peaking, but he wouldn’t let her.
He pulled back just before she’d go over the edge, and each time it took her higher and higher until she was delirious with need.
Guy stared down at her flushed skin. She was beautiful to behold, stunning to watch as her body came alive beneath his touch.
Her head moved from side to side as she whimpered when he wouldn’t allow her climax to take her. He wondered how much more she could take. Already he was ready to spill, and he hadn’t even been inside her.
He spread the moisture of her sex over her and felt her legs tremble when he touched her clitoris. Twice more, he teased her with barely a touch, and each time she cried out, her back bowing off the bed.
With her beautiful rose-tipped breasts tempting him, Guy could no longer hold back. He lifted her leg beneath her knee and bent to flick his tongue over a nipple. And then he slid into her tight, wet body.
He groaned, reveling in the exquisite feel of her. When he opened his eyes, it was to find her watching him. He rotated his hips, wringing a moan from deep in her throat.
Once inside her, he couldn’t hold back the tide of his own desire. He began to thrust hard and fast. When her legs wrapped around his waist, he sank deeper inside her.
Elena couldn’t look away from his pale brown gaze. He leaned above her with his hands on either side of her head. His honey brown locks fell against his cheek as he rocked against her again and again.
Each thrust wound her need tighter. Her body burned with flames of desire that consumed her, devoured her. Just when she didn’t think she could take it anymore, the release took her.
Incandescent light surrounded her, blinded her as she was swept on a tide of rapture. Her only anchor to the world was Guy, and she desperately clung to him.
She held him as he gave a final plunge and buried his head in her neck as the climax swept him as well. They rode the pleasure together, locked in each other’s arms.
Gradually the glow faded and their breathing evened out. Elena found herself cradled against Guy’s chest as he rolled onto his back, his arm holding her tightly.
She felt wanted and beautiful and desired. A smile pulled at her lips as she realized no one had ever made her feel such things before, and probably never would again.
“Would you believe me if I told you I was immortal?”
Guy’s words, spoken softly, quietly pulled her from her near state of sleep. She didn’t move, because she felt he didn’t want her to look at him.
She didn’t respond right away, but there had been something in his voice. Hope? Fear?
Once more, the imagine of his wounded hands flashed in her mind. “Are you?” she asked just as softly.
For long minutes, silence followed.
And then, “If I was?”
Everything hinged on how she answered. Elena didn’t know how she knew; she just knew. “I’d ask how.”
“Would you fear me?”
“Never.”
His hand flattened against her back. “Doona ever say never, Elena. It is a verra long time. Trust me.”
“There are many things I feel with you, Guy. Lust. Desire. Need. Fear isn’t one of them.”
“Do you believe me?”
Immortal. It should seem bizarre, but Elena wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t naïve enough t
o believe there weren’t things in the world that were unexplainable. But immortal?
She lifted her head to look at him then. It was as if his amazing pale brown eyes were trying to tell her something, as if they were silently begging her to trust him.
Her hands cradled one of his. She turned it one way then the other, looking for a scar or even a wound from his injury in the cave. There was nothing, and his other hand didn’t show anything either.
Could she believe he had healed himself? She’d dismissed what she saw because she had been exhausted and weary, but maybe she had seen something extraordinary.
It would explain what it was about Guy that was so different. But immortal? If he could heal himself, it wasn’t so far-fetched.
“Do you believe I’m immortal?” he asked again.
Elena nodded her head carefully. “Are you?”
“Aye.”
CHAPTER
NINE
Elena woke on her side with one of Guy’s arms draped over her. She caressed his long fingers hanging near her hand.
She couldn’t believe he had stayed the night with her. Any minute now, someone was going to come through her door and find them. Not that she cared, but Guy might.
A glance at the clock near the bed proved it was only four. Elena sighed. She was having a difficult time adjusting to the lighting during the summer. It didn’t stay dark for long.
Now that she was awake, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Especially when she thought of Guy being immortal. She managed to rise from the bed without waking him and wrapped an extra blanket around her. It might be summer to the Scots, but to a Southern girl, it was chilly out.
She turned to find him on his stomach, his face directed away from her. It was then she saw the rest of his tattoo, which covered his entire back. She’d desperately wanted to see the tat earlier, but something had stopped her from asking about it.
Elena wasn’t sure what it had been, but she wished she’d had the nerve to ask anyway.
She’d seen the dragon’s large head and the flames he breathed, but now she traced the rest of it with her finger. The dragon was vertical with its wings spread out across Guy’s shoulders, tip to tip. Elena followed the dragon to where its tail wrapped around Guy’s waist.
