Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series)

by Trish F Leger

  On the terrace last weekend she’d shown him so many varying emotions that even with his specialized abilities, he still couldn’t put an exact finger on what had gone on. The only thing that stood out to him then was that she felt many degrees of pain, heartache, and such blazing want, that Drake’s body immediately zoned into change mode.

  When such a level headed woman like Nadia sent out such screwed up messages, a man like Drake couldn’t help but wonder what had caused it. But the deeper he got into this puzzle, the more intriguing his object became.

  Looking at her now, still sitting at the same table they had occupied about thirty minutes before, it seemed as if the placement of the table and the darkness of her corner did nothing but pull her in and enfold its dark arms around her. She was so slight, so much smaller than him. That was another reason why he was so protective of her, even though he did know she had a buried steel backbone under that delicate exterior.

  Her long black hair was pulled up in a clip on the back of her neck. A tee shirt that had TEXAS emblazoned on the front covered her from the waist up, while a low slung pair of boot cut jeans clasped her legs and ended in a pair of pointy-toed cowgirl boots. Even though he knew her to be twenty-five, she still managed to look all of eighteen years old. Too damn young for him, no matter what age.

  But even as he thought that, he started walking back in her direction. For some reason, unknown to him, everything inside of her called out to him.

  It’s only because you can’t read her clearly.

  Drake knew better than to read anything into his interest in her for tonight. It was lack of company that had him returning to that seat. Another excuse was he hadn’t really, really talked to her in years. He missed little Nadia. That was the only plausible reason for him to go back and meet her at the table.

  ***

  Drake sauntered back towards her with all the grace of a panther on the prowl. His long legged stride ate up the distance between them with unerring speed. His beer from earlier was gone, and she hadn’t seen him grab another since. As he walked, the shadows from strategically placed lanterns gleamed off of him. Chocolate colored hair turned russet in the lowlights, and the lines of his body were starkly delineated. People seemed to glide out of his way, as if anticipating when he was coming near and simply moving away from his purposeful stride.

  Take a breath. Don’t let him see how much he affects you. This should all be routine by now.…until she remembered his comment about rough housing during sex. For some reason, that sent her blood pressure up and away. Thoughts of him and sex, period, were enough to fulfill fantasies for a very, very long time. But when she added images of him being just a little rough, hell, Nadia felt her ears burn.

  Women had always melted around him. Even the most frigid ones Nadia had ever seen were no match for Drake and his slow but dangerous approach to seduction. He took his time with everything, so Nadia assumed that same quality would be applied to his sexual appetite.

  Stop this! Your imagination always gets you in trouble.

  She distinctly remembered one of those times when she had been sixteen, and the bus had dropped her off at the Haven to meet her father that afternoon. Since her mother worked later hours, instead of going home by herself, Nadia would meet her dad at the Haven most afternoons. That afternoon proved to be one of the best of her teenage life.

  One of the large barns on the grounds of the shelter was being renovated and enlarged to house more animals. About fifteen men were working on the barn when Nadia got there that afternoon. She barely gave any of them a glance. Instead, she went inside to let her father know she was there, then she came back out through the back part of the shelter to read in quiet. Minutes passed in silence while Nadia got comfortable beside the large, wild bird cages. Sitting under a huge oak tree with her back to the base, she squinted in the sunlight as she heard a man walking by. Drake came into view, with his slow saunter, and torso bare to the harsh Texas sun.

  Nadia’s breath evaporated in her lungs.

  She had seen younger guys without their shirts on, but never before had she felt the rush of warmth through her system as she was now. Licking her dried lips, she watched with hot eyes as her father’s boss passed not but twenty feet away from her, walking towards the barn with a large hammer in his hand. Drake always made her feel inconsequential, but he was never mean or rude to her, like other guys that she knew. But Lord, he was some kind of handsome, even more so than she had ever seen in her young life.

  Dark, luxurious hair, wet with the humid air, clung to his head. Rivulets of sweat moved in streams from his dark head, down onto his neck then it dripped onto large, muscled shoulders, making his skin slick from the stuff. Like a well oiled up statue, he moved in the barn’s direction slowly. His long, slow, sure stride causing Nadia’s heart to beat so fast that she feared she might pass out. Her eyes followed his stride, and she couldn’t help but feast on the sight of his butt covered in blue jeans.

  She was about to look away when he stopped abruptly and turned in her direction. His eyes zeroed in on her sitting there beneath the tree, and Nadia froze in fear. It was one thing to openly stare at a man without him knowing; it was another thing for him to find out about it while it was happening. Instead of some kind of recrimination towards her, he gave her a slow nod, then turned and continued on his way towards the barn. Nadia’s heart continued beating.

  Her friends at school would die when she told them just how beautiful her dad’s boss was without his shirt, and sticky from sweat. As it was, her palms were itching and she wished she was old enough and pretty enough to even be considered his.

  For weeks and months after, the images of Drake in those tight jeans and sweat coursing from his body had made an indelible mark on Nadia’s brain. When she became older, she had dreamed of the situation, but it had been a bit different. For one thing, she was older, so in her mind she could think of things to do that wickedly sexy body of his. Another thing was no one else was there except them. When he turned and caught her staring, well, the grown up version of her gave him a sly wink, and stood up from the base of the tree to walk over to him seductively. Drake had stood there, slick with sweat and waited for her to come to him.

  The dream always ended when she made it close enough to touch him. For some reason the closer she got, the more her dream Drake changed. His dark, good looks turned harsher, more devilishly sexy, and his eyes changed to a glowing gold color. Nadia would stare in shock and then zap out of the dream breathing deeply, trying to get her mind back in order, while the sheets beneath and around her were twisted against her body.

  The dream was always the same, sexy in the beginning, and then turning odd whenever he looked at her with that gold gaze, singeing her where she stood. Nadia had no explanation for it and probably never would. But it hadn’t stopped her from wanting to get her hands on him, even when she knew that would never happen.

  Coming back to reality, she took a deep breath when she realized how close he was getting to her. And God help her, but after their conversation earlier, she couldn’t help but feel a bit more curious about him and his life before she had even met him. Sudden questions pushed at her mind.

  What was his favorite color? Was he a boxers or briefs kind of guy? What was his favorite food? Just how old was he?

  The last question was the gnawing one. After all these years she still didn’t know his true age. He seemed to be somewhere in his mid-thirties. Nadia had always guessed that he was just as private about his age as he was everything else.

  “You’re still here,” his deep voice slid against her ears as he pulled out the same chair he had been sitting on earlier.

  Nadia shook off her thoughts. “Yeah,” she looked in the direction of the dance floor where Renee and Cole were still dancing. “I keep thinking she might get tired and then be ready to leave. So far it hasn’t happened,” she turned to Drake with a slight smile.

  He looked at the couples dancing then back at her, “Why are
n’t you dancing? I know it’s not for lack of partners asking.”

  Shock held her mouth quiet as he spoke. So apparently he had seen the two guys earlier that had asked her to dance. He hadn’t danced with anyone either. More or less it seemed he was here just to donate and network, which he had done when he had left her table. That was Drake to a tee. There was always a reason to drum up sponsors, donations, or even interest in helping animals.

  “I just didn’t feel like putting on a false front for some man I didn’t know,” she answered, and it was an honest answer.

  “I don’t see why you should have to have a false front for anyone. If they don’t like what they see, they wouldn’t have asked you to dance.”

  “That is some eloquent thinking and the truth, but I just don’t feel like putting up with anyone right now.” Her eyes caught and held his for one moment. Hot molten caramel turned her insides to liquid. It was always like this, this burn from the inside, even when they were having a normal conversation.

  “Would you like me to leave?”

  Ah, he was such a gentleman to even offer. “No, I’d rather you than someone else.”

  A crooked grin covered his mouth. “How surprising that I have moved up in your estimation. No wonder we had rain earlier today.” Apparently her comment had sounded a bit insulting.

  She rolled her eyes, “Sorry.”

  He laughed at that. “You have to admit, Nadia, that you haven’t always been such a warm person to me lately,” he told her, his grin gone, nothing but a serious expression on his handsome face.

  Nadia felt her insides flare up. She could not tell him the reason for that. Never would she explain why she had to act a certain way around him. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders and kept staring at the dance area where people turned and swayed to the music, never guessing that she was about to lose her mind with a serious case of the nerves if Drake didn’t stop asking questions that she couldn’t answer. And if she kept trying to turn the subject, he would wonder.

  “Take it from me, that it isn’t you making me like this, but more like recent circumstances that have hardened my so called shell,” she told him, still not looking at him. The torn edges of his dark washed jeans, and shined tips of his boots, were in her line of vision. She could feel his heat and warmth beside her arm on the top of the small table. Her gut clenched. Would she ever be able to touch him? The only time he had voluntarily touched her was when her parents had passed. The memory of his arms closing around her shoulders was something that Nadia had never forgotten.

  “I’m sorry that you had to learn the hard way about Donavan and Suzanne,” He told her. Nadia couldn’t help herself; she had to look in his direction. But now he was looking at the dance floor. “There had been rumors for weeks that they had something going on, but of course a rumor is a rumor. And it wasn’t as if we had the kind of relationship that gave me permission to walk into your office so that I could warn you about the man you were seeing.”

  He stopped speaking, and the muscles in his jaw tensed and rippled. He seemed oddly upset about something that really was her fault. After all these weeks she had had time to think, and it seemed to her that even though she was the wronged party, she had caused all of this herself. She was to blame for her own shame and humiliation.

  First of all, she had basically allowed Donavan to date her simply so she could keep her mind off of Drake. And even though she knew that she couldn’t have the kind of relationship that he wanted them to have, it would have to be enough to keep her mind and thoughts away from the dangerous man at her side.

  “I knew what I was getting into when I started dating him,” she told Drake, as he turned, giving her his full attention. His eyes were light in the dark shadows on his side of the table. A warm rush filled Nadia. God, he was a beautiful man. All hard ruggedness but with a soft, sensual mouth, that at the moment, was firm and businesslike.

  “Why would you do that to yourself? Isn’t that like aiding the enemy?” Those eyes narrowed seriously before he spoke again, “And you can’t lie to me and tell me that you actually wanted the man. Every time ya’ll were together it seemed as if there was an icicle wedged between you two.”

  Nadia gasped lightly but managed to still keep it quiet. The amazing insight that Drake had was scary to her. How was he able to read her so easily? How would she ever get away from the way he made her feel? Maybe she should make plans to move away.

  “Let’s just say it was something that was easily worked out between us.” She licked her lips and didn’t go any further.

  He scoffed from his side of the table. “I hate to see you wasting your time and energy on someone like Donavan. You could have the pick of Texas society, yet you settle on that trash.”

  I could have you.

  Nadia silently scolded herself, and tried to think of a way to change the subject. The present one was upsetting her, causing her to think of things that she shouldn’t.

  Drake’s sudden movement out of his chair startled her. He walked directly in front of her chair and held out his hand. “C’mon, come dance. You don’t need to be sitting here and moping around about some dick that couldn’t do anything right.” His tall body was a huge shadow in front of her and she couldn’t see anything except his outline from where she was sitting.

  “Excuse me?” she questioned. He wanted them to dance. Them, both of their bodies swaying closely while music played. Wouldn’t that be dangerous?

  Yes, it’s very dangerous. Don’t do it Nadia!

  “Yeah, you know, dance. We will move to the music and forget about this ugly conversation we were having about your recent ex-bastard of a boyfriend.”

  His words sent a warm thrill shooting through her body, but Nadia was still up in the air about it. Apparently he could sense her hesitation.

  “Nadia…come.” He gestured with his hand.

  “Oh hell,” Nadia whispered, but didn’t question anything in her mind. She shut off all cognitive function and stood up beside him, shaking in her boots the entire time.

  “That sounded extremely convincing,” he muttered to her, but when she glanced up at him, he was smiling that crooked grin of his, and Nadia’s heart almost exploded from pure excitement. How had he heard her whisper?

  They neared the dance area where a huge parquet wood floor had been laid and more than a few couples were dancing. The band was local and the song they were playing was just ending when Nadia and Drake walked up. Immediately they started a slow song. The strains of a recent Brad Paisley tune hit the air with a sweet melody as Nadia stopped by Drake’s side.

  She was eye-height with his breastbone when he turned. Almost instantly, he grabbed one hand with his larger one, and the other settled at her hip, burning her through the denim. Her mouth dried and her stomach caved. This was one thing she had dreamed about since she’d been old enough to enjoy dancing. The hard musculature of his body was inches, mere inches from her own, as he began to move in time to the music.

  Excitement was too dull a word; not even “enthusiasm” could cover how she felt at this moment. Sheer pleasure bloomed deep inside her body. Every fingertip tingled with anticipation while her booted steps kept in time with his. He wasn’t holding her too close, but she was closer than most of the other women were to their partners. The soft, sensual, woodsy smell of his cologne tickled her nose whenever his big body moved. Her eyes caught on the neck of his tee shirt. Even his neck was roped with muscle and tendons. She was sure if she looked close enough, she would be able to see his pulse beating there too.

  Shivering slightly at the thought of just how close she was to him, Nadia immediately stopped as she realized her nipples were hard.

  Shit.

  “You okay?” His voice was deep, gravelly, and so damn sexy that she almost fainted right there at his feet when he leaned down to whisper in her ear.

  Oh, kill me now. “I’m fine,” she said and continued to move, hoping like hell he wouldn’t realize that her nipples were hard en
ough to cut glass, and they were probably poking holes in his shirt right at this moment. Damn.

  When seconds passed and he hadn’t made any jokes, Nadia relaxed a bit, until his fingers tightened, bringing her even closer to that hard, hot body of his. Now Nadia’s hips were moving daringly close to the front of his jeans. Hell, she could practically feel the denim rubbing against her own. He maneuvered her slightly, until their legs were opposite of each other, and every time she moved her feet, her thigh rubbed the inside of his.

  Her body erupted in heat. Never before had she felt this hot, this keyed up. With every sway of his hips, and movement of their legs, her body was pulsing in time to the music and their actions. Nadia couldn’t get enough of it, and it was becoming harder to control her breathing when her body was zinging in all the right places. Even the denim of her jeans was causing her sensitized skin to quiver.

  Oh, he feels so good. I knew he would. I have known it all along. All those gorgeous muscles, moving like liquid fire against me, sliding those long fingers over and around my hip with every sway. Dear God, let them play another slow song. However, Nadia doubted she would survive if that happened.

  When the song ended, Nadia immediately stepped back. She was full of nervous energy, and she knew better than to even glance at Drake. Thank goodness Renee chose that moment to come charging in.

  “Girl, my feet are about to fall off. Are you almost ready?” Renee gave her a wrung out expression and looked towards Drake. “You don’t mind if I steal her away do you?”