“You do have a point. Sometimes I amaze myself with my own sheer brilliance. But you’re lucky I’ll let you bask in the afterglow.” He smiled indulgently.
She touched his face. He didn’t draw away. Instead, he leaned into her hand, kissing her fingers. At the feel of his lips on her fingers, she almost lost her own semblance of control.
At every intimate touch between them, she wanted to let out a scream—one that would shake the very rafters of the cottage. He was so brutal when it came to the art of war and yet when it came to the art of lovemaking, he knew just what to do to make her go weak in the knees, set her heart afire and cause her breath to quicken. She could only imagine the sort of lover he would be in bed.
The only question was how would they keep their hands off of each other once they did give into temptation? Would it drown them both?
He grinned at her. “How about touching my mind now? I haven’t felt a thing…” His voice trailed off, as she put a hand on each side of his head, resting her fingers on his temple. She felt her mind spiral into his.
She was in a haven of sorts. She could feel his magic surging into her mind. It awed, and thrilled her at the same time.
Images of his childhood floated past her, then, she saw him as a teenager, and finally as a man. She knew he was seeing the same sort of images in his mind’s eye, and that thought terrified her. What would he think of her the way she’d once been?
His feelings toward her shifted, her heartbeat quickened, only to be relieved when she felt his love invade her soul. He was now falling headlong into the sea of love for her. He wanted her. The urgency made her breath hitch in her throat. She thought of the bed upstairs…she thought of the fact that they had so much to do.
They couldn’t mate—they shouldn’t mate, but how could they stop themselves? The mating fire was on the precipice of making them both tumble face first into a volcano filled with lava love.
“William?” Her voice was unbearably raspy.
“Grania.” He reached his hand up to brush it through her thick waves of hair. “I really am feeling excitedly amorous.”
“The same goes for me. I feel as if I’m about to flame up!”
Holding her face firmly in his hands, he looked into her eyes. “What will happen if we, if we give into our ravenous feelings?”
“We will never be able to leave each other. Not unless the unstoppable force called death takes us away, we will be forever linked. It is an unbreakable bond. Nothing in this world can shatter it.”
“Are you serious? For only knowing you a little over twenty-four hours, I’m stunned to say that I could certainly live with that. I’d have to make an honest woman out of you though. I guess my mother’s dreams for me to settle down with a nice little witch are certainly dashed against a stone wall.”
“Well I for one can’t say I’m disappointed.”
He smiled. “Neither am I. I do however want to make sure that you know what’s going to happen I’m not acting out of anything but the feelings of burgeoning love for you, I want you to realize that.”
“And here I just thought you wanted to nail me because I’m such a tasty dish.”
“Well, I will say that you do look like a tasty dish, and I’m sure I will like the scent, taste and feeling of you. I just don’t want there to be any regrets between us. We have known each for such a short amount of time. I know how quickly love can turn to hate. I’ve seen it so many times before.”
“As intended mates, our souls have known each long before we found each other in this world.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Indeed," she confirmed. "You have no need to fear. I will not be repentant for anything that’s going to happen between us.”
“Good. That’s the best news I have heard,” he proclaimed.
“We have a world on the edge of war, and yet, we’re about to make love.” Awe dripped through her voice.
“Ah, but love is what makes the world go round.”
“I find that I can’t argue with that.” She smiled.
He laughed. She drowned herself in the sound of it. While her people were on the precipice of destruction she was finding the other half to her soul. Should she feel guilty? She couldn’t dwell on it, she had a job to do…she was ordained with protecting William. And as his mate, she would be able to find him no matter what happened. She’d always be able to track him. He’d never escape from her again.
The tethers of William’s control slackened. He wanted to sweep her off her feet and take her into his arms, but he held himself back. Her eyes haunted him. Even now the emerald green orbs sunk into his psyche making him want to drown in their luxurious depths.
“I’m having a hard time keeping myself from making things combust,” she admitted grimacing.
He groaned. “That’s not something a man likes to hear just before he’s going to get into the romantic part.”
She smiled. “I think we should retire to the bedroom. What I have in mind, shouldn’t be seen by anyone else, and since your kind like to contact us through electrical appliances I wouldn’t be surprised if someone appeared in my oven or worse, through the light fixtures or fans in one of my bathrooms. He could at least appear in my computer that would be kind of normal.”
“You have a computer? Until you pointed it out to me sitting over in the corner, I never would have noticed it. I thought you were an old fashioned kind of girl.”
“Well, I like to keep up with the different technical trends, but I don’t have a mobile. Our kind really doesn’t need them.”
“Okay, I’m not going to argue with that.”
She led him toward the stairwell. “And before you ask, no, there are no televisions on the second floor of the cottage.”
“There’s a third floor?”
“Yes. It’s just a very small room. I use it to store most of the things I no longer have any use for.”
“Hmm…I’d like to get up there to see what’s in your discard pile.”
“Just shut up and kiss me,” she commanded.
“I do not have a problem with that.”
*****
Grania couldn’t believe the incredible sensations racing through her. She’d never felt this way with Denys. She’d locked off part of her mind to William so he wouldn’t be able to hear or feel her thoughts concerning what was happening between them.
“I feel as if you’re hiding something from me.” His words jarred her out of her passionate fog.
“I’m hiding things from you that you wouldn’t want to know. Sometimes, things are best left unsaid.”
“I don’t agree. My mind is open to yours…and yet, you hide knowledge from me. I don’t like that.”
“Well, you will simply have to live with it. I am sure you have seeds of secrecy hidden into the very innermost regions of your mind, secrets I wouldn’t be able to sense, unless I was deliberately trying to route them out.”
“You have me walking on a one way street, while you walk blithely on a two way street. The odds are not stacked in my favour.”
“Do you want to have an argument right now, or do you want to make love to me?” she demanded, giving him an ultimatum he couldn’t ignore.
He hesitated. The thought that he did that even for such a scant amount of time made her want to pull at her hair.
“William!”
“Grania! You haven’t really told me what Denys meant to you. The next time I see him, I think I’ll end his violent excuse for a life.”
“That’s jealousy in its purest incarnation talking there.”
“And can you honestly say that you blame me? How should I feel knowing that you loved a man before me? And, by the looks of your face in my magic shop, you loved him pretty deeply.”
“Don’t stand there and tell me that you didn’t love a woman before me.”
“I might have done, but it wasn’t the soul abiding love I have for you. It was merely infatuation. Infatuation doesn’t equate to love, not by a
long shot.”
“That’s how it’s going to be, then. You’re always going to hold Denys as some sort of a bargaining piece against me? That’s low, William.”
“I don’t want to, but I can’t help myself. Just tell me, did you feel the same sort of emotions for him as you feel for me?”
“No.”
Her simple yet sincere answer sparked something within his eyes. He shook his head. “You didn’t love him as much, or you loved him more?”
“Must we do this? Fine, I’ll tell you the simple truth about Denys and me. We never completed the mating ritual. For all of his posturing about how he bloody well hates the human race, he’s had his fair share of human women that he’s used as his pleasure whores. He knew he couldn’t get what he craved from me. He knew I could never give my body to a man that wasn’t my mate. He tried to convince me we were meant to be, but in the fiber of my being, I knew he was incorrect.”
“I see.” His jaw clenched and unclenched. “Denys is a bloody hypocrite. That tells me a bit more about why your side is losing. You play fair. Or rather, your side fights fairly, as for the other side, they don’t. They must pull off every dirty stunt known in the world of warfare.”
“We fight a tad bit differently than you magic kind.”
“Believe me, my side is quickly figuring out how to fight just like your side. We learned a good deal in the last war between us, and we learn from our mistakes.”
“I have to say, I don’t mind hearing that.” She touched his face gently. He didn’t flinch or draw away.
She stared up at the ceiling. She was just about to kiss him, when a loud determined voice shot up to them from the floor below.
“Grania! We need your assistance!”
“Well, there goes that special moment,” she sighed.
“Nicholas always has a way of putting a bloody kink in my plans.” William groaned. “We’ll have to postpone this until later…”
A heavy sigh shuddered through her. “It will be hard to struggle with the feelings that make me want to rip your clothes off.”
“Tempting thought, though, if we don’t go down and humour Nicholas, you can be sure he’ll be coming up here.”
“How did he get through my protective enchantments?”
“Knowing Nicholas, he found some other inanimate object with which to channel his message through.”
“The gramophone in the living room?”
“That’s probably what he did.” He nodded his head. She dashed toward the steps. He followed her in hot pursuit.
“Nicholas! You listen to me, old boy, this had better be good! You interrupted an intimate moment between…”
“William!” She looked back at him angrily. William fell silent. “I don’t see him, where? Ah ha! Just as I thought, look at that purple mist coming out of the gramophone!” she said, pointing to it.
“I see it! Nicholas always was a crafty little bugger.”
“I always will be. I have to leave for Dragonia soon. We’ve gotten the message that the situation is growing burning hot there, no pun intended. It looks as if your cousin is bloody well at one of his darkest hours.”
“Then, I should go to help him. William has proven that he doesn’t need me to keep guard over him.”
“Hey, I’m not about to give up my guardian angel of mercy so soon…don’t think I will.” He accentuated his meaning by reaching for her hand and holding it fast.
“Listen to William. He knows what’s he’s talking about. We don’t need you to go to Dragonia. William, you have to bring her to HQ. We have O’Malley imprisoned here, and we have the inkling that O’Malley knows something we don’t. We think he knows how Draco is going to stage his first wave of invasion on Earth.”
“Not bloody likely. The only way for Draco to come through from Dragonia is to open a magical doorway. Blaze and the other dragon shifters should be at this moment forming the necessary blockade. The Royal Family has kept the knowledge of how to cut off Dragonia from Earth a secret since Dragonia was created, they will cut themselves off from Earth if it means keeping Draco and his followers from casting their scourge here.”
William shuddered. “Did you have to say scourge? You make it sound so dark and dismal. You make it sound as if true hellions are about to invade Earth!”
“Believe me, William, she talks the God’s honest truth. Dragonia isn’t the picture of the land of milk and honey right now, England still is, but if England falls, the rest of the world doesn’t have a hope.”
“I’ll do what I can to get the information out of O’Malley. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use our past relationship to my advantage,” she murmured thoughtfully.
“Oh, yeah, look how well that turned out when it came to Orion and James,” William scoffed.
“I’ll thank you to keep those thoughts in your head where they belong.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Hey, don’t shoot me just for talking the God’s honest truth.” He cast his eyes back to the gramophone. “We’re on our way, Nicholas. Oh, and Nicholas, do be careful when you’re in Dragonia. Try not to get yourself blown up, I find I’ve become rather accustomed to having you as a constant pain in my ass.”
“I’ll do my bloody best. It’s going to get pretty hot down there…” he sighed. “Ah, well, I willingly volunteered for this job I take so seriously. Oh, and your mother wants to have a word with you when you get to HQ.”
“Your mother is at headquarters? Headquarters for what?”
“The headquarters he speaks of are for our Magical Intelligence Agency. I keep telling you that we have a sophisticated society. Let’s just say that we work in conjunction with MI5 and MI6 to keep this happy little country safe. There are magical terrorists that sometimes flare up and wreak havoc, as you can well imagine the non-magical government agencies are at a loss when they’re pitted against magical terrorists. We even the playing field, and make sure the little demons don’t get an upper hand.”
“Good to know. Meanwhile, I’ve been living here in utter ignorant bliss not realizing that my whole world was being guided and protected by your lot.”
“And, now, we’ve infiltrated Dragonia.” For her benefit, he gave an evil little laugh. She shook her head at him.
“Sometimes, you really are just too gauche.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He bowed to her. She chanced a glance at the gramophone. Judging by the purple misty stuff still emanating from it, Nicholas was still listening in on every word they said.
“You get to Dragonia, while we get to your headquarters. Where are headquarters?” she asked wearily. Thinking of the secret world the magic kind had was giving her a headache on top of her headache. She certainly felt foolish
“You give her all of the Intel, William. I have to get a move on…” Nicholas' voice started fading away.
“Why in Cheltenham, since you asked so nicely, we also have offices in London. It’s a secret location. Take my hand, and come fly with me. I won’t be taking you to the moon, unfortunately, you can’t have everything. Of course, you’ll simply have to come with me to attend Madame Giselle’s Beltane Celebration on the moon. She really knows how to throw one hell of a swell bash.”
“That sounds just divine,” she chuckled. She couldn’t imagine the type of world he lived in though she had a pretty good feeling she was going to find out. “My people were right when they said your main reason for using the Craft was for the pure enjoyment of frippery and frills.”
“Ah, you wound me, right down to the core. You make us sound like shallow little good for nothings. I warrant that you’re not half off the mark when it comes to some of us, while the rest of us work and struggle for the betterment of our kind and for this world. We will not fail Earth.”
“Even when it failed you, your kind does have honour.”
“That sounds like a statement of anti-Dragonian sentiment.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
“But still, I know you have your d
oubts.”
“I don’t have my doubts. Not now. I think that our kind missed the mark when it came to fighting for what mattered. We left this world with our dragon shifting tails between our legs. We shouldn’t have given in so easily.
Once we went into total seclusion on Dragonia, this world fell into an age of darkness where they burned people at the stake and committed other unthinkable acts of cruelty against each other. They were barbaric and heartless. The world went to the devil while they said they acted in the name of God!”
“And for that, you think Earth should pay?”
“No. Never, not in the way my father would have them pay. No, I would never think to sentence anyone to that fate, even now, while half of this world is in chaos? No. It isn’t the right thing to do.”
“And you always believe in walking the good path, don’t you?”
“Yes I do. Even if it means sacrificing my own happiness.”
He gave her a silent look of approval. “Let’s go. We are wasting time, and right now, we have precious little as it is.”
“What do you think will happen if Draco succeeds in breaching the blockades put around Earth?” she asked softly.
“Do you think that will happen?”
“My father is cunning and swift when it comes to implementing any of his plans. If he knows of a way to breach the shields Blaze and my fellow royalists are erecting as we speak, then, yes, I think it will happen. We are only waiting for the inevitable.”
“God help us, then.” With that, he took her hand, opened a portal, and her next words were lost, as the portal sucked them in taking them to their destination.
Chapter Nine
Grania expected a bumpy ride, and instead, the ride through his magical tunnel went smoothly.
“That was a refreshing change,” she mused, giving him a smile.
He looked over at her perplexed. “Ah, yes, no doubt you had a rough time of it when you used the dragon mark to carry you to my side. I am sorry.” They stood outside a large building in Cheltenham. People passed them on the street, and some men and women walked past them into the building they stood in front of. It was by far the most modern building on the street.
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