by Lynsay Sands
They stood like that for a minute, and then Drina shifted restlessly. “Marguerite said that you are so determined to punish yourself that you might do something foolish like avoid me to keep from acknowledging we were life mates.”
“A little late for that,” he muttered.
“Only because you weren’t given the opportunity,” Drina said with certainty, and then added, “She said not to confront you with it, and to let you realize it for yourself, but to be prepared for you to try to push me away once you do realize it. . which, of course, you’re doing.”
“I’m not pushing you away,” Harper denied, glancing around with surprise.
Drina rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, I’m standing here not six inches away, naked as the day I was born, and it feels like there are miles between us.”
She felt his eyes glide over her, and held her breath, hoping he’d bridge the emotional gulf he’d created between them, but she wasn’t terribly surprised when he turned away and looked out the window again.
“I just need time to adjust to this,” he muttered, leaning one arm on the window and pressing his forehead to it.
“Right,” Drina said. Her temper was stirring, but her voice was calm as she asked, “What exactly are you adjusting to?”
Harper straightened and frowned. “I need to wrap my brain around it, is all. This has taken me by surprise.”
She nodded. “And how long will that take?”
He shrugged helplessly, and then said miserably, “I don’t know.”
“Fine,” she snapped, finally unleashing the rebellion stirring within her. It was a familiar sensation for Drina, and she turned on him, and said coolly, “Well, first off, I resent that in punishing yourself, I too will be punished. And second, I should warn you, I don’t intend to take that punishment for very long. You may want to wallow in your guilt and shun what we could have, but that doesn’t mean I intend to wait around forever for you to ‘adjust.’ You have two weeks. Once Victor and Elvi return, and I leave here, I’m asking Marguerite to actively look for another possible life mate for me. One who will actually want me.” She smiled coldly into his stunned face, and added, “And I’m sure she will manage it. After all, I’m your second possible life mate in two years. With Marguerite actively looking, it might not even take that long.”
Much to her relief, Drina saw alarm flash across his face at the suggestion. Perhaps there was hope for them, she thought, but merely turned on her heel and started back across the living room, adding, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got two doses of Sweet Ecstasy still coursing through me and don’t intend to suffer any more than necessary. I’m going downstairs to give the doorman the night of his life. It won’t be as satisfying as it would have been with you, but you’re obviously more interested in wallowing in your guilt than me. . and beggars can’t be choosers.”
Drina wasn’t terribly surprised to hear him curse. Nor was she surprised to hear the quick patter of his footsteps as he gave chase. She didn’t speed up or break into a run, simply continued on, making it all the way across the room and up the four steps to the hall before he caught her arm and jerked her back around with enough force to bring her crashing up against his chest. Catching his hand in her hair, he dragged her head back and slammed his mouth down on hers. She could feel his resentment in that kiss, his anger that she wasn’t going to sit sadly sighing and patiently waiting for him to fight his demons until he felt he’d suffered enough that he could allow them to enjoy this gift they’d been given. She could almost hear his conscience battling with his desire as he struggled between what he wanted and what he felt he deserved.
Drina stayed completely still and unresponsive as she waited to see which side would win, but when the caress turned from anger to passion, she knew his conscience had lost this round. The moment it did, she relaxed and reached for the buttons of his shirt.
“You’ll drive me crazy,” Harper muttered, tearing his mouth from hers to trail it along her neck.
“Probably,” she agreed, finishing with his buttons and turning her attention to tugging his shirt out of his pants. Pushing it off his shoulders then, she ran her hands over his muscled chest and sighed with pleasure, teasing, “For a cook, you have a good body.”
“Thank the nanos,” he muttered, sucking in a breath when her fingers skimmed down his belly to work at his pants. He caught her hands as she finished with the fastening and began to slide the zipper down, then waited until she’d raised her eyes to his in question before asking, “You wouldn’t really have gone downstairs and-”
“I never make idle threats,” Drina interrupted, dropping to her knees before him.
“Good to know,” Harper muttered, as she shook his hands from hers and finished what she’d started, drawing the zipper down.
Drina caught her fingers in the waist of pants and boxers, and pulled them down, smiling as he sprang free. Reaching out, she closed her fingers around him, her eyes closing at the shaft of excitement it sent shooting through her own body.
Shared pleasure. Another symptom of life mates.
This was really her first chance to experience it. Prior to this, Harper had insisted on doing all the-Drina’s thoughts died as she realized there was no way he couldn’t have known they were life mates earlier in the night. He would have experienced this both at the bar and afterward. What did that mean? He hadn’t run at the first touch. Was there more hope for them than she’d been led to believe?
Her ponderings scattered as he spoke.
“Maybe we should move to the-” Harper’s words choked off as she leaned forward and ran her tongue lightly along the side of his growing erection, sending little licks of excitement through them both.
Bracing his hands on both walls of the hall, he muttered, “Next time,” and then groaned with her as she took him into her mouth.
The ringing of a phone drew Drina from sleep and had her shifting grumpily.
“Yes?”
Blinking her eyes open at the sound of Harper’s voice, she peered at his chest, which she presently nestled on, then raised her eyes to his face. They were in his large king-sized bed. He’d obviously woken first, as usual, and carried her there again because they’d been in the kitchen when unconsciousness overtook her. Drina had gone there in search of food, but of course Harper hadn’t even lived here for a year, and while he had told her he had a cleaning service come in weekly anyway, he hadn’t eaten in centuries before the trip to Port Henry, so hadn’t had food in even then.
There hadn’t been a crumb in the kitchen. No blood either. Fortunately, Harper had woken and come to find her as she’d realized that and managed to distract her from both hungers with a different one. Really, kitchen counters were the perfect height for such a distraction.
“I’ll call you back,” Harper said, glancing to her when she began to draw invisible circles on his chest. He reached out to set the phone in its cradle, then turned, rolling Drina onto her back and coming down on top of her with his face at chest level.
“Who was that?” she murmured, stretching beneath him and smiling as she felt something hard press against her leg.
“The pilot,” he mumbled, catching her hands and pressing them down on either side of her head as he nibbled his way along her collarbone. “The storm’s over. We can fly now.”
“Oh.” Drina sighed with keen disappointment that this idyllic period was over. “We should go.”
“We will,” he assured her, his mouth moving lower now, making a beeline for one breast. “After.”
Drina hesitated, but her sense of duty made her shake her head. “I should-”
Harper released one hand to cover her mouth, then lifted his head and peered at her solemnly. “It’s midafternoon. We can’t land in the schoolyard until evening. It’s a school day.”
“Oh,” she said, and then smiled slowly. “Well, in that case. .”
Turning abruptly, she caught him by surprise and managed to roll him onto his back again, and im
mediately rose to straddle him. Smiling down at his surprise, she said, “You should feed me.”
Harper peered at her for a moment, his eyes narrowing in calculation, and then he heaved a reluctant sigh. “Yes, I suppose. I am hungry.”
Drina blinked and managed to hide her disappointment. She’d rather hoped for some protest, maybe a little wrestling session, and then round six of mad passionate sex. . or maybe it would have been round seven. She’d lost count. It didn’t matter anyway, it seemed Harper was more hungry for food than her.
Forcing a smile, she started to slip off of him, to stand beside the bed, and then cried out with surprise when she was caught around the waist and tugged back onto the bed.
Drina landed on her back on the mattress, and he was immediately coming down on top of her again. Harper did seem to like to be the one in control in the bedroom, she’d noticed. Oddly enough, Drina found she didn’t mind, which was kind of unexpected when she considered that she had spent most of her life struggling for independence and control in the rest of her life. But then, perhaps that was why. It was nice to lay down the burden and let him steer the boat, especially when it was such a pleasant journey.
“I thought you were hungry?” She laughed, as he set about pinning her legs with his own and pinning her hands down by her head again to be sure she couldn’t roll on top again, or even move really.
“I am,” Harper assured her, and then bent his head to flick the tip of his tongue repeatedly over one hardening nipple, before adding, “And we will eat. After.”
“After,” Drina agreed on a moan as he stopped teasing and finally closed his mouth over her nipple.
Chapter Nine
Drina glanced over the dark schoolyard they were hovering above and then to Casey Cottage on the corner across the street. She stared at the lit windows of the house, wishing with all her heart that the storm had continued, and they hadn’t had to return. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to see Stephanie, Mirabeau, and Tiny, or even Anders, but the closer they’d gotten to Port Henry, the more grim Harper had become. She very much feared the passion and laughter of the last twenty-four hours would soon be nothing more than a memory as Harper sank back into his guilt.
“Idiot man,” she muttered under her breath as the helicopter touched down, and then she sighed and moved along the seat toward the door when Harper shifted to open it. He got out first, and turned, raising his hands to help her out.
Drina hesitated, taking in his impersonal expression, then got out, her teeth grinding together when he took her elbow to usher her away from the helicopter.
Like she was an old crone rather than the life mate he’d made love to seven times in the last twenty-four hours, she thought bitterly. It was a noticeable difference from the affectionate way he’d slid his arm around her waist and tucked her to his side as they’d made their way to the helicopter in Toronto. She could actually feel the ghost of Jenny Harper slipping between them, cold and clammy.
Infuriated by that fact, Drina searched her mind for something to say or do to stop what was happening, but in the end she simply slid her booted foot to the side, tripping him. She then allowed herself to fall with him when he went crashing toward the ice. Harper did what she expected and caught her to his chest, turning as they fell, so that he took the brunt of the impact.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! My foot slipped on the ice,” Drina lied, raising herself up on his chest and shifting “unintentionally” on his groin to peer into his stunned face. “Are you all right?”
Harper struggled briefly to regain the wind that had been knocked out of him, and then nodded. “I’ll live.”
“Oh, my poor Harper. Thank you for saving me from the worst of the fall,” she said, and kissed him. It was no, “my hero” peck. It was an “I-ain’t-wearing-these-bloody-painful-FM-boots-for-nothing-buddy,” devouring of his mouth.
Much to Drina’s satisfaction, Harper only managed to hold out for a moment before his arms closed around her, and he took the lead. She knew she’d won this round when he rolled her in the snow and began to yank at the buttons of her coat to get at what was underneath as he ground his hips against her.
“All right, you two, cut it out, or I’ll have to arrest the pair of you for lewd behavior. There are kids watching, you know.”
Harper tore his mouth from Drina’s and glanced around to stare blankly at the man crossing the schoolyard toward them. “Teddy.”
“It looked like you took a hell of a spill, and I rushed over to see if you two were all right, but it’s pretty obvious you recovered quickly enough,” Teddy muttered, pausing beside them and offering Harper a hand.
Sighing, Harper accepted the assistance. Once on his feet, he turned back to help Drina up. She glanced around as she rose, noting that, as had happened when they’d left, there were faces peering out of nearly every window of the surrounding houses, and several of them were children.
So, her plan hadn’t been the best, Drina thought with a shrug. At least it had worked. If nothing else, she was now pretty sure that she just had to keep hammering at Harper’s walls with sex. As her life mate, he would find it hard to fight their attraction. So, every time the ghost of Jenny Harper slipped between them, and he threw up a wall, she would use sex to tear it down, Drina decided. She could handle that.
“Good Lord, girl!”
Drina blinked her thoughts away at that exclamation and glanced to Teddy Brunswick to see him eyeing her boots with dismay.
“It’s no wonder you can’t stay on your feet. Those boots are for looking at, not walking,” the chief of police muttered. Shaking his head, he took her arm as if afraid she wouldn’t be able to stay upright long on the heels, and then he urged her forward.
“They’re fine,” Harper said quietly, slipping his arm around her waist and drawing her against his side. It was a possessive act and one that sent a stream of warmth through her, as well as the hope that they would overcome his guilt and work things out after all.
Teddy chuckled. “Well hell, Stoyan, I’m not surprised you like them. If those aren’t a pair of FMs most red-blooded men would like to lick, I don’t know what are.”
“You know about FMs?” Harper asked with surprise over Drina’s head.
“I may be old, but I’m not brainless,” Teddy said dryly, and then paused to glance both ways as they reached the road.
Drina bit her lip to keep back a chuckle at Harper’s disgruntled expression, and asked, “You were at the house, Teddy. Is everything all right?”
“Fine as far as I know,” Teddy assured her, urging them to cross the street. “I was just stopping by to check on things on my way home. I wanted to ask about Tiny’s turning too and had just pulled into the driveway when your helicopter showed up, so I waited to walk in with you.”
“Tiny’s turning tonight?” Harper asked tensely, and Drina didn’t need to read his mind to know he was thinking of Jenny’s turn. The ghost had returned, but with Teddy there, she couldn’t trip Harper and throw herself on him again. She would have to be patient.
“Not tonight, no,” Teddy said. “But I’m sure it will be soon. Anders brought the blood down for it, and Leonius isn’t in the area, so there’s no worry of his attacking while everyone is distracted. .” He shrugged, and then added sensibly, “There’s no use in waiting. I’m sure it will be in the next day or two, and I want to be on hand when it happens in case they need extra help.”
“Right,” Harper muttered grimly.
“So how was your outing in Toronto?” Teddy asked, as they started up the driveway to the house. “Heard you got snowed in.”
“Yes, but it was still nice,” Drina said quietly when Harper remained silent. “In fact, I’m almost sorry we had to return.”
“Uh-huh.” Teddy nodded. “So you two are life mates?”
Drina turned on him sharply. “Did Stephanie and Mirabeau tell you-”
“They didn’t tell me a thing. You two just have that new-life-mate glow about you. I’ve
seen five new life-mate couples now, not counting you two, and recognize the look.”
“Six,” Harper said tightly.
“What’s that?” Teddy asked.
“You’ve seen six new life-mate couples,” Harper explained.
“No, I don’t think so,” Teddy said with a frown and began to count them off. “Now, let’s see, there’s Victor and Elvi, DJ and Mabel, Alessandro and Leonora, Edward and Dawn, Mirabeau and Tiny. . That’s five.”
“You forgot-”
“Oh wait, you’re right, I forgot Lucian and Leigh. They were still brand-spanking-new life mates when they came down here that first time,” Teddy said with a nod. “So it is six. And you two are seven.”
“I meant Jenny and I,” Harper said firmly, unable to leave the woman out.
“Hmm.” Teddy was silent as they traveled along the side of the garage toward the deck, but then said, “Well, here’s the thing. You two weren’t like the others.”
Harper looked startled by the words, and it was Drina who asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well, sure enough Harper seemed eager, but Jenny was another kettle of fish. She treated Harper like she did poor old Bobby Jarrod when they were in high school. The boy was crazy for her,” he explained. “Over the moon, and they even dated for a while, but she kept him at arm’s length, treated him real cool.” He shook his head with distaste. “Everyone knew she was just using him for free tickets to the movies. He was an usher at the Cineplex in London,” he explained.
Drina glanced to Harper to see how he was taking this, but his head was bowed, and she couldn’t see his expression.
“The biggest favor she did for Bobby was tossing him over for that idiot Randy Matheson when he showed her some interest.” Teddy shook his head. “Now there was a troublemaker. She always went after troublemakers. And Randy’s name fit him to a T, let me tell you. Never seen a more randy teenager. I caught those two parking on back roads all around the county until she tossed him over for some London fellow with a rich daddy and an allowance big enough he could afford to rent himself a motel room rather than grope in cars. I wasn’t sorry about that at all. Chasing off bare-arsed teenagers just gets old pretty quick.”
