23
“Wow…Draven you have a Castle,” I said in utter awe at what now faced me. He grinned at me before getting out of the car. He had parked in front of a grand entrance that looked like its own separate building. Three of its walls were open arches and the fourth was attached to the main part of the castle with a sweeping stone staircase before it. I still had my mouth slightly open by the time he made it round to my side of the car. Therefore, he opened the door still to the sight of my utter astonishment.
“We have a castle,” he corrected me with a grin after unbuckling my seat belt, lifting me from the car and placing my feet on the gravel driveway. Then, with him still looking down at me, he tilted my head back, so I had no choice but to tear my eyes from the dream it felt like I was stood in.
“Do you like it?” he asked me in a soft, tender way that made me realise that my answer was important to him. This was when I knew that this place, like Afterlife, obviously meant a great deal to him.
“I think it’s perfect,” I told him honestly, one he could read in not just my answer, but also my expression and in return his was one filled with satisfaction in a heated purple gaze.
“You know not the joy that answer gives me,” he told me smiling.
“Now come, let’s get you inside, out of this cold,” he added as he rubbed my arms which helped keep me warm. Then he took my hand and led me up towards the imposing entrance. As I walked I couldn’t help but look up at the towering building made of carved dark grey stone blocks. The building, as a whole, was made up of curved towers, topped with cone shaped rooftops in a lighter grey and straight walls topped with notched battlements in between.
“It’s incredible,” I whispered as I let him continue to lead me by the hand up a fan of large stone steps. These led up to the square structure that held a massive arched wooden door at its centre, one adorned by curled iron hinges, forged strips of metal and hammered rivets.
The whole scene made me feel as though I should be wearing some medieval gown. The ones with a long flowing trail of red velvet that would follow my every move and with my long hair in loose waves down my back like Maid Marion or Lady Godiva… but minus the horse or the being naked part of course.
I could see Draven’s grin, one he wasn’t even trying to hide as we reached the door, only to have it opened by none other than a butler. Yes, that’s right, Draven not only had a castle, but he had a suited butler to go with it! And not just any butler, but one who wore white gloves, a grey waistcoat and a black suit jacket with tails at the back…the whole caboodle!
“Mack, it’s been too long, my friend,” Draven said in a friendly and easy-going manner, telling me that Mack, along with the castle, also meant a great deal to him.
“Aye it haes, m' laird,” he replied with a massive grin on his face and a very heavy Scottish accent. He looked to be middle-aged and even though he was smartly dressed in a tailored suit, one surely even Lucius would be proud of… that was where all the typical butler appearance went out the window. In fact, it looked like a rough biker had decided to play dress up for someone’s wedding or a fancy-dress party.
He had a wide, messy silver mohawk with shaved lines at the side of his head and a shaped beard that was longer at the chin tapering down to a point, with a thick moustache that joined it. I could also see his neck was tattooed but couldn’t make out the design as he was wearing a cravat style tie. He had warm jade green eyes that had laughter lines at the sides when he smiled, telling a person that he had a jolly personality.
“'N' this 'ere mist be yer bonny queen, aye?” he asked making me want to giggle at how happy his accent sounded, and this combined with his deep baritone voice, well, I found it fascinating.
“That it is. Mack, I would like to introduce you to my wife, this is Keira,” Draven said taking my hand and placing it in the crook of his arm.
“Keira, this is…” Draven started to say in return but was quickly interrupted by Mack’s exuberant manner,
“Noo, noo, laddie, ah think ah kin tak' it from 'ere whin introducing meself tae a bonny lassie,” he said holding out his hand for me to shake making Draven roll his eyes in good humour. Okay, so I only ended up understanding half of what he said, which again made me want to giggle, which this time, I couldn’t help.
“Aye she's a sweet wee thing…A'm Mack at yer service mah lassie,” he said first looking to Draven after hearing me giggling and then back to me to finish introducing himself. I looked down at his hand to realise that the gloves he wore were in fact, fingerless white biker style gloves, that showed off the smaller tattoos he had inked on his knuckles and black painted fingernails. Well, he was certainly a butler with a twist. And it kind of had me asking myself, if this was Draven’s butler, then what would Jared’s look like if he had one? Would he be your typical English posh sounding butler named Jeeves?
The thought was a funny one.
“I am pleased to meet you, Mack,” I said making him gasp dramatically before gripping onto my hand as he pulled it to his chest, over his heart. I shot a confused look at Draven to see him looking slightly amused but more than anything, just obviously used to this behaviour. Even when he smacked his free hand to the top of his head, pushed back his hair and said,
“Whit a sweetheart she is!” he proclaimed theatrically and once again, Draven although smirking, looked totally at ease with Mack holding my hand to his chest, as though I was precious.
“Yi''ll need tae loch this one awa' ,” Mack said and this time I didn’t understand a single word other than ‘My Lord’
“Yes, I intend to do just that, Mack,” Draven agreed with…well, whatever it was Mack said. Then he gave me a wink and let go of my hand before moving to the side so that we could enter.
“Ah dinnae blame ye,” Mack said looking down at me with a wicked grin.
“I trust everything is ready for our arrival?” Draven asked, still keeping me tucked to his side as we walked through the grand entrance with Mack walking slightly ahead.
“Aye is m' laird, Yer tea is nearly duin.” Draven nodded and was about to say something in return but then stopped when I fell behind a step.
“Keira?” he said my name in question when he looked down at me to see I was looking around in awe. I mean the place was unbelievable! It was all highly polished wood that matched the layered, square wood panelling on the walls. Then there was the barrel-vaulted ceiling, also made from panels of polished timber and walls decorated with tapestries depicting battle scenes and Scottish mountains.
“It’s…this place…it’s…Draven it’s incredible,” I told him utterly flabbergasted and trying to find the right words were near impossible. He smiled down at me in that adoring way of his and now I found something better to look at than the magnificent building around us.
Then Draven did something that although wasn’t out of character, it was still surprising. He suddenly scooped me up into his arms, making me yelp in a startled way and he turned back to Mack who had looked back over his shoulder to see what all the commotion was.
“I’m sorry Mack but dinner will have to wait, I have something better I wish to eat.” Then he strode past with speed leaving Mack chuckling behind us.
“Oh my God, Draven I can’t believe you just said that!” I cried in horror and utter embarrassment. But Draven just laughed at me.
“He’s a demon sweetheart, therefore I don’t think that act is lost on him,” he teased making me smack his shoulder in admonishment.
“I don’t care if he is a bloody world champion in the act, I still don’t want him knowing when we are…when you are…doing…well, that!” I said completely failing in the end at giving him a very deserved reprimand, one to which he just looked smug at.
“Oh sweetheart, we both know that if there were such a thing as a world championship, who would be holding the gold,” he teased back in a cocky tone. I had to bite my lip first so as not to laugh before I delivered my witty reply.
“A demon with big lips, tingling lube for saliva and a vibrating lizard tongue?” I teased back making him throw his head back and roar with laughter.
“I wonder if I should worry about your dirty little mind, my wicked little queen,” he mused making me shout,
“Worry about me?! You’re the one announcing to your staff that you’re about chow down on your wife!” I told him making him chuckle.
“Chow down…not how I would have described it, sweetheart,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, enlighten me, my King, what would you have called it, um?” He gave me a bad boy grin, lifted me higher and whispered words closer to my lips,
“Feasted and devoured comes more to mind.” Hearing this I swallowed hard and then asked him only one important question,
“Then why aren’t you running?” To this I received a growl of approval before he tightened his hold on me.
Then, he ran.
Many orgasms later, Draven finally let me come up for air and I did this panting into his neck. I was naked on top of him and he had a hand resting on my bare cheek which he was still cupping possessively. His other hand was stroking my hair down my back and the feel of his rising chest was close to lulling me into a peaceful sleep…well that and like I said, the multiple orgasms he’d just given me.
“I think it’s a clear vote,” I murmured against his skin.
“What’s that, my beauty?” he asked, sounding sated and content.
“You definitely won the gold,” I said feeling his chuckle vibrating beneath my body before I heard it.
“I’m glad you think so, sweetheart,” he muttered softly, his words smiling for him. My own smile however he could feel against his neck before I kissed him there.
It turned out that when I asked Draven why he wasn’t running he had taken that seriously, which meant I barely saw anything of his castle as he raced me through its hallways and grand rooms. Not even when he had me through the bedchamber door did I even get chance to look around before he was tossing me to the bed, ripping away my clothes and spreading my legs for the ‘feast and devouring’ to commence.
Which meant at that point, other than throwing my head back and seeing stars bursting behind my closed eyes every time I came, I didn’t really see anything else. Well, that’s not strictly true, as there were also the tartan sheets in reds and greens that faced me when Draven flipped me over before driving into me from behind. Now that was when I really screamed and came calling his name…his real name.
Needless to say, this was when Draven ended up roaring his own release.
Which brought me to now and having the sudden urge to take in our new surroundings. I pulled back from Draven and felt his arms tense around me as if he thought any minute now I was going to leg it out of the room. I looked down at him, still with my forearms resting on his chest before leaning down to whisper
“Chillax honey, I am just checking out my new pad.” Then I kissed his nose and pushed off him, so I could sit up. I flicked my loose hair back over my shoulder as I took in the room. I felt him shift behind me so that his back was to the headboard. Then I shivered as I felt him gathering all my hair in one hand, after lifting me closer to him, so my back was tucked against his front.
“You keep calling me honey and we won’t make it down for dinner at all,” he whispered back in my ear before moving my hair away so that he could leisurely kiss my neck.
“Draven, if you keep doing that then not only will we not make it down to dinner, but I will never get a chance to check out our bedroom,” I told him in a breathy tone, or should I say closer to breathless.
“Our room,” he whispered against my neck as if he really liked the sound of that. So now I had to wonder how many nights he had spent in here asking himself how long it would be until he found me and could share it with me.
“I have waited so long,” he said, and I froze in his hold. Then my silent freak out began as I asked myself, had he just heard what I had being thinking?
“Keira, what is it?” he asked because obviously my reaction was a dead giveaway, something was wrong…or depending on his answer to my next question, it most certainly could be.
“Can you hear my thoughts?”
“No, why?” He seemed taken-aback by my sudden question making me relax once more against him.
“Because I was just wondering how many nights you had spent in this room asking yourself when we would finally meet,” I told him, and his reaction was a curious one. His hand came up to my cheek, so he could turn my head to look at me. His dark eyes seemed lighter, less black and more very dark brown with a purple ring around the iris that seemed to be glowing.
“This is good.”
“What is?” I asked as it was clear as day I was confused here.
“You must be unconsciously opening up your mind to me.” Oh no…this was anything but good!
“Don’t worry, I can’t read your mind, not unless you choose to let me,” he said giving my tensed shoulders a reassuring squeeze.
“I don’t understand, then what did you mean by opening up to you?” I asked hoping I didn’t start doing this unconsciously.
“What I mean is that I am becoming attuned to your other senses, that you’re letting me read your feelings.”
“So, you could read my panic then?” I asked light-heartedly, now that I knew he couldn’t read my actual thoughts or hear them more like.
“Yes, that and you tensed so hard in my arms, it almost hurt.” I laughed before calling him a liar.
After this I finally got my wish and took in ‘our’ room, which was ‘new’ to me, not so much for him. And boy, what a room! Or should I say, bedchamber because that was exactly what it was. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that it wasn’t that dissimilar to our room at Afterlife. Only the differences were more the building and outer shell itself than the decor.
And like our room back home, it held a massive fourposter bed which we were currently still sat in. But it was different to our huge bed, with it carved tree trunk sized posts and thick curtains. No, this one looked more like four carved church spires with ornate patterns that formed spikes at the top, ones that reached up to the high, vaulted ceiling. The stone on this side of the castle seemed to be paler and I can imagine this was down to not having to battle the elements for hundreds of years like the outside.
Opposite the bed, that was void of curtains, was a massive stone fireplace that was probably big enough for me to stand in. This was surrounded by an intricate frame, carved from dark mahogany. Four spindles on each side held the mantle and above it, a large carved screen showing yet another battle scene. Inside was a metal basket with logs piled ready to be lit and this stood on four curled black wrought iron legs.
The rest of the room was wood panelled in the same dark mahogany with pale stone walls. There were a few pieces of antique furniture dotted here and there. Like the bedside tables that held two matching stained-glass lamps, a writing desk pushed against one wall and a small table and chairs that sat near a bay window.
The leaded glass windows cast diamond shapes along the pale floor, and they were framed with thick velvet curtains the colour of red wine, held back by massive brass bars that held a shield of amour at the ends. There was also a large red and green tartan rug at the foot of the bed and another by the window under the table and chairs. It was the same pattern that was on the bed and cushions on a burgundy, leather wingback chair that sat in one corner next to a small side table.
Over by the other corner there was a stone framed door of panelled wood, lighter in colour this time and I was suddenly itching to get up and see what lay behind it.
So, I did.
Or at least I tried.
“Where are you trying to run off to?” Draven said wrapping his arms around me.
“Trying be the operative word here, Draven.” I remarked comically.
“If you must know I am trying to discover more of our room…if you would let me.” I told him shooting him a ‘fake’ disapproving look over my shoulder. He grinned and then at the same time, nodded his head and released his hold on me. I granted him a wink before I grabbed his discarded shirt from the floor to put on like a robe. Then holding the two ends together to cover up my nakedness, I turned back to him on the bed to see him in all his own naked glory. It almost made me say, sod whatever was behind that door and go running back to him.
He didn’t seem to care about his naked state or feel the need to cover it up like I did and with a body like his, I was very thankful for this fact.
I decided if I was ever going to focus on the reason for me leaving all that deliciousness that was Draven’s sun-kissed skin over hard muscle, then I would first have to turn away from him.
“So, may I enquire as to the verdict of your inspection…does it please you, my queen?” Draven asked in that deep velvet voice of his that for some reason had me licking my lips.
“Draven, it’s amazing!” I told him, astonished that he even needed to ask.
“I am glad you think so.”
“Of course I do, I mean look at this fireplace for Pete’s sake. You could roast a bloody cow in that thing,” I said gesturing enthusiastically to the fireplace making him laugh. Then I walked over to the door and paused a second before opening it.
“Can I?” I asked looking back at him to be sure. Now this question had him really laughing and looking astonished that I would even ask. He nodded through it all and I smiled at him before opening the door. Then I shouted,
“It’s a bathroom!” Like this wouldn’t have been the obvious choice at all. Not surprisingly Draven’s laughter continued because of this.
“But of course, what were you expecting, love?”
“I don’t know, but let’s just say you don’t know how happy I am not to see a chamber pot under the bed,” I told him, making him laugh even harder this time.
“I think you will find this castle comes well equipped in all the modern-day luxuries, bathrooms at the very top of that list,” he said making me giggle.
“Phew, cause I gotta say, not a fan of doing my business in a bowl on the floor,” I informed him making him chuckle before shocking me by saying,
“No, me either, sweetheart.”
“Well, it’s a damn sight easier for you,” I stated bitterly making him lift an eyebrow at me before asking,
“Is that right?”
“Well, it’s like I happened to mention to your two-thousand-year-old younger self, I am not a natural born squatter,” I told him and this time when Draven burst out laughing, he did this long, and he did this hard. To the point where I think I brought tears to his eyes.
“Now, I would have paid good money to see my reaction to that,” he informed me when he finally caught a breath. I had my hand to my hip and said,
“Well, obviously I didn’t just blurt it out like over dinner or anything, no at the time I was actually telling Pip as she was trying to get me to hurry up. Then next thing I knew you were there behind the screen, thus completing my shame,” I told him and this time he fought his laughter by biting his bottom lip, his eyes bright with mirth.
“I am sure I found it adorably funny as I do now,” he told me sweetly.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly the look I was trying to achieve at the time.”
“No?”
“No, I was trying to seduce you remember?” At this he growled, and I had an ‘oops Keira moment’ forgetting that I was telling my very jealous husband this. But instead of back tracking my mistake, I only cocked my hip out more and waved a finger at him like he was a child.
“Now we have talked about this and it is utterly ridiculous for you to be jealous of…well, of you!”
“Come here,” he ordered with a growly voice, but I was having none of it. So, I stood my ground in sight of his irrational behaviour and said,
“No, not until you stop being utterly…ah!” I ended up abruptly cutting off this sentence thanks to Draven bolting from the bed to tower over me in a heartbeat. I backed up a step and he in turn took two towards me, placing his hand at the wall I was now up against. A hand that was level with my head and attached to a very strong and muscular arm that was caging me in.
“You’re mine Keira, in this time or any other. You belong to this man that stands in front of you now, not a man of the past with the same name or one more ancient. Not any other version of me you thought you knew,” he said with a voice so thick and deep it felt as though he was close to shaking from it. His jaw was hard and unforgiving, as though he almost looked pained from the force of his words. Like somewhere deep down he was battling with himself and the visions of me being with his younger self.
I had to admit that I didn’t understand it, well that was until he told me why and this was when it felt like the Earth had stopped spinning and everything in my world stopped.
Stopped because what he gave me was beyond beautiful.
It was pure love.
But before he gave me that beautiful love, I first had to ask the question,
“Why is this so hard for you, Draven?” I asked raising my hand to his cheek and feeling a silent victory when he leaned into my touch. He closed his eyes and softly uttered his reasons why.
“Because in this time I am your Draven…the Draven being with you has made me and has forged my soul forevermore…” He paused a moment, raised his other hand to the other side of my head, leaned in close and whispered the rest of his sentence with his forehead against mine,
And by the Gods,
It was so lovingly beautiful…
“…Making me the better man.”