8
Okay, so taking one look at Draven and I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Hell, if his first reaction to me sleeping with his younger self was anything to go by then I would say this was going to be harder than our first conversation we had when I got back through the Janus Gate.
“I see you’re struggling with this.” Draven’s voice pulled me out of my silent dread and he took my deep sigh as my answer.
“Would it help if I asked the questions?” he offered in a now calm tone, one that gave me hope of getting through this without another temper explosion. I nodded after dragging a hand down my face as if the headache that was building was due to the lights or something. The truth of it though was that I felt exhausted. I felt emotionally drained after all I had been through and I think it was only now that Draven was finally getting it. Because in the end, as much as he didn’t like hearing what I had done, then the truth of the matter was simple…I liked explaining it even less.
I hadn’t asked for any of this. I hadn’t decided to do something crazy like skipping out on my husband and taking a trip to the past because I was throwing caution to the wind and saying, ‘Ah hell with it, this looks fun!’
I did it because at the time I had no choice. I mean I couldn’t even bear to think of what could have happened if I hadn’t followed through with my time travelling quest. Because without that blade filled with a God’s blood and without Lucius turning me into a Vampire…well, then I very much doubt we would have been sat here now having this discussion.
As it turned out, getting pregnant was part of the prophecy yes, but just not the one we faced a day ago. But right now, well explaining just how I became pregnant to my very possessive and jealous husband felt like having another bloody battle on my hands!
“I think at this rate I will need to learn sign language before I find the courage to tell you everything…in detail.” I added this last part giving him back a taste of his own words. Upon hearing this he gave me a soft smile in return. Then he surprised me when he started making perfectly rehearsed signs with his hands.
He lifted his right hand and keeping some of his fingers up, he bent the middle two. Then he brought his two hands together after making fists keeping his thumbs up. After this he flattened his hands, placing one behind the other, keeping them side on and then made another sign that looked like he was trying to hook two of his fingers with his index finger and thumb. The last few signs were created by placing a hand flat against his chest where his heart was before then drawing a shape over it with one finger.
“You know sign language?!” I shouted excitedly making him smile.
“I do,” was his short reply but the grin I received with it told me of his satisfaction at making me smile, or in achieving his main goal, in making me relax.
“What did it mean?” I asked biting my lip.
“Do you own this goat?” he said making my mouth drop and with the look of disbelief I gave him, he threw his head back and laughed as it was mission accomplished. I had given him the reaction he had been hoping for and the second I started laughing with him, it was like the last of the tension was sucked out of the room.
“You’re teasing me!” I shouted, and he lifted one of my hands up and playfully bit my fingers before saying,
“Yes, I am teasing you, sweetheart.”
“Then what did it really mean?”
“It’s a secret,” he said continuing with his teasing tone. I yanked my hand from his hold and folded my arms across my chest giving him a fake pout.
“I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other.” The second I said this I knew what he was playing at here…he had knowingly coerced me into saying what he wanted. I knew it the second I saw his bad boy grin, one he tried to momentarily hide behind his hand that had been resting against his jaw.
“I agree; therefore, I will make you a vow…” I laughed bitterly and said,
“Oh, let me guess, you will tell me after I have told you…right?” He held out his hand in cocky gesture and said,
“Something like that, Pet.” I released a pent-up sigh, dropped my arms and bent forward, plonking my elbows on my knees holding my head in my hands. I let out a groan and admitted,
“You know your logic is annoyingly frustrating at times.” I looked at him side on to see him smirking before saying,
“When needs must, my dear.” I rolled my eyes and this time he laughed. Then he reached for me, pulling my tense body into his embrace before he started to smooth back my hair.
“Look, I will promise you this, I will try to contain my anger, for no doubt hearing all you have to say will rouse it, but I will not direct it at you.” I looked up at him from where my head was being cradled against his chest and pulled back enough to say,
“And you can promise that?”
“I can, for I do understand your reasons and they were not the acts committed for the sole intent to hurt but more so out of love…I have my wits about me enough to know that you did what you felt you had to do Keira, not what you wanted to do.” I gave him a sceptical look making him add,
“I may be a jealous fool and allow my hot temper to get the better of me where you are concerned, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also see your own logic and therefore reason with myself when fighting for it.” I grinned up at him and when he took my chin in his thumb and finger, he then added on a teasing growl,
“So, you see, you’re not the only one who has annoyingly frustrating logic to contend with.” At this I giggled before reaching and kissing him softly before teasing back over his lips,
“Well, we are very smart people, just one more than the other.” I gave him a wink making him roll his eyes in jest.
“I couldn’t agree more, and I thank you for the compliment,” he said making me fake my shock. Then I hit him on the chest and said,
“I was talking about me!”
“Oh, were you now? Once more, tell me wife of mine, how old are you again? For I think you shall find the years I have on you are quite considerably greater.”
“That may be true old man but there is only one of us in this room who has ever worked in a library.” I teased back, this time making him throw his head back and really laugh. I had to bite my lip at the sight. He suddenly pulled me forward, gripped the back of my hair so I couldn’t escape and told me in a husky voice,
“I much preferred the job you had before that.”
“Oh, and which job was that, I often forget?” I said faking ignorance. He gripped me tight and answered me in a throaty growl over my lips,
“The one where you served me!” Then he crushed his lips to mine for an all-consuming kiss. I don’t know how long we spent battling it out in the best way possible but as always Draven came out of it the victor as I panted and shook in his hold. What this man could do to me with his hands alone was nothing short of heavenly but what he could do with his mouth was equal amounts sinful!
Draven ran his thumb across my now slightly abused lips with a smirk he didn’t even bother to try to hide.
“You look happy,” I said as I tucked some hair behind my ear now being shy.
“I must say the primal need to have you seems only to increase the more I am with you and now seeing the brand I had unknowing placed upon your lip, well then, it makes me want to… devour you further.” I swear his Demon practically purred this last part at me and I raised my own fingers to my lip wondering what he meant by ‘the brand’. So, before he could act, I jumped off the couch and ran into the bathroom to take a look. Staring back at me was a stunned face I knew well as it was my own and the new thing I had never seen before…a purple reddish bruise on my lip.
“You gave me a hickey!” I shouted from the bathroom in utter shock. I heard Draven’s laughter before walking back out into the room to witness it.
“And what, may I enquire, is a hickey?” I pointed at my lip and said,
“This is a bloody hickey! Draven, you gave me a love bite,” I said in astonishment but the mirth I saw dancing in his eyes told me he wasn’t taking this seriously.
“Yes, and if I recall I am not the only one that likes to bite, my dear.” I flustered turning red and arguing,
“Yes but…but…well, that is different!”
“How so?” he asked clearly enjoying himself as he leant back against the couch, resting an arm casually along its back, tapping the material with his long fingers.
“How so?” I repeated this time making him give me a one side grin.
“I, well I…well for one this is not a bite, bite!” I said making him raise an eyebrow at me and I wanted to damn him for being far too sexy for his own good…or should I say for my own good, as sometimes I couldn’t bloody think around him!
“Then pray tell me my love, for I can’t seem to recall, just what constitutes a ‘bite, bite’ again…you know, this old man needs re-educating on such worldly ways, something that shouldn’t be a problem with the help of my wife’s extensive knowledge, one that stems from long hours working in a library,” he replied coolly after rubbing a hand along his jawline for effect and whispering the last of his sentence as if it had been a secret. I had to say, my husband was pretty funny, and I had to try damn hard not to laugh at that one. I failed slightly when he could obviously see my lips twitching, fighting a grin.
“Then let me educate you and your old bones, husband of mine…” I said walking back over to him and he shifted to face me as I placed a knee either side of his thighs. After I had situated myself on his lap, straddling him, I pointed to my lip and said,
“This is not the result of an animalistic need driven on by sex…” I purposely shifted my hips when I said this, grinding myself against the length I could feel growing. He moaned as he too shifted after closing his eyes for a few seconds at the feel of me.
“This right here, is the work of horny teenager copping a feel of some girl behind the bike sheds at school!” I hissed without malice that just added to our playful teasing.
“Well, what can I say beautiful, other than you make me feel both young at heart and obviously more human every day!” He finished this with pretending to reach out and bite me again as I continued to try and get away. So much so, we ended up play fighting on the couch like a couple of teenagers I had accused him of being. The rules of the game were simple. Draven would try and get to every bit of bare skin to nip, suck and kiss and I in turn would try and get away from him, so that I didn’t end up looking as if I had been ravished by a love biting beast.
Needless to say, Draven won this game with flying colours and a bike shed full of piggy snorts.
I was just trying to catch my breath again, thanks to the very unsexy appearance of Miss Piggy, when he spoke.
“As much as I love the sight of you unravelling in my arms, I must also point out that time is not on our side,” Draven reminded me after we both looked to the large grandfather clock that chimed, telling us that it was now two o’clock in the afternoon.
“I guess we missed lunch then?” Draven dismissed my worries first with a wave of his hand and then with his words,
“Vincent and Sophia have handled it.” I raised an eyebrow at him in question.
“Care to elaborate?” He smirked and this time the sight of him trying hard to hide an even bigger grin had me worried, not just turned on.
“Oh no, what did they do?” Just as I said this I heard the ringing of a phone and neither of us looked as if it was a welcome distraction. No, in fact it now looked like Draven had been busted.
“I think that’s yours,” I told him, suddenly being shot back into the past and the first time he had driven me home years ago. Of course, the sound of Abba filling the car had promoted the same dry response from him. From the looks of him it looked as though he too had just been transported back to the same memory, if the purple tinge that fired his eyes was anything to go by.
He reached around to the small table at the side of the couch and picked up his expensive phone, sliding a finger across the panel to answer it.
“Yes?” was his smooth reply. I frowned as I tried to home into what was being said and to my astonishment, I found myself being able to hear the more I concentrated. Well, it looked like new Vamp hearing was certainly going to come in handy, I thought with a grin. Of course, that grin lasted all of about five seconds when I heard the rest of the conversation.
“Just thought I would give the heads up to my new brother in law and all, but there are some pretty restless English folk here all waiting for the happy couple to arrive,” Frank said with gritted teeth. I winced thinking this wasn’t good and started pulling at the sleeves of my sweater just so that I didn’t start biting my lip. However, Draven didn’t look at all bothered by this and simply replied,
“I believe my brother and sister should be there any moment to explain.”
“Oh, okay well what should I…oh wait, here they come now,” Frank said and then obviously covered the phone his side as the last thing I heard was his siblings each speaking separately,
“I will go and speak with Libby,” Sophia said just before it was Vincent’s turn to talk.
“Frank, if I may…” Then there was a pause where I could now grab Draven’s attention.
“What’s going on?” I whispered after tugging on his arm. He gave me a teasingly vacant look and shrugged his shoulders, but the second I crossed my arms over my chest he knew that he was fooling no one. He knew exactly what was going on. And soon so would I.
“Dom? You still there, Man?”
“I’m here, Frank.”
“Right, so your brother just…uh…explained things.” The way Frank said this instantly had me on edge and Draven felt me tensing even though there was space between us. Just exactly what was he up to this time?
“So, it won’t be a problem?” Draven said, and I wasn’t really sure if this was a question or he was just stating a fact.
“Well, I don’t think people can complain considering you’re about to offer to buy dinner for over fifty people and book out the restaurant for the entire evening,” Frank said on a laugh making Draven smile. Meanwhile, I was still stuck on the whole part about buying everyone dinner.
“Thank you, Frank.”
“Oh no need to thank me, besides, I am sure our father in law was in the same boat years ago, eh!” Frank said trying to sound light hearted but also strangely sounding awkward mostly. I started asking myself what the Draven siblings were up to this time and what did Frank mean by that statement about my father?
Thinking all this and getting lost in my thoughts, I couldn’t help the new impulse as it happened before I knew it. My nervous lip biting had a new friend as I started playing with my wedding ring. I hadn’t even known I had started doing it until I saw Draven’s eyes intensify into two flaming pools of purple fire. He was fixated on the sight and I looked down to see what he saw.
I don’t know why but I think for him, it was like the ultimate sign I finally belonged to him in every way a woman could belong to a man like him. It was his claim on me for the world to see and from the look of things he liked seeing the proof against my skin that he owned me. If I was honest, then I couldn’t exactly say I was immune to the sight myself. No, because the truth was that seeing my own mark of ownership on his finger was doing funny things to my insides. And shamefully, I was getting wet just thinking about it.
These thoughts made me think back to the beginning when my obsession first started to take root. Over the years he had slowly taken every piece of me he could, capturing me first with my growing fascination of him. What came after this was a series of events that there wasn’t a power on Earth, Heaven or Hell that could have stopped it. Trust me, they had bloody tried enough times! But nothing was strong enough to prevent him from quickly taking my heart and imprisoning it, surrounding it with his own love for me.
“Goodbye, Frank,” he told him in a strained voice that almost sounded as if the polite custom had to be first dragged from his Demon. Then without waiting for a reply he ended the call, never letting his eyes leave me for a heartbeat. It was almost as if for a short moment he could hear my inner thoughts and by touching that ring, was connecting to him somehow.
I let it go instantly and watched as he closed his eyes for a second as if something had snapped whatever hold I had just had on him. I was about to ask if he was alright when suddenly he was on me. He had moved so quickly that even my extra senses hadn’t fully registered it until he was breathing heavily above me. It looked as if he was trying to fight his Demon again, only this time, he was closer to losing.
“Hey, come back to me, handsome,” I cooed softly as I gently raised a hand to place against his cheek. He turned his face into the touch and held himself so still above me it was as if he was scared any sudden movement and I would be fighting to get away from him. I couldn’t really understand where this was coming from, but I knew it had something to do with my ring.
I remembered back to the early hours of this morning and what he had told me. I momentarily looked to my hand against his cheek and saw it; the half symbol that was embedded there, one seen in better detail after he had taken off my ring to show me. He had twisted them round until a symbol I knew well had appeared. Of course, never in a million years had I expected to hear what it meant, and my mind now once again took me back to the conversation…
“Simply put, it means us.”
“Us?” I asked, my confusion obvious.
“You and I, our union.” I frowned, shaking my head a little before asking,
“What, you mean like a man and woman coming together, that type of us?”
“No, Keira, what I mean is…” He stopped talking a second to get closer to me so he could whisper the truth across my skin,
“Just you and me...together.”
“Okay, you are going to have to explain this to me,” I complained making him smirk before kissing my temple. After this I was just thankful that he took pity and started to enlighten me. He started to tell me about the first shape that was engraved in his own ring, one wider than my delicate one.
It meant the Alpha and simply put meant the first, representing himself as the first and only of his kind. Then came the Omega, which was shocking to hear meant…well, like he had said, it meant me.
I was the last and therefore completed our souls. I had wanted to ask more but then he beat me to it and spoke, explaining it in such a beautiful way, that I would never forget what he said to me that night,
“It means I was the beginning, but you were my end…my everything, my only…it is like Sophia said in her speech…you complete me.” After this, he finished his sentence as he thrust inside me making me cry out in unexpected bliss. Now once seated at home within the warmth of my body, I knew he was only half right.
So, I had reached up and touched his cheek, whispering back…
“We complete each other.”
But now, after the way he had just been looking at me, I was overcome with the feeling that it meant so much more. Something even Draven didn’t understand. Which was why I was currently reaching out to his Demon and trying once more to tame him. I felt him shudder above me, as if he too was trying to sooth this volatile side of him and forcing him to submit.
“And there he is,” I whispered tenderly to him the second he opened his eyes and after I had released a relieved sigh as his beautiful dark eyes met mine.
“I don’t know what came over me,” he said after sitting back up and no longer caging me in. He dragged a hand down his face and I couldn’t help but notice the slight tremble in it. It was as if the action was done in hopes of taking away the invisible veil of uncertainty from sticking to his skin. I put my hand to his shoulder and shifted closer.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked and without looking at me, he replied,
“I’m fine.” My lips flattened into an unconvincing line.
“Now you sound like me, when you ask me that question and if I remember correctly, it used to piss you off,” I informed him, finally making him look my way. He was arched over with his elbows to his knees and his head in his hands before my statement.
The second I spoke he dropped his hands and turned his head my way, making all his hair fall forward. It was a primal look of a man that was close to the edge and was trying to talk himself off a ledge and from making that doomed first step. Thankfully, with the sound of my voice and it being one of reason he took a deep breath and said,
“You’re right. I am not fine, but I will be…” I frowned and asked,
“What do you need Draven, tell me.” I implored reaching out to him. He looked down at my hand and the harsh glint I saw there actually had me stopping before touching him. His eyes snapped up to me the second I started to retract my hand and before I knew what was coming he had my wrist shackled in his large hand, putting a swift stop to my movements.
Then the next words out of his mouth had me gasping and not just from the raw sexual current I could feel coming from him in waves. Nor was it from the fire in his eyes or the deep growl of his Demon speaking to me.
No, all that fear I felt was down to one name spoken.
One gifted to me by another love,
By another King.
By another Draven.
“Where do you think you’re going…”
“My Little Lamb?”