Chapter Ten
He would have laid there for hours with Emily curled up against him if not for the duties which awaited him on the other side of his bedchamber door.
Slowly, he eased out from beneath the arm and leg he used to keep her close, and Emily stirred. The sheet he placed over them earlier slipped down off her body as she yawned and stretched.
By the time he pulled on pants and a shirt, she sat up and blinked. Blake bent down, kissed her lips, leaned his forehead against hers, and brushed a finger down her cheek. “Stay here. I won’t be long.”
“And if I don’t?” her voice husky, still laced with sleep.
His gut twisted. “Promise me Emily. Promise me you won’t try to run from me again.”
After a long look into his eyes she resigned. “As you wish, Lord Giresun.”
He growled, pulled her to him and conquered her mouth with a kiss he hoped would keep him in her thoughts long into the afternoon. Tempted to toss aside the sheet, to crawl back into the bed with her, he pulled himself away at the sound of a knock on his door.
“Promise me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Promise.”
“Good girl.” He glanced at the empty handcuff left dangling from his bedpost and grinned.
The knock sounded again and he slipped out of the room.
“Sorry to disturb the honeymoon.” Bogdan’s dirty blond hair hung down his back. He fell in step alongside Blake as they walked down the hall. “Should I have someone outside the door to see that she doesn’t run again?”
“That won’t be necessary.” On second hand.... He looked back over his shoulder at his bedchamber door. As her mate, as the pendragon, he needed to keep her and his fui safe. Whatever Margaret Moldvan plan may not have succeeded, but he wouldn’t allow himself to become fooled by another attempt to steal from him a second time.
“Should I send for Siggy boy to stand guard?”
“Please.” Blake reached up and touched the pendent Emily gave him. “Any word from Edmund?”
“He located the art gallery in Seattle.”
“Indeed. America then. It would seem Emily’s fury speaks true.”
“Aye, but the trail went cold. Edmund says he has a way of picking it up again. We shouldn’t have left them leave. Perhaps I should go there as the two of us should be able to track her better.”
Blake tapped a finger on the pendant. “Leave it to Edmund for now. I need you here.”
With Olaus taken flight and Garth injured, Blake couldn’t afford to spread his herd out until he understood what he was up against. He hadn’t made up his mind if Margaret Moldvan’s failed scheme compared to what he must face should the draconian counsel summon him.
“Don’t you want to know who is behind the attempt to steal your fui?”
His dragon flared inside him and his blood turned hot with anger spreading through his veins. Angry at Emily for trying to steal his fui. Angry because he should have known better than to allow strangers to cross onto their island. Angrier at himself for not branding her, holding on to her, having her discover his dragon-side like she did.
But he couldn’t take back the past any more than he could stop loving her, especially now that he’d bonded with her.
“I believe a certain young fury may have some of the answers we need.”
He didn’t want to cause strife with the elders, but thanks to Moldavan and her brazen attempt to breach dragon territory, she’d handed him another option to challenge the past and secure his and Emily’s future together.
On the other side of the door, Emily waited and listened for the footsteps to fade down the hall. She considered his request, knowing how much she’d enjoyed the last few hours, and decided staying in his bed was a bad idea.
Even now, she found it hard to leave it.
Sleep would certainly recharge her, but the lust humming in her veins for him fogged her brain.
She took a breath, got out of bed and dressed back in her blue dress. She could still feel his touch, his heat driving inside her, and she closed her eyes for a brief moment to savor that feeling.
She couldn’t walk away from him any more then Margaret could expect her to part with the fui which had attached itself to her. Needed her. Chosen her. She didn’t quite think Aunt Maragret had this in mind when she’d been appointed to extract the egg and deliver it.
There could have been no way for her to know her heart would grow attached, both to the babe and to the dragon who sired it. She should have left the past in the past. Her mother taught her to keep her focus on the mission and seek last the reward.
Seeing Blake again, being near him, had shattered her resolve. He intimated her, here, now, but not then. Not when he hadn’t known she was the daughter of a Dragon Keeper. Nor her with the knowledge he was a dragon.
Isn’t that why she never told him? Had she feared his reaction if he knew the truth of what her family did? What she ran from to find him in the first place?
But none of it mattered now. Her mother died to keep the dragons’ secret safe. Someone had to take her place and as the only blood child, Emily didn’t have a choice.
She and Blake had a past, but they didn’t have a future. Regardless of their union, human and dragon bond, neither one of their sides would acknowledge it.
Margaret would expect her to complete her mission. Whatever family she planned on placing this egg with would have to await another. Emily couldn’t give up her dragon’s baby. It made no difference this fui came from another female.
Had this been what her mother felt? What Aunt Margaret felt when Ash and Jacques came into their lives?
Jacques! He’d come back for her!
She had to find him, had to have him send a message to Aunt Margaret about the egg. She would understand. They’d been misinformed.
Emily opened the door, about to rush out when, Sigurd stepped in the doorway. He grinned at her, held up a credit card, and wiggled his brows. “Up for a bit of shopping?”
“You always did know the way to a girl’s heart.”
He chuckled, offered her his arm. “I’ve an errand to run in the village is all. Since your mate is dealing with a matter of certain importance, I’ve been authorized to see to it the new Lady Giresun indulges in a new wardrobe befitting her new…status.” Sigurd’s eyes swept down over her playfully pausing at her mid-section.
She remembered Naomi’s mate Garth had been attacked by the elder dragon after the ceremony. “An afternoon in the village sounds splendid.” She put her best English accent forth to match Sigurd’s. “I don’t suppose you could point me in the direction of a black fury dragon by the name of Jacques on the way, could you?”
She batted her lashes and pouted like she had in the past to persuade him.
“No. That I cannot.” Sigurd’s face softened.
She knew when not to push her luck.
“To the village then.” She took Sigurd’s arm, curious to visit the village, see more of her island prison, determined to figure out a way to keep her dragon and his fui without having her family pay the price for her breaking their society’s law.
“We’ll visit the village café first. Then I’ll take you to Azel’s. She will have what you need.”
“Why Sigurd, I didn’t take you for one who liked to shop. I always thought dragons refused to share their treasurer or spend it.”
“Yes, but not when it belongs to someone else,” Sigurd said.
“It would seem there are still some things I have yet to discover about you all.”
Like discovering Jacques whereabouts and why Blake never speaks of the one who laid the egg which attached itself to her.