Chapter 15
“Gayle?” Grigor was pretty sure he had to be dreaming as he opened his eyes and saw her sitting beside where he lay in his own bed, one of his hands held tightly in both of hers.
He had no idea how he even came to be in his bedroom.
The last thing Grigor remembered was being in his study with Dylan, and then the sudden pain that ripped through his body when Gayle was driven away from him, their mating connection stretching and then breaking. Causing him to collapse, before he was quickly consumed by darkness.
The dream Gayle sat forward. “It’s about time you woke up!”
That scolding certainly sounded like his mate. Except his mate was on her way back to London in the company of Nikolai Volkov. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Six hours or so. I told everyone else to go to bed. You totally missed your mother’s visit,” she added ruefully.
His mother?
Branwen?
This might be a dream, and his dream at that, but he was still finding it difficult to concentrate. “She was here?”
“She is so beautiful, Grigor,” Gayle enthused. “I mean, we’re talking out-of-this-world beautiful. It was a little intimidating, to be honest,” she added ruefully. “No one’s mother-in-law should look like that.”
Grigor hadn’t seen his mother for almost sixteen hundred years, not since he became a dragon shifter and left Annwn. But he did remember her as being exceptionally beautiful, if slightly remote. A remoteness he knew he had inherited.
It seemed more than a little strange that he should be dreaming about Gayle meeting the mother he hadn’t seen for centuries.
“Would you like some bottled water?” Gayle offered softly. “I can easily go and get some from the fridge—”
“No!” Grigor maintained a tight grip on Gayle’s hand to prevent her from standing, unwilling to let this dream Gayle go as he had been forced to do with the real one. “Stay with me for a while longer. Please.”
As Gayle had no intention of leaving Grigor again, ever, she was more than happy to remain at his side.
He continued talking. “I didn’t want to let you go.”
Gayle’s heart leaped at the admission. “Then why did you?”
“Because I had to.” He swallowed. “If I had forced you to stay…” He shook his head. “You’re like a rare and beautiful butterfly, and butterflies aren’t meant to be kept in captivity against their will.”
As Gayle had felt the same way about Grigor when she’d likened him to a caged tiger, she couldn’t argue with that analogy. Except… “I’m not a butterfly. I’m a woman. And I’m not being kept here against my will,” she assured him huskily. “I’m your mate.”
“Yes, you are.” Grigor gave a warm smile. “Rebellious. Stubborn. Fierce. And mine,” he added with satisfaction.
Gayle gave a shaky laugh at his possessive tone. “I love you, Grigor.”
“I love you too.”
She gasped, both at the words and how easily Grigor had said them. “You do?”
He nodded. “Very much.”
Gayle gave him a searching glance, not altogether sure… “Grigor, are you truly awake?”
He chuckled. “Absolutely not. If I was awake, you wouldn’t have just told me you love me.”
A puzzled frown creased her brow. “Why wouldn’t I?”
He shrugged. “Because the Gayle I know when I’m awake would never admit to the weakness of love.”
Gayle had done a lot of thinking during the past six hours, after Branwen had assured her Grigor would wake up now that his mate had returned to him. Most of Gayle’s thoughts had been based on what Nikolai had said to her in the SUV, his claim that in his experience, it wasn’t weak to love someone, to need them, to want to be with them, that his wife, the love and family they shared, made him stronger, not weaker. That they were his life.
As Grigor was now her life.
She’d felt completely lost before she’d met and fallen in love with Grigor, a rudderless ship drifting with the tide. Along with the occasional shipwreck, like the one she’d had when she’d appropriated Gregori Markovic’s money for Sybil Rider.
She had found a purpose in loving Grigor, a reason for being in accepting and becoming his mate. Something she was now willing to fight for. Even against Grigor, if she had to.
Her hands tightened about his. “Someone told me love is a strength, not a weakness.”
“Someone?”
“Nikolai.”
“Now I know I’m definitely still asleep.” Grigor gave another self-derisive chuckle. “But I’m okay with that,” he assured her as she frowned. “More than okay,” he added huskily.
Much as Gayle was enjoying this conversation, it really wasn’t fair to continue to let Grigor believe it wasn’t real.
Especially as he had told her he loved her!
She stood up. “Shift over so I can join you,” she encouraged gently as she slipped off her shoes and began to remove her clothes.
Grigor moved distractedly to the other side of the bed, his eyes wide as he watched Gayle throw off her sweater and remove her bra, revealing those glorious breasts that he so loved to caress and suck as he pleasured her. “I’m not sure Gayle would be happy at my having to confess to being in bed with another woman, even if it’s her dream self.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” Gayle unfastened her jeans before removing them and her panties. “But as I’m not a dream, it isn’t going to be a problem.” She slid naked beneath the bedcovers to lie on her side facing him. “Feel how real I am, Grigor.” Her hand disappeared beneath the duvet, her fingers curling about and then gently squeezing his aroused cock.
Which was when Grigor realized he wasn’t dreaming at all. That Gayle really was here in the bed beside him. Touching him. Caressing him. Arousing him.
That minutes ago, she had told him she loved him.
He moistened his lips. “How are you here?”
“Nikolai was bringing me back to you when Nathaniel texted him that you had collapsed.”
“He was?”
“He was.” Gayle wanted no more misunderstandings between them, needed Grigor to know she had been coming back to him before she knew of his collapse. “Then Nathaniel’s text arrived and scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I’m not going to promise I’ll change overnight or that I’ll never make another mistake, but I’m really going to try not to.”
“I love you exactly as you are.” Grigor touched the silky curtain of her hair. “Every rebellious, stubborn, delicious inch of you.”
“I seem to remember you admitted to being surprised when you realized I was your mate,” Gayle teased.
“I also said you were more than I had expected. So very much more.” Love glowed in the darkness of his eyes as he looked at her. “I have absolutely no doubt you are the perfect mate for me, Gayle. You bring light and laughter into my life. Love,” he added huskily.
“In that case, nothing you do or say will ever make me leave you again.” She sucked and then bit down on one of his nipples, sending heated waves of pleasure through his entire body. “I love you, Grigor.” She raised her head, her gaze unwavering as she looked deeply into his eyes. “I love you.”
“I love— Did you say mother-in-law?” He frowned.
Gayle grinned at him. “You didn’t think you were going to get away with not marrying me in a human ceremony, did you?”
Grigor chuckled. “I have a feeling that with you as my mate and wife, I will never get away with anything ever again.”
“Too damned right!”
“Goddess, I love you!” His arms tightened about her, holding the warmth of her body tightly against his own as he claimed her lips in a searing kiss, needing, wanting—
Gayle broke the kiss. “Claim me, Grigor,” she groaned. “Mate me. Love me!”
“I do,” he rasped. “Goddess knows I do!”
Their first mating had been driven by lust. This time, it was fueled solely by the deep love they felt for each other, their joining exactly that.
A mating of bodies, minds, souls, and, most especially, hearts.