Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) (26 page)

           
Her face nestled right up against his large chest and her arms stayed at his
side. He was hot, so very hot under his tux. His hands held her so close to him
that Nadia doubted a ray of light could have moved in between their bodies. She
soaked his tux and his shirt, but all he said was ‘Its okay’ over and over
again, while his large hand caressed her back up and down.

           
Seconds ticked by, then minutes, and soon Nadia was starting to feel childish
for her jealous comments earlier. Her face was surely wrecked, her hair was a
mess, and she had cried all over Drake. Her night was ruined. And she had
ruined his too.

           
“I’m sorry,” she muttered against his tux, trying to make him see that she
really was. Her fingers continued to clench against his side, where she could
feel muscles vibrate when he moved his arms away from hers, and pulled her face
up to his. Embarrassed, she finally lifted her eyes and looked at him. He
looked pissed off. Nadia didn’t take that as a good sign.

           
“Why exactly are you sorry?” He gritted those words out so low that they shook
through her from where she was pressed to him.

           
“For making a
scene,
and for you seeing me like this,
and for acting this way. There is no excuse.” The words dwindled at the fury
that was coming over his face. For a brief second Nadia became scared, even as
she knew he would never hurt her.

           
“I never thought I would say this, but you are turning out to be one
infuriating woman.”

           
That took her aback. And set her temper off. “If you don’t like it go back
inside to
Annabelle
. Maybe if you are quick enough you can steal her
away from Donavan and finish your night off with her.” Furious and hurt all
over again, Nadia pulled her body from his embrace and took off with determined
steps back to the ballroom.

           
She got only as far as a few feet when she felt his hand pull her back around.

           
“Oh no you don’t, Ms. Spitfire.
Stop right there. We
are going to finish this right here.” He pulled her close once again, and she
shoved. Now that he had gotten her riled, her blood was boiling at its peak.

           
“Let go of me!” She shoved again, only managing to make herself get tangled
with his arms.

           
He chuckled, and that really set her off. She hauled back and lifted her hand.
He stopped her on the upswing, his fist crushing her small wrist. She looked up
into his face, but he was in a half shadow. Still, Nadia could sense his fury,
and she knew she had almost overstepped the boundaries between them. But that
didn’t stop a furious remark from leaving her lips.

           
“How dare you!” She spit the words at him, but she knew she was the one that
was in the wrong.

           
He pulled her close to his body. “I dare whatever I wish, Nadia. You should
know that by now.” His deep voice caused the hairs on her arm to lift in
warning.

“Brute!
All men are the same. They try and bully a woman into
th
-,”

He
pulled her against him so abruptly that she stopped speaking all together. Now
she realized the danger. Now that she was close enough she knew that he was
going to punish her for the assumption she had just screamed at him. The insult
hung in the air. His body was hard and so very large against hers.

His
voice growled, while his eyes glowed hotly at her. “You dare much by slinging
that insult on me. Maybe you are the one that needs to learn a lesson in
curbing what you think.”

Without
a second to spare his lips captured hers. Nadia ceased to move, breathe and
even think.

Her
body was at his mercy. He held her in a bruising grip, his hands hard around
her arms and his body punishingly close to hers. Then she realized her legs were
dangling from the ground. He had actually picked her up. His mouth forced hers
open in a vengeful kiss, one that she had never seen coming, and he took over
from there.

Hard
lips forced hers open, plundering her mouth, stealing the very breath from her
lungs. Nadia moaned against his mouth while her hands tried to move against his
body, but she couldn’t. He held her so closely and so hard against him that any
movement was prohibited.

This
wasn’t what she had expected from him. But she knew she had pushed him to this.
Tears bit at her eyes again, and slipped over to slide down her cheeks to where
he violated her mouth with his. Almost immediately he slowed, gentled his mouth,
as if the tears had touched him, and he realized just how rough he was being
with her. His hands let off of their bruising grip. He continued to hold her
up, but softly now. His lips brushed against hers tenderly, setting off little
sparks of excitement against her lips.

“So
sorry,” he mumbled against her mouth, his nose bumping up against hers as he
adjusted his hold on her body to where she was leaning against him rather than
dangling above the ground.

Ever
so gently his tongue caressed the seam of her lips, not roughly like before,
but with a cautious lick that dared her to open so that he could prove to her
that he was sorry. Hesitatingly she moaned against his mouth and opened slowly.
One of his hands went under her bottom to keep her anchored high against his
body, while the other came up to gently swipe her hair away from their faces.
The strength in him amazed her and she trembled again.

“I’m
sorry, so very sorry. Don’t be scared. Please.” The need, the abject honesty in
his voice caused fresh tears to well in Nadia’s eyes and with a trust born of
years of knowing him, she slipped her arms around his shoulders and opened her
mouth fully against his, willing to take whatever he would give her.

Even
though she had basically given him permission to correct what he had just done,
that in no way let Nadia establish a pace with their kisses. Drake was a very
dominant male. He liked to set the pace. He liked to call the shots, and he was
doing exactly that with her right now, albeit a bit slower and more gentle than
what he had started off with.

With
his forearm snug against her bottom and his other hand now cupping the delicate
line of her jaw, he teased her lips, tilted his head and caressed first the top
then the lower rise of her mouth into a dance that she didn’t know the steps
to, but she was learning. His breath soughed into her mouth, giving her air to
breathe, since he wouldn’t let her go long enough to catch her own. A large,
work roughened thumb moved across the side of her cheek, while his tongue
licked at the entry to her mouth. Nadia clenched her fingers in his hair and
timidly let the tip of her tongue catch his. His tongue felt like wet, smooth
sandpaper, but his taste was hypnotic, drugging, with the faint hint of
whiskey.

The
growl that reverberated through his chest erupted inside her mouth. His forearm
pulled her even tighter against him, while his thumb applied pressure, causing
her mouth to open even further. Drake plunged inside.

           
Pleasure danced along her nerve endings and sang in her veins. Heat flooded her
body and where minutes ago she had felt pain and such agonizing torture, she
now felt like the most wanted woman in the world. His mouth moved over hers
with such skill and passionate intensity that Nadia wondered how women weren’t
lining up around the block for a go with this man.

           
Oh yes. Liquid, molten satisfaction bubbled in her blood. She had wanted this,
craved this for years, and now he was giving it to her. And boy did he know how
to give it. His mouth never stopped moving, teasing, licking, sucking, and
caressing
her own
. Just when Nadia had gotten the hang
of things, he switched on her, going from teasing the inside softness of her
lips, to plunging his tongue deep, the way Nadia knew his body could do to
hers.

           
Seconds later he pulled away slightly. She still rested on his forearm, and
against his body, but now his mouth only whispered against hers, giving her
fantastic tingles that trembled along the top of her lips and skin. His eyes
were closed and Nadia didn’t move away, but stayed to where his lips brushed
hers with soft, so very tender nips.

           
“I have to stop, angel…if I don’t, I might do something that I’m sure would
shock you.”

           
Nadia smiled slightly, and answered truthfully, “I can’t possibly be more
shocked than I am now.”

           
With his strong arm he lowered her slightly. Nadia felt his hard body under the
material of the tux, so very powerful and sexy. All at once a large, hard, and
extremely long part of his body came into contact with her core. Her eyes shot
open even wider as she glanced
down,
trying to see
around what she was pressed up against. “Oh.”

           
A crooked, sensual grin tucked up one corner of his mouth. “You got that
right.”

           
Nadia had the wild, insane and totally wanton urge to let her legs fall open so
that he would press right up to where she was aching. Just the image in her
mind of her opening her legs, the slit in her dress allowing for more room,
while his massive body pressed so intimately against hers, caused a renewed
flash of heat and moisture to gather at the juncture of her thighs.

           
She wanted to wrap her legs around his taut waist, jerk her hips against his
and feel him fully. Her insides trembled at the thought, while her inner
muscles clenched with ferocity.

           
Just when she thought she might actually make a move and shock
him
for a
change, his arm shifted, dragging her down that delicious hardness and for a
second, Nadia thought she might explode from that torment alone. Then seconds
later, he set her down in front of him. With her legs shaking and her heart in
her throat, she braced her hands against his chest.

           
“Damn…we are both screwed, aren’t we?”

           
She thought that pretty much summed up the entire situation.

***

           
Nadia sipped the tea he had made for her when they had arrived back at the
condo. It was full dark and nearing midnight, but Drake wanted to get this out
right now. There was no need to put it off any longer.

           
In his mind he knew that Nadia wasn’t some errant society girl that would take
the knowledge of what he was going to tell her and spread it around carelessly.
She was caring and loyal to a fault, and he knew if he trusted her with his
secret that she wouldn’t take that trust and stomp it in the ground. Just
getting to this point was monumental enough. There had been women in his past,
even two that he had married and had loved in his own way, but that physical
and emotional connection between his two previous wives had never been as
strong as the one he feared was growing between him and Nadia. What he had felt
for Loraine and Marie had never been this physically powerful.

           
With her bright green eyes and lips still swollen from his kisses, Nadia looked
like a teenager curled up on his loveseat in her pajama set. His eyes settled
on the soft green tank top and green plaid flannel pants that she had on. Drake
couldn’t remember when he had last seen a woman wear normal sleep clothes to
bed. Usually the women he had over for the night wore silk teddies or nothing
at all. It was refreshing to see her wearing something else besides what he was
used to.

           
He had also changed. They both needed to get comfortable, as he had told her
when they walked in from the gala. Instead of telling him anything smart, she
had surprisingly agreed and walked off to the guest room without another word.
Her quietness was worrying him. Before their kiss she had kept apologizing for
her tears and her jealousy. That was the last thing he had wanted to hear. Why
didn’t this beautiful, desirable woman see herself that way? What had the men
in her life done to her to make her think that she wasn’t up to par with other
women?

           
To put it mildly, Drake had seen red. He couldn’t believe she had the frame of
mind to even think she wasn’t good enough for him, which had been exactly what
she had been thinking before she had started crying and ran out from the
ballroom. The emotions inside of her had been so volatile at that moment.

           
After the words they had shared,
then
the kiss, Drake
was ready for round two. Hell, he was ready for any round that allowed him
access to her and making her feel good. He was so hard for her that it was
surprising she hadn’t been staring at his crotch for the past ten minutes. So
far her eyes had stayed glued to the mug she was holding.

           
Drake stretched his shoulders in the plain tee shirt he had on, straightened
his legs in a pair of black pajama bottoms, and curled his palms against his
forearms which rested across his chest. Usually he didn’t dress for bed. He
only made the concession of clothes because she was here.

           
“Are you tired?” he asked her.

           
She jumped a bit. Apparently he caught her off guard. Drake watched her eyes
flutter, black eyelashes sweeping across her smooth cheek and once again his
cock twitched. He almost groaned. It seemed everything she did was a turn on
for him. “No, I’m fine, and besides we need to talk…about earlier.”