Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles (10 page)

She doesn’t respond right away, and he cocks
and eyebrow at her; “Don’t you trust me enough to rest in my
bedroom?” He asks as he pulls her into his arms.

She swallows hard because the raging
wildfires are back. Damn, I wonder if he knows what he does to me?
“I trust you completely Lucian, you know that.” She states evenly,
if a bit breathy. She chuckles and says, “Besides, I was the one
trying to do the seducing earlier as you well recall.”

Lucian chuckles at her wry, self-deprecatory
sense of humor. It hasn’t changed much in all this time. She still
uses humor to try to distract people from things she isn’t
comfortable discussing. He looks in her eyes and sees the truth
though, and smiles broadly, happily. She does trust me. He leans in
slowly and finally captures her lips for a lingering kiss that
leaves her breathless. He pulls away reluctantly before saying, “Go
to my room, Morna. I’ll bring the tea.” He turns and quickly leads
her to his bedroom door before he quickly disappears back up the
hallway into the kitchen.

Lucian’s bedroom is nearly as beautiful as
its owner. At some point in time, someone had obviously knocked out
a wall or two to make one giant room. The bedroom occupies the
entire north end of the second story. The walls are covered in a
lovely muted gray and green vertical stripe wallpaper. The king
sized bed, the dressers, the wardrobe, and desk are all constructed
out of a rich mahogany. Each piece is very large with simple,
elegant lines. The bedspread is a gray and green nine patch quilt
that looks a hundred years old if it is a day. The center square of
each nine patch was embroidered with an intricate pattern of
entwined emerald green suns and aquamarine crescent moons. Someone
had expended a great deal of time and effort in making the lovely
quilt.

The bedroom is absolutely beautiful, but
somehow Deidra knows that Lucian doesn’t spend much time in this
beautiful sanctuary. There is very little that feels truly personal
here, and it is far more tidy than her own bedroom and just doesn‘t
feel lived in.

The only decorations are three huge black and
white photos of landscapes, and an ancient looking crest with
equally ancient looking candle holders on either side. And a very
interesting looking carving of an oak tree. Deidra touches it
gently and pulls back in surprise. As surge of power overwhelmed
her when she touched it, almost like an electrical shock, but not
quite.

Oddly enough Deidra feels that all of these
items, except for the furniture, are incredibly familiar to her.
“So strange,” she thinks. “Old girl, you’re losing your marbles.
This is the first time you have ever stepped foot in this
room.”

At that moment Lucian returns with a tray
with two cups of herbal tea, a small plate of sliced apples, a
small bunch of green grapes, and a plate bearing a small assortment
of cheeses and whole wheat crackers. He sets the tray on the bed
and pats a spot beside it for her to sit. She shyly walks over and
eyeballs the height of the bed. With her wrecked hip and leg it
will be difficult to get up there gracefully. As though reading her
mind, he grasps her by her shapely hips and lifts her effortlessly
onto the bed beside the tray. He smiles happily as he sits on the
other side of the tray.

All of this is accomplished without even
creating a tiny ripple in the tea in the cups. Deidra wonders if
the mattress is one of those space-age foam models that do not
conduct motion or if he is really just that graceful. She knows in
her heart it’s the latter, and suddenly she feels like the clumsy,
ugly duckling taking tea with the regal swan.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath
and silently reminds herself for the thousandth time that this man
is light years out of her league, and so much better than she could
ever hope to deserve that she really needs to get a grip on
herself. She opens her eyes when he caresses her face again. Those
beautiful, luminescent blue eyes are staring at her with such open
longing that it takes her breath away. She gasps and ducks her
head.

“Did I really see that or am I just seeing
what I want to see?” she demands silently of herself.

“Morna? What’s wrong?” He asks quietly. “Do
you want me to go and leave you in peace while you eat?”

She snaps her head up at his words and
quickly says, “No! Not at all. It’s your home for heaven’s sake.
Besides, you know I really like being with you.”

“Then why are you always hiding from me?” he
asks in a quiet, no nonsense tone of voice.

“Truthfully?” she asks. When he nods, she
sighs and says, “Because you make me feel things I have never felt
before. I have never been so uncertain around any man in my entire
life. Until I met you, I have never felt a moment of shyness. I
guess this is shyness. Hell, I don’t know exactly what it is. But I
do know it is very unsettling, and I feel like I have to regroup… a
lot around you.” Deidra shrugs and laughs at herself.

She picks up a cup of the tea and takes a big
gulp because her throat is suddenly very dry. The tea is hot, but
not so hot that it is uncomfortable. The flavor and temperature are
both soothing, and oddly familiar. Immediately, she feels herself
relax. She smiles and takes another pleasurable sip. “This tea is
really nice, what kind is it?”

Lucian is thoughtful over his explanation,
but he smiles openly at her question and says, “It’s an ancient, er
family herbal blend. It originated around Ireland and Wales. It is
reputed to have relaxing qualities. I have just always liked it. An
old friend, Rinda, sends it to me every so often. I am glad that
you like it.” Lucian says softly.

He’s not certain if he is disappointed or
relieved that he didn’t see a flicker of recognition at the name.
“Why aren’t you eating?”

“Oh… sorry.” Deidra says as she picks up a
piece of cheese and pops it into her mouth and chews slowly. She
savors the rich nutty flavor as she contemplates the man sitting
across from her. She smiles as she takes in his beauty. “Hell,
there is no other word for it. He’s not just handsome, he is
beautiful, but not in an even remotely feminine manner.” His broad
shoulders are well muscled and beautifully contoured. His chest and
abdomen are perfectly formed, rock hard and cool to the touch. She
shivers in delight as she remembers her explorations earlier today
on the couch. Suddenly, her mind is filled with thousands of images
of his body, the feel of him, the smell of him, the taste of him…
It’s as though she is reliving making love with him hundreds, no
thousands of times.

“Snap out of it Deidra! You are acting like a
horny old coot!” She mentally chastises herself. But the flood of
fantasies… or whatever they are making her feel unsettled.

Lucian watches all this play across her face,
he knows exactly what she is remembering. His heart is filled with
hope, until she reins herself in and puts that barrier back up
between them. He reaches out and strokes her face gently and then
smiles brightly and says, “Well, my three o’clock will be here any
minute.” Actually, he can hear his client’s car pulling into the
driveway at this very moment. He reluctantly stands up and says,
“Try to rest, my Morna. I won’t be finished until five or five
thirty. But I will come wake you by six. I would love for you to
stay for dinner if you would like. I know that I really want to
spend more time with you.” Having said that, he quickly leans in
and kisses her lips gently and then disappears.

“How does he do that?” Deidra mutters to
herself. “One second he is here and next he is gone! Maybe I am
just losing it.” She shrugs and finishes her tea. She nibbles a
little on the assorted cheeses and fruit feeling very relaxed. She
looks around the lovely room and her attention is drawn again and
again to the black and white photographs. Finally, she goes to
stand before one of them, taking in all the details of the very
large print.

The black and white photo on the east wall is
of a lonely light house on a craggy outcropping overlooking the
ocean. Somehow she knows that the stripes painted around the
lighthouse are black and red, alternating. And the little shed at
the base of the lighthouse is a faded forest green. Feeling
confident in that knowledge, she chuckles at her fanciful
imagination.

She imagines Lucian wearing a cable knit
sweater, canvas jeans and water tight boots working around the
light house or on a sail boat out on the ocean working
bare-chested. She knows that no matter how many hours he might work
in the sun, he will never tan. She frets for a moment over his
unnatural paleness, and his cool, hard skin. Alarm bells sound in
some part of her awareness but she quickly dismisses these concerns
from her mind when she starts day dreaming about his beautiful body
again.

In her mind’s eye she can see the sea through
a huge window. The fierce winds are whipping the waves higher and
higher. The tempest causes the waves to crash against the deadly
looking rocks below the vantage point visible through the window.
But her attention is quickly drawn from the sea to the reflection
in the glass. Lucian’s bare chest and perfect face are reflected in
the glass. She sees a pair of hands lovingly slip around his waist,
and move up his perfect torso in a possessive caress. She can feel
the icy hard contours of his powerful body under her hands… Deidra
shivers with delight before she shakes her head at her imagination
and then drags her attention to another photo.

The photo on the north wall is of the Grand
Tetons. That’s a real classic, anyone could recognize that scene. A
pair of majestic mountains that some horny French trapper named
after women’s breasts. Deidra giggles at that idea, but she can’t
shake the certain feeling that the person who took the photograph
was in a boat on a lake. She feels as though she is sitting in a
boat out in the middle of a placid lake, gazing up at the
mountains. She imagines reaching her hands down and trailing her
fingers through the chilly water.

“Wow, Dee what makes you think that the
person taking this photo was riding in a boat?” she muses aloud.
But she can’t shake the certainty that that was exactly what the
photographer was doing when this picture was taken.

She closes her eyes and sees Lucian rowing a
small boat out into the middle of a placid lake. In the next image,
he is moving down her body seductively as she reclines in the boat.
His icy mouth is moving lower and lower. Trailing open mouthed, wet
kisses that make her burn with desire. She shivers in anticipation
because she knows his destination and the pleasure that he will
give her when he gets there…

Next her mind flashes through fleeting images
of Lucian building a barn in a high mountain valley, herding cattle
on horseback, chopping firewood, kissing her passionately and
driving into her eager body with wild abandon on the floor before a
roaring fire. Dee gasps because the last images cause her body to
react as though she is actually experiencing his hardness thrusting
deeply inside of her.

Panting breathlessly she steps back from the
photograph. “Oh God! Help me, I got it bad for this man. My
fantasies are so damned vivid that they feel like memories…” Deidra
mumbles and rubs her face as she stretches her back trying to shake
the tension in her body created by her vivid imaginings. Jeez, Dee,
horny much?

She realizes that she has needed to use the
bathroom for some time now. She crabs into the bathroom and quickly
relieves herself. She washes her hands and splashes water on her
face. She looks in the mirror and wonders what is going on with
her. “I guess after nearly eight years without a man I am really
going off the deep end over this one.” She looks hard at her
reflection and decides there is more to it than just being horny
and lonely. There’s something very, very different about Lucian.
Different, yet hauntingly familiar…

She shakes her head and walks back into the
bedroom intending to lie down and rest for a bit. But something
catches her attention. The final photo on the west wall is a scene
from the Olympic rainforest in Washington State. Even though the
print is in black and white, Deidra can see the vibrant, earthy
greens and browns. She can feel the moisture in the air, taste the
musky decay of forest debris on her tongue. She can almost smell
the wildflowers that fill the meadow just beyond the rise in the
background of the photo. Faintly, she can hear the birds chirping,
and the gurgling stream to the east of the meadow. Suddenly, a
chill runs from her neck to her heels and as she imagines a wolf
howling in the distance. She feels a powerful urge to let loose a
battle cry and run through the woods to meet the threat head
on…

Deidra feels like she jumps out of her skin
when Lucian cracks the door open to check on her. “Sorry, Morna. I
thought you would be sleeping by now. I was just checking to see if
you needed anything.”

“I was just lost in my imagination, I guess,”
she squeaks. “I have been admiring your photographs. They are
lovely. Did you take them?”

Lucian smiles, looking mildly amused and
shakes his head, “No, Morna, a very beautiful, dear lady that I
know took them for me. They were a gift that I have treasured for
many years.”

The antique clock on the largest dresser
strikes five o’clock. “Wow, I can’t believe I have been standing
here looking at these photos for nearly two hours. Lucian, I’m
losing my mind,” she breathes.

Lucian notices the tray still resting on the
bed. He ignores the frustration he feels that she didn‘t try to
rest; but then again she rarely does what others expect her to do.
“I rather doubt that,” Lucian says gently as he comes up behind her
and wraps his arms around her shoulders and traps her hands in his.
“Do you mean to tell me you haven’t tried napping yet?” he queries
gently.