Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles (11 page)

As soon as he touches her, her heart leaps
like a racehorse out of the starting gate. She blushes as she
recalls how vivid her fantasies of him have been this afternoon.
When he traps her hands in his, her blood heats to the boiling
point. Her breath starts coming in ragged gasps. Deidra decides she
better get some space between them before she embarrasses herself
again like she did this morning on the sofa. She steps forward and
turns around to face him, breaking his hold on her. “I think I
should go home now. Thank you for a lovely day,” she croaks as she
tries to make it to the door without meeting his impossible blue
eyes.

His right hand snakes out lightning fast to
cup her cheek and hold her in place. “Morna, why are running away?
You always run away or hide from me, why?” He flashes that glorious
lopsided grin as his left hand reaches out to stroke up and down
her right arm, and then lower, over her hip.

“Luca, you know why!” she hisses, her face
hot with embarrassment.

His impossible eyes widen, only marginally,
but his smile deepens, and his breath drags in raggedly. “Morna,”
he whispers softly.

“I am going to make a total fool out of
myself again! Please let me go with a little bit of my dignity
intact.” Her eyes plead with him as she whispers her desperate
entreaty.

Understanding lights his eyes, quickly
followed by a deep sadness. She stands on tiptoes and kisses his
lower jaw. She darts out the door as fast as her wrecked leg will
allow.

“Damn, where is my purse and cane?” she
mutters as she looks around his living area. “I really shouldn’t
have skipped PT today. I am going to pay for it tonight!”

“Morna, your things are on the table by the
top of the stairs. Please stay, I can help with the leg. Let me
draw you a bath. I have gone to enough PT sessions with you to know
how to massage it for you.”

“No!” She snaps urgently. “I mean, No thank
you. It’s okay Lucian, really. I just have to go.” Deidra snags her
purse and hoists the strap of the heavy bag over her left shoulder.
She picks up the cane and hooks it over her other arm, and then
heads for the stairs. Just as she hobbles onto the third tread her
heavy purse slips off her shoulder and bangs hard into her wrecked
left leg. The pain shoots through her body, causing her to lose her
balance and tumble wildly down the stairs as she screams in
fear.

“MORNA!” roars Lucian. He’s behind her at the
top of the stairs when he shouts her name, and then a split second
later he’s near the bottom of the long staircase holding her
tightly in his arms before she can crash head first onto the marble
flooring.

Deidra whimpers in agony and buries her face
into his chest, clinging to him for dear life. “I’m sorry, I’m
sorry! I didn’t mean to worry you,” she whispers into the rock hard
planes of his chest. As the effects of her fright slowly evaporate
from her brain, she drags her tear streaked face away from his
chest and looks up into his face, “How did you get to me so
quickly? That’s impossible, but you did it.”

“That’s not important right now. Let’s make
sure you didn’t cause any new injuries. Dammit, why are you being
so damned stubborn?” he grinds out between clenched teeth

CHAPTER 5 - COMFORT AND UNEXPECTED
ECSTASY

Deidra didn’t even realize he had moved until
he is gently lying her down on his bed. “That’s impossible,” she
mouths.

“No, what is impossible is your hard-headed
refusal to heed common sense at times!” Lucian snaps in
frustration. When he sees the stricken look on her face, he is
immediately contrite, smiles sheepishly, and brushes her cheek with
his fingertips. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to act like a brute,”
he soothes softly. “You just can’t imagine how badly you scared me.
Then to top it all off you are so single-mindedly focused on me
that you have no idea whether you are injured or not.”

“I am fine, Lucian. Believe me, I am an
accident looking for a place to happen. I would know if I had
sustained new injuries. I am just hurting, from being a damn
hard-headed fool, as you so clearly pointed out,” she snickered.
“Since you have already offered to let me impose, I will go take a
hot soak, and if that doesn’t help you can dazzle me with your PT
expertise…okay?”

“Fine, but I am calling Seth to come check
you out before you move another muscle,” he insists.

“Forget it!” She says with finality, and
tries to rise from the bed, but Lucian stays her movement with a
firm, but gentle hand. “Look, Seth’s a good guy, but I won’t let
you impose on my physical therapist by asking him to make a house
call. Besides, can’t you imagine how mortified I would be by that?”
Her plea is plain in her eyes. “Please see this from my point of
view, Luca,” she pleads.

“Fine, let me draw a bath for you and then I
will come back and carry you in there. Do Not Move An Inch Until I
Return! Do I make myself clear?” he asks authoritatively.

Deidra’s reply is a stifled giggle and a
mumbled, “Yes sir!”

Lucian is gone before she can blink. “How
does he do that?” she mutters to herself. She stares at the ceiling
for what feels like an eternity, but in reality, it was less than a
minute before he reappears at her side.

“Let me check you over before we move you.
You bounced off those stairs a few times and hit your head on the
railing. I am worried about a concussion,” he informs her. He
produces a penlight to check her pupils, examines both ears before
he gently runs his fingers over her head, down her neck, shoulders
and arms. His chilly fingers work their way back up her ribcage,
then down again to splay over her soft tummy area. She giggles like
a five year old, and he growls deep in his chest. “Dammit Morna,
please be still! You should take this more seriously!”

“When one is as clumsy as I am these days,
anything that doesn’t kill you is funny.” His stricken look causes
her to backtrack. “I am sorry, I will be good. Finish your
examination.”

She snaps her mouth shut and closes her eyes
tightly as he resumes his explorations. He takes his time over her
hips and legs, especially the one that had been crushed ten months
ago. And then suddenly, he’s no longer touching her body. She fears
he’s left the room, and considers opening her eyes to look for him,
when she hears a ragged gasp. His cool fingertips are tracing the
scar on her face. The hard, cold points of his fingertips trail
down her neck and shoulder, and then traces the path of the jagged
scar down her arm.

“Please don’t do that,” she whispers. Her
eyes flutter open and she’s floored by the intensity of the pain
she sees in his face. He cuts his eyes away quickly as a shuttered
look replaces the raw emotion so quickly that she is left wondering
if she had only imagined it there a second ago.

He drags his eyes back to face her. “I am
sorry, Morna, it just pains me to think how much it must have hurt
you when that side of your body was crushed in the car wreck. I
didn’t mean to make you self-conscious.”

“It’s okay, just let me up so I can take that
hot bath. I’ll be just fine Lucian, I promise.” She chuckles
nervously and says, “I hope your bathroom isn’t flooding as we
speak!” As she tries to sit up, Lucian gently scoops her off the
bed into his arms, and carries her into the bathroom, where he sets
her down on the chaise in the corner of the bathroom. “I think your
bathroom is bigger than my bedroom,” she snickers.

He strides over to the tub and turns the
water off, dips his hand into the water to test the temperature and
stirs in a very generous amount of eucalyptus scented Epsom salts.
When he turns around to face her again. By now, she has sat up on
the chaise and is struggling to get the oversized tee shirt over
her stiff shoulders. “Be patient,” he chides hoarsely. “Let me do
that before you hurt yourself.”

She starts to argue, but thinks better of it
when a painful spasm wracks her bad shoulder. “Yeah, I guess you
better do it after all,” she breathes between spasms.

Ever so gently, he tugs the shirt over her
head, and then down her injured arm before tossing it onto the
lounge behind her. Keeping his eyes averted, he kneels down to
remove her dingy house shoes, and rubs her feet gingerly between
his cold hands. He slowly moves his hands up her calves, thighs and
hips to reach her waistband of the pajama pants. He hooks his
fingers in the elastic band, and smiles when she arches her butt
off of the chaise as he peels them downward exposing her, over her
legs and off the tips of her toes. He balls the pants up and tosses
them on top of the tee shirt.

Lucian takes a deep breath and then encircles
her waist with his cold right arm and rests his left hand behind
her right shoulder as he eases her up into a standing position. He
pulls her body against his own, and gently raises her up until her
feet are no longer touching the floor. He quickly walks her over to
the bath tub, where he gently sets her on her feet and turns her to
face the tub. Then he trails his icy finger tips from her shoulder
to her bra strap.

“And of course, you are wearing the black
lace bra and panties!” He whispers softly. She shivers because his
voice almost sounds feral, it is so raw and full of need. “You are
constantly doing the unexpected, aren’t you, my Morna?”

He unhooks the bra, and plants a lingering
kiss on the red mark left by the elastic band. His lips start a new
wildfire in her blood. He straightens up and inhales the scent of
her hair. Deidra can’t help herself, she leans into him with her
entire body and is very pleased to discover that he too is moved by
their close proximity, as evidenced by the bulge in his jeans. He
plants a lingering kiss below her left ear as he slides the bra off
of her arms and tosses it away. His chilly hands slowly glide down
her voluptuous waist where he hooks his fingers into the elastic at
the top of her panties. He slowly, torturously drags them toward
the floor. His icy fingers blaze a trail of fire that further
ignites the flames in her blood.

He taps the ankle of her wrecked leg and she
raises her left foot to allow him to slip the panties off over her
toes. He stands suddenly and loops his right arm around her sturdy
waist and lifts her up, and against his hard, cold chest. She gasps
and quickly wraps her arms around his neck to keep from falling. He
nicks the panties hanging off the toes of her other foot before he
hooks his arm under her knees and eases her wiggling body into the
tub. He chuckles and says, “I won’t let you fall, baby. I’ve got
you. I’ll always have you.”

Her squirming causes the water to splash up
over his shoulders and down his chest. Plastering his pale shirt to
the perfect contours of his upper body, leaving very little to her
imagination. Her eyes open wide and her mouth gapes open. After a
long moment, she realizes that she is staring. Self-consciously she
snaps her mouth shut and averts her eyes. By this time, her heart
feels like she’s doing a four minute mile, and her ragged breathing
is keeping pace. Her hands jerk out the water splashing water on
him again. She buries her scarlet face in her hands. And utters a
mortified groan. “I’m sorry Lucian, I don’t seem to be able to rein
in my reactions to you today,” she mumbles behind her shaking
hands.

He chuckles softly and leans in to nuzzle her
earlobe and then gently kisses her scarred temple. “Baby, who says
that I want you to?” he asks softly. His powerful hands rise out of
the hot water to massage her knotted neck and shoulder muscles. His
skillful hands work the tension and pain out of each muscle, and
leave a conflagration of yearning in their place. He massages her
shoulder and left arm, erasing the soreness and quieting the
spasms. He slowly, methodically works his way down her back,
humming quietly, kneading each muscle expertly as he descends, ever
so slowly toward her low back.

Once there, he spends extra time and care
working the knotted muscles and aching flesh above her buttocks.
His hard smooth fingers work lower as he kneads her ample butt,
erasing all trace of pain, and bringing the wildfire in her blood
to a fever pitch. His strong thumbs gently bite into her flesh on
her upper thighs, tantalizingly close to her center as his hands
slowly, expertly work their way around to the front of her
body.

Deidra catches her breath behind her hands.
Her entire body tenses ever so slightly for 30 agonizingly glorious
seconds. She exhales slowly and her hands fall limply into the bath
water as her entire body relaxes. His hands continue their
magnificent work down her wrecked leg. When they reach her knee,
she slowly opens her eyes and lifts her head to meet his beautiful
luminescent blue-eyed gaze. She could feel him willing her to do
just that. The knowing smile and smoldering blue eyes are waiting
to lock with her hazy green eyes. He leans in and tenderly,
lovingly kisses her trembling lips as he softly strokes her
cheek.

Equal measures of joy and shame sing in her
heart and sear through her consciousness. A bright crimson blush
heats her face. Her right hand darts up and pinches her nose closed
as she squeezes her eyes shut and then she slips under the water.
She can hear his joyful rumble of laughter through the water.

Oh man! He knows! Is he mocking me or just
enjoying my reaction? These wild questions rattle through her
embarrassed mind. Damn! The burning begins in her lungs. She knows
she must surface and take a breath but stubbornly refuses, and
shakes her head no under the water.

After nearly a minute, his powerful, cold
hands hook under her armpits and drag her into a standing position.
She gulps in air, but still can’t make herself look at him. One arm
encircles her waist while the other retrieves a soft cotton bath
sheet from the shelf by the tub, and wraps it gently around her
trembling body. Her eyes remain closed until she notices her
breathing is starting to slow down a little as he lifts her from
the tub and sets her aright on the plush bath rug. He briskly dries
her off with the bath sheet, and helps her don a fluffy, white
terry cloth robe. He wraps the robe about her now relaxed body and
then snugly loops the belt at her waist.