Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles (12 page)

All through this process, she tries to seek
his eyes to gauge what he might think of her at this juncture. But
he carefully keeps them slightly averted, so she is unable to get a
read on his thoughts. But his body language is stiff, almost angry.
“Oh my gosh! Are you mad at me or just ashamed for me?” she demands
in a stiff voice.

“Neither one, Morna!” he hisses. He takes a
deep breath and then affectionately pats her soft behind through
the robe as he plants a kiss on the top of her head. “Go hop in bed
now, baby. I will get you some herbal tea to help you sleep. Do you
have any of your pain meds for that leg in your bag?”

“Sure I do, but I honestly don’t need them. I
swear I am not in pain, well no more than normal from… you know…”
she whispers.

“Baby, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want you
getting stiff while you sleep. You took a nasty fall. Get into the
bed. I will be right back.” His tone didn’t leave any room for
argument.

Deidra debates on putting her clothes back on
and going home. But she is utterly exhausted, so she slowly walks
into the adjoining bedroom. She’s pleased her wrecked hip and leg
are so loose and pain-free that she doesn’t even limp much. She
wonders how he made such a difference with just a hot bath and a
massage. She chuckles and mutters under her breath, “He damn well
didn’t learn that massage technique from Seth.” Her head snaps up
when she hears a sound from the kitchen that could very well be a
soft chuckle.

When she looks at the bed she is surprised to
see the covers are folded down. “When did he have a chance to do
that?” she questions out loud. She smiles at the Rubbermaid kitchen
stepstool by the bed. It really doesn’t go with the room, but
proves once again how considerate and caring Lucian truly is.

She secures the lower portion of the robe in
her right fist and uses the stool and her left hand to ease her
body up and into the bed. Her muscles and connective tissues feel
so pain-free and limber that she decides to risk sitting cross
legged. A delighted smile lights her face when she realizes she
accomplishes the pose without any pain.

“Ah, now that’s a sight I like to see! My
lady, perched in my bed, with a huge smile on her face,” Lucian
says as he enters the bedroom with a steaming cup of tea and two
prescription bottles on the kitchen tray, and another bowl of the
chopped fruit. “You look glorious there, Morna!” Deidra blushes
happily at his words, but looks at her hands demurely.

He sets the tray on the bedside table, and
hands her the cup of tea. He gracefully sits on the bed facing her,
as he copies her cross legged pose. “Drink your tea, Morna,” he
urges. “Do you feel like eating anything?”

She shakes her head no, she’s much too tired
to eat. “Lucian, you use that endearment like you have been saying
it your whole life. Is it a name you use for all your lady
friends?” Deidra asks shyly.

“Morna, I swear to you, I have never used
that name for another soul. You are eternally, my Morna!” he
pledges. She rewards him with a shy smile as his words warm her
heart and body, even as she wonders at his use of the word
eternally. She thoughtfully sips her tea. “Yum, this really is very
nice tea. I think I like it even better than the tea you made for
me earlier. You are spoiling me beyond redemption.” she murmurs
thankfully. Staring into her tea, too shy suddenly to look at his
face. They spend several minutes in silence as she sips the tea and
avoids his eyes.

Lucian has been tracing patterns on her bare
knee while she has avoided looking at him. She doesn’t want to look
at him because he will know exactly what his innocent touch is
doing to her and she’s had more than her quota of embarrassing
moments for one day.

Lucian knows exactly what she’s experiencing;
he can smell the pheromones and other chemicals her body is
producing. He makes up his mind to go hunt, TONIGHT! He smirks at
the thought of both of them trying to ignore the elephant in the
room with them. He decides that the sooner she goes to sleep, the
sooner he can hunt and relax around her a little more. “Morna, take
your meds, baby.” She looks up from her tea and sees a white caplet
and a small blue tablet in his palm.

Deidra frowns. “I really don’t need a Lortab
and a Valium. Honestly, I am not hurt at all. I promise.” Her eyes
reveal her sincerity as she seeks out his face.

“Sure Morna, but I don’t want you to get
stiff from the fall. You bounced twice before I could get to you on
those damned stairs. Plus, you desperately need a decent night’s
sleep. You were so excited this morning when you told me that you
had slept four solid hours. That’s not enough sleep, baby. Tonight,
in my bed, I want you to get a full night’s sleep! Got it?”

“Okay, okay. That actually sounds amazing,”
she agrees. She pops the meds into her mouth and washes them down
with the last of the tea.

Lucian smiles at her compliance. Getting
Morna to submit isn’t always an easy thing. He suddenly remembers
what he wondered about when he retrieved her meds from her purse
and decides to ask her about it. “Hey baby, when I got the meds
from your bag, I noticed the bottles were filled the day you
checked out of the hospital, AMA. Both bottles were labeled for
only thirty tablets, and there were still thirty tablets in each
bottle. Have you been doing without pain meds all this time?”

“Sure,” she shrugs like it’s no big deal, but
he knows it is. He’s seen the hell she’s been through, he just
never realized that she wasn’t taking any meds for it. I know I
have seen her take medication. Was it just the blood pressure med?
How did I miss that?

“Why? Why suffer when the meds could have
alleviated the pain some?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I just don’t like taking
pills.” She shrugs again but won’t look at him. He knows there’s
more to it than that, but he won’t push her right now. He suspects
that she refuses pain meds to punish herself. He sighs but keeps
his own counsel on the matter because she’s already feeling a
little freaked out by today’s events.

“Will you stay in here with me?” she
asks.

“I will for most of the night. But I have to
leave for a little bit after you go to sleep,” he replies softly.
He stands up and reaches for the tea mug and sets it on the bedside
table. “Now scoot over so I can get in there with you for a
bit.”

She readily complies with his wishes. Once
she is snuggled into his strong arms she realizes belatedly that he
is wearing different clothes. She rubs her hand up and down the
length of his hard, perfectly formed arm. She tilts her head back
to look at him. She sees that he is now wearing a light gray cotton
Henley and charcoal gray pajama pants. Her smile fades a little as
she wonders how he does things so quickly. She mentally shrugs,
deciding that it isn’t that important and decides to enjoy being so
close to him. She tilts her head closer to his chest and breathes
in deeply to inhale his indescribably fragrant, spicy scent and
sighs contentedly. They lie like that for quite a while, each
taking immense pleasure in the nearness of the other.

Lucian slides his hand down her left hip and
thigh to catch her leg behind her knee and slowly hitches her leg
over his. He is tenderly stroking her lush thigh. He inhales deeply
and then exhales slowly. “Morna, the old masters would have loved
to paint you in the nude. You are so luscious, so voluptuous. I
want to caress and kiss every inch of this beautiful body.” Then he
inhales again deeply and sighs serenely at her nearness and her
precious, familiar scent of arousal.

Deidra tilts her head back again to look up
into his face. The sincerity and the longing in his words sparks
intense need in her body. Her heart thunders at the thought of him
doing just that. She can imagine his hands, his mouth on her body.
His luminescent blue eyes lock with hers, and steals her breath
away. She opens her mouth to speak, but quickly snaps it shut. Part
of her wants to beg him to do just that… But she won’t.

Coward!

“Shush Morna. Relax, baby, go to sleep. It’s
early but you are exhausted.” His velvet voice soothes her as he
brushes a few stray damp strands of hair back from her beloved
face.

Her deep green gaze remains locked with his,
as she grasps for something else to focus on; “Can I ask two
questions before the meds really kick in?”

“Of course, love.” he replies with an open
smile, and plants a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll tell you anything,
baby.”

“Be completely honest with me, okay?” Morna
says softly.

He nods. “I will, baby. What are your
questions?”

“When we were in the bathroom, there toward
the end, while you were drying me off... You were angry with me.
Why?” She caresses his cheek.

“I wasn’t angry, Morna. I was hurt. Maybe a
little frustrated. Screw that, I was a lot frustrated.” He exhales
slowly and tries to explain; “Look, I know it may not be reasonable
to feel this way. I know you were reacting to feeling flustered,
perhaps even embarrassed. But I was hurt because you hid your
feelings from me. Hell, you wouldn‘t even look at me, baby.”

She sees the hurt in his face and inhales
sharply. “Morna do you realize that you stayed under the water so
long I was wondering if you would rather drown yourself than look
me in the eyes? And then once I got you out of the water, it took
you an inordinately long time to open your eyes. Morna, I know it
may not seem like much to you, or then again maybe it feels like a
burden to you, I don’t know. But I don’t want you to hide from me
again. I don’t want any walls between us, ever. Can you understand
that, love?”

Deidra stares at him for a few seconds, she
is very surprised by his intensity. She starts to speak, but snaps
her mouth shut and swallows nervously, her mouth suddenly very dry.
Finally she says, “Yes, I can understand that, but can I explain?”
He smiles tenderly and nods, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. “I
was just embarrassed, Lucian,” she says in a very quiet voice.

“Baby, you need never be embarrassed around
me,” Lucian assures her. He kisses her forehead and murmurs; “Not
ever.”

She smiles wanly and says, “Well, too late
for that. I have managed to make a fool out of myself twice today,
three times if you count my spill down the stairs.”

“Morna, you have not made a fool out of
yourself,” Lucian says rather gruffly, and he traces her bottom lip
with his fingertips and stares deeply into her eyes.

“Fine, but I heard you laughing while I was
under the water. I know that I was acting gutless about facing you,
and I am sorry about that. Can’t you understand that and forgive
me?” She says softly.

“There is nothing to forgive, Morna.” She can
hear the truth in his words and see his longing in his face and
wonders why he is holding back. He wants me, why doesn’t he…?

“Sweetheart, I understand, but you have to
understand my laughter was born of joy at your reaction to me. I
was not mocking you or crowing over some inflated estimation of my
prowess,” he assures her honestly as he lovingly caresses her leg.
Slowly moving higher and lovingly kneading her ample backside,
gently pushing her core against his erection making her blood rage
hot.

“I guess I know that. But when you laughed…
Well, I knew that you saw what happened to me in that tub. Nothing
like that has ever happened to me before. I was shocked at myself,
and feeling a bit like a freak,” she whispers.

His eyes are wide and incredulous. “Never!?!”
he sputters. “Never in forty-nine years?”

“Not like that!” she hisses, and looks down
to his lips. Then she quickly looks back into his eyes. “Not that
intense! And that’s definitely not ever happened to me without
having sex, for pity sake.” She closes her eyes for a moment to
collect herself. “I am mortified that you could do that to me with
just a massage. I was terrified to face you, to look into your
eyes! I think… ” She cuts her eyes away from his and licks her
suddenly dry lips before continuing. “I think that you could do
that to me with just your beautiful, impossible eyes and your
words. Can‘t you understand what a freak that makes me? How needy
and simple that makes me?”

Lucian growls; “You are not needy nor
simple!” He quickly rolls her over onto her back with him above
her. Never leaving more than a hair’s breadth between their bodies,
keeping her leg hitched to his thigh, all the while keeping his
weight from crushing her. Morna can still feel his hard arousal
pressed against her belly. A gentle reminder, never a demand.

He kisses her trembling lips tenderly and
says, “Morna, if I did not keep such a tight rein on myself at all
times you would be constantly reducing me to a quivering mass with
just your voice, your scent, your touch, your lips.” He lowers his
lips to hers and gently kisses her before continuing.

“Hell, Morna, even just a glance at you would
be enough to drive me over the edge. That’s always been true. The
thing that you are not taking into consideration is that our
connection is not just on a physical level. It’s sure as hell not
just friendship. Morna, it’s honestly a soul thing. You know these
things, baby. Just look inside yourself. All the answers are
there.” He puts his hand over her heart and stares at her,
compelling her…

She looks deeply into his eyes and feels as
though he desperately wants her to acknowledge something, wants her
to… What? What do you want from me Lucian? What do you need? I’ll
gladly give it to you, I just don’t know what it is that you want
from me.

He watches her closely for several long
moments as though he’s waiting eagerly for some reaction from her.
Finally, he looks resigned when he gently rolls them back onto
their sides, all the while softly caressing her bare thigh where
the robe has ridden up. “Morna, your eyes are starting to droop.
Ask your second question, please.”