“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.” Adrian’s murmur curled upon the midnight zephyrs, stroking Layla as he experienced his memories being unearthed by their Bind. “A woman with sable curls haunted my dreams ever since I can remember. I dated women with dark hair over and over, looking for one whose eyes shone gold and green at the same time. When you and I met, I knew you were her. And after Hunter abducted you… there you were, with the right color in your eyes at last. Suddenly, a drakaina of incredible power had come into my life – had followed where her visions had gone before. I don’t know how any of this Bind-magic works, Layla. All I know is what I feel in my heart. You are my mate; you always will be. Whether you want to be is up to you. But know I will do right by you unto the ends of the earth. This Desert drake’s heart is yours. I love you, Layla Price. I will never love another.”
Tears filled Layla’s eyes. She loved Adrian and hated him at the same time, feeling their Bind, their hearts coiled so deep together. Adrian was frustrating as shit. He was handsome as a god; tempestuous and beautiful. But in that moment, Layla felt his heart. He wasn’t lying as he held her gaze, as he stroked her with his desert winds, still keeping himself carefully away.
Suddenly, she saw why he tucked his hands in his pockets when he was around her. It was because he was afraid he would coil around her and never let her go; that he would trap her. He didn’t want to take away her choices. He didn’t want to Bind her if she didn’t want to be with him. He would stay away and suffer the consequences, rather than take away her decision to be in this relationship with him or not.
He wanted her to be free – even though he wanted her.
“Oh, Adrian,” Layla’s words spilled out in a sigh as she watched him. “I want to be Bound. To you, with you. As long as we can be. I love you, too. From the moment I first saw you walk in that art gallery door, you captured my heart, and have been capturing it every day since. I don’t want to be free. I want to beyours.”
An every-color fire flashed in Adrian’s eyes as he heard her words. And just like that, his hesitation broke. Before Layla knew it, he’d closed the distance – removing his hands from his pockets and wrapping them fiercely around her. Kissing her, tasting her, pressing her – needing her. It was everything Layla wanted, everything they’d both dreamed of, kissing beneath the velvet sky as a cool desert wind and Dragon-power surged around them – Binding them as one.
As she tasted his lips and tongue, breathing together as he cradled her close, Layla felt completion lock deep inside her. As if she and Adrian had only been playing before, as if they’d only been testing this thing out, something suddenly clicked into place as they breathed each other in beneath the spreading midnight sky. He was hers, and she was his. Others would be hers, too, but he was the first. Though she might hate him over the years, though she might scream and rage against his asinine actions, his heart was hers and her heart was his.
And that was all there was to it.
Adrian’s kiss paused at her lips, as if he could feel it too. Lingering together, they breathed softly, and Layla realized their breaths were in synch now. Pulling back, he stared down at her, something amazed shining in his golden aqua eyes. “Layla…what have we done?”
“What we were meant to.” Layla reached up, stroking his soft stubble. “We’ve become life-mates. Just as we were supposed to all along.”
Adrian swallowed hard. He blinked and for a moment, Layla had a flash of intense fear, like he might run. Like it might be too much, and he would take off around the world again trying to process his emotions and failing. But then he took a deep breath. The terror cleared from his eyes, replaced by determination. And with his determination came love, flooding through him as his eyes blazed – his magic coiling around Layla and stroking her tenderly from every side.
She surrendered to his love. She fell to it – hard. She didn’t collapse in his arms, but she broke open deep inside; something that had been black suddenly filled with the brightest light. Gazing up at Adrian, Layla knew there was nothing she wouldn’t do for him. She would kill for him; she would slay enemies. Adrian was her heart and she would do terrible things to protect it. She wouldn’t hesitate if someone threatened this most precious piece of her. She would do everything dark and awful or bright and beautiful.
And she would do it all without hesitation or regret.
“I love you, Adrian Rhakvir,” Layla spoke softly, stroking his jaw with her fingertips. “And I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Always.”
He stared down at her in the luminous dark. Something in his gaze sharpened and softened at the same time, and Layla saw him understand the gravity of the oath she’d just made. She saw him understand perhaps even more thoroughly than she did, what she might do to protect him – or any of the people she loved. As he reached up, cradling her face with his hands, a sad smile curled his beautiful lips.
“I won’t let it go that far, Layla,” he breathed, watching her with his blazing aqua eyes. “I won’t ever let things get so bad that you have to live up to that promise. I swear.”
And then Adrian lifted his lips, smoothing them over hers.
Kissing her deep in the endless desert night.
CHAPTER 6 – HOME
Adrian scooped Layla up in his arms, not releasing her from his kiss as he walked them down the dune. She could feel his strong, lean muscles moving beneath his vest and shirt, his Dragon’s passion making a hot, sweet jasmine scent rise around them as Adrian walked them to the massive wrought-iron gates in the palace’s wall. They parted with a whisper, sighing open to reveal a sprawling courtyard of opal-white stone. The courtyard stretched into gardens inside the wall, lush with tropical plants and flowers. Layla broke from Adrian’s kiss as she gazed around in astonishment, and Adrian let her slide down his strong body, setting her on her feet so she could take it all in.
Wrapped in Adrian’s arms, Layla stared around his palatial home. For that’s what it was – the immense grounds of Riad Rhakvir, the Rhakvir family home where Layla had been born. Fountains of blue tile burbled in the courtyard, feeding streams that wound out to water enormous palm trees, bird of paradise plants, and trailing jasmine vines. Waterfalls stepped down tiers of blue and white tile, into ponds filled with fish that looked like small water-dragons, flashing through the pools like miniature white and gold leviathans in the starry night. Like a dragon snaking through the desert, the palace and garden formed a perfect fit, like an endlessly writhing yin-yang. High domes sprawled through the enormous palace, joined by arched walkways of alabaster stone lattice and cobalt tile. Wrought-iron votives with blue and red Moroccan glass hung from every arch, flickering with lit candles.
Ushering her forward, a mystic smile lifted Adrian’s lips as he watched her. All around, patios were set for outdoor living, chaises and tables gathered around enormous clay cook-stoves – even a nook up in the greenery sporting an outdoor bed surrounded by jasmine. Layla reeled from the heady air, realizing that every scent in Adrian’s magic was present here. Cinnamon trees grew in enormous pots by the house; jasmine vines crawled through the compound, spilling out of windows. Vines of black peppercorn grew beside a grove of orange trees with emerald moss carpeting their roots, watered by a cobalt-tiled waterway.
Domes and minarets rose all around, made of the same smooth agate-stone that formed everything inside the walls. Tiled Moroccan arches, ornate columns, and high domes wound through the garden, the buildings far enough apart that one had to meander between them using outdoors walkways. Night-birds trilled in the trees, while white moths floated by the pools amidst winking golden fireflies. It was a city created by an incredible mixture of Moroccan and Persian architecture, and as Layla gazed around, she realized the palace was large enough to provide a home to a thousand people.
Yet as they moved through the desert paradise, Layla saw no one. Layla glanced at Adrian curiously as they wandered a mossy agate-stone path. He caught her watching and glanced over, giving a wry smile. As he motioned them through a grand arch and up a short ingress of red and blue-tiled stairs, Layla finally broke the silence.
“It’s so quiet.”
“No one lives here but me.” Adrian glanced at her, a complex emotion in his eyes. “I need the quiet.”
But Layla knew he was lying as he ushered her into a vaulted living-area nearly as enormous as one of the Hotel’s ballrooms. Ornately tiled with Moroccanzellij, the room flowed with scenes of Desert Dragons writhing through dunes, swimming through the Mediterranean Sea, and carving out arroyos with fire. The furniture was classically Moroccan; rolled-back silk chaises in shining teals and turquoise, reds and purples. Wrought-iron votives of Moroccan glass hung from every arch, and were set into sconces in the walls. A massive wrought-iron chandelier of glass votives hung suspended from the highest vault, while indoor greenery with hand-carven teak and ebony screens created cozy niches.
The only thing missing from a classical Moroccan palace were fans; neither circular ceiling fans high above or long paddle-fans in rattan baskets. But the room held a comfortable breeze through its ornately carved vents above the doors, as if the space had been designed for optimal air flow. It invigorated and soothed Layla, as if the night-breeze was lulling her to sleep while also heightening her passions.
Yet as she gazed around, it was as if she could feel ghosts sighing through the space. It was a hall that should have been enjoyed by a hundred people chatting over bourbon and mint tea, watching children play in the floor-pools, or drinking coffee as they gamed on ornate chess-sets and backgammon boards. But like a fancy hotel of the 1920’s that had been abandoned during the Great Depression, Riad Rhakvir had a sadness about it. Though every surface was clean, every alabaster arch pristine and clear water burbling through every fountain, it only enhanced the sensation of emptiness.
“Why do you need all this quiet, Adrian?” Layla asked suddenly, confused that such an incredible home would be left so empty. “This palace could hold a thousand people. Don’t you at least have servants?”
