“They’re not different, Layla,” he breathed into her neck, gripping her harder now, teasing her nipple in his fingertips so deliciously that Layla moaned.
“They are,” she breathed back, fighting the rapidity of her heartbeat, something inside her resisting his passions until she had an answer. “They’re different… and I need to know which one you are.”
“I’m a Royal Dragon with the ability to fully shape-shift,” he growled back now, and she felt his frustration rise with a hot breath of wind that swirled around her, shivering the bower and rippling the pond. “I can take as many faces as I please.”
“But why didn’t you tell me who you were? Back in Seattle?”
“It was too dangerous,” he growled, pulling back now; ceasing his attentions at her breast. “I was being tracked. Even here at the Hotel I have to be careful at times. But I had to come see you. I had to be here… near you…”
“But… your faces… are they all you? Are there more? Which one is the truth? Why can’t you just tell me who you are?”
And just as their heat hit a crescendo, she felt Adrian’s power whirl in a maelstrom that shuddered their bower with a frustrated viciousness. With a growl, he pulled back, releasing Layla. Abandoned by his hands and heat, Layla shuddered, feeling suddenly bereft. As if all life had breathed out of the night, it seemed darker, the stars colder as they popped out into the velvet twilight above.
Turning, Layla saw Adrian standing there, trembling just as much as she was from their strangely linked passions. His short black hair was rakishly mussed by the wind, his lean height effortlessly elegant; she saw the swell of strong muscles beneath his white shirt as the evening wind pressed it to his skin, the crimson dragon coiling up his left forearm snarling in the settling darkness. His lips were parted as he heaved unsteady breaths. As their gazes connected, Layla saw his incredible aqua eyes swirl with gold – bright and devastatingly dark all at once.
But he was well and truly angry now, and those gold eyes flashed at her in the settling night as he raked a hand through his short black hair. “I’m not a multiple personality, Layla. I study different personas because I have to, to make them convincing when I need to use them. And I didn’t approach you with the truth about me back in Seattle because there are things in my world that are too complicated and too dangerous for you to know.”
His patronizing tone drove a spike of ire through Layla’s passions, making the creature that writhed inside her become alert – and not in a nice way. Turning, she faced him fully, returning her gown’s strap to its rightful place and covering her breast. Crossing her arms, she stared him down; feeling a different kind of heat rise in her blood as her skin beneath the Moroccan hamsa-cuff began to itch violently.
“Wow. Patriarchy supreme. How about try trusting me instead of insulting me?” Layla lifted an eyebrow at him, arrested by her ire.
“You wouldn’t understand. This world is far more complex than you know.” Adrian breathed hard, watching her with his intense gold-aqua gaze in the descending darkness – not about to back down.
“You didn’t even give me a chance to understand.” Layla shot back, feeling her inner beast stir more, fury replacing her sexual heat. “How much did you tell me about the Twilight Realm before I got here? Oh right, nothing. How much did you tell me that you already knew my grandmother, and knew that she was a Dragon and so was I? Also nothing. I had to learn all that from my new asshole boss Dusk, whom I’ve never even met until today, when you could have taken the time to educate me on everything I was going to face here! You could have trusted me, Adrian, but instead you just fed me lies right from the beginning. Why?”
“You have the power to undo me.” He rasped, his gaze piercing her; raw and molten.
“You undo me also, but what’s that got to do with any of it?” Layla stepped toward him, her heart pounding and her entire body humming with need. She wanted him, dammit – but she also wanted his trust and respect. Moving closer, she wanted to close this breach she felt opening between them, but Adrian held up a hand, a pained look flashing over his face.
“You don’t understand, Layla. You don’t even have the barest understanding of the power and danger involved here.”
“Then teach me.” Layla stepped closer and saw Adrian’s eyes light with passion, even as they flashed her with warning. “Teach me about your world, Adrian. Teach me about what I am, and what you are – and why it’s dangerous. Clearly, you knew about me. You were searching for this,” she held up her left arm with the Moroccan cuff bound upon it, “and you were also searching for the one who could wear it, weren’t you? You were searching for me.”
“Yes.” Adrian’s voice was a breathless rasp as he tried to command himself and failed.
“Why?” Layla pressed, wanting to know – needing to. “If I’m as dangerous as people say, if I’m dangerous to you or create danger by being here… then why? Why seek me out? Why clasp this talisman to my wrist and awaken my magic, the magic of a Royal Dragon Bind? What does it have to do with keeping me here and protecting me, and not showing me who you really are?”
“Because the man who is strong enough to win the heart of aChiari drachans-siar—” But Adrian stopped abruptly, the words dying on his beautiful lips. His eyes became pained; his dark brows knit with a terrible look of fury and passion – and woe. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, then stepped back.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here tonight; it was a mistake. Please, forgive me.”
With a last exquisitely pained gaze, Adrian executed a short bow, then turned on his heel and departed into the night, back toward the bright lights of the Hotel.
Leaving Layla staring after him, her lips fallen open and a hard sting in her heart that not even Rake’s drink could quench.
CHAPTER 21 – MORNING
“Layla Price! Gods, you can sleep! Up, up!”
Layla blinked blearily, vaguely aware that someone was in her room, throwing back the cobalt jacquard drapes she’d pulled closed when she’d trundled into bed last night. After her heartbreak in the garden with Adrian, the excitement of the evening had lost all flavor. Retracing her steps to her room had felt like unwinding her life until there wasn’t much left. Once Layla arrived, she’d shut her apartment door with a slam, tears burning in her eyes and a rageful heat flaring all through her body. Stripping off her beaded peacock gown and hurling it to the floor, she’d taken Rake’s drink to the bath. In the opulent bathroom with its gold and chrome, dragons twining around the mirrors and snarling through the steam, she’d sipped Rake’s drink and it had tasted of sorrow. Before long, Layla had cried herself right out of the bath into a cobalt silk robe from the armoire – straight into bed.
Now it was morning and someone was ripping back the drapes on her enormous canopied bed and securing them with golden cords. Early sunlight lifted the sky from Layla’s vaulted windows. Blinking in the sudden light, she clutched the cobalt satin sheets close, trying to reclaim her wits. She’d gone to bed naked last night and now someone was in her room, hustling her awake. But her mind was thick like concrete, full of dreams – and she found she couldn’t wake up quickly today.
Rounding the dragon-carven bedpost and moving into her field of vision, the immaculately-dressed Dusk Arlohaim gave her a stern eyeball as he secured the last drape. Moving to Layla’s bed, he sat as if he owned the place. Grasping Layla’s chin in his thumb and forefinger, his bright blue gaze dug into hers, searching her eyes. With a sigh and an amused lift of one dark eyebrow, his blue-grey lips finally quirked in a smile.
“Andthat, Ms. Price,” he chuckled, no trace of sexual vibration in his voice this morning, “is why we do not drink Rake’s concoctions when we have to work the next morning. Come on. Get up. A naked woman isn’t anything I haven’t seen before, and you’re already late for your shift.”
“What time is it?” Layla blinked, still trying to surface from her dreams and failing. Cinnamon lingered in the air with the memory of desert landscapes, but even though those things hinted at Adrian, Layla wasn’t sure if she’d dreamt the same dream last night. Her dreams seemed darker as she filtered back through their shadows; as if her fight with Adrian had affected them. Eyeballing her, Dusk poured a glass of water from an enameled pitcher on her bedside table, placing it in her hands.
