“Are you alright?”
Turning, Layla met his concerned summer-blue gaze, though it was difficult in her current state. “Is he always like that?”
“Adrian?” Dusk’s smile was wry, something vastly bitter in it. “He gets women when he wants them. Usually.”
“Dammit.” Layla drew a deep breath, needing to master herself. She felt her wrist throb beneath her hamsa-cuff as if her talisman obeyed her intention, then felt heat rushing through her veins; gathering from her body and sliding deep into burn-mark on her inner wrist. It ached, but for the first time, Layla was grateful for the pain; realizing that the cuff helped her fold all of her enormous heat and passion away for another time. Her body felt mostly cleared and she was able to take a deep breath at last.
“Dusk? Can I be done at six today?”
He chuckled, but something pained gripped his summer-blue eyes as he smiled. “I suppose. But you will be here at—”
“Six a.m. sharp tomorrow,” Layla smiled. “I know.”
Dusk’s smile cleared of its tension at her quip, something tender moving through his gaze as he gave a more genuine smile. Layla saw a ripple of light pass through his midnight Dragon-scales and dark hair, his magic refracting as his emotions changed. It left his eyes even brighter and at last he laughed, shaking his head. Glancing down at the platinum Rolex on his wrist, he checked the time.
“Fuck it. It’s almost five-thirty. Just go. Go prep for your date, Layla Price. I don’t think I need to tell you to be careful around Adrian.”
“You don’t, but thanks.”
But that word didn’t seem like enough, suddenly. Watching him, seeing Dusk grin at her with the ribald pleasure of her impending evening, Layla realized she appreciated him more than she could say. Somehow, even though he wore the darker skin with his midnight-blue scaled ridges, he was the bright sun of day to Adrian’s dark midnight. A brightness in Layla’s life that she hadn’t even known she’d needed until he came into it.
Stepping close, Layla clasped his hand. But even that wasn’t enough as Dusk blinked down at their twined fingers, astonishment taking his handsome face.
Lifting up, Layla set a kiss to his jaw. His skin was impossibly smooth beneath her lips and Layla found herself paused, drinking him in – not because of his rumblings, but because he felt good and honest. As she inhaled his scent, her lips lingering near his jaw, she smelled wind breathing through a cavern of crystal pillars, sweet with cool water dripping through the deep. It was refreshing, and as she pulled away she saw that same clarity in Dusk’s eyes. Rather than a summer sky, they were clear as sapphires now; achingly pure and crystalline blue.
“What was that for?” He murmured as he gazed down at her.
“For being honest with me. For always telling me the truth. You’re the first person who did when I came here. And you still do; everyday.”
Dusk’s eyes brightened two shades in an instant. A ripple of light passed through his ridges as his smile became tender. “I will always be honest with you Layla, I swear it. Go. Call it quits for the night and I’ll see you in the morning. And then I’ll wantallthe sordid details. Even if I have to bring chocolates to bribe them out of you.”
“Done!” Layla laughed.
Releasing his fingers with a laugh and a wave, Layla turned. Stepping out from behind the massive mahogany desk and heading for the gilded staircase, she felt lighter than she had in days.
CHAPTER 25 – DATE
Layla wore the royal plum gown with the black lace shoulders for her date, the one Adrian had bought her in Seattle. Staring at herself in the bathroom’s gilded mirror with her sable curls twisted up in Mimi’s diamond hairpins, she finished her crimson lipstick and stepped back. With her jade eyes enhanced by a smoky eyeliner, the same woman she’d first seen on Adrian’s jet looked out at her from the mirror. Tall and uncompromising, Layla felt regal in her plum silk with its elegant black lace. Her grandmother Mimi’s black diamond jewelry accented her ensemble, sparkling like jet at her collarbones and dripping from her ears, a narrow bracelet encircling her right wrist.
On her left wrist, she wore the Moroccan hamsa-cuff. And rather than manacle, it felt comforting tonight. Like it was there for her – to help control her carnal Dragon-magic around the hot tempest that was Adrian Rhakvir. He may have bound it upon her wrist back in the gallery, but it was hers. Made for her kind; to help them grow into whatever they were supposed to become. Reaching down, Layla touched it gently; watching herself do so in the mirror.
Watching her grandmother Mimi do so; tall and commanding and graceful.
“Mimi, if you’re out there anywhere, help me now,” Layla breathed to her reflection. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it seemed that Mimi winked out at her granddaughter suddenly – effortlessly lovely and replete with secrets, an enigma as much as she showed her heart on her sleeve. Layla didn’t like secrets or enigmas, but Adrian Rhakvir was one – and if she and he had any chance of being together, their relationship to those secrets would be proven tonight.
For better or for worse.
A knock sounded at the door and Layla startled, feeling him near. With a wave of disorientation, she had a vision of him in her mind’s eye suddenly – Adrian standing before her door looking devastatingly gorgeous and also acutely nervous.Nervous?Layla blinked away her strange fugue as she exited the bathroom, opening the doors to her apartment – to see Adrian standing there just as elegantly handsome and strangely nervous as in her vision.
Dressed in a white tux jacket tonight à la James Bond, he was daring and sexy, the whole ensemble cut to perfectly accentuate his tall, wire-strong frame. With one hand thrust in his pocket and the other holding a bouquet of flowers – not roses, but a ragtag bunch of purple lilacs tied with a crimson bow – he flushed across his high cheeks as she opened her door. Layla had never seen Adrian blush so hard and it struck her as funny suddenly. She laughed and his aqua eyes brightened to a luminous color like the dawn over the Mediterranean.
“What are those?” Layla laughed, glancing at the bedraggled lilacs.
“Flowers. Sorry. I cut them from the gardens,” Adrian smiled apologetically. “It was kinda spur-of-the-moment.”
And there he was; winsome and charming and as effortlessly handsome as he’d been all those weeks ago in the art gallery. But Layla’s Mystery Guy had a name now, and he was standing here before her door – wearing a tux and holding flowers for their first official date.
And suddenly, Layla realized this was so, so much better than when they had met.
