“Wow.” Layla blinked again, realizing she was seeing something intensely personal about Adrian as he showed her the place where he felt at home. Gazing around, Layla realized it felt homey. Rather than a bachelor pad or the seduction space of a high-finance business mogul, this apartment had a lived-in feel, as if there should have been a family in it. Glancing through a tiled arch, she saw a kitchen complete with copper-bottomed pans hanging from an overhead rack, braided strings of garlic and herbs, and a fantastic view out the windows over the midnight gardens. Wrought-iron patio doors came off the kitchen, probably to a balcony.
Gazing around, Layla suddenly had a feeling like she belonged here. Like it was intensely familiar; like she had been here before. Vertigo swept her with an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu, along with that strange sensation like she’d stepped out of her body and was hovering in the upper corners of the room, taking it all in. That breakfasting nook was where she was supposed to be in the morning. This bright silk settee was where she had sat so many times.
That fountain was the one she had stared into so often, watching the water dance.
Suddenly, memories poured through Layla as the hamsa-cuff seared hot at her wrist. A spice wind swept her as they tumbled in – memories from her infancy, of a Moroccan compound just like this. Of a palace that was a bright and cheery home, whispering with potted palms as a blue-tiled fountain burbled in an outdoor courtyard. Good smells of roast meats and spices came from the kitchen as someone sang while they cooked; a luscious alto that smote Layla, realizing it was her grandmother Mimi. Laughter rolled through her tiny infant body as she was rocked in someone’s arms, cooed at by someone willowy but strong with bright cascades of fiery copper hair. Her own little wail came to her ears – her belly rumbling for food.
Mimi! Layla’s hungry.
Coming!Layla saw her grandmother Mimi in her vision as a younger woman in her heyday, her long cascades of dark hair flowing like a river over her shoulder as she swept in from the kitchen. Her lovely red lips smiling, Mimi’s pale jade eyes were bright as she gathered the baby into her arms, pulling back one side of her peacock-blue silk robe and settling Layla at her breast. Relief flooded Layla as she sucked – her hunger abating at her mother’s breast.
Layla’s got such an appetite!The copper-haired woman laughed, settling a familiar hand to Mimi’s shoulder. Turning her head, Mimi kissed the copper-haired woman sweetly on the lips before smiling down at Layla, beaming with motherly pride.
My daughter is a true Desert Dragon. Strong with an appetite for the best things in life.
So she is.The copper-haired woman stroked Layla’s little cheek, and Layla felt herself smile as she sucked her mother’s breast. She had two mothers, Mimi and this woman, even though only one suckled her. But as she had that thought, another voice broke into her memory – a smooth, Turkish-coffee baritone as lovely as the desert wind.
Mother. The Aliki clan is here for your meeting. They’re waiting in the Emerald Foyer.
Make them welcome, Adrian. Mimi, if you wish your daughter to remain a secret in this house, you should stay here in the back palace until our guests leave.
Of course, Juliette. Please see to your company. I’ll have supper ready in a while.Layla felt her mother Mimi lock lips with the red-haired woman again, her tiny infant self pressed between their breasts. It felt snuggly and warm, and a happy feeling filled Layla. They broke from their kiss, Mimi moving away to the kitchens with Layla, passing the blue fountain courtyard.
And then the memory broke, leaving Layla reeling; one hand upon the back of the silk couch so she didn’t topple over.
“Juliette…” she whispered, blinking away her fugue.
“What?” Adrian’s aqua eyes sharpened upon Layla like daggers of blue fire. “What did you just say?”
“Juliette! She was your mother! And Mimi… Mimi was my mother! They were lovers!”
“Layla.” Quickly, Adrian moved over to the couch with her, his aqua gaze intense, his straight black brows knitted. “What just happened?”
“You!” Layla glanced up, feeling something tremendous roar inside her, opening its jaws wide as if it would eat Adrian alive. Though her evening with him had been full of wild passions, her rage had been calm – until now. But now it thrashed inside her like a sand-funnel, stirred up by her vision. A burned scent rose around her as she realized the depth of Adrian’s duplicity, fury sluicing off her skin like oranges cremated in a volcano. A ruinous heat screamed through Layla as she pinned Adrian with her eyes – something rushing out from her and slapping him back to the couch like talons of fire.
“You were there when I was a baby.” Layla growled at him, so furious it didn’t even sound like her at all. “When the Aliki clan came for their meeting with your mother Juliette atyour home. Mimi was cooking – she fed me at her breast. Why didn’t you tell me, Adrian?!Why didn’t you tell me that Mimi was my birth-mother?!”
Staring at her, Adrian’s beautiful lips had fallen open. As he watched her in astonishment, Layla saw the biggest secret of all reflected in his Mediterranean-blue eyes. That not only had Mimi been Layla’s real birth-mother, but Adrian had known it all along.
Known it and kept it a secret from her just like everyone else.
Fury surged inside Layla. A roar of desert wrath rose inside her, and there was no stopping it.
CHAPTER 27 – REVELATION
Fury boiled inside Layla; searing anger that raised a shimmering mirage in the air around her as her burned orange-peel scent tore through the room. As she rose from the silk couch, Layla’s hands balled into fists. She trembled from the force of the heat surging inside her, racing through every vein and making the beast inside her body scream like a harpy about to attack.
“Asshole!You knew Mimi was my mother all this time and you didn’t think that was important enough to mention to me?!”
“Layla, please!” Adrian had risen from the couch also, setting a hand to her arm as if trying to calm her, or wrangle her. Layla wrenched her arm from his grip, surging with wrath.
“No! You don’t get to touch me right now, Adrian!” She hurled her words at him, spitting with fury as her Dragon roared inside her. “What could have possibly been more important these past weeks than telling me I was actually Mimi’sdaughter?”
“You don’t understand, Layla!” Adrian shot back, his own heat rising in his eyes now with a molten passion. “You were in danger! Mimi was beinghuntedbecause of you! She was a weak Dragon Bind, but you weren’t! If the High Court had known you lived, birthed from her loins, they would have sent their best to murder you in your sleep! My mother Juliette protected her lover Mimi all their lives under the Magna Dicta, and Mimi protected you by telling no-one you were hers except for my family and her most loyal servants. As did I – keeping your existence a secret all these years from anyone who might have harmed you.”
“So you’ve been following me? All this time, keeping tabs on me?” Layla spat at him furiously, with a hot slap of energy from her rage.
Adrian weathered it well, not flinching from her magical surge but drawing up to his full height, simmering with his own mirage of furious passion. “No. I didn’t know where you were, for a long time. Mimi stole you away to the human realm, leaving for the U.S. in the dead of night with her two most loyal servants, yourparents. Only my mother Juliette knew where Mimi had taken you, and she took that secret to her grave, Layla. I searched for you for years. And when my mother was murdered five years ago, I redoubled that search, knowing that you and Mimi no longer had any protection by Twilight laws. Mimi hid you well in the human world, and she’d acquired a talisman that blocked her magic entirely so she couldn’t be found by most Twilight means. She still traveled to come see my mother, but only while I was away, and I only found out where she’d gone when I saw Mimi’s obituary in the international human news. I came to the funeral, knowing that if you were still alive, I would find you there. I did.”
