respond, I leaned closer and kissed his neck softly. I felt him smile against my cheek. Then he whispered, “If this is a dream…don’t wake me.”
The sound of his hypnotic voice made my skin hum. He pulled his arm from under the pillow and wrapped it around my side and pulled me against him. His lips were on mine before I could say a word. I took in every movement of his lips as if it were the air I needed to breathe. My arms tightened around his waist as I squeezed myself against his warm chest. The idea of losing him…of him fighting some dark nightmare... it was too much to bear. Tears came to the corner of my eyes; once Draven felt them against his balmy skin, his kiss hesitated, then he slowly pulled away and stared into my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered as his hand slowly moved along my side.
“I missed you,” I said in a quiet voice that echoed the pain my heart felt in his absence.
“I’m right here,” he whispered as he leaned down and began to move his lips across my neck. The sensation that was coursing through every part of me was almost enough to make me forget my morning…almost.
“I’m worried about you…I’m scared,” I whispered as I let out a breath of passion.
His lips halted, and as his eyes rose to meet mine, I saw them change from an alluring green to the color of coal. Before I could say or think anything, he flew out of the bed and stood staring across the room. Every muscle in his body was flexed – his eyes were fierce and peered at nothing.
Trembling, I raised to my knees. “Draven…,” I said faintly.
He didn’t make a sound – he didn’t even blink. I stood on the bed and moved closer to him. I was eye-to-eye with him, but I swear he couldn’t see me. I reached my trembling hands for his shoulders; I could feel a pulsating anger emanating from his skin.
“Draven,” I said again. When he didn’t respond, I pulled his stiff body closer to me. “Stop…you’re scaring me…I’m sorry – I love you,” I said as I reached my hands for his flawless face.
In that instant, green began to flood his eyes, and his arm raised and threw something across the room. The sound of it hitting the wall was so loud, so sudden, that I flung myself forward onto Draven. My arms were wrapped around his neck; I was holding him so tight, you’d have thought that my life depended on it. In that second, I felt his arms come around my waist. As he buried his face in my neck, his arms tightened around me.
At that moment, his bedroom door opened. I nervously looked over my shoulder to see a young boy, one of the boys that had come home with Evan, standing there. He looked from us to the wall across the room. My eyes followed his to see a black book with decorative metal silver edges logged in the wall; Draven had thrown it so hard that it stabbed the wall as if it were a dagger.
“A book…that’s different. Can I have it?” the boy asked as he took a step toward it.
Draven let go of me as he rushed to the door. “No…out – now!”
“Sorry – geeze,” the boy said, rolling his eyes. “Next time, I’ll just ignore the fact that it sounded like the wall was coming down.”
“Out!” Draven said as he reached the door. The boy locked eyes with me and smiled wickedly as Draven closed the door and locked it.
“Who…what…what’s going on?” I said as I fell to my knees on the bed.
Draven didn’t answer me. He walked to the wall and pulled the logged book loose. He flipped through the pages, then rolled his eyes before he flung it on the dresser at the foot of the bed. He started to pace the floor as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. My eyes moved over every inch of him. There wasn’t a moment in my life that I hadn’t thought he was the most utterly attractive human being on the planet...but right now…seeing his anger…seeing the raw power he had just displayed…it…it just made him seem near godly – too perfect to touch.
“Draven,”
Candy Halliday - Alaska Bound 01 - Dad's E-Mail Order Bride