Flames, page 18
I groaned. I was going to walk out of the bedroom and leaved him here alone. But I didn’t move. I stared at him.
He turned his back to me and opened the robe.
I licked my lips. Okay, leaving now. Except I didn’t.
He shrugged the robe off his shoulders and let it fall slowly. As it did, it revealed inch after inch of his tawny skin. His muscled back and his toned backside and his powerful legs.
I sucked in breath.
He turned around, completely nude.
My body twitched. He looked good. He always looked good, but I shouldn’t care right now, because…. There was a reason I shouldn’t be attracted to him.
He got inside the shower, but he didn’t close the shower door. He ducked his head under the shower head and let the water spray all over his hard, rippling body.
My clothes were starting to feel too tight. There was a reason not to be attracted to him, if I wasn’t so distracted and could only remember...
Naelen ran his hands over his chest, his stomach. He put his hands on himself and teased himself stiff.
I suddenly could only focus on that part of his body, that thick, swollen part that was standing up straight…
Fingers, whispered a voice at the back of my brain. He cuts off fingers.
Naelen beckoned to me from the shower. “Come here, Clarke,” he said in a gravelly voice.
I went to him, pulling off my clothes as I moved across the room.
He tugged me into the shower with him, his skin slippery and sleek. His mouth found mine, and our bodies slid against each other, lighting me up and blotting out any thoughts at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Afterward, Naelen and I crawled into bed together, and he whispered to me that it was going to be different from now on, if I didn’t fight him, it would be different. Everything would be okay now, he said.
And, sated and sleepy and drunk on his body, I fell asleep in his arms, even though I knew it was a bad idea. Even though deep down, I knew that I couldn’t trust the thing inside him, and that—no matter how much he sounded and felt and looked like Naelen—he wasn’t Naelen. Not really.
I slept like the dead. The exhaustion and stress of the past few days lay heavy on me, and I slept a long time.
But as my body got rest, my mind began to restore itself, and, in my sleep, I began to realize that I couldn’t be asleep. It wasn’t safe for me to have let my guard down. I’d been bamboozled by Naelen and his stupid muscles and nakedness, and sleeping was just making me vulnerable, and he could be doing anything while I slept, and—
So, I woke up, panicked. I was alone in the bed.
Of course I was. I threw the covers aside and got up.
God, god, god. The last time I’d been asleep, I’d woken up to Naelen cutting up Gordon. What was he doing now?
I grabbed my shirt and my jeans, and I rushed out of the room, trying to pull on clothes at the same time.
But there was no one on the plane, and I realized that we were on the ground, not in the air. Outside, a gray light was filtering through the windows, and I could see a distant snow-covered landscape. Where the hell were we?
“Naelen?” I yelled.
He ducked out of the cockpit. “You hid them well,” he said.
“Hid what? Where are we?”
“But…” and he pulled the roses from Eire’s grave out from behind his back. “I found them anyway.”
I lunged for him.
He sidestepped, holding up a hand. “Listen, Clarke, I’m sorry about this, but I can’t let you make the potion.”
I landed with a thud on the floor of the plane. I scrambled to my feet.
He backed away from me, putting several feet of space between us. “I know you want to. I even understand why you want to. I know that the kind of violence that I’m having to do for Jacques is horrific.”
“Oh, you do? Because before you said it was no big deal. Just fingers.” I reached into my shirt to press the monocle against my skin, and it wasn’t there. God damn it. I hadn’t taken it off in the shower. I hadn’t taken it off when we were in bed together. He must have taken it off me. “Where’s the monocle?”
He was still backing up. “I do understand that I’m scaring you. I don’t want to scare you. I think I can keep it from you, so that you never have to see it—”
“I don’t want that. It’s still happening even if I don’t see it. That doesn’t make it better. Where is the monocle?”
“Look, all I want is for us to be happy,” he said. “I know this isn’t exactly the way we planned things, but the mating bond is broken—”
I was still coming after him. We were making circles in the room. “I’d much rather have the damned mating bond than a psycho for a boyfriend.”
He looked hurt. “I’m not a psycho.”
“Prove it. Tell me where you stashed the monocle.”
He sighed. “You know I can’t do that.”
I stopped moving. This was stupid. If I caught him without having the monocle, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t stop him. He was too powerful. I folded my arms over my chest. “Naelen, if it’s you, if it’s really you, then you fight to the surface long enough to tell me where the monocle is.”
“Clarke…” He got a strained look on his face, as if he was struggling with something internally. “Is that really what you want? To go back to the mating bond?”
“Yes,” I said. “Anything is better than you hurting people.”
He licked his lips. And then he reached into his pocket and held out the monocle. “I have it here.”
“Drop the roses, Naelen. Drop the monocle. I’ll pick them both up, and I’ll knock you out.”
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Naelen—”
“I can’t,” he said. “But…” He threw the roses at me. “You have exactly two minutes to find a better hiding place for those.” And then, with effort, he ran out of the plane, throwing open the door and disappearing out of sight.
I turned in a circle. What to do with the roses? Where could I keep them?
I ran through ideas in my head.
Where I had already hidden them, in the cockpit.
No, he’d look there again, even knowing it was unlikely, he’d look.
Under the bed.
Stupid.
In the bar?
No, he was always going to the bar.
I was running out of ideas. It was just a plane and there weren’t very many places to keep flowers anyway.
“Clarke.” Naelen’s voice from outside. “I can’t hold him off for much longer.”
Gah.
The truth was, since Naelen had been taken over by Jacques, he hadn’t mixed a single drink. Maybe Jacques didn’t like to be drunk. If he liked to be clean, maybe he didn’t like being drunk. Maybe he was a control freak. Maybe being drunk made him feel out of control. Maybe he hated that.
I darted over to the bar and opened the cabinet underneath, where Naelen kept all the liquor.
“I’m coming back in, Clarke!” called Naelen.
I shoved the roses in the back of the cabinet, behind bottles of whiskey and vodka. Then I straightened and ran into the bedroom.
When Naelen came back inside, I strolled out.
“You hid them in here?” he said, looking around.
I grabbed his face. “Stay with me here, Naelen. You fought him off a little. That’s good. It means you’re still in there.”
“I need more flesh,” said Naelen. “He only backs off if I give him his offering.”
“No,” I said.
“Look,” he said, eyes flashing, “I’ll do what I have to do.”
I shook my head at him.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I didn’t bring us here to argue.”
* * *
Here turned out to be an enormous ski chalet that Naelen apparently owned. The thing had three stories, and a hot tub, and six bedrooms, and eight bathrooms, and its own mini theater with chairs and a big screen. It was nestled in between some huge snow-covered fir trees and just a hop, skip, and a jump from the ski lift to the top of the mountain. The mountain loomed behind the house.
When we got there, the new pilot, whose name was Roger, was sprawled out on an overstuffed sectional couch in one of the living rooms. There was a fire blazing in the fireplace. It was one of those gas fireplaces, so it didn’t need any wood. “Hey,” he said. He had a foreign accent that I couldn’t place. It sounded vaguely Australian. “Wondered when you two would show up.”
Naelen furrowed his brow at him. “You look comfortable.”
“You told me to make myself at home, and I have done just that,” said Roger, grinning. He snatched up a beer from the side table. “I got a six-pack of these down at that corner store on the way from the airport. Help yourselves.”
Naelen scratched the back of his neck, and I could see that he was uncomfortable with how much Roger had encroached on the house, which was silly, really, because there were two other living rooms in the house, and we could all have our own floor if we wanted to. Still, I thought I might be able to use this to my advantage. If I could get Roger to think that I was on his side against Naelen, then maybe he’d do me some favors.
I patted Naelen on the shoulder. “Oh, come on, babe, don’t yell at the guy.”
Naelen furrowed his brow, turning to me. “Yell? I don’t yell at people.”
I laughed a little. “Sure, you don’t, sweetheart.” I turned to Roger. “Listen, it is just fine that you are making yourself at home. You are our pilot, and we want you to feel like our guest, even though we’re paying you. Don’t let Naelen make you feel unwelcome.”
Naelen glared at me. “I wasn’t going to—”
“Carry on, Roger,” I said, walking out of the room. “And if you need anything, just come to me. Don’t listen to Naelen. He’s a sour puss.” I kept going until I was in the other room, which was a big, formal dining room. Then I paused to listen to whatever it was that was being said in the other room.
Naelen’s voice. “Look, I’m not like that. I don’t yell.”
“Maybe I’ll just go to my room and watch some TV,” said Roger.
“If that’s what you want,” said Naelen.
“Sure.” Roger’s footsteps across the floor.
“Oh, take your beer!” Naelen called after him. “All the rooms have mini-fridges.”
Roger came back, went into the kitchen, and got his beer. He offered me one. I took it, even though it wasn’t Corona, and I made a big show of thanking him for it, and I said that he didn’t need to go to his room, that we could all hang out. Roger shot a glance at Naelen and declined. Then he left.
Naelen and I stood in the kitchen alone in silence for a little bit after Roger disappeared.
Gray light filtered in the windows of the kitchen, but the room didn’t seem dark, because it was completely white. It had white cabinets and white appliances and white counters. I felt as if we’d stepped into the Magnolia Center for a minute.
“What the hell was that?” Naelen finally said. “You made him all twitchy.”
“Did I?” I said, sipping at my beer. It was some fancy microbrewed thing. I liked it, but Corona was still my favorite beer.
He folded his arms over his chest. “You did that on purpose. You’re trying to get him to turn against me.”
I shrugged. “Better not cut his fingers off if you don’t want to get on his bad side.”
“Can we not talk about that?” Naelen asked.
I let my shoulders sag. Maybe there wasn’t any point in talking about it. After all, I needed to get out of here and get the rest of the ingredients for my potion. And I also needed to get back the monocle. Furthermore, I had to be strong. I could not allow him to seduce me again. He had done that on purpose on the plane to get my monocle and be able to look for the flowers.
If I had my druthers, he’d be in restraints. But I didn’t have my druthers or the cuffs anymore. And I didn’t even know what druthers were. If I had my phone, I would have googled druthers, but I didn’t have my phone either.
Naelen rubbed his hands together. “I’m going to go down to that market and get us something to do up on the grill.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You’re going to grill in the snow?”
“I really don’t know how to cook any other way,” he said. “And I want to make us a romantic dinner. Don’t worry, we can still eat inside where it’s warm.”
“I can’t let you go to the market alone,” I said. “For all I know, you’ll cut off some poor sod’s fingers while you’re out there.”
He sighed again. “I was afraid you were going to be like that.” He closed the distance between us in two steps and lifted my chin. Gazing into my eyes, he said, “Stay in the house. Don’t come after me.”
I couldn’t see the threads of compulsion, but I could feel them wrapping around me. I gaped at him. “You’re using magic on me?”
“I don’t see any other way, Clarke.”
“This makes you on par with Cunningham, you realize that?”
He stepped back, his face twisting. “That’s not fair.”
“You take away my free will, you take away who I am, Naelen. Compelling me is the worst thing you could do.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry.” And then he left.
I fumed around the kitchen for a while, and then I realized that his being gone was actually a good thing. It meant that I could do what I pleased without his watching my every move.
My first order of business was to find Roger and find out if he’d be okay flying me the places I needed to go. I couldn’t leave right now, because Naelen had compelled me to stay in the house. But as soon as I got the monocle back, I’d break that compulsion, and then everything would be fine.
Roger said he was fine with doing whatever I wanted.
“Even if Naelen doesn’t seem cool with it?” I said.
He shrugged. “The way I figure it, I won’t be working for that guy ever again. He’s kind of a tight ass, huh?”
“Kind of,” I said.
“Well, you seem cool, though,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Just let me know when and where, and I’ll do whatever you need,” he said.
So. One problem solved. But how in the hell was I going to get the monocle back?
I wandered around the house, looking in various rooms, all of which were impeccably decorated, trying to make a plan. All I could think was that I was going to have to seduce him to get his guard down. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
But even if I did get his guard down, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had the weapons that Logan had given me, although the bow and arrows were back on the plane, because I hadn’t wanted to try to fight with Naelen over bringing it. I had some knives though. Still, stabbing Naelen wasn’t going to do anything. And I didn’t know how easy it would be to inflict bodily harm on him anyway. He was Naelen. I was in love with him. Trying to work up the gumption to stab him…
My other option was magic. Naelen had taken my monocle, but not my talisman. Still, I wasn’t anywhere near as strong magically as Naelen was. Even as just a dragon he could kick my ass. With Jacques’s power, there was no comparison between the two of us.
But I had to do something.
Even if I could catch him off guard for a moment and then get the monocle, that might work.
I walked down the hall on the top floor, looking in on the bedrooms up here. They all had exposed wooden beams in their high ceilings. The beds were swathed in fluffy white bedspreads and pillows with thick woven blankets folded at the foot of the bed. They looked as if they belonged in a magazine. I traipsed down the hallway, opening each one and peering inside.
Maybe I should try to reach him again. He had cooperated with me long enough to give me the flowers. Maybe if I tried that again, he would also give me the monocle. Maybe I was being ridiculous here, trying to fight Naelen when he was far too powerful.
I threw open another door. Huh. This wasn’t a bedroom. Well, it could have been a bedroom, but it was full of junk. There was a bunch of ski equipment piled in one corner, and then there were some ice skates in another. Several plastic storage containers were in a pile against one wall.
The problem was that I couldn’t count on Naelen just giving me the monocle. Maybe I could start there, but I needed a backup plan.
No, even that was a bad idea. Because if I played my hand by telling him what I wanted, and then Jacques took over and blocked me, he would work twice as hard protecting the monocle, and I would never be able to use the element of surprise.
I started to close the door on the junk room.
Then I stopped, cocking my head to one side. Was that what I thought it was?
I stepped into the room and walked over to the pile of storage containers. Yup, those were arrows, all right. I recognized them too. These were the kinds of arrows that Naelen had given me back the first time we met. They were tranquilizer arrows, designed to take down a dragon and knock him out. Naelen’d had them made because he thought that his sister Reign had gone rogue and that he could cure her. Luckily, Reign hadn’t turned into a rogue. Also, Naelen had learned that there was no way to cure rogues. So, we’d never used the arrows again. I hadn’t known there were any extra.
But here they were.
I fingered the arrows. Man. One good thing had happened today. One good thing.
Now, of course, I wasn’t sure that the tranq arrows would even work on Naelen, and I didn’t have my bow, so it could have seriously been a better thing. But, well, there was that saying about gift horses and looking them in the mouth.
I gathered up all the arrows and trooped out of the room.
The arrows had the tranquilizer reservoir right next to the tip of the arrow, so I cut two of them down and discarded the fletchings. Now, the arrows were small enough that I could fit them in my pockets, and there was only enough shaft for me to hold with one hand as I jabbed the thing into Naelen’s body.
That done, I waited for Naelen to get back.
He came home with steaks for the grill and some vegetables. He had also brought me Corona, and he had attitude about cheap beer, so I knew it was a gesture. He was trying to mollify me. Darkly, I wondered if that meant he’d cut off someone’s fingers while he was out. It did seem like he’d been gone quite a long time.
