Holy Smokes
Page 17

“I love you more than all the treasures of the world, Aisling. Our love will burn for an eternity until we have taken our last breaths, and even then it will continue to shine as a testament to that which we are together, a beacon of passion for all to see like a glittering star in the darkness of the night sky.”
“You sure know how to sweep a girl off her feet,” I said, kissing the corners of his delectable mouth as his dragon fire faded away. I felt empty inside without it, as if a part of me was missing, a sadness so profound it made my soul weep. “I love you, too.”
“We must leave. I do not like this place.”
“I know the feeling.”
Jim was yakking to Rene, who was once again double-parked. “…she ralphed again, which is so morning sickness, don’t you think? I mean, how in denial can you…oh, hi, Ash.”
I pointed to the front seat of the car. Jim grinned and hopped in.
“Where are Pál and István?” I asked, looking around.
“Looking for you,” Drake answered, cocking one glossy ebony eyebrow in a way that never failed to make my stomach tighten.
“Didn’t you call them after you heard from me?”
Drake waited until we were both in the car, nodding to Rene, who shot out into the afternoon traffic with his usual disregard of other vehicles and pedestrians. “Yes. They are on their way back home now. We feared the red dragons had you, and they broke into Chuan Ren’s London house to see if you were being held there.”
“Are they OK?” I asked.
Drake looked faintly surprised that I should ask that. “Of course.”
“Oh. Good. Hi, Rene. Sorry if I worried you at all earlier today. Did you happen to see the Guardian who nailed me?”
“Nailed you?” He shook his head. “I did not see anyone, unfortunately.”
“Damn.” I slumped back into the seat of the car as Rene drove, worrying like crazy despite the reassuring presence of Drake beside me.
“You do not have the look of a bride,” Rene commented, watching me in the rearview mirror, narrowly missing plowing down a group of schoolgirls crossing the road. “You have the look of one carrying the load of many burdens upon her shoulders.”
“Ack!” I yelled, pointing out the front window.
He glanced at the large truck against which we had, by some miracle, escaped smashing ourselves to smithereens. “Pfft. I was nowhere near that lorry.”
“Had to be a good two inches of space between us,” Jim commented, peering out the window at the truck as its driver screamed and clutched his chest while slamming on his brakes. “You’re losing your touch, Rene.”
My friend, chauffeur, and fate extraordinaire just grinned and gave his particularly Gallic shrug. “I will do better the next time, hein?”
“My money is on you, my man,” Jim replied.
“What is it you are worrying about?” Rene asked me. “The wedding, or the red dragons?”
“Neither. Or, them, too. I’ve got so much going on right now, I can’t keep half of it straight,” I answered, rubbing my forehead. “There’s Gabriel for one.”
“Gabriel?” Drake asked. “What does he have to do with your concerns?”
I bit my lip, considering how much I should tell him. “I ran into him today at the bridal shop. He tried to give me a song and dance about doing what he had to do, and that he was innocent, et cetera. Have you talked with him since he betrayed us?”
“No.” Drake’s pupils elongated, warning me he was not pleased to be discussing the subject.
I’d never let that stop me before and wasn’t about to now. “We haven’t talked much about what happened that day because of all the other crap going on, and then the wedding planning took up all my time. Maybe we should talk about it now.”
“It can wait. What else did he say to you?”
“Huh-uh,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re not going to play ‘I’ll ignore your questions but you must answer mine’ unless I get to be the ignorer.”
I put my hand on his thigh to let him know I meant business, but before I could stop myself, I was stroking his leg, igniting the slumbering coals of desire that were never completely extinguished within me.
Drake’s expression changed in a flash from obstinate to interested. My breath caught as I massaged the steely thigh beneath the material of his pants, a little thrill skittering down my back.
“Kincsem,” he said, his eyes flashing a warning.
“Yeah, not a good idea right now,” I said, pulling my hand back, well aware that I was dangerously close to jumping his bones right there in the car.
“Did I miss something?” Jim asked, swiveling around to peer at us with suspicious eyes. “Was Drake copping a grope?”
“No,” I told it with perfect truth. “We were talking about Gabriel.”
Jim pursed its lips. “What about him?”
“Well…like what’s he up to, hunting me down at the bridal shop just to spin me a yarn about him being innocent? Can he be trusted? Is he still working with Fiat?”
Rene’s reflection in the mirror looked thoughtful. “Those are good questions. Me, I do not have the answers.”
“Welcome to the club,” I said, sighing before turning to eye Drake. “I don’t suppose you have any insight you’d like to add?”
“About Gabriel? No,” he said, rubbing his chin as if in thought. But there was something in his voice, a faint tone of something indefinable that worried me.
“Did you get your business this morning taken care of all right?”
“No. When is your ultrasound appointment?”
I pushed his sleeve back and consulted his watch, gloating to myself for a moment about the wedding present that was wrapped up and waiting for me to give him—a twenty-four-carat gold watch. Knowing the dragon’s love of gold, I figured Drake would go gaga over it. “An hour and a half. We have time.”
“Perhaps, but it may cut the time too fine. We will go home instead, Rene,” Drake said in his usual bossy voice.
“Belay that order, Rene! I’m declaring a mutiny and taking over this ship. We’re going to the Guardians’ Guild.”
The look Drake shot me spoke volumes, and none of them were pleasant reading. “Why is it so important we go there now?”