Draven pulled the car around in the wide, open space and cut the engine. Then he got out of the car and I watched as he walked around to my side to open the door.
“Come,” he said holding his hand out for me to take and I looked down at it, hesitating.
“Trust me,” he said softly. My eyes shot to his, and before they got there I was intending on saying something like ‘Is that a joke?’. However, once they got there and I saw the depth of intensity in that dark gaze, I couldn’t do it. Because for the first time I saw something in Draven I had never seen before…
Vulnerability.
So instead of throwing something cruel at him and hoping it stuck, I placed my hand in his. He pulled me closer to him and lifted me out of the car, keeping our eyes level for longer than what was needed. Then he lowered me down and took my hand in his. I let him walk me closer to the edge so that I could see the view better than when I was seeing it through a window. When I felt that we were close enough, for my own comfort, I pulled back on his hand. He looked back at me and I muttered my reason,
“I don’t like heights.” For some reason, this amused him and he smirked at me.
“That’s interesting,” he said and I frowned for a moment.
“Why is that interesting?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Let’s just say that heights and I, kind of walk hand in hand.” This time he laughed aloud when he saw my frown.
“Never mind…do you like it?” he said changing the cryptic subject, nodding back to the view. I walked a step closer to him and told him the truth,
“It’s magnificent.” He looked down at me, not the view and said,
“I agree.” I felt those two little words as though they were a caress across my bare shoulders and I shivered.
“I will be back,” he told me before walking back to the car. I briefly looked over my shoulder at him, to see him grab something I couldn’t make out. I looked back to the view after I heard the car door shut and seconds later I felt a blanket being placed over me. His hands lingered on my shoulders and he remained at my back. This time I could find the words to thank him.
“I don’t like you being cold.”
“Thank you,” I said but had to move away, or at least try to, as the second I did his arms came around my torso from behind.
“Draven, I…”
“Ssshh, just let me hold you…just let me have this moment,” he told me and I found I couldn’t refuse him, even if I had wanted to which, if being honest with myself, I didn’t. So, I did as he asked. I gave him that moment, taking the time to secretly relish in it myself. Until my overactive brain clicked back on and I couldn’t help but ask,
“What are we doing here, Draven?”
“I come here a lot. It’s my place of solitude if you like. A place to think, to reflect on the past,” he said and his arms left me so that he could come and stand next to me.
“I came here that day…” He looked side on at me and he clarified when I gave him a questioning look.
“…After what I said to you on the balcony.” Hearing this I bit my lip, unable to speak from fear that he would stop.
“It was the first time I had come here with feelings of regret. You see, I never intended to hurt you the way I have. To be honest I am simply not used to concerning myself with the repercussions my words may inflict, but that day I knew my words had cut you deep, just as I intended.” He looked remorseful at least but that wasn’t enough for me.
“But why?! Why would you…”
“Because I needed to hurt you.” I shook my head and said,
“I don’t understand.”
“And you weren’t supposed to until the time was right,” he replied honestly and I turned to face him, the view no longer holding my interest.
“And now? Is the time right now, Draven?” I asked him brazenly.
“No but I find I can no longer bear the entirety of it all.”
“The entirety?” I asked him, obviously confused.
“Of my feelings for you,” he said raising a hand to my cheek as I sucked in a startled breath.
“But you said…”
“I know what I said, Keira,” he told me softly, stepping closer. I looked up and I could barely believe this was happening. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I just waited for what felt like an eternity that Draven held the key to ending.
“But now I need you to hear the truth.” I swallowed hard and prayed even harder that this wasn’t going to be another stab to my heart. I wouldn’t be able to take it.
“And that is?” I asked in a quiet voice, one even I was unsure of hearing. He gave me a small smile and lifted my head as he had done back at the club. His fingers lifted up my chin so I had no choice but to look into his eyes. A way to read the truth. A way to read his fear.
A way to read his…heart.
“I’m in love with you.”
AUTHOR’S INSIGHTS
Chapter 35 – Book 1
This next chapter it is yet another continuation of the last and one that again, unfortunately I couldn’t use. I wanted an epic backdrop to Keira and Draven’s first kiss but shortly after this I realised that if I wanted to write the rest of the story how I envisioned, then their beautiful first kiss would have to wait. Because in the end I wanted their first kiss not to be about beautiful scenery or to come straight after declarations of love. I wanted it to be raw. I wanted it to be because they simply had hit a point when keeping their hands off each other was no longer an option. It was too painful to bear. So, in the end I chose to cut these last few chapters out completely and come at it from a different angle, with Keira going home.
I do wonder where else the story would have taken me from this point though? Would Draven have taken her back to Afterlife with him? Would she had calmly found out about Morgan’s escape in the comfort of his arms? Well I am afraid that will be one left for the imagination, but here it is anyway.
Another of Keira and Draven’s first written kiss…and it is beautiful.
Chapter 35
A Kiss to Remember.
Book 1
NEW
“I’m in love with you.”
Hearing this I almost fell into him. I felt myself trembling, but I had to ask. I had to make sure, so I stuttered out the question I never would have believed I would find myself asking this man…this man who owned my dreams.
“You’re…you’re… in love with me?” The last part of this question escaped on a whisper. The second my words were out he stepped into me and swiftly lifted my face up to his with both hands at my cheeks. Then he lowered his lips to mine and whispered a firm promise above them.
“Yes.” Then he crushed his lips to mine and something inside of me ignited. It was as though God had reached down from the stars above and touched my soul. His lips moulded to mine as if we were born for one and other. His taste intoxicating, his touch exhilarating and his scent was like a drug named euphoria. His hands kept me locked to him and I was thankful for them. Because right now they felt like the anchor keeping me rooted to this earth. Like the only thing keeping me from floating away. I wanted more of him, I was addicted to this feeling, I knew after only moments and didn’t want to think about what would happen to my fragile heart once he pulled away. In fact, I almost panicked, and only did so internally when his hands left my face. But thankfully they did so only so they could wrap around my body, so this time I wasn’t just anchored, I was imprisoned.
I found that I could only hold onto him, gripping onto his shirt scared to make a single wrong move. But thinking about the way he kissed me, the way he tasted me, exploring me in a way like no other…then did I really ask myself, was it even possible I could make a wrong move? If anything, it seemed as though he had been waiting to do this for just as long as I had. And like him, I never wanted it to end.
But end it had to, and this time I was unable to hold in my reaction. It came out in the form a small moan of protest, one that left my lips half
a second after he did. I still had my eyes closed with my head held back, waiting, praying for just one more. No, that was a lie. I didn’t just want one more…I wanted them all, forever more.
“Open your eyes and see me,” he ordered softly. I did as I was told as right then, I would have signed over my soul if he’d have asked it of me.
I was met by flaming purple eyes, which startled me enough to take a step back…or at least try to.
“Oh no, you’re not going anywhere, little one,” he told me pulling me back to him and securing me there with his strength. I swallowed hard and he watched my slight nervous reaction.
“Don’t be afraid,” he told me and it took me back to that night on the rooftop. His eyes had been the same. I took a moment to take it all in before tentatively reaching up and touching his face. He closed his eyes and suddenly I wished I didn’t have my gloves on, just so that I could feel his skin under my fingertips.
“I am not afraid,” I told him and in that moment, it was true. Because I knew what happened on that rooftop had really happened and if I had been as terrified as I should have been, would I have really demanded to see him the very next day. No, I didn’t fear Draven as a man or whatever being he turned out to be. I only feared what he could do to me, if he walked away.
“It was all real, wasn’t it?” I asked softly and he simply nodded, knowing without words what I meant.
“And you lied to protect me from what you are?” I guessed and once again, he nodded. It was a beautiful moment. His silent confession, all there in a simple action and a depth of sorrow written in his eyes.
In that moment, I made the decision to be honest myself. So, I slowly started to peel down my gloves and with it, my protection against the truth of my past. He watched silently, taking in each line as they appeared. They looked almost to be glowing under the moonlight but right then, I couldn’t find myself to be ashamed. So instead I finished my statement by laying myself completely bare, once and for all.
“I don’t need you to protect my body, Draven…” I took a deep breath and looked down, as I knew I couldn’t have said what I wanted if I had been looking at him.
“…I need you to protect my heart.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked bending slightly to catch my eyes and I braved looking back up at him, reached up on my tiptoes, my hands creeping their way up to his neck and said,
“Protect it, because it’s…it’s yours.” I whispered this last part over his lips before this time, being the one to start the kiss. The second my lips touched his something in him snapped and it was like awakening a hungry beast, one being starved of his favourite meal. He held me to him, a hand entwined in my hair holding me, locking me to his lips as though he would never let me go.
If I thought the first kiss had been intense then the second nearly saw me finding my release from it. It was as though we couldn’t get enough of each other and soon we became two desperate people trying to make a connection with not only our souls but also our bodies as well.
He gripped me from behind and hoisted me up, locking my legs around his waist. Thankfully the skirt I wore helped with this, thanks to the big slit that travelled up the front of my thigh. A place his hand thought to travel as well. I pressed myself against him, relishing in the feel of the hard length of him I found down there. He threw his head back, tearing his lips from mine and growled low.
“By the Gods, you are the most beautiful creature ever created,” he told me and I couldn’t help but blush at such a compliment. He ran the back of one finger down my heated cheek and said,
“And displaying your demure attribute only adds to the appeal. All of those blushes I have seen, you know not what it has done to me.” At this I bit my lip quickly before asking,
“What do you mean?”
“I have been watching you long enough now to know what makes you blush, or bite that lip of yours…” he said pulling that lip from my teeth with his thumb before continuing,
“…and every time I have wanted to see it because of a different reason, one other than your shyness in being in my company…” He then paused holding me to him with one hand underneath me and the other, using it to explore my exposed skin.
“…I have wanted to see that beautiful blush bloom as I strip you bare for my eyes to drink in the sight of your naked skin. To have you bite your lip as I lay you down on my bed, before I kissed every inch of your body. To see you open yourself up to me, wet and ready to take me with a breathy moan escaping your bitten lips.” Hearing all of this I couldn’t help my reaction to his sexual desire being explained, painting a picture so vivid in my mind. I wanted it, I wanted it all!
My head fell back as his fingertips grazed along my collarbone and down to the line of my cleavage. That moan he spoke of, well it was first heard coming from me not at it happening the way he described, but just from the thought of it.
And this was what made him stop. He let me slide down the length of him as he held me steady, almost as if he knew my feet were not yet up to the task of keeping me upright. I was dazed and confused.
“Why did you…?”
“Trust me sweetheart, you know not of the strength it takes to stop what it is I really want to do to you.”
“Then why?”
“Because our first time was never meant for this mountain top under the eyes of the Gods…” he said, running a hand through my hair, pushing back the stray strands that had half covered my face.
“…Our first time is meant for my eyes only and in the same bed that I have lain awake for many a sleepless night, just thinking about what having you lying next to me would feel like. To hear the sounds that you make when being woken with me making love to you again. Holding you through the night and welcoming the dawn with you still in my arms. That is how our first time was always meant to be.” When he finished, I was half tempted to argue with him as my need was overriding his romantic gesture, but then when I looked deep into his eyes I knew that this wasn’t just for me, it was for him also.
That was how he wanted it and for the life of me I wanted to give him that…despite my raging need for him!
“So, what happens now?” I asked, once more feeling vulnerable and stepping back.
“Well from the worried look on your face, I would say anything but what you may be thinking,” he said looking amused.
“Come here,” he added, grabbing my hand and pulling me back to him.
“Tell me, what worries you?”
“Honestly?” He nodded and I took a chance, no matter how silly it may have sounded.
“Waking up and finding you gone.”
“I will admit that having you in my arms feels like a dream but I can assure you, it is one we will not wake from,” he said reassuring me and holding me to him in a much-needed hug. It felt so natural being with him like this, I just didn’t want it to end.
“Can I ask you a question, Keira?” This time I smiled up at him and replied,
“But of course.”
“Do you dream of me often?” I laughed once and said,
“Occasionally, yes…why do you ask?” I thought he was joking but his face said otherwise.
“And do you always remember?” This time I raised an eyebrow in question at him. Where was all this going?
“Only the ones with you in them,” I admitted blushing. He gave me a soft smile and ran a thumb across my lips, reminding me once again that I was biting them. But I knew from his eyes that he was deep in thought so, in true Keira fashion, I asked.
“What is it?” He didn’t answer me but instead turned to face the world in all its natural dark glory. It was almost as if the night sky had the answer there written somewhere amongst the stars.
“Draven?” I said his name on a whisper, prompting something from him. Only in the end what I got, wasn’t what I expected.
A confession that it was never a dream, it was all real...
“You weren’t supposed to remember.”
AUTHOR’S INSIGHT.
BOOK 2
The Two Kings.
Now in book two there was always so many different ways I wanted to introduce Lucius to the world and being a mean bad ass was always going to be one of them. But this was difficult to do as I knew that in book three I would have an even greater battle on my hands in making you all fall in love with…well such a lovable rogue.
Lucius was always meant to start life in my books as a misunderstood Vampire King, as was the challenge when he first met Keira, becoming conflicted about the way he felt about her. I needed to get across a man you all expected to hate and fear, then into one that became caring and even in certain moments, showing tenderness.
But he is the complete opposite of Draven in most ways. Where Draven’s confidence comes naturally in the form of being a King, Lucius’ is displayed more openly with his cocky nature and harsher rule. Oh and of course let’s not forget his raw desire at taking something that belongs to Draven and taking it for himself.
AUTHOR’S INSIGHT.
Chapter 18 – Book 2
In this chapter, we find Keira and Draven having just spent their first night with Libby and Frank, after Keira cooked dinner. Draven gets called back as he is needed to prepare for the ritual, one that at this time, Keira knows nothing about. At the end of this chapter, Lucius comes to her in a dream but what I first wrote about in this scene would have then finished very differently. Because of this it would have made it almost impossible for Keira to have caught Draven in the temple, doing what he does best…ruling over his world.
The Forbidden Chapters Part 1: Afterlife Saga Page 18