He grinned as he heard the thud of her heart increase and the smell of her desire grow. “You are right. The state of dress or undress makes all the difference.”
Lauren clearly missed the innuendo as she took a deeper swig followed by another one of those strange squeak sounds. “We will work on you once this is all over.” She eyed him again, her gaze lingering on his chest. “Once we figure out which part of you needs working over that is.”
When his brows flew up, and his grin turned into a smile, she shook her head and frowned. “That did not come out right.” She kept shaking her head as she eyed his chest and tried to make him feel better by saying something he knew she would regret. “You came out right but not him. I am still working on that.” Lauren inhaled deeply, hiccupped then met his eyes. “You and Charles will get together and make each other right so that I will be all right and that is just how it needs to be, okay?”
While intrigued by her alarmingly quick state of intoxication, Tait decided to put an end to it. She might be difficult, but he didn’t want her exposing herself to him like this. Not as she was right now. He wanted her to be clear. He wanted her to want to share with him without anything affecting her senses. So he pried the skin of mead from her fingers and nodded. “Yes, Charles and I will get together someday,” he promised, meaning it far more than she knew. “And I will make him right.”
“You will, won’t you?” she whispered.
“Oh, you have no idea,” he assured. “I will take care of Charles.”
For a second, she seemed like an entirely different person as their gazes held. There was a soft light in her eyes and less tightening around her lips. She seemed vulnerable and open in a way he’d never seen her. As if she had forgotten that she was supposed to show the world what she thought they should see and was simply being the woman beneath all that.
Tait barely moved let alone breathed lest she realize her guard was down.
“You should marry,” she murmured as a small smile curled her lips. “It would do you good to settle down I think.” Her eyes widened slightly. “I could help you with that.”
“No.” He shook his head, surprised the conversation had taken this turn. “I have no desire to get married.”
“But you should. It has its benefits.” She nodded firmly, convinced she was on the right path. “What about that woman you were dancing with before? She seemed quite taken with you.”
Was it his imagination or was she trying to figure out how close he was with the other woman? While he could lie to her and say they were merely friends, he figured she would learn the truth about him eventually. “We are intimate together, Lauren, nothing more.”
“Yes, I gathered as much,” she said, her tone still surprisingly upbeat if not a little strained. “Not that I condone it, but many people are intimate before they marry.”
Tait’s brows shot together in question. “You think people must marry before they lay together?”
“Of course,” she said. “Charles and I did.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” he muttered.
“What do you mean by that?” The lightness in her eyes faded.
Hel. For all he had wanted to enjoy a normal conversation with her, he saw that neither of them was capable. So he cocked the corner of his mouth and kept things honest. “You barely recognize what desire feels like, Lauren. Had you bedded your mate before committing to him you might have realized that he is not a good lover and chosen differently.”
Her eyes widened, and the tightness around her lips returned. “How dare you say such a thing! An incorrect thing by the way.” She shook her head and shifted a little further away. “I was only trying to help you improve your life and look at how you repay me.”
“I do not need my life improved.” While tempted to say she was the one in need of life improvement, he bit his tongue. He didn’t want to fight with her. “I like to enjoy many women and have no desire to commit to anyone.”
“Then why did you commit to me?” Lauren said blandly. She frowned as if she only now realized that she had lost her train of thought earlier. “What does that mean, anyway? How did you commit to me when I never agreed? Why when I am married, and you enjoy an unsafe number of partners?”
“There is no such thing as unsafe,” he remarked. “I’m dragon, so I do not get ill. Not from sex.” He couldn’t help but flash a smile. “Farthest thing from it.”
“I have no desire to hear about your barbaric lifestyle.” Her eyes narrowed as she took the skin back. “I just want a straight answer.”
He decided to let her drink after all. It might not be the best way to go about things, but he was hard pressed to care right now.
“Well?” she prompted when he hesitated, a condescending look on her face.
She wanted to look at him like that again, did she? As if he was beneath her. Fine, then. He would tell her just how connected she was now to him. How interwoven her life had become with someone she thought so little of.
“When I saved your life, you absorbed a small part of my soul,” he said. “That means my dragon will forever be committed to yours.” He gave her a knowing look. “It also means I’ve been down the hallway in your mind, Lauren…and I know what’s behind those doors.”
Chapter Eight
LAUREN TOSSED AND turned. As usual, sleep was difficult to achieve. This time, however, there was a very good reason for it. Tait’s revelation. She thought those last things he said were all one big tall tale meant to upset her until he mentioned the hallway in her mind. The doors. How could he possibly know about those? Not even her sisters knew. Yet he did. Which meant everything else was likely true too and that left her more unsettled than ever.
After his revelation, she promptly feigned exhaustion and had to lie down. She did not want to continue the conversation. Not until she had time to think. The truth was she was overly embarrassed. How she handled her own mind was her business and nobody else’s. Certainly not a man she barely knew from over a thousand years in her past.
Especially a man as promiscuous as Tait.
She frowned as that last thought kept nagging her. Why, out of everything he had shared, did that bother her the most? Because there were a number of things that should bother her more. Especially his remark about her not knowing what desire felt like. Of course, she knew what it felt like and quite honestly, she never understood why people called it desire because it didn’t feel good in the least.
Sex didn’t feel good or anything related to it in her opinion.
Yet the brutish man sleeping beside her had her wondering. Mainly because of the strange but annoyingly pleasurable sensations she’d been having around him. She couldn’t fathom a man like him making her feel good like that. He was too large for her. They would never fit together.
Lauren frowned, opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. The last thing she should be thinking about was how well she might fit together with him, sexually or otherwise. She was married.
“Just sign your divorce papers already, and you won’t be,” Samantha reminded. “He moved on and so should you.”
She sat up abruptly at the sound of her sister’s voice.
“What’s the matter?” Tait sat up just as quickly, pulled a dagger and shifted closer, seemingly to protect her.
“I heard Samantha,” she whispered and looked around. “I think she might be here.”
Tait cocked his head as though listening before he said, “No, she is not near us.” His eyes went to Lauren. “Perhaps she spoke within your mind?”
Lauren frowned, still not sure she bought the concept of others speaking within her mind. “I can’t imagine,” she murmured. “It sounded so real.”
“Speaking within the mind can sound as real as you and I talking now,” Tait said as he stood and started rummaging around in the satchel. “The good news is if she spoke within your mind then she’s likely latched on to our location and made a connection.” He pulled out a tunic. “Albeit a faint one.�
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“Why faint?” She watched him pull on a black, leather tunic and found it overly convenient that he couldn’t find one earlier. Or hadn’t bothered to look.
“If she were closer she would have spoken into my mind as well,” he said. “And told me where to go next.”
“You and Sam speak within each other’s minds?” she asked, not sure how she felt about that.
“Yes.” He looked at her as he pulled on his boots. “All of us dragons do, and the humans related to us.”
An odd sort of warmth rolled through her at his words. For years now, her relationship with most of her sisters had been strained. And she knew it was because of her. Because she had put distance between them, so they would not learn her secrets. So that she could keep things under control.
“We should keep moving.” Tait’s eyes stayed on hers. “Unless you need more rest. It would be understandable if you do. You have been through a lot.”
She was shocked by his compassion considering how blunt he had been with her before. Was it her or did he seem a little guilty?
“No, I am all right, thank you,” she murmured as she pulled on her boots and said more than she intended. “Save for the first two days after I traveled back in time, sleep is not something that comes all that easily to me anymore.”
He nodded and remained silent as he rolled up the furs, put them in the satchel then strapped on his weapons. As he relit the torch and they started back down the mountain, she thought less about the offensive things he had said earlier and more about him giving up a piece of his soul for her. That sounded awfully intense considering she hadn’t asked him to. For that matter, it seemed like a lot to ask of anyone.
Yet he had supposedly done it.
And she was raised with manners.
So she finally said what she should have before. “Thank you,” she murmured as he helped her down a steep embankment. “For saving my life.” She cleared her throat and had trouble meeting his eyes. “That could not have been easy for you.”
“Think nothing of it.” Silence stretched before he added, “And it was easier than I thought it would be.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but it sounded like he wasn’t totally opposed to giving up a piece of himself for her.
“If Dragon Lore holds true, it should help you quite a bit,” he said as the sound of running water grew louder. “Your dragon will gain the knowledge of my dragon.” He put a hand to her back and steered her around a cluster of jagged rocks. “Which means you will begin to gain my knowledge.”
Only one thought came to mind. All the sex he apparently had. Her eyes rounded as she glanced over her shoulder at him. “What precisely does that mean?”
Amusement flickered in his eyes. “Yes, you may very well gain skills in bed you didn’t anticipate, but that is not what I was referring to.” He touched the handle of the dagger attached to his side. “I was referring to my battle skills.”
“Oh,” she whispered and kept moving, mulling that over. “I cannot imagine fighting. Especially the likes of your people.” She flinched. “I have never been all that good at the sight of blood.”
“You might be surprised now,” he said. “Your dragon and mine will make things much easier for you. And your dragon seems fiercer than most so I would not worry.”
Lauren recalled the angry little serpentine thing in her keychain globe. The rage in those eyes. The same catlike eyes she had caught too many times flickering in her bathroom mirror.
“I do not feel fierce,” she said softly and again shared more than intended. “I feel the furthest thing from it actually.”
“Right now,” he said just as softly. “But soon enough you will wonder about a time you ever felt weak and alone. It will feel like you lived another life entirely.”
Lauren gave no reply to that because it touched too close to home. To how she felt on a daily basis. While she had always thought she was so strong and resilient, she was beginning to realize she’d been none of those things. If anything, perhaps she had been a coward.
“What is in your globe now, Lauren?” Tait asked, his voice troubled.
She stopped and met his eyes. “Why do you sound upset? Do you think the globe might be leading us in the wrong direction?”
“No.” He seemed to struggle to hold her gaze. “It is not always easy hearing your thoughts…especially the ones you were just having about yourself.”
Lauren frowned. While tempted to bite back that he should stay out of her mind, she just couldn’t seem to do it. Not based on the concern in his eyes. So she went with denial. “I have no idea what you mean.” She pulled out her globe and eyed it. “It looks bright now.” She peered closer. “And water is pouring down half of it.”
“All right.” He nodded and pulled her after him. “I see a faint light up ahead. Let’s see if that’s where we’re supposed to go.”
The closer they got the louder the roar of water. As it turned out, it was an exit that came out beside a raging waterfall.
“Try making contact with Samantha again,” he said as he looked around. The landscape was heavily wooded and based on the medium sized trees she would say they were little more than halfway down the mountain.
“Maybe it will be easier outside of the mountain,” he added.
Lauren frowned. “But I have no idea how to.”
“Picture Sam within your mind,” he said as he splashed water over his head and wiped it over his face. “Once you see her in your mind’s eye, speak to her in thought form.”
“Thought form?” She frowned. “I am not sure what you mean.”
“What are you thinking about right now, Lauren?”
“That you are getting your shirt wet, and I hope it means you won’t take it off again,” she said, the words slipping right out. Dear Lord, she needed to watch her mouth around him.
Tait grinned. “Don’t forget that I can dry myself with a chant. That aside, what you thought is basically what you spoke in your mind. You just didn’t say it out loud.” He shrugged. “So do the same thing, except visualize Sam first.”
“Okay,” she said, not convinced as she pictured Samantha and thought, “Are you still there, Sister? Can you hear me?”
Nothing. No response. So she tried again and again, feeling more and more foolish.
“It is not working. It does not work.” Her cheeks burned with embarrassment that she had bought into this. “I am not sure why I believed it would.”
“It will,” he murmured and stepped close. Too close. Her eyes widened, and she started to step back before he stopped her. “Relax, Lauren. I would think by now you know I’m not going to hurt or molest you. I’m just going to try to help you contact Sam.”
“How so?” she managed, cursing her breathy response. Her knees were starting to go weak again as her eyes trailed after a drop of water that rolled down his strong jaw. His black stubble should appall her, but she wasn’t feeling repulsed in the least. No, she was feeling something else altogether.
“Focus.” His rich brown eyes held hers as he cupped her cheeks. “Not on the way your body feels right now but on your sister. I will do the same, and hopefully, with our combined power, we will reach her.”
“Power,” she whispered, a little overwhelmed by the word…more so that she possessed it. Lauren nodded and swallowed. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he repeated. “Either close your eyes or hold mine as you visualize her and we will try to reach out together.”
Lauren nodded again and while she meant to close her eyes, she didn’t. Instead, she stared directly into his eyes and visualized Sam. Or at least she thought she did until their surroundings transformed and instead of standing on the mountain, they stood in one of her hallways. The one where she locked away all the frustration she felt with her sisters. Mainly Sam.
What was more daunting, however, was that Tait was here too.
“Keep visualizing her,” he said softly. “Because we’re here for a reason.”
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“In my mind?” she squeaked, mortified.
“So it seems.”
She was about to start visualizing Sam again when her sister called out. “Lauren, open this door. Enough with shutting out reality!”
“Was that inside my head?” she whispered as she glanced down the hallway. “Because it didn’t sound like it.”
“It didn’t,” he agreed as he took her hand and pulled her after him. “But then we’re inside your mind, so technically…”
“Right,” she murmured as the sound of Sam’s voice grew louder and louder until they stopped in front of a door.
“Lauren, unlock this door,” Sam called from the other side.
“I do not think that’s a good idea,” Lauren whispered.
“Why?” Tait asked.
“You need to open it so I can get to you,” her sister said. “You need to face this.”
Lauren flinched. “Isn’t there another way?”
“I don’t think so, Sis.”
“But it’s welded shut,” Lauren said, her cheeks burning again as she glanced at Tait. “I cannot unlock the ones I welded shut.”
“Yes, you can.” He squeezed her hand in support. “And you know how.”
“No,” she started, but he tilted her chin until their eyes met and he cut her off. “Yes, you do, Lauren. You have to embrace your dragon.”
“I cannot do that.” She shook her head. “I will not.”
“Well, you better and make it snappy,” Sam said urgently from the other side. “Because we’ve got trouble on this end.”
“What is happening?” Tait asked, growing upset.
“I’m at the Dragon Lair,” Sam replied. “It’s under attack. We need your help.”
Tait’s frown only deepened as he glanced at Lauren. “It could be a trap.”
“Yes,” Lauren agreed. “But what if it isn’t?”
“It feels like Sam to me,” Tait said. “But you would know better. Your dragon best of all. It will know if it’s actually your sister speaking to us.”
Soul of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 3) Page 11