Blakeshire (Insight #9)(41)
He didn’t answer for a moment or two. I glanced up at him, could see flashes of the conversations he and his father had, but not enough to answer my question.
“He told me that sometimes the obvious path is not the right one, that the vague passage I could see held an intense past of mine. That my roots were in that past, that no matter how damaged or twisted my life ever became that I could return to my roots and heal, grow in a different direction.”
“Did he take you to Chara?”
“No,” was his only response.
“Which one was I behind?” That was a bold question that stated that in some way I believed he was mine.
“Both,” he boldly stated as that emotion I was calling love emerged.
I had no response to that. After a few more minutes, I decided to push the father point some more.
“Your dad must have been a good teacher. I know when I was first digging in your head, I saw you in here alone when you were young.”
“Digging, huh?”
A sly smile invaded my image. “Don’t act like you don’t know I did that. You already admitted to testing me by playing a part.”
He nodded once. “Why are you pushing the conversation to my father?”
“A few reasons.”
“Listening.”
“Well, for one you thanked me for allowing you to talk about him.”
“And another?”
“I’m trying to get you past the bubble.”
“The what?” he said as a disbelieving grin spread across his face.
“You know the bubble.”
“You’ve lost me, Madison Marie.”
“It’s like a bubble of fear. Say you’re wigged out about something, like a speech or something. You fret over it, think about it a thousand times, imagine how horrible it is going to be, have a few freak outs, then the time comes and there is this bubble of energy—this wall standing between who you are and who you will be once the next moments are over. It’s terrifying because you can’t see past it. Everything that you have thought or done for days has been focused on that point. In your mind, it is everything; it will make or break you. As soon as you step past that bubble and find yourself in the moment and the question of fight or flight is null and void, you have no choice but to do your thing—and when it’s over, when the adrenaline is settling into your system, you feel a numb sensation. One that leads you to believe that you were a fool to fear it in the first place because not only were you meant to say what you had to say or do what you had to do, but you knew it so well that a natural instinct took over and you rocked the hell out of that moment.”
He stopped in the string and gazed down at me with absolute wonder in his eyes. “Has anyone ever told you how beautiful your mind is?”
“No one that matters,” I said with a blush.
“Do I matter?”
I felt myself turn crimson as the scent of roses wafted around us. “More than you know.” I playfully glared at him. “Stop deflecting. You have a bubble.”
“I have more than one,” he murmured as he carefully leaned down and let his lips just barely tease mine.
“You’re trying to distract me,” I said as I reached up and laced my fingers through his thick, dark hair. With a natural ease, his lips met mine. I stayed constantly aware of every part of him, but when our flesh met, even in the briefest of moments, that awareness was amplified. I knew when he held his breath, when his body tensed, how much power he put behind his lips, his tongue. We spoke a thousand words with each fluttering touch. I moved my lips against his, feeling sensual power meet mine, feeling him relax into me. There was something so indescribably erotic about how we melted into one another. You’d think we were old lovers that knew each other’s bodies better than our own. Not that we were raw, fresh, that every moment like this stopped time in some way.
As our kiss broke, his eyes fell into mine. “Distracting you? I see myself more as an opportunist,” he said as his hands moved down the sides of my body. When I sighed with that movement, a secret smile lingered on his lips.
Matching his play, my hands reached for his chest and slid down his body, stopping just before they reached his belt. When I felt him tense, I matched that secret smile.
His hands clasped mine with a slight hiss. “Birthday girl, we are never going to make it back to my palace if we don’t stop teasing one another.”
“I don’t tease, Drake. I say what I mean and mean what I say.”
He lifted a brow as doubt flashed over his eyes.
“When I’m not hurt, that is.”
Rapidly, those eyes moved across my stare. “What did you dream? Why is pain absent from your eyes now?”
“I honestly don’t know. But I know that as wild as my thoughts were, it would have taken more than a dream to quell them. I understand where you are coming from, I really do.” My eyes searched his as I tried to understand my own mind and soul. “I think what takes the pain away is that you respect the emotions I have. You’re a man about it. You don’t call them foolish. You’re not afraid of my mind. That tells me we are going to figure this out.”
His hands cradled my face as he moved his body against mine. “You’re a queen. You were born with the heart and mind of a queen. Passion vibrates through you. You think and feel deeply, and more often than not, think of yourself last. The only thing I have to figure out is how to prove to you that I was born to be your king.” His lips brushed against mine. “We’ve been tested. It may seem as if we failed, but I know it only made us stronger. That when we get past this wall of emotions, we will be invincible…I never meant to hurt you.”