WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

10. Unity-1

10

Unity

“So….” I shook my head, trying to clear it as I blinked down at the picture of the circles on the piece of parchment in my hand. “Indigo’s mated to a Graykey, and they are here right now?” I pointed at the fourth circle from the right.

“Yep,” Dori answered. Chewing on the fingernail of her pinkie, she paced past where I sat at Olivander’s table. “And in return, I got sucked here to take Quilla’s aunt’s place.”

I glanced questioningly toward my true love. He sat slumped in the lounge chair by the dark fireplace, sipping the last of his spirits with his legs sprawled before him and the top ties of his tunic undone. The poor man looked exhausted.

He felt bone-weary too. His drained emotion slugged through my mark like molasses.

Instantly feeling bad for him, I decided I could ask everything else later. The only thing I wanted answered now was, “Have you told your true love about any of this? About Earth and Indigo and strange women in your bedchambers?”

As I lifted the piece of parchment and shook it, I noticed there was writing on the back. Squinting, I read the note, and my lips parted in surprise.

He’d been planning to send for me?

Heart swirling with an erratic thrill, I glanced toward the floor and saw other wadded pieces of parchment.

Like me, he just hadn’t known how to broach the subject.

My affection growing, I glanced his way as he sighed and rubbed his face, unaware that I’d just read a draft of one of the letters meant for me.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” he muttered, dropping his hand to glare at me from bleary eyes. “But I haven’t exactly had the time to tell her anything lately. The past few days have been quite a blur.”

A hint of sympathy filled me. Poor Olivander. I’m so glad I was finally here to help him through this. It was more than one person should have to handle.

“I imagine it has,” I murmured. “And I wouldn’t even know how you’d explain any of this either, if I were you, even if I had all the time and opportunity in the world to do so.”

He sniffed bitterly and wiped a hand over his face, conceding with, “That’s for damn sure. I barely even understand what’s happening myself.”

I nodded. “Sounds like we should sleep on it, then, get a good night’s rest, and tackle the problem in the morning.”

“I agree,” Dori said. “Vander looks like he’s about to pass out any moment.”

Squinting suspiciously at her, I had to wonder just how close this woman had grown to my mate. She was already calling him Vander, which only his siblings and close friends did, and now she cared enough about him to worry about his exhaustion.

I did not appreciate the dark, oily sensation of jealousy and unease that slithered through my veins. It made me feel small and stupid and left out. But at least he hadn’t let her refer to him as Ollie, which I alone was allowed to do, so I forced the silly envy from my head as I watched Olivander sit up straighter in response to her statement.

“I’m fine,” he insisted, only to be seized by a yawn. “But you’re right, it’s late. We should figure out where—”

“Dori and I could stay in Unity’s room,” I volunteered, eager to sleep in my own bed.

Olivander blinked at me. Then scowled. “Absolutely not.”

“But—”

He pushed from his chair as if I would take him more seriously if he stood while he proclaimed, “You’re not going anywhere near my mate’s things. I’d sooner let you stay in here while I went to her room.”

“But I’m sure she’d be more than understanding and not mind the intrusion once you explained the situation to her. It’s not like she’ll be using the space anytime soon, anyway. And besides, I hear she’s very easygoing and ki—”

“No.”

I sniffed. “Well, that’s not very reasonable and open-minded of you.”

Olivander lifted a stern eyebrow. “I said no.”

“Fine.” Lifting my brows right back at him, I untied the bow holding together the thick cloak Nalini had provided me with earlier, and I flung the robe off my shoulders decisively, making my statement to let him know I was settled for the night. “Then we’ll stay here. You go to her room.”

A tingling heat speared through me, vibrating through the mark as Olivander dragged his stunned gaze over me.

Glancing down, I realized Nalini might have given me a cover but she hadn’t changed me out of my nightgown under the cloak. The silky black sleeveless article of clothing fell all the way to my ankles, but the thin fabric hugged my body in ways no dress I would wear out into public did.

“Oh!” I gasped in surprise and smoothed a hand over my breasts as if that would flatten away the hardened n*****s that were poking through the sheer material. “Sorry. I forgot I was wearing my nightgown.”

But Olivander’s arousal only sharpened in my senses. And it was terribly hard for me to concentrate when he was looking at me like that, so I cleared my throat loudly and crossed my arms over my chest because we had other matters to straighten out at the moment.

In response, he tore his attention from the tattoo on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. He did not seem pleased, and yet the attraction I felt pouring off him was extremely real and potent.

“Did you just kick me out of my own bedchambers?” he demanded, his voice lethally low.

“No. You offered it to us,” I reminded him.

“I most certainly did not. I simply stated that I’d be more willing for you to stay here than—”

“Well, we accept those terms—”

“The point…” he ground out, talking over my interruption as he stepped closer. “Is that I’m not willing to let you stay in either room.”

I arched a haughty eyebrow. “But you were perfectly willing to let her—” I glanced toward Dori. “A Graykey, who could fall into a fit of mad bloodlust at any moment—stay here in your bedchambers with you alone? All night long?”

His attention immediately dropped to my breasts when I dropped my hand from them to point fiercely at the ground around me, asking, “How is this any different?”

Dear Lord. It was a good thing he couldn’t feel my emotions, otherwise he’d realize how very contagious his desire was. No matter how much he was currently irritating me, my body just kept preparing for intimacy, prickling its way up the insides of my thighs.

It craved a very primal, savage intimacy, too. These images of sinking claws and teeth into him as I cried out some predator’s howl and wrapped myself around him as he thrust with snarling, powerful heaves kept pounding their way into my imagination.

I definitely should’ve stopped reading the headmistress’s secret scrolls after the first handful of stories.

Crossing my arms back over my chest, I seemed to finally jostle Olivander’s attention from rutting. His scowl hardened—he didn’t seem to appreciate how attracted he was to me—and he snarled, “I didn’t know she was a Graykey until just now.”

“Um, I really don’t think I am one, anyway,” Dori tossed out, probably trying to be helpful.

I cast her a sharp glance, not quite sure what to think of the foreign woman just yet. Then I turned back to Olivander. “So if I hadn’t been present when you’d discovered the truth, then you would’ve just tossed her from the castle with nowhere to go? Hmm? A poor, lost woman from another planet?”

He huffed out a disgusted breath. “Of course not.”

“Then that has to mean this is all about me,” I concluded, making him blink in shock. “Pray tell, what do you have against me, good sir? Or maybe I should ask what you had planned to do here alone with her that you couldn’t do with me holding witness?”

“I don’t—I mean, that is not—argh! You are the most maddening woman ever. The situation with Dori is entirely different. I have no indecent intentions with her. She literally has nowhere else to go. But now that you are here, she can just go with you.”

“And just where do you expect me to take her?” I asked archly. “Because I literally have nowhere else to go either.”

He squinted his eyes, not buying it. “I find that very hard to believe. She was dropped here from a different world entirely. Her home doesn’t exist in this realm, while you had to have come from somewhere. Why can’t you just go back to wherever you slept last night? And take her with you, so there won’t be anything inappropriate going on here, and I can sleep in my own damn bed again?”

“Well, this might be even harder for you to believe, Prince Stubborn,” I informed him with a catty smile, “but I was dropped here tonight from a different realm as well. And therefore I also can’t return to where I slept last night. It’s too far away.”

“You…” He blinked, taken aback by that argument. Then he blurted, “You’re from Earth too?” Only to shake his head and briefly close his eyes as if to clear it. “No, that’s impossible. You bear a High Cliff mark.”

I wanted to argue that his new roommate bore a Graykey mark, but that was beside the point I was trying to make.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t born in High Cliff. I’m from the Outer Realms, yes. I just wasn’t in this realm—as in this kingdom—last night. I’ve been living in Tipton for the past few years. Which is a three-day ride from here, so it would be quite impossible for me to return there tonight.”

“Then how the hell did you get here?”

I didn’t see any reason to lie to him, so I shrugged. “Someone bearing very powerful magic transported me here after saving me from men trying to kidnap me from my bed, so there! I can’t go back to where I was, because frankly, I don’t have the magic on me to do so, and besides, they will certainly be waiting and succeed in taking me if I did return. And I’m fairly certain I don’t wish to be taken anywhere by them.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” He waved his hands and shook his head before clarifying, “You were nearly kidn*pped tonight?”

I plopped my hands on my hips and glared. “That’s what I just said, isn’t it?”

He barked out an incredulous laugh. “Way to bury the lead. Why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”

I blinked blandly. “Because it wasn’t pertinent information until now.”

“Pertinent?” he cried.

I think I was beginning to vex him. That vein that always appeared and ran up the center of his forehead whenever he lost his temper was making an appearance. And through the mark that bound us, I could feel the control on his emotions slipping.

But I refused to cow to his anger, so I purposely said, “It means—”

“I know what the bloody hell pertinent means!”

I smiled prettily, remaining calm because I knew that would only infuriate him more. “Then why did you repeat it?”

“Oh my God,” he rasped, pressing a hand to his brow and glancing toward Dori. “I can’t deal with this right now.” But then he turned right back to me and demanded, “Who the hell tried to kidnap you? What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into? And what possessed you into following me of all people after you went through all that?”

“I didn’t—”

“We already have enough problems here to deal with. If you bring even more danger to our door—”

“What kind of danger are you in?” I countered.

He faltered, blinked, then scoffed. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Oh really?” I set my hands back onto my hips, noticing he was too busy glaring into my eyes to realize I’d uncovered my chest again. “Well, if I’m supposed to be your assistant and help you, then I think it very well should be my concern. Because how can I very well assist anyone if I don’t know what we’re even trying to accomplish? Does it have anything to do with the three R-generation Graykey children you’re searching for? Or more to do with her?” When I motioned toward Dori, another thought struck. “Wait. Are the children hers?”