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when the hurting breaks through that mask you wear. You’re not going to close your eyes as long as
you’re alone in here, now, are you?”
“No,” she admitted with a reluctant sigh. “Adrian, I…I really don’t want to be alone,” she added
in a whisper. “But I…”
“I may be a devil, Persephone,” he murmured deeply, “but I’m not quite a monster. Seduction in
these circumstances would be beneath most men.”
She met his eyes and read them. When he reached out and took her hand, she followed him back
into his own room. He closed the connecting door and switched out the top light, leaving only the
bedside lamp to light the way.
Turning back the covers, he put her under them and stretched himself out on top of them, drawing
her close so that she could pillow her head on his broad, powerful shoulder.
“All right?” he asked gently.
“Yes, thank you,” she murmured, feeling the tension slowly drain out of her as her drawn
muscles relaxed. The strain of the past days caught up with her all at once, and she felt suddenly
drowsy.
“Adrian, how old were you when your mother died?” she asked, her voice muffled against his
warm shirt front.
“Ten,” he said.
“Is that why your father took you on hunting trips with him…to make up for it?” she asked gently.
“Probably.”
She nuzzled her cheek against the warm hardness of his chest. “Adrian, you’re such a
blabbermouth,” she added with just a bit of her old cheek.
Soft, deep laughter shook the hard pillow under her ear. “Am I?” he taunted, and she felt his lips
brushing her forehead.
Her fingers toyed with the button on his shirt as the drowsiness washed over her like warm
bathwater. “I’ve got nobody now,” she whispered, feeling the ache come back.
His big arms tightened, protectively, possessively. “Haven’t you, Persephone?”
“Adrian.”
“Hmm?” he murmured against her hair.
“What finally happened in the legend? Did Pluto let her go?” she asked on a yawn.
“I don’t remember, honey. He was stubborn as all hell. I don’t imagine he’d have set her free
without putting up a fight—not if he cared as much as the legends say he did.”
“That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“The devil caring about anyone,” she explained. “Maybe he just had a good public relations
department back then. Some old salt of a reporter who didn’t get to heaven and had to earn a living
somehow…”
He chuckled. “Go to sleep, little one.”
“I don’t usually sleep with men, you know,” she murmured sleepily.
“This is a first for me, too, Meredith,” he said with a trace of amusement in his deep, clipped
voice. “I don’t usually sleep with women.”
“You ought to get more rest,” she told him lazily. “A man of your advancing years needs his
sleep.”
“Why, you damned little impudent…!”
She laughed softly. “Touchy.”
“My God, you’d try the patience of a saint, do you know that?”
“But, then, we’ve already agreed that you’re not one,” she reminded him.
“Damn you.” He said it on a ripple of laughter, his big hand catching her hair to jerk her face
back on the shoulder that was pillowing it. His dancing dark eyes met hers, something sensuous and
just faintly dangerous burning in them. “Baby girl, you’re touching a match to straw, do you know
that? It’s not going to take much more.” His other hand came up to brush her flushed cheek, his fingers
lightly tracing her soft mouth. “Do you understand me, or do you want me to spell it out?”
She blushed. “I think it might be a very good idea if I go to sleep.”
“So do I,” he murmured softly. He pressed her cheek back against his hard chest and put both
arms around her. “Goodnight, little one.”
“Goodnight, Mr. Devil,” she whispered impishly.
His fingers smoothed her flyaway hair. “Dana.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t call me sir.”
“No, sir.”
“Dammit…!”
“What?” she asked, feeling reality fade in and out as blessed sleep began to claim her.
“Are you going to call Jack in the morning?”
She tried to focus her mind. “I’d like to, if you don’t mind. He was…he was very good to Mama,
and to me.”
“I don’t mind, honey.”
She burrowed closer. “Adrian, she’s better off, isn’t she?” she whispered, feeling the pain come
back. “Isn’t she?”
“You know that already.” He drew her up closer, cradling her, rocking her gently in his warm
embrace. “Now go to sleep. Just go to sleep. I’ve got you, and nothing can hurt you. Sleep, my…”
His voice faded into nothingness in her mind.
She called Jack and had him meet them for breakfast at the hotel before they left. She was calmer
now, the mask firmly in place over her raw emotions, coping.
“I’ll never be able to thank you enough,” she told him while Adrian went to pay the check.
“Never.”
Jack looked vaguely embarrassed. He fingered his coffee cup. “You know when you come back,
your job’ll be waiting, don’t you?” he asked. He darted a glance toward Adrian’s broad back at the
counter. “Meanwhile, maybe he’ll keep your mind busy. You needed a break before. You need it even [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]