Page 19 of Awaken the Dragon
“Why are you marrying him?”
His voice was deep and so close to her ear she opened her eyes and almost toppled off the platform, but he caught her. One strong arm wrapped around her waist before he easily pulled her close beside him. Now the reflection was of her and Theo touching and holding her to his side as if he were the groom and she were his bride.
Before they left the Office, he had changed into blue slacks and a lighter blue shirt, which was no looser on his muscled frame than the white tank he had worn beneath the shirt he’d given her earlier.
“I have to,” was her eventual, mostly truthful, response.
“Do you love him?”
“That is...well, it is...” She stopped because the fluttering in her stomach had turned into an all-out cyclone whirling around and threatening to throw her totally off balance. “That is not your concern.”
He stared at her a few moments more with blue eyes a softer hue now but still potent enough to feel as if it were searing right through her, seeing things she never wanted revealed. It was the strangest thing, but she welcomed the connection in a way she’d never accepted anything before and for just one second she thought this was the perfect wedding picture. They complemented each other in such an ordinary way, her darker complexion, to his light one, his taller built body to her shorter slim one. His mysterious air to her secretive one. The latter had gloom settling over her like a heavy cloud. They were not perfect and this was not a dream.
“I am finished here,” she said when he still had not spoken.
She took a step to the side and then looked for Ziva so she would not fall face-first off the platform, but the woman was not there.
“I’ll help you down,” Theo said and before she could protest, he was wrapping his other arm around her waist and lifting her down off the platform. But before her feet could touch the ground he held her there, his gaze once again capturing hers.
“You’re not what you appear,” he said as if the words somehow amazed him. “None of this is and I’m going to find out why.”
“Let me go.” They were the only words that came in the hazy fog filling her mind.
She was normally so clear and focused, had been that way all her life. But this...him...his hands on her...the feelings it awakened, sensations it sent rippling through her body, were all too much. She wiggled free of his embrace, stepping back to catch herself as her feet finally touched the floor.
“I will hurry with the next fittings and we can be on our way. I would like to stop by the hotel to see if my box has been delivered.”Stay focused, think of the task ahead and nothing else.Keeping those words forefront in her mind was imperative.
She did not wait for his response, but hurried back to the dressing room, falling back against the door when it was closed.
“He is not meant for you.”
For a second she didn’t move, thinking these words were in her mind as well.
But then the voice—that was not hers—continued, “The one you are here to marry is not the one meant for you.”
For the second time today, she turned quickly to see Ziva standing in that corner, this time holding those sticks with a grip so tight her knuckles were turning white.
Chapter Seven
There were impossibly high ceilings in this place and walls that were in some places jagged pieces of light and darker gray rock. In other places, like here in what looked like a massive den or study, they were cool and smooth as Shola dragged her fingers across it. She could not sleep in this strange place, the second in as many nights. Thoughts and questions had been running through her mind at breakneck speed until she felt woozy with indecision. There had been no other choice but for her to get up from the bed and get some air. Only she had yet to find a door that would take her outside and she’d been walking for at least twenty minutes.
The impromptu self-led tour wasn’t so bad; she had never been inside of a mountain before. And she doubted this place looked like any other mountain in this world. She stepped down into the room, her slipper-clad feet moving from the smooth cement surface that ran through all the hallways to the sinking sensation of plush carpet. From somewhere in the room, a soft white illumination similar to natural moonlight filled the space. There was warmth here, like she hadn’t felt in the other hallways and much smaller spaces she’d seen of this place so far. That feeling guided her toward one of several light gray couches, where she took a seat and sighed with the comfort that immediately engulfed her.
“That’s how I feel sometimes when I come in here and sit down. It’s one of my calming places.”
She startled, a hand going to her chest as her eyes widened and she looked to the couch at her left where he was sprawled.
“You should announce yourself and not frighten people.”
“You entered the room I was in, stands to reason you should’ve been the one announcing yourself. More importantly, what’re you doing out of bed?”
“Not sleepy, just like you I suppose.”
Why did he look so effortlessly hot lying with one leg on and one leg off the couch?
“Got a lot on my mind; what’s your excuse?”
She shrugged. “Got a lot on my mind.”
