Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) (5 page)

           
Even though Donavan had been the answer to her prayers, he was sometimes a smug
bastard. In comparison sharing a few intimate moments with him hadn’t made half
a spark light up inside of her like it did when she just
looked
at
Drake.

           
It went against everything she wanted. Inviting someone that she knew she
didn’t fully trust into her life and into her heart. But it was easier to
handle that, than it was to get her heart stomped on every time she turned
around. Nadia kept up the pretense of being around Donavan simply out of
necessity. Even with all of his faults, he was a charming, funny man who for a
brief time kept her mind from wandering to Drake.

           
She thought back to her parents. Neither having any family, they had both been
lonely and alone when they met. That changed after moving to Texas from
Louisiana. Within weeks her father, Matt, found a good paying accounting job,
and her mother, Anna, found one working for a local department store. Friends
soon followed. Nadia, an only child, had been raised with strict morals and
values. She knew from watching both of her parents hold down jobs that she
would never be a spoiled little rich girl like the ones she met at school. She
had been a young, shy and very mature girl for her age. There had only been one
person that made her feel gauche, naïve, and so ungainly that she wanted to
hide beneath something whenever she met him, and that was Drake Thompson.
 

           
A smile caught at the edges of her mouth as she thought back to those early
days. Her parents had been alive and happy, and she was too young to notice
anything about men. There were many company picnics, days to visit the animals,
and even more days when she would show up after school to meet with her father.
Of course for Nadia, the big deal was watching for Drake. By the time she
reached her sixteenth year, she could manage to say more than a few words to
the large Texan without blushing and tripping over sentences. She knew, by
then, what those sidelong glances and crooked grins did to female hearts and
bodies. It was a dream of hers that when she got old enough, she would make
Drake realize she was a woman, and after that, everything would fall into
place.

           
The death of her parents changed all of her dreams. The funeral was taken care
of with a small amount of insurance money that her parents managed to keep up
with, but every other necessity was covered by Drake. The tall, sometimes
brooding, and eerily perceptive Texan had stepped in whenever Nadia felt her
world falling apart. Sitting beside him in the funeral home and the large
church service had been a soothing balm to her young, bruised heart.

           
The days after the funeral, Drake had been her everything. When the state of
Texas had sent her to stay with an older couple in a foster home, Drake brought
her there. When she called him every week to say how she was doing, per his
instructions, he listened with avid interest. When Drake called her for her
seventeenth birthday and invited her out to eat, Nadia felt her young heart
start to beat with renewed fervor-until Drake picked her up and Nadia noticed
he wasn’t alone.

           
That day she realized something. Though she was seventeen, and a budding woman,
Drake would never see her as what she dreamed. He would never see her long,
flowing black hair, her light green eyes, and small, slightly curved, short
frame as anything sexy and beautiful. She would never be able to compete with
model tall and waspishly thin women that he paraded around with, especially
after he told her that she would never add up. Why would Nadia want to anyway?
They giggled like school girls and grasped at his body as if he were a precious
temptation that they couldn’t help but want. The one that he’d brought that
night was a new one, but Nadia knew that she would join the long list of women
that Drake discarded with amazing speed.

           
After that night, Nadia no longer called Drake. She no longer waited upon his
arrival of a visit as if it was the highlight of her week. She did her damndest
to ensure that when she did see him, she didn’t stare like some lovesick
teenager. Instead, she coolly held a conversation with him and did not respond
to his teasing ways.

           
She became driven, and after getting a job as assistant to secretary of the
president of a large company at eighteen, Nadia almost forgot Drake.

           
That hadn’t stopped her from dreaming, wishing, that one day his feelings
toward her might change. Of course, the
reality was, Drake
would never stoop to dating her or even see
her as someone desirable. By
the time Linda had passed on, and Nadia inherited everything, she gave up her
secret desires. She would never have Drake. Her body would always want him, her
mind would fall asleep with thoughts of him, but the real her would never have
the experience of being his woman.

At
the first society function, where Nadia was acknowledged as the new president
of Browning Inc., Drake was in attendance. When Donavan Hamilton asked for a
dance, Nadia felt the slow tingle, and body warming charge of Drake’s presence
close by, but she ignored it and accepted that dance from Donavan, even
admitting to herself that the small part inside of her that lusted after Drake
wanted him to be jealous by that snub. Now, little more than a year later,
Nadia was starting to believe God didn’t want her to be happy.

           
Sitting in her quiet home it was easy to think that, especially with that snub
from a year ago still haunting her. She had known that further enticing Donavan
into some semblance of a relationship would cause the hordes of society members
to think that was exactly what she wanted.

           
That couldn’t be farther from the truth. She was cold, and abnormally
indifferent to men. The only man that caused any kind of reaction in her was
the one that she had been trying to get away from for the past ten years. Of
course, no one in Texas society knew that, nor would they.

           
She’d latched onto Donavan for her sanity. She knew that with her new title,
money and prestige, she would have many questions, and need some direction. The
board had helped, but Nadia had known early on that she would need a
confidante, someone she could pester when she needed help. It had been easier
to let Donavan latch onto her, rather than call upon the one man who caused her
insides to light up
like
a fourth of July firework
display.

           
Now her confidante was gone, but thankfully, she had a year’s worth of experiences
under her belt. She was pretty sure she could handle anything now, especially
with the horror of last week still fresh on her mind. No way in hell would that
happen to her again.

           
Now comfortably snug under her comforter, with small slices of moonlight
creasing through her blinds, Nadia allowed herself to finally relax. Thoughts
of Donavan, and of how she put herself into this mess, didn’t stick, neither
did thoughts of Drake, and of how downright sexy he had been this afternoon in
her office. Her breathing deepened, her body molded to the soft, pillow top
mattress, and soon the blessed peace of sleep had pulled her under.

           
“Ms. Morales, it is so nice to see you tonight.”

           
Nadia gave Mrs. Penelope Harris a sugary sweet smile, ignored the hidden
meaning behind that statement, and replied, “You too, Mrs. Harris. I hope you
find the evening to be extremely entertaining.” Then she deftly maneuvered
herself away from the Harris’s and the other barracuda’s that were filing in
around her. The only thing she wanted now was to hide in the ladies room until
this whole farce was over. Of course that wasn’t an option, but Nadia couldn’t
squelch the ‘want to’ that formed in her stomach.

           
The Drossier family was one of the chief benefactors of the Browning
Corporation. Nadia had been putting together this event for over six months,
and now it was finally here. The wealthy family gave generously to the arts and
humanities. And for over ten years, they held a yearly ball/charity function
that drew numerous faces. The crowd ranged from business sharks to Wall Street
types, and as Nadia looked around she even saw a few Hollywood icons in the
mix. It was a lavish affair and a large feather in the hat of Nadia’s company
to be able to pull it off without a hitch. This was one of the many ‘large’
projects that her company handled during the year. Nadia usually loved every
single moment of it, but now she wasn’t so sure she could keep it together for
the rest of the night.

           
Donavan was here, with Suzanne. It was as if he was flaunting what society had
guessed at for the past three weeks. He hadn’t made it around to her yet, but
Nadia knew before the night was over, he would find her. They would have to
meet face to face, in front of everyone in the ballroom.

           
The hurt that she managed to live with for the past weeks slithered through her
veins, reminding her of what happened. She still felt bruised, battered, and
left out in harsh elements, after what she had seen.

           
That’s what you get for allowing yourself to care about a man that you never
wanted to begin with.

           
She had known what kind of person he was. She’d just refused to let her mind
dwell on that. And what had started out as a business relationship, turned into
a small bit of contented placement on Nadia’s part. She allowed herself to feel
at ease and comfortable in thinking that even though she didn’t love Donavan,
he would never leave her side and go to another. The whole pseudo-relationship
had been a front. They’d been more friends than anything else. That was all
that Nadia had been able to give.

           
So why had finding him with another woman hurt so much? Why did she feel like
the wounded party in this scene out of a horrible play?

           
Hell, she cried over a man that she wasn’t even sure she cared deeply for.
Sure, she had trusted him, to some degree, and there were many evenings where
she knew if she had been able to give more, things could have turned into
something totally different. But she hadn’t, and things stayed the same. When
she’d seen him pounding into Suzanne as if he couldn’t get enough of her, Nadia
felt the world shift, and her balance had been screwed ever since.

           
As she walked amid the throngs of people, she allowed the music from the band
to try and calm those stretched out nerves. Nadia had to admit that the place
was decorated specifically by her directions. Sheer, dark blue silk hung from a
center point on the ceiling, while beneath the silk twinkling white lights
blinked, creating a hazy, outside feel deep inside the ballroom. Blinding white
tablecloths covered every table, and long, tapered silver candelabras held
candles which emitted soft, wavy light in the large ballroom. The large
chandeliers were dimmed, and the atmosphere was soft, comfortable, romantic,
and hopefully inductive to writing large checks.

           
She made her way to the ladies room, then stopped at the sitting area and checked
her appearance out in the long, tall mirrors that took up one wall.

           
Her dress mode was never flashy, more understated and elegant. She didn’t care
for the flesh revealing designs that most of Texas society women bought;
instead, she leaned more towards clean lines and classic looks. The only
boldness she allowed in her clothes was the color. The deep, midnight blue of
her gown tonight was what drew Nadia in the first place. The dress was formal,
floor length, and was stunning in its simplicity. So far, her appearances in
public hadn’t put her on the worst dressed list, which surprised her because of
all the cattiness that surrounded this culture. She still got a feminine thrill
whenever she opened the paper and saw her own image looking back at her from
the best dressed section.

           
An hour later, after eating a small bit of food, and holding a few
conversations with some donators, a small charge lifted the hairs on Nadia’s
arm and neck. Warmth flowed deep into her body, and she grew hot even as a
chill skated upon her skin. Looking up from the table where she sat with Renee,
and a few other office workers, Nadia searched the area knowing that Drake was
nearby.

           
Seconds later, she spotted his tall, dangerously sexy body across the way. His
dark, rumpled hair gleamed mahogany in the candlelight, while the wavering
shadows highlighted his rugged, sharp bladed nose, and beautiful, all seeing
eyes. Firm, sensual lips smiled at something his date said. Nadia felt her
thighs tighten in anticipation.

           
His body was draped in a black tux, and instead of a bowtie, he wore a white
dress shirt with silver vest on under his tux jacket. The stark colors made him
look dangerous, and jealousy twisted deep in her gut. He was every dream, every
wish, of a man that she had ever wanted. After years of hoping, it was still a
forgone conclusion that she would never have a chance with him. But damn, a
woman could dream, couldn’t she?

The
darkness suited him. With his sinister good looks, scorching sensuality and
seductive Texas drawl, Nadia understood how every woman felt when she was
introduced to him. He was a devastating man.