“I’m working on it,” Dageus snarled.
Drustan gaped at him. Dageus could seduce any woman. If not gently, then with a rough, wild wooing that never failed. He’d not missed the way the wee lass had looked at his brother. She needed no more than a firm nudge. So why the bletherin’ hell hadn’t Dageus nudged? A sudden thought occurred to him. “By Amergin, she’s the one, isn’t she?” he breathed.
“What one?” Dageus stalked to a tall window, pushed the drapes aside and stared out at the night. He slid the window up and breathed deeply, greedily, of sweet, chilly Highland air.
“The moment I saw Gwen, a part of me simply said ‘mine.’ And from that moment, though I didn’t understand it, I knew that I would do aught ever it took to keep her. ’Tis as if the Druid in us recognizes our mate instantly, the one we could exchange the binding vows with. Is Chloe that one?”
Dageus’s head whipped around and the unguarded, startled look on his face was answer enough for Drustan. His brother had heard the same voice. Drustan suddenly felt a surge of hope, despite what he’d felt inside his brother. He knew from personal experience that oft love could accomplish miracles when all else seemed destined to fail. Dageus may be dark, but by some miracle, he wasn’t lost to it yet.
And when one was dealing with evil, Drustan suspected love might be the most potent weapon of all.
When Gwen joined them in the library a short time later, without Chloe, Dageus tensed. He’d yet to speak to Drustan about the attempt on Chloe’s life, and about the Draghar—whoever they were.
Is she the one? Drustan had asked.
Och, aye, she was the one for him. Now that Drustan had remarked upon it, Dageus understood it was what he’d sensed from the very first—the kind a man kept, indeed. ’Twas no wonder he’d refused to use a memory spell on her, and send her on her way. He was incapable of letting her go. ’Twas also no wonder he’d not been satisfied with merely trying to bed her.
In this, his darkest hour, fate had gifted him with his mate. The irony of it was rich. How was a man to woo a woman under such conditions? He knew naught of wooing. He knew only of seduction, of conquering. Tenderness of the heart, soft words and pledges, had been burned out of him long ago. The youngest son of no noble consequence, pagan to boot, he’d caught too many of his youthful follies attempting to seduce his own brother.
One too many of them had coyly suggested a three-way bout of love-play—and no’ with another woman. Nay, always with his own twin.
Four times he’d watched Drustan try to secure a wife—and fail.
He’d learned young and learned well that he possessed one thing a woman wanted, hence he’d perfected his skills and taken comfort from the knowledge that while women might eschew intimacy with him, they never turned him away from their beds. He was always welcome there. Even when their husband was in the next room, a fact that had only deepened his cynicism involving so-called matters of the heart.
Except Chloe. She was the one woman he’d tried to seduce that had refused him.
Yet remained at his side.
Aye, but how long will she remain there when she discovers what you are?
He had no answer for that, only a relentless determination to have all of her that he could. And if that determination was more akin to the desperation of a drowning man than a courageous one, so be it. The night he’d tempted death and danced on the slippery terrace wall above the snow-covered city of Manhattan—and fallen on the safe side—he’d made a promise to himself: that he would not yield to despair again. He would fight it any way he could, with any weapon he could find, till the bitter end.
“Where is she?” he hissed, surging to his feet.
Gwen blinked. “It’s wonderful to see you, too, Dageus,” she said sweetly. “Nice of you to drop in. We’ve only been waiting forever.”
“Where?”
“Relax. She’s upstairs taking a long shower. The poor girl traveled for an entire day and, though she said she slept a bit on the plane, she’s clearly exhausted. What on earth have you been doing to her? I adore her, by the way,” Gwen added, smiling. “She’s a brainy geek like me. Now, can I have a hug?”
His tension ebbed slowly, aided by the knowledge that if Chloe was safe anywhere, it was within these walls. He’d personally chiseled the protection spells into the cornerstones when the castle had been built. So long as she remained within them, no harm would find her.
He skirted the sofa and opened his arms to Gwen, the woman who’d once saved his life. The woman he’d pledged his own to protect. “ ’Tis good to see you again, lass, and you’re looking lovely as ever.” He bent his head to kiss her.