Rowan fought the need to protect her from the sorrow she clearly grappled with. It wasn't his place, he told himself, and then was immediately ashamed. What was wrong with offering sympathy to a woman who grieved her dead husband? What was wrong with showing basic human kindness? He placed his hand on hers, giving her hand a sympathetic squeeze, wishing he could take her in his arms and make her forget her sadness. "It must have been a horrible time. But you lived through it."
She nodded, her eyes tinged with sadness. "It was horrible. But you know what's the worst?" She looked embarrassed for a moment. "I can't believe I'm telling you this. But after the séance … well, it kind of feels good to talk about it. Cathartic."
"He has released you," Mrs. P said with a nod, and filched the wine list. "It is time you speak of it and let go of the guilt."
"Guilt?" Rowan asked, still struggling with his urges. Sexual interest, he understood. Hell, it wasn't just awareness that Sophea stirred in him but downright lust, and he had his own sense of guilt about feeling lust for a widow. "What do you have to feel guilty about?"
"Surviving," she said simply. "That and not grieving the way I should have. You see, I'd only just met Jian a few days before he died. We had a whirlwind romance, so I didn't really have much of a chance to get to know him as a person. As bad as I felt that he had been so tragically killed, I spent most of my time after his death worrying about what I was going to do. I see now that I wasn't mourning the man so much as I was the future we were going to have together. And that's why I feel guilty. Felt guilty." She gave a little smile. "I guess it's time I accept that part of my life is in the past, and move forward."
He gave her hand another squeeze, then released it when he realized he'd much prefer to continue holding it. "If you don't think it's too presumptuous of me to say so, you're making a good start by being here."
"In Egypt, you mean?" she asked, tsking at Mrs. P and replacing the bread plate on the table.
"Yes. How is it you two found each other?"
"Oh, that was Jian's cousin." Sophea's brow wrinkled.
"His cousin? I thought you said you couldn't find any of his friends or family?"
"I couldn't." Her frowned deepened. "Now that's odd. I never really thought about it, but you're right-no one ever responded to the obituary notice I had placed in a bunch of California papers. How did the cousin-man, I wish I could remember his name-find me? And why didn't he come forward before?"
"He didn't think of it," Mrs. P said enigmatically.
Rowan glanced at her, feeling she wasn't nearly as scatty as she led people to believe.
Sophea was clearly going through the events of the last few days. "He called me up two days ago … no three, and said he was Jian's cousin, and that he was in the area only briefly, and could I escort his grandmother to Egypt. I don't-honestly, I don't know why I didn't see it was so very odd, but I do now. How did he find me? Why didn't he ever come forward when Jian died? And what was his name? Gah!"
"I do not have any children," Mrs. P said with blithe indifference. "Thus, no grandchildren, named or otherwise."
Sophea made a little face at Rowan. "As you can see, she needs someone to help make things go smoothly. Although that really is weird about Jian's cousin. I can't even picture him in my mind. He's just kind of a vague memory."
"So you don't know anything about the ring?" The words were out of his mouth before he realized it. Immediately, he damned his lack of sleep for allowing him to be so obvious.
"What ring?" Sophea asked, just as he knew she would.
"It doesn't matter. Forget I said it."
"Oh, like that isn't going to make me wonder all the more. Wait, this wouldn't happen to be a magic ring that lets its wearer turn invisible, would it? Because if so, we're back to The Hobbit."
"I am finished," Mrs. P announced, pushing away her plate. "If you are going to sit there talking rather than eating, we can leave."
"Rudeness does not become you," Sophea told her.
The old woman straightened her bent shoulders and gave a haughty look. "I am priestess of Heka, a vessel of Isis, and a hoochie-coo dancer extraordinaire. I am not rude!"
"Priestess of what, now?" Sophea asked.
With an effort, the old woman got to her feet. "I fear for the success of our journey if you refuse to acknowledge the truth. Your man will accompany me to my room if you desire to eat."
"I will?" Rowan asked, setting down his fork. The look he received had him on his feet without thinking. He held out his arm for Mrs. P, who took it with a little nod. "I guess I will."
"I'm done," Sophea announced, sliding her plate away as she rose. "I'll go up to the room with you so Rowan can finish his dinner."
But they were already moving, heading slowly toward the rickety elevator. "Would you mind signing the check for me?" Rowan asked over his shoulder.
Sophea stopped following them, and turned back to the table to scribble on the half-burned check.
"You might take it a little easier on her since it's apparent she really did have no idea who she is," Rowan said softly to the old woman.
She allowed him to open the doors to the elevator before entering it. "If I did so, she would never accept the truth. And we will never make it across the Duat if she is not prepared."
He looked at her, wondering just what it was she was up to. "How did you steal a ring from someone so powerful as Bael?" he asked before he could stop himself.
"Ha!" She gave a short bark of laughter and poked him in the chest with a knobby finger. "That was the easy part. What is to come is the challenge."
"Did you know this cousin of her late husband who she seems to be unable to remember well?"
"He must have used a glamour," Mrs. P said thoughtfully. "One intended to make him unremarkable in her memory. That was smart, don't you think? That would keep her from asking questions."
"Who are you talking about? You do know the man, then?"
Mrs. P lifted a package of mints from his pocket, popping one in her mouth before tucking the rest away in her purse. "I've met her husband, but not any of his kin. The red dragons always kept themselves to themselves."
Sophea joined them at that point, and Rowan said no more. He wanted badly to think about the things that the thief had told him-as well as consider Sophea, his feelings about her, and the ramifications of her new self-awareness (not to mention how the last item would affect his job)-but his brain seemed to stop altogether, and refuse to do anything more.
"Nightcap?" Sophea offered when he walked them to the door of their room.
"No, thank you." He gave her a wan smile. "I'm a bit tired and sore."
"Oh, yeah." Her gaze wandered around his face, no doubt taking in the cuts and abrasions from the fight with the demonic dragons. "I wanted to ask you about that, but I guess it can wait until tomorrow. We will see you again, won't we?"
His gaze slipped over her shoulder to where Mrs. P was taking the pillowcase off of a pillow and stuffing it into a side pocket of her suitcase. "You can count on that. You can definitely count on that."
Five
Rowan's lips were hot, but mine were hotter.
"Oh, yes," I moaned when he took one aching nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue in a manner that had me floating off the bed, my body curling around his.
"I want to make love to you, Sophea."
"That sounds perfectly wonderful." I breathed the words, my toes curling when his mouth moved lower, to caress my belly.
He looked up at me, his eyes changed. No longer the grayish-green, now they were brown, with bright gold and red flecks, just like a pretty stone.
Thunk.
"Tell me you want me, too," he said, his voice rubbing against my flesh like the finest velvet.
I pulled him up to where my body floated, rubbing my hand up his thigh to take hold of his penis. It was erect, silken flesh over hot steel. "I've never wanted anyone more than you, Rowan."
Thunk.
"Take me," I cooed, twining my leg around his, snaking my foot down his calf, and arching my back so that my breasts were thrust up at him. "Take me now. Make a dragon out of me."
His eyes glittered in the darkness, the passion in them making them glow.
THUNK.
My eyes shot open even before I was awake. I lay in the hazy dark, my entire body tingling with the highly charged erotic dream I'd been having, wisps of it clinging to my brain and making it hard for me to distinguish reality from the dream world.
The dark room was lightened somewhat by the glow around an almost-shut bathroom door. I listened with my breath held.