“I look forward to it.” With an elegant nod and a sweet smile, Rake turned, moving towards the server’s area. Turning also, Layla headed to the glass hall and in a few short minutes, was back to her own rooms on the second floor. Stepping into her Dragon-themed French Baroque suite, Layla shut her doors and slung her yoga gear to the floor. Her mind raced as she went to her side-bar, pouring a bourbon as she liberated her cell phone from a pocket. Taking up her phone, magically encrypted so she could dial out through the Hotel’s security systems, she dialed Reginald’s number.
Any last tension she’d been holding sighed away as she heard her Royal Siren’s smooth, haughty voice answer. “Layla? Why are you calling? What’s wrong?”
“Reginald. Can’t I just call to say hi?” Layla spoke impudently, a smile curling her lips that Reginald always assumed the worst whenever she dialed him.
“You never call me simply to sayhi.” Reginald retorted, and through their Bind, she felt him frown though she couldn’t see his surroundings. “Are you in trouble?”
“No, I just want to come see you.” Layla spoke firmly. “How’s tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow?!” Reginald spoke icily, though Layla could feel him smiling his pursed, tight-lipped smile now on the other end – the one he made when he was trying to be angry but failing. “Since when am I your top priority after months and months, Layla Price?”
“Since the Hotel’s losing money and Quinn has his panties in a bunch. But really, we miss you.” Layla spoke honestly, knowing that lying to Reginald was a lost cause. But even as she said it, her own statement hit her like a sledgehammer. She hadn’t seen Reginald for months – and something inside her was deeply missing his ferociously calm authority and vicious wit.
“You’remissing me. Quinn is just missing the money.” Reginald was trying very hard to not smile now. She could feel his oceanic energy rise in a luscious wave as a hot glint took his sea-grey and ice-blue eyes, amused. But the next moment, Layla felt his straight golden brows knit as he set a hand to his hip and stared out over the ocean. She had the impression he was outside, but couldn’t see his surroundings through their mind-link, as if he was blocking it. “Layla. The situation with my clan is… complicated right now. If it was just up to me, I would delay your visit a few days or even a month. But… perhaps I have delayed introducing you to my family long enough. I’ll make arrangements for your arrival. Take Adrian’s jet, his pilots know the flight path to Deep Harbor. I’ll be waiting on the runway for you.”
“That’s it?” Layla teased, a smile curling her lips now. “NoI’m so glad you’re coming?”
“Do you want me to soothe you with inane platitudes?” Reginald smiled back into the phone, hotly vicious now. “Or do you want me to simply show you how I feel when you arrive?”
“Showing me would be better. Way better.” Layla felt her body heat fast to Reginald’s sexy, disastrous intrigue. Breathless, her heart hammered as her drakaina howled in her veins, eager to enjoy the things she knew Reginald could do to her – missing it keenly all of a sudden. She heard his soft chuckle, and saw his blue-grey eyes spark with superheated flecks of gold far away, as if an Arctic ocean could burn.
“Come to me, drakaina. Submit to me,” Reginald breathed into the phone, pouring a wave of his oceanic magics through Layla despite the distance. “And Iwillmake all your dreams come true.”
“Ok.” Layla spoke dumbly, rolled by his power and fighting to breathe through the ocean that roared inside her now. Reginald’s next chuckle was dark, and Layla felt it wash over her skin like a devouring tide. But his intensity eased suddenly as she felt him turn and look back, as if someone had called him.
“I need to go, Layla.” He continued abruptly. “Fly out early tomorrow; I’ll be here to welcome you when you land. Wear my pearls, the earrings and bracelet you still have from Manarola; they’ll provide a modicum of protection against Siren mind-manipulations. I look forward to your arrival.”
Reginald didn’t sayI love youand he didn’t say goodbye, he simply hung up the phone in his authoritative, brisk manner. Layla found herself smiling as she hung up also.
As her heart beat hard to see her Royal Siren at last.
CHAPTER 3 – NORTH
Sipping a bourbon on Adrian’s Learjet, Layla read through the Hotel’s annals on her encrypted laptop, searching for any and all information she could find on Sirens. Dressed in an emerald wrap-dress with a cream lambswool dress coat and tall tan boots, a warm outfit for the chilly north, Layla wore Reginald’s pearls today so he could track her whereabouts. Fiddling with one luminous grey pearl and diamond earring, she rubbed the bracelet of pearls and diamonds around her left wrist, suddenly realizing she’d not told Reginald about Adrian’s news yet. In the haste of last night and this morning, it had slipped her mind; but feeling a wash of soothing oceanic power flow through her now from Reginald’s gifts, she continued reading.
She and Reginald would have time to cover Adrian’s news in the coming days – and hopefully a whole lot more.
Seagulls called in Layla’s ears as a feeling like ocean spray dappled her cheeks while she read about Reginald’s clan. She’d done casual searches before, but now she read voraciously about everything she was to face at Deep Harbor, the clan-home of the North Sea Sirens. Layla didn’t want to face Reginald’s family unprepared, and she committed everything she read to memory as Adrian’s jet soared over the North Sea.
As Adrian’s French co-pilot made an announcement over the intercom for their arrival, the jet began to angle down sharply. Glancing out the window at the news, Layla saw only blue ocean below. But even as she watched, the jet suddenly passed through a gut-wrenching barrier of light; the familiar yet disrupting sensation of passing back into the Twilight Realm from the human world. All of a sudden, a sprawling island of green hills and white cliffs appeared below where there had only been deep blue water before.
And a massive white city, devouring the entire island.
Ringed by sheer cliffs, sprawling tide-pools, and marinas filled with boats, the island had a dark blue harbor right in the middle, so deeply indigo it looked like it dove straight down to the bowels of the ocean. As Layla admired the sprawling white city, glittering in the sun like it was made out of sea shells or pearls, Adrian’s Learjet tightened its descent towards a white runway that stretched out into the ocean to the north. Gripping the arms of her chair, Layla let out a slow breath as they touched down. After taxiing to a berth on the small runway, Adrian’s French co-pilot opened the jet’s door, and Layla smelled the sweet-cool scent of the ocean.
And felt her Royal Siren Reginald Durant’s power flood her even before she saw him.
Stepping down the jet’s stairs, a spring wind whipped Layla’s curls from her chignon as thick white clouds scudded above, creating a pattern of light and darkness over the island. Waiting before her on the white runway was her Royal Siren, haughty and perfect. Cuttingly beautiful like a Versace model, Reginald wore a dove-grey vest and trousers with gold pinstripes that caught the morning sun, with dark grey alligator-skin boots and a slim belt. A pearl-white pocket square was in his vest, his shirt collar open to bare his beautiful collarbones and creamy-white skin, his sleeves rolled up to show his talisman on his left wrist.
A decadent cuff woven of gold, diamonds, and grey pearls, Reginald’s talisman was something Layla had often spied in her visions of him these past months, though he’d never had it at the Hotel. Additionally, he wore an ornate gold, pearl, and diamond dragon-ring on his right index finger, another item that was new since he’d left the Hotel. His bright golden hair was longer than Layla had last seen it; flowing over his shoulders even though it was bound half-back from the wind. Gold wisps were loose around his chiseled face, his cutting cheekbones and straight gold-blond brows fiercely handsome, his elegant and usually clean-shaven jaw now accentuated by a short golden stubble.
But though Reginald Durant was perfection in every way, his eyes were what smote Layla as she came to stand before him, drawn by his implacable tides. Sea-grey and ice-blue yet shining with gold, they held her like a vise with his perfect poise.
As he waited for her to draw near.
“Layla.” Reginald breathed, and Layla felt the gold of their Bind weave between their bodies, pulling them close as his oceanic power surged around her. Diving through her, his dominant power made her drakaina roar to be touched by its luscious depths, his coils of oceanic energy shining with sunlight as they swirled around her. Shivering, Layla was undone by Reginald’s vast magic as he stepped forward, stroking her cheek with his knuckles. Utterly dominant, he pinned her with his eyes and Layla surrendered to him – his gaze softening from dominantly pleased to beautifully wistful as his touch lingered. Layla’s world lit with joy as his eyes brightened, luminous like the dawn over the frozen north.
And then his full lips smiled – and he was more beautiful than anything in the world.
