Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

something she knew was inevitable. If she didn’t step off the cliff and reach for him, he was already lost to her.
    “I’m tired, moi prekrasnij . I stopped sleeping the day they took you from me. Do you remember what it was like together? My body curled around yours, holding you as we drifted off to sleep. I thought at first I’d be unable to allow anyone to sleep in my bed. I have no trust, but, with you, it was natural. You belonged with me. The moment my arms were around you, I was at peace. Do you remember the feeling, Abbey?”
    His whispered words slipped inside her, hovered there, brushing against the fragile barrier she tried to erect between them. The music was slow and dreamy, a soft blues number that matched her melancholy mood. She could feel the touch of her sisters and knew that they had arrived, worried as they felt the strength of her emotions. She slipped her arms around Aleksandr’s neck, trying not to weep for her lost trust in him. He had not only shaken her faith in him, but in herself and her magic. The past wouldn’t let her go, not her love for him and not her memories of his betrayal.
    “I remember.” She choked out the words against his throat. “Can you hear me screaming in pain? Can you, Sasha? It’s so deep I can’t ever get it out and it’s locked inside me forever.”
    He crushed her to him. “Yes. I’m screaming too.” He held her, staying to the shadows, his face buried in her silken hair. He was screaming, deep inside where no one else could hear. Where it hurt so much he couldn’t find words to let it out. He had never needed anyone before Abigail had brought love and laughter into his bleak world. His duty had been his life and in that barren existence there had been violence and deceit and even treachery. Abigail had been an unexpected treasure, precious beyond even his understanding until he’d lost her. It hurt like hell to know he was responsible for their pain. “I’m sorry, Abbey.”
    She didn’t respond and he’d spoken the words so softly he wasn’t sure she’d heard him. He leaned over her and put his lips against her ear. “Did you hear me?” He couldn’t remember a time in his life when he’d said those words to anyone. When he meant them. And now he knew he would say them again and again until he put right what he had made wrong between them. He brushed his lips against her ear. “I’m sorry, Abbey, I’m sorry.”
    “I heard.” Her fingers curled around the nape of his neck, stroked bare skin until he felt her touch burning through his body like a brand. “I heard you.”
    Lights flickered as the last notes of the song faded away and Aleksandr turned her toward the back of the room and the small tables. Fitting her body beneath his shoulder protectively to prevent others from seeing her poignant expression, his gaze shifted around the room, a slow, unhurried examination, noting the placement of furniture, exits, and most of all the faces in the room. Several fishermen sat at the bar. A group of locals laughed together in a larger group at the far end of the bar near the entrance. Couples held hands, some standing, some sitting. Abigail’s sisters sat together right next to the table where Carol and her friends were gathered. Deliberately, Aleksandr chose the small table between Abigail’s family members and he took the chair facing the entrance, pulling hers around so she would be sitting beside him rather than across from him.
    “Do you see the men at the table behind the partition?” He brought her hand up to his mouth and nibbled Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    on her knuckles, smiling at her as he did so. “Just glance over at them, Abbey, and see if anyone is familiar to you.”
    She had all but forgotten why they had come to the inn. Abigail rested her head on his shoulder and shifted her gaze. People came from the various surrounding towns, and she might not know them all by name, but she knew their faces. Camaraderie was strong on the coast and she nodded and smiled at those she made eye contact with. Most of the younger men were staring openly at Joley and Hannah. A few strangers hung out at the bar, around the dance floor, and in small groups at a couple of the tables.
    Behind the low partition a larger group of men sat together and they didn’t look as if they were enjoying the music all that much.
    “They aren’t blending in,” she said.
    “No, and it’s probably