Drake Sisters 06 - Turbulent Sea

done.'
    Fear skated down her spine. She moistened her lips. 'We're not going to be alone.'
    His eyebrow shot up. 'Really? We are now.'
    He simply closed the scant inches between their lips and took her mouth. Not savagely. Not with the ravenous hunger she felt smoldering beneath the surface, but with such tenderness it nearly wrenched her heart right out of her body. Tears burned behind her eyelids, but she blinked them away. Before she could stop herself, she was kissing him back. She could try to blame it on exhaustion, but truthfully, the moment he touched her - he owned her.
    Someone slammed their palm against the outside of her door. 'Car's waiting. Let's go.'
    Ilya didn't hurry lifting his head. He finished kissing her thoroughly. 'We'll figure this out, Joley, give it some time.'
    Pressing her hand against her burning mouth, she nodded and rushed out, Ilya following at a more leisurely pace.
    She didn't care if it looked to him as if she was running. She slid into the car beside Brian and closed her eyes, leaving them closed for nearly the entire ride to the airport. Around her, she could hear the others laughing and talking. Inside she wept. She hated that she had become the person she despised most. Weak and helpless against her own needs.
    She watched Brian as he hurried away from the band at the airport, making his way to Nikitin's car in what had to be a previously arranged meeting. She felt for him, knew what it was like to want someone that was wrong for you. She wouldn't have understood before, but her own failings had given her a tolerance for and understanding of the weaknesses in others.
    Brian returned within a few minutes, his steps heavy, his shoulders slumped. He looked as if the weight of the world was on him. Joley glanced around her to see if anyone else was watching. Tish knew. Joley could see it in her eyes when she looked at Brian as he walked back toward them. The others didn't notice, but Tish knew heartbreak, and Joley was becoming all too familiar with it, and there was no missing the pain in Brian's expression. For once, Joley didn't care about feeling another person's pain or emotion, she only cared about shielding her friend. As Brian approached, his steps heavy, she flung her arm around him and walked with him up the stairs to the plane.
    'You okay?'
    He shook his head. 'When I'm with him, I find it so hard to believe that he's what you say he is. Even with the evidence I've seen with my own eyes, all the little things that add up, I don't want to believe it, Joley.' He pressed his fingertips to his eyes hard.
    'I'm sorry, Brian.'
    'He said he didn't mean the things he said. He swore he'd never consider hurting you or anyone else I cared about.
    He was hurt and angry that I didn't give him a chance to tell his side of things. I should have done that. I should have listened to him.'
    Joley sank into the seat beside him, noting that Logan, who was holding Lissa, and Tish had their heads close together while Rick strapped an infant seat to the chair for Lissa. Leo took a seat with Denny across from him. She knew, without looking, exactly where Ilya was at the back of the plane. She could feel his gaze on her. She was far too aware of him, every detail, so much so that sometimes she swore she knew when he took a breath. She reached over to Brian and rubbed his sleeve in an attempt to comfort him - or herself.
    'If he is the head of one of the branches of mafia, or whatever they call it in Russia, he's dangerous. Being with him isn't worth dying over.' She leaned her head back against the seat. 'You know my family is different. We have other senses, gifts, magic if you will. We don't think of it that way, but we know things about people when we touch them.
    It's why I'm careful not to touch skin. I can feel emotions, and sometimes see things others would rather keep private.'
    She smiled at him. 'You hid yourself very well from me. I see auras and melodies, and yours has always been rather sad, as if you had suffered a great sorrow.'
    He shrugged his shoulders. 'It's hard to be so alone all the time. I love music, Joley, and I love what we do. I looked after everyone and tried to keep us all together, which wasn't always easy, especially after Tish left Logan, but I was still alone. How can you be anything else when no one knows who you really are?'
    Joley sighed. 'Strangely, my friend, I felt exactly the same way.'
    'Joley, how could you? You're so beautiful and talented and easy to