Free Forever and the Night (The Black Rose Chronicles) by Linda Lael Miller Page B

hypnotized. She wrenched back her hand just as Aidan entered the room again, bringing the scents of fresh air and snow with him.
    He looked at Valerian but spoke to Neely.
    “The car is ready,” he said. His tone was terse.
    Neely nodded and scrambled into her coat, eager to be away. And, if she was to be honest, eager to be alone with Aidan again.
    A white English sports car, a Triumph Spitfire with a canvas top and plenty of chrome, waited in front of the house. Aidan opened the passenger door for Neely before going around to the driver’s side and sliding behind the wheel.
    “What’s going on around here?” she demanded, surprising even herself with the bluntness of the question. It seemed her troubled subconscious mind had decided to make a move on its own, bypassing the usual channels. “Aidan, I had a very strange, very vivid dream last night, about you. We danced, you and I, to an old-fashioned tune, one I’m certain I’ve never heard before. Tonight I lifted the lid of that music box on your desk, and out came that very same song.”
    Aidan shifted the expensive car into gear and stepped on the accelerator. The machine navigated the snowy driveway with ease. “Coincidence,” he said, but he didn’t so much as glance in her direction.
    “No,” Neely insisted. She was certain of that one conviction, if nothing else. “I couldn’t remember the dream— it drove me crazy all day long—but when I heard that tune, everything came back to me. You and I were dancing. And—and I’m not sure now that it really was a dream. What’s going on here, Aidan?” She paused to gather her courage. “Am I imagining the attraction between us?” she asked in a small but determined voice.
    He shifted again, and the car fishtailed slightly but quickly regained its traction. “No,” he said, with succinct reluctance, and in spite of all the danger she was in, Neely felt a rush of wild, flamboyant joy. She wanted Aidan to kiss her again, the way he had in the dream or delusion, whatever it had been, but he didn’t even glance in her direction.
    “We’re playing for very high stakes, here—much higher than you can possibly imagine. You must keep yourself safe, inasmuch as you can, and most of all you have to trust me.”
    She sighed and settled back in the leather seat, clasping her hands in her lap and memorizing his profile. “Well,” she said. “That was certainly cryptic. Why do I get the feeling you don’t intend to explain?”
    At last he looked at her, and even though he kept his distance, Neely had the oddest sensation that she’d just been soundly kissed. The incident left her dizzy and wanting Aidan with an embarrassing desperation.
    “I will explain everything when I can,” he said kindly.
    Neely touched her fingertips to her lips, which were still tingling from a kiss that hadn’t happened.
    Aidan lifted one comer of his mouth in a teasing and damnably mysterious smile. “I can do other things as well,” he said, leaving her even more mystified than before. “One of these nights I’ll show you.”
    Neely blushed and barely kept herself from blurting out that she wanted him to show her all his tricks, then and there.
    They had reached the highway, and Aidan made a right turn, chuckling to himself as if he’d heard her thoughts. She squirmed as the small, sleek car shot toward the Lakeview Trailer Court and Motel.
    Neely looked around, forcing herself to think of something besides the inexplicable need Aidan had managed to stir in her.
    There was no sign of the Blazer; the only other vehicle they encountered was a county snowplow.
    Aidan turned onto the gravel road that wound through the trailer court and came to a stop at Neely’s door.
    She felt as awkward as a teenage wallflower at the biggest dance of the year. She wanted Aidan to touch her and at the same time was terrified that he would. She opened the car door hastily and climbed out. “Good night,” she said cheerfully. “And thank