Fateful 2-Fractured (12 page)

They both froze, pulling in a sharp intake
of air. Danielle disengaged her lips and stared into his eyes.
Ethan closed his and let his fingers glide along the flesh of her
lower back a moment longer, then exhaled abruptly and yanked her
blouse back to its proper position.

“I’m sorry, Danielle. I didn’t mean—”

“I know. Truthfully, I liked that much more
than I should have,” she confessed.

This
long
engagement was becoming physically painful
as their desire for one another grew—as it naturally should. It
would’ve been best in this situation to get married sooner than
later, and therefore avoid the allure of what they’d forbidden
themselves by choice.

“You shouldn’t tell me you liked that. That
really doesn’t help,” Ethan groaned.

Smiling a guilty smile, she said,
“Sorry.”

“This is getting massively frustrating,
isn’t it?”

“Yes, and you know how impatient I can
be.”

“How could I forget? Waiting till you
graduate must be
killing
you.”

She laughed, and mumbled, “That’s an
understatement.”

“Honestly, I’m getting to the point—I’m
tempted—or rather, I’m tired of—Yet…” Apparently he was unable to
even finish one sentence, and she realized then that his patience
was waning as well. This Edwardian boy was reaching his limit. With
his gaze suddenly smoldering, he twisted so she was beneath him,
and came down on her with one hot kiss that stole her breath. Eyes
going wide, Danielle wondered if maybe he’d changed his mind about
waiting and then closed them in bliss as his mouth moved over hers.
How far...?

Two soft knocks interrupted the party. Never
mind, she thought irritably. Could only be Sophia, and what
timing!

Ethan kissed her nose, and pushed himself
from her. “Sophia to the rescue, yet again.”

Danielle moaned.

Opening the door to reveal Sophia standing
there with tea service for two, Ethan directed the pretty vampire
inside. Sliding her gaze to the clock on Ethan’s fireplace mantle,
Danielle noticed it wasn’t even four o’clock—yet. Her eyes
narrowed, Sophia was early!

Ethan thanked her and took the tray, then
brought it to the settee because there was no room for it on the
table. Sophia left.

“In the mood for tea?” he asked.

“Actually, yes. What about you?”

“Now’s as good a time as any,” Ethan said,
seating himself next to her.

As Ethan poured the hot liquid into her cup,
she watched as something new began swimming in the depths of his
deep blue eyes. He muttered quietly, almost to himself. Then his
gaze turned scheming as he poured honey and cream into her tea and
held the cup toward her.

She took the cup and saucer, and asked,
“What are you thinking?”

“Hm?”

When he wouldn’t make eye contact, she
accused, “You’re plotting. What is it?”

“Pardon?” Ethan asked, feigning innocence,
stirring his tea.

“Nice try. Tell me what you’re
planning.”

“I’ll tell you later. I need to do some
other things first.”

“Like what?”

“Drink your tea, Danielle, I’m not telling
you now.”

“Humph.”

They drank in silence for a few moments, and
she considered seducing it out of him as she’d done with his sword.
But just as they were finishing with their cups and before she
could even attempt it, Ethan attacked.

He plopped the china-littered tray onto the
floor a bit too roughly. Before the delicate porcelain even stopped
clattering, he’d pinned her to the Chesterfield settee, and she
squealed when he assaulted her neck with as storm of kisses.

“What’s gotten into you?” She laughed as he
tortured that ticklish spot.

Another three raps at the door came before
Ethan’s answer, and the look on his face told her everything.

“Was that your plan? Did you know
she’d do that? Is she standing right outside the door?
Because
that
can’t be
coincidental.”

“No, my plan is entirely different. However,
I was testing her…. It seems you may be correct,” Ethan whispered
and shook his head. “This needs to end.”

“What are you going to say to her?”

“Nothing. It would hurt her feelings. I have
some other strategies up my sleeve this time.” Ethan kissed her one
more time and made his way back to the door.

Sure enough, Sophia stood behind it.
“Darlings, I noticed how many dishes you have cluttering the table.
I came to clear some of it away.”

Gaping, Danielle thought, smooth!

“Thanks, Sophia.” Ethan then helped her
stack and gather things up.

“Ethan, dear, I’ll do the dishes today; you
needn’t worry yourself about it.”

“I appreciate that, Sophia. Thanks for
taking such good care of us,” Ethan said.

Impressed that he always remained sweet and
respectful toward Sophia, regardless of how many times she
interrupted them, or demolished his kitchen, Danielle fell a bit
more in love with him for that. He had the patience of a saint.

Sophia paused, considering them
suspiciously. “Now please, Ethan, consider her rep—well … oh, never
mind. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon,” she said as she bustled
from the room, her arms filled to the brim with trays and
dishes.

Danielle stared after the lovely immortal,
shocked. Was Sophia going to say what she thought she was going to
say? Her gaze shifted to Ethan, and he responded to the question
apparently written on her face. “Yes, Danielle, she was thinking
that.”

“So that’s why she’s been lingering by your
door?”

“She just wants to help. She wouldn’t
want you ruined in the eyes of the
ton
.”

“The what?”

“The
ton
is the fashionable scene in London. It’s a
Victorian term.”

“Oh. Same as the notion of being
ruined—old-fashioned.”

“Indeed,” was Ethan’s antique response.

Exhaling a frustrated groan, Danielle
shook her head. While she too wanted to wait, she also knew long
engagements were not a smart way of holding onto virtue. Danielle
pushed upright. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this. I’m
going to school nonstop. I have homework I
should
be doing right now, but I’d rather not.
It’s become a tedious task trying to rush through it. I’m tired of
feeling threatened. We all know Lucas and Celeste have started
plotting against us again, and I’m tired of being followed or
interrupted constantly.” She looked at the engagement ring on her
finger, and twisted it once around her finger. “I … I….” But she
didn’t really know what else to say.

Ethan sat back down, lifted her left hand,
placed a kiss on the ring, then spoke, “Danielle, I have a
plan.”

“Tell me, please. Right now.”

Ethan didn’t answer right away. He just
peered into her green eyes with his sapphire ones. Then after a
moment or two, he closed them and rested his forehead on hers. His
other hand twisted through her hair. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“Seems I’ve heard that before.”

“And did I keep my word?”

“Yes.”

“I need to see if it’ll work first. I don’t
want to get your hopes up if it won’t.”

“Fine, tomorrow then.”

“Shall we test Sophia again?” Ethan
whispered appealing as he dropped his mouth against hers.

Danielle laughed, and succumbed easily. His
lips parted as he exhaled his delectable breath into her mouth.
Even though it wasn’t new, she was surprised at how much she liked
that, and with anyone else that may have been kind of gross, but
not with him. Her hands traveled their way around his waist,
pulling him closer, knowing Sophia would begin rapping on the door
any second.

This time the door flew open. Startled, she
jerked reflexively away from Ethan. However, it was Nadia this
time. The black-haired beauty noted their intimate position with
one look, then ignored it altogether.

“Guess what!” she said with untamed
excitement radiating off her.

“What?” Ethan grumbled. He didn’t release
his hold on Danielle, but rested his cheek against hers with a
sigh.

“The room is almost finished! Soon you’ll be
able to bite me and turn me into a mortal!”

“That’s nice, Nadia. Does that mean you’re
going to lock yourself away right now?” Ethan asked, apparently
hoping she would soon leave.

“Beon said it’ll be ready in a month or so,
and then he’ll lock me in for two weeks.”

“Two weeks, locked up with no food. That
sounds horrible,” Danielle mused aloud.

“It won’t be as bad for me as it was for
Ethan. Beon is stocking the room with books and other things like
that for me to do.”

“Great. Things for you to throw at us when
you’re at your grouchiest,” Ethan complained.

“Was it that bad? Danielle, was Ethan
mean?”

“Um, not at first … but then, yes, he became
sort of scary.”

Ethan cringed at her words. Okay, she
admitted in her head, he was completely terrifying, but Danielle
kept that to herself.

Nadia frowned. “Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“I came damn close to it.” Danielle could
almost feel the wave of guilt that seemed to crash over Ethan. It
was true though, he had been rough in his handling of her while
they’d been trapped together and the curse began to poison his
mind. She figured his tortured expression was due to the memory,
and he pulled her onto his lap into the cradle of his arms, then
tucked her under his chin as if he felt the need to protect her
again.

Nadia’s eyes grew substantially with worry,
and her sable brows twisted upwards. She sat down next to them, and
placed one hand on Ethan’s. “Ethan, will I be able to do this? Or
will I just end up trying to kill Danielle?”

“We won’t let you kill her. But I
won’t lie to you, it was extremely difficult. You have to
really
want the cure.”

“Danielle, are you sure you want to do this
for me?”

Danielle understood that for the curse to be
broken, Nadia had to willingly submit to a bite from a mortal while
extremely thirsty, with the power of the curse at its strongest.
And she knew that vampires were most dangerous and most likely to
lose control in that condition. But for Nadia she was willing to
try it, knowing Max and the others would be there to prevent Nadia
from harming her. “Yes, I’m certain. I want to do this for you.
It’ll be fine. Ethan and I were alone, but you’ll have support from
friends.”

Nadia kissed Danielle on the cheek and
hugged her hard. “All right, I’ll leave you two alone for now.” And
then she left.

“Would you like to take a tour
of
the
dungeon?” Ethan
offered.

“
Sure. You know, it’s kind of funny,
you said you didn’t have dungeons before, yet now you
do.”

“And I’ll bet money Beon has it connected to
a secret passageway.”

“You still never showed those to me.”

“Well, it seems now is the time.”

“Oh!” Halting Ethan with a hand on his
chest, she dropped her voice to a whisper and said, “Would those be
a good way of escaping Sophia?”

Ethan laughed. “Don’t you think I’d have
already taken you there if that would have worked?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” she replied,
deflated.

One of the well-lit passageways led to the
new dungeon, which looked depressing at the moment. It was lined
with thick, reinforced cement, and the walls were plain, but the
furnishings Nadia had described would make it nicer than the one
she and Ethan had been trapped in. Though, to Danielle, it still
looked like an extremely bleak place to spend two weeks.

Chapter 7

White Roses

It was another day of digging through
mountains of homework. Brianna, who was seated on Danielle’s bed
reading, snickered when she groaned a third time.

Danielle was working on painting a
still-life…. She didn’t like still-lifes. In truth, she preferred
painting landscapes, people or any other living creature. Painting
inanimate objects on a table bored her. And her heart wasn’t in it,
which was showing in her work.
Just get
the grade
, she kept telling herself. She’d thought
choosing a subject she liked would help as she’d gathered up some
of Aunt Charlotte’s things for tea and arranged them artistically
for a model. Still she struggled with getting the shape of the
teapot and teacup correct. It took much longer than usual. Rubbing
her temples she considered the flaws and how to fix them another
time.

Unfortunately for her, there were other
reasons she couldn’t seem to concentrate. Celeste and Lucas were
constantly lurking in the back of her mind. Would they do something
to her family to get at her? Her gaze wandered to Brianna, and a
stab of guilt severed her nerves. They can’t hurt her, she pondered
with panic slicing through her gut. She couldn’t live with herself
if they did. And now she had a bellyache, she thought as she rubbed
at her midsection.

Danielle jumped when the doorbell rang.
Brianna noticed. “Are you okay, Dannie? You seem skittish.”

“I’m all right.”

Brianna’s brows knitted together, and
Danielle knew her cousin hadn’t bought it.

Aunt Charlotte called up from the bottom of
the stairs, “Danielle, it’s Ethan. He wants to study with you.”

“Send him up,” she called back, relieved.
He’d said he would tell her his plan today. She really needed to
know what it was, and hoped it would help settle her nerves and
rioting stomach.

Ethan entered, strolled to the desk and
dropped a huge stack of books on top of it.

“What’s all that for?” she asked,
experiencing another spike of pain.