Fateful (20 page)

“Great thanks, how are you?” replied
Brianna.

“Great,” said Ethan.

Danielle giggled, this chatting about
pleasantries was kind of silly to her.

“What are you working on today,
Danielle? I’d really like to see.” He’d moved to stand in front of
her, so close in fact, she wondered if what he was truly saying
was,
I came solely to see
you
.

Before she swooned at his close proximity,
she led him to the painting she’d placed on the easel to replace
the one of the ruins. It was a painting of a frog with a golden,
jeweled crown on his head.

Ethan eyed her curiously, looking like he was
about to explode into laughter.

“What? Are you going to laugh at my work?”
Danielle faked injury, but knew exactly why he found it
humorous.

“No, I like it immensely. I didn’t know you
liked frogs so much.” She knew he was trying to be cryptic for
Brianna’s ears.

“You know I like frogs
a lot
, they’re so cute and green and
what girl doesn’t like The Frog Prince? Right, Bri?” Danielle
turned to see the expression on her cousin’s face.

Brianna looked just as confused as she’d
expected and nodded mutely.

“Danielle, did you paint this before or after
you met me?” Ethan asked.

“Before. Can you believe it?” she whispered.
It was kind of ironic that she’d created this before meeting
him.

“That is odd,” he agreed. “What else are you
working on?”

Brianna glanced at the one she’d placed
against the wall. Ethan noticed the action and took a step toward
her secret work.

“Oh no you don’t!” Danielle snapped jumping
in front of the painting.

“Why not?” he replied, his brows curving up
sadly.

“It’s not done. You know I don’t like showing
unfinished work. It would be like looking at a stick figure anyway.
You have to wait,” she insisted firmly.

After studying her panicked expression, he
resigned, “All right.”

Feeling sort of awkward with him in her room
and wondering what to do with herself, Danielle finally decided to
switch the frog prince for another unfinished painting to start
working on it.

“Hey, that’s unfinished, why can I see that
one?” he asked afflicted.

Oops. “It’s further along, I’m almost done
with it,” she retorted.

“I see,” he said in a low chuckling
voice.

Ethan moved around from her side to stand
closely behind her while she got her paints and brushes ready. He
slid his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.
Danielle could feel his breath on her neck, his broad chest
stirring with each breath against her back, and she could smell his
tantalizing fragrance. She totally would have swayed on her feet if
he hadn’t already been so darn close. A nervous giggle slid past
her lips as she lifted her loaded brush to the canvas, but stopped
a couple of inches away. “That’s really distracting,” she
breathed.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“You know exactly what, I can’t paint like
this.” Danielle turned her eyes to Brianna, who’d stopped typing,
and was watching closely with a very befuddled look in her eye.

“Should I leave?” she asked.

“No, Bri, you’d better not,” Danielle
insisted.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I really need to paint … Ethan can
relax on my bed.” She gave him a meaningful look.

He sighed and released her reluctantly, then
strode to the bed. Danielle felt the need to watch as the gorgeous
prince lounged back nonchalantly into her pillows.

She really didn’t want him to leave, but she
certainly couldn’t paint with him that close. Exhaling, she tried
to get back into a painting frame of mind. But she was struggling
with that just having him in the same room.

Danielle lifted the brush to the canvas, but
paused again when she noticed that her hand was trembling slightly.
Throwing back her shoulders, she decided to continue even despite
that fact and struggled through several minutes of work. When she
finished, she frowned because it hadn’t turned out how she was
hoping, knowing full well she’d need to fix it tonight when Ethan
wasn’t there.

“Ethan, would you like to have tea with us
before we go to our classes?” Brianna asked.

“Sure, that would be nice. Thanks.”

Brianna then gathered her report and went for
the door. “I’ll see you downstairs then,” she said as she left.

Danielle put her paints away and went to
stand by the bed feeling amused to see Ethan there. He beamed up at
her with those dizzying blue eyes of his. She was getting better at
fighting his effect on her, but leaned her knees on the bed just in
case.

He unexpectedly shot his hand out, grasped
her wrist, and pulled her off balance so she fell onto the bed with
him; an impish grin took over the line of his mouth as he did.
Danielle landed on her stomach, facing him as he lay on his side,
his head propped up on one elbow. She pushed up onto her elbows so
she could look into his face.

“This is rather inappropriate of you isn’t
it?” she taunted.

“Yes, a little,” he professed, with a
chuckle, but then his grin softened as he asked, “So why did you
sleep with the light on last night?”

Surprised he knew, she admitted shyly, “So I
didn’t have to see the shadows.”

“And the music?”

“Then I couldn’t hear any disturbing noises.
I didn’t want to hear anything that would get my imagination
going.” Danielle sighed, looking away bashfully. Was she in trouble
for this?

Ethan touched her face, gently turning her to
look at him. “I need you to trust me, Danielle.”

“Are you mad at me?”
She
feared he could be angry with her for not fully trusting him and
being scared of the night
.

“Heavens no!” He kissed her swiftly on the
end of her nose. “I just don’t want you to worry your pretty little
head. Please don’t worry yourself about Lucas, we have it covered.
I promise.”

“You do realize that you’re contradicting
yourself, don’t you? Do you want me scared or not?”

“I want you scared so you’ll be cautious, not
scared so you can’t sleep.”

“Well, they kind of go hand in hand.”

“Please try not to worry. Just be careful,
that’s all I’m asking.”

“
I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you.” He stood nimbly from the bed
with her hand in his and pulled her up with him. “Let’s go have
tea, shall we?”

They went downstairs to join the others. Nick
and Charlotte took in the fact that he was holding her hand.
However, Danielle couldn’t read their expressions to know how they
felt about it. Ethan pulled the chair out for her, and she sat
down. He then seated himself next to her.

Aunt Charlotte served her wonderful cucumber
sandwiches and scones again.

Nick conversed with Ethan over trivial
things, and his schooling. Danielle did wonder how many lies he
told her uncle though. Did he really go to school? Or was that just
an Order cover? When they finished, Ethan excused himself, saying
he had class this afternoon too. Danielle escorted him to the door.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” Do you really have class?

“Yes, I’ll come by again.” He beamed down at
her, brushing her hair over her shoulder.

“’
Kay,” she replied.

After passing one look toward the dining
room, Ethan swung his gaze back her way and, with a mischievous
smirk on his mouth, he kissed her.

That night Danielle slept with the light off,
but kept the music. She needed it and she was prepared to explain
it later if he asked about it. She didn’t want to dream of Lucas,
and knew the music would help prevent that.

The next morning, Danielle planned to do her
routine exercises. Even if her skills were useless against
vampires, she wanted to keep current in case she ran into another
guy like Zack. She put on her yoga pants and tank top, pulled her
hair back into a ponytail, grabbed her iPod and dock and headed for
the backyard.

Uncle Nick’s elegant garden was the perfect
place to work out, she’d decided. Selecting a wide bit of grass,
she stepped barefoot into the cool groundcover, hit play on her
workout playlist and began moving as the music filled the
garden.

She loved to stretch her muscles and train
her body. Danielle did standing Pilates blended with yoga, and she
usually moved through it at an aerobic pace because she didn’t have
the patience to do it slow. Inhaling and exhaling with the motions,
her limbs glided through a memorized routine. As she worked, she
could feel beads of moisture collecting on her body and oddly,
Danielle truly liked that feeling. She supposed it was sort of a
“runner’s high.” A refreshing breeze drifted through the garden,
cooling her, and the upbeat thrum of the song kept her
motivated.

When she finished her yoga-Pilates routine,
she switched to karate, and danced through her techniques, punching
and kicking into the air. She closed her eyes as her body glided
through the defensive flow she knew instinctively by now. The
breeze continued to kiss her face, the current of air tossing her
hair with it. Outward block, heel palm strike, step through
roundhouse kick, inward block—“Oh!” Her arm made contact!
Danielle’s eyes flashed open. Ethan, of course. Had he actually
thrown the punch she imagined she was blocking?

“Were you watching me?” she asked, a note of
suspicion in her tone.

“Yes,” he confessed impishly. “Spar with me,
Danielle.”

She measured his request for a moment. He
probably would be a good sparring partner, but what if she hurt him
now when the curse was weaker? “Are you certain? Are you trained in
karate?”

“No, I’m only trained in fencing.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You can’t hurt me.”

“But the...” She looked toward the house to
make sure no one was looking, and softly said, “The curse is
weaker, you’re weaker.”

He winced theatrically and said, “Ouch.
Would you kindly be gentler with my poor male pride?” Stalking
toward her, he lifted a pair of fists. “Let’s see what you’ve got,
and
don’t
hold back,” he said
smirking. A wicked light flashed into his eyes just before he swung
at her.

“All right,” she said, blocking the blow,
surprised at how much strength he’d put behind it when she felt the
impact.

Don’t look into his
gaze
, she reminded herself when her eyes trailed above
his chin. She certainly didn’t want to give him a chance to cheat
that way. With her sight focused there, she threw an upper cut at
his jaw. He blocked it then attacked, thrusting forward with a jab
and a punch. She parried and blocked, turning into a spinning kick.
She missed intentionally.

But, she
was
holding back, she was trained to do so when
sparring because one never really wanted to hurt a fellow student.
It was only supposed to be full force against a punching bag or a
real threat, and Danielle knew Ethan wasn’t a real threat. However,
by restraining herself, she’d give Ethan an advantage. He quickly
grabbed her wrist and pulled it behind her back in a lock. His lips
to her ear, he whispered, “You’re holding back,
don’t
hold back.”

“Are you sure about that? I do know some
pretty violent moves,” she informed him.

“I’m completely sure. Don’t hold back,” he
said, demanding it now.

Danielle put her karate face on. “Okay then,
you asked for it.”

He released her, and she attacked full force.
Sparring back and forth for a while more beads of moisture trickled
down her back. She was trained to fight like this but rarely had
the chance to really put everything into it, and secretly decided
she liked it.

Ethan managed to strike her in the arm harder
than she expected. Anger rose within her. Oh, she was so going to
get back at him for that. He threw a roundhouse punch. Danielle set
her teeth and put everything she had into her counter defense. She
stepped in swiftly with a double block, right hand sword, left palm
heel strike, right vertical punch to the face and right side kick
to the groin. He stumbled backwards and doubled over in pain,
groaning.

Danielle gasped. “Ethan, I’m sorry!” She ran
to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, which were trembling
with agony. Wait a minute. They weren’t trembling with agony, they
were trembling with mirth! She punched his shoulder. “You
fraud!”

That golden head of his lifted, revealing his
sinful expression. He let out a boisterous laugh and pounced on
her. Tackling her to the ground, he captured her wrists and pinned
them above her head.

“So much for five years of training,” she
muttered, defeated.

“That’s not true; you would be an absolutely
feral creature against any mortal man.”

“But entirely useless against a vampire.”
Even during the day?

Ethan dipped his head, and began tickling her
neck with his nose playfully. She squealed and struggled, but
couldn’t move. “Vampires suck! It isn’t fair.”

“It’s most certainly true, we do suck, but
you don’t need to rub my nose in it,” he said, laughing.

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that! I mean you
have too much of an advantage, it isn’t fair…. If garlic doesn’t
work, then what does? Can’t you teach me anything that would work
against you?”

He met her eyes with his, and his smile was
somehow innocent and shrewd at the same time. “I’ll research that
for you.”

She noticed the teasing note in his voice,
and believed he actually knew the answer to her question. He had to
know. “Oh, give me a break! You’ve been a vampire long enough to
know what works against you!”