Fateful (44 page)

“Hm, yes, it must have been amazing,” she
agreed while tracing patterns along the skin of his hand that
touched her.

“And intense,” he added.

Danielle melted into his gaze as they stared
into each other’s souls, caressing each other’s faces.

“This is intense,” she said breathily.

“Very,” he replied softly. “Let us make new
memories, Danielle, and when we enter the next life, hopefully our
past will return to our minds, and our memories will be
complete.”

He then cradled the back of her head and
kissed her. They lingered, tasting the other in the sweet kiss.
Ethan slid his fingers along her spine, to the small of her back
and then pressed, bringing her body closer to his.

But just then, they were interrupted as
Sophia rapped lightly on the door. “Afternoon tea is ready!” she
sang merrily.

They immediately released each other.
Danielle sighed, and Ethan groaned.

“She really does have thwarting timing,
doesn’t she?” he complained softly.

“Could she really not know what she’s
doing?”

“There’s a good chance she knows
exactly what she’s doing.” Ethan then got up from the settee and
headed for the door. He opened it, took the tray from Sophia and
thanked her. She spied them carefully before leaving, and Danielle
realized that Sophia
did
know
what she was doing. She was checking up on them. Rolling upright,
she drew her knees to her chest and hugged them. Even here they
didn’t have complete freedom, and she frowned at the
thought.

Fed up with the interruptions as much as she
was, Ethan decided to do his own cooking from then on. Sophia
seemed disappointed, but Danielle thought Ethan was equally tired
of cleaning up after the messy vampire, and realized the job may be
more daunting for him as a mortal.

“What are we doing tonight? Did you make
plans?” she asked, pouring herself a cup of what smelled like peach
tea.

“I was thinking dinner and then a movie.”

“That sounds nice.” She stirred honey in, but
couldn’t help it when she remembered the dark fact that many other
vampires were out stalking the night for prey. And they had plans
to go out into that night. “You’re sure we’ll be safe?”

Seeming only a little surprised by the
question, Ethan said, “I’m certain. Max has led men into battle
with swords, I’m sure he can handle the safety of two little
mortals. I want you to try to forget the danger and just enjoy
this. It’ll be a while before Celeste and Lucas figure it out, we
have some time.”

“How do you know?”

“While members of the Order are limited, we
still represent many. They know they’ve offended us by attacking us
and will lay low for a while because of it.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“All right.”

After they’d finished with the tea, they went
to the Jaguar. “I want to try filet mignon with my new taste buds.
Are you up for a fine restaurant?” Ethan asked, opening the car
door for her.

“That sound’s really nice. Do you have
reservations for us
and
our
shadows?” she asked with a mocking tone as she settled into the
passenger seat, all the while knowing they were being followed by
two guards.

“They’ll have to worry about that on their
own,” he replied flatly, and she realized he didn’t like this
arrangement much more than she did, even though it was
necessary.

As they arrived at the restaurant, she
noticed who their guards would be for the evening. Max had been
Ethan’s bodyguard for the day, and he was also following tonight,
but Danielle had only met the other man once when she’d been
looking for Nadia the night of the ball and couldn’t recall his
name.

“Who’s that?” she asked as they were seated
at their table.

She watched as Max and the other vampire
arranged for a table within view of her and Ethan, while avoiding
eye contact with the mortals.

“That’s Cedric. I’ve known him for a very
long time. We can trust him.”

Ethan lifted the menu, and opened it. “Ahhh …
it has been sooo long,” he muttered as he hungrily looked over all
the choices his taste buds could now fully enjoy.

“Don’t order too much,” she warned. “I’m not
rolling you out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am … appetizer?” he offered while he
invited her to agree to it with a tempting smile, and the raise of
one eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes but smiled. “Sure, babe,
choose whatever sounds good to you. I don’t have any
preference.”

The meal had progressed with lots of praise
and humming from Ethan as he savored the cheese fondue appetizer
and the crisp salad. When the main course finally arrived, Ethan
drew the aromas coming off the hot food into his lungs and closed
his eyes for a moment. With an eager look holding his expression,
he cut into it with his knife. Chewing, his eyes rolled back and he
said around the bite of tender steak, “This is simply divine!”

Danielle giggled as the other guests turned
to gaze at Ethan with looks of annoyed surprise. She noticed that
Max and Cedric were also watching, their plates of food untouched
on their table until the waiter asked if something was wrong. Both
men then made a show of cutting up the food into small pieces
before eating some.

Ethan again made another happy noise, drawing
more gazes. “We’re getting looks,” she said, smirking at him. “Try
not to enjoy it so enthusiastically.”

“Sorry.”

When they’d finished, she noticed Ethan
didn’t look so well. His golden brow creased as he rested his knife
and fork on the plate.

“Are you all right? Did you eat too
fast?”

“Probably,” he admitted, placing one
hand over his stomach. “Red meat may be one of those things that
don’t agree with me.” A reckless smile lifted the corners of his
mouth. “But it
was
well worth
it!”

She tried to talk him out of getting dessert,
but he was insistent on not missing that the first time he dined in
a restaurant after more than a century.

Her eyes widened when he ordered three
desserts: sticky toffee pudding, cheesecake, and crème brulèe. “Now
you’ll really be sick.”

“We’ll share.”

“Right, so then we’ll both be sick. Maybe Max
can help you walk out of here when you’ve finished gorging
yourself.” She shifted her gaze to the knight and noticed him
trembling with laughter. Apparently he heard that.

But when they’d cleared the dessert plates,
it seemed Ethan could hold his food just fine. “Ready for a movie,
Danielle?”

“Sure. You know, you didn’t save any room for
popcorn. Have you ever had that before?” she asked as Ethan paid
and they left for the theater.

“I’ll make room for it, but no, I haven’t
tried it. We've been to the cinema a few times during the day, but
never bothered with popcorn.”

“Oh, you have been deprived,” she said. “We
need to get the extra butter, that’s a must.”

Danielle could see the anticipation reflected
in his eyes, and came to comprehend the fact that he was thoroughly
enjoying the little luxuries of being a mortal. Maybe she was wrong
to think he regretted this change.

Before the movie even started, Ethan began
munching on the popcorn as soon as he’d purchased it. His brows
lifted, along with the corners of his lips while he chewed. He
liked it, she could tell.

She looked to see where the guards were as
they seated themselves in the theater. They’d settled in about six
rows behind them. When she caught Max’s eye, he winked at her from
under his half-closed eyelids. She loved it when he did that, and
giggled girlishly, then turned back around. She was muddled
slightly with the slight glimpse of his spellbinding eyes, but it
was fleeting.

“Danielle, are you flirting with Max again? I
think I have issues with that. Now behave yourself,” Ethan
commanded sternly.

She knew from Ethan’s tone that he wasn’t
really angry, and was only teasing. “I am behaving! Max is like the
big brother I never had,” she said, falsely peeved.

“All right then.” He turned to give Max a
reproving look.

“It’s strange having bodyguards like this.
I’m not used to it.”

“You’ve had bodyguards for almost as long as
you’ve been in London,” he reminded.

She guessed that was true, but since she
didn’t know she had guards then it felt different.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Ethan
said, “Popcorn?” as he held the now nearly empty bucket of popped
kernels in front of her, and gave it a shake.

“Um, you’re supposed to save some of that for
when the movie starts.”

“I can get another one,” he said a little too
eagerly.

“Are you trying to make yourself thoroughly
ill?”

“You were right.” He looked at the bottom of
the paper bucket. “I really like the popcorn. And cinema butter,
that’s a blessed thing.”

She laughed.

The film began playing, but they wound up
paying more attention to each other than the movie. Danielle had
never liked couples who necked during the entire length of a film.
She always wondered why they even bother to purchase tickets.
However, it seemed now she was one of them. She’d just joined the
movie kisser club, and liked it. They hardly noticed when the movie
ended.

“So, what next?” Danielle hoped Ethan had
more planned, like club dancing. She’d decided to let her worries
about Celeste and Lucas go because Max and the others actually made
her feel safe even if she disliked the lack of privacy. So why
couldn’t they enjoy themselves?

“Won’t Uncle Nick be angry if you begin
missing your curfew too?”

Her eyes checked his watch, sure enough, it
was that late. Now she totally understood Brianna’s habitual curfew
breaking. It was hard to get home on time. Especially when she had
a boyfriend whom she’d much rather stay out with. “But I don’t want
to go home,” she grumbled.

“I don’t think I want your Uncle angry with
me. I believe I’m already on thin ice with him.”

“You haven’t done anything for him to be
angry about.”

“Danielle, I’ve put you in more danger than
you’ve seen in your entire life.”

“I don’t blame you for that.”

“But your Uncle will if anything happens to
you,” he admonished.

“You said everything would be fine, and we
have Scooby and Shaggy tailing us. How could anything happen?”

Ethan ruptured into boisterous laughter
concerning her dynamic duo choice, but remained determined. “I’m
not going to push the limits with Nicolas tonight, Danielle. We’ll
spend all day together tomorrow and the next day and the next.
Well, except for during school. Otherwise I promise to be around—a
lot.”

She exhaled loudly, blowing her hair from her
face. “Okaaay,” she agreed morosely.

* * * * *

Ethan walked Danielle up to the front door at
an appropriate time of night for their return. He kissed and hugged
her goodnight. She pushed the door open as he descended the steps,
but then Uncle Nick noticed Ethan leaving and called out to him.
“Ethan! Please come in for tea!”

Ethan halted his stride to the Jaguar, and
smiled up at the risen moon. “I would love to. Thank you, sir!” He
nimbly bounced up the steps, snagged her hand and pulled her inside
after him.

When they got seated and the tea had been
served, Uncle Nick began the conversation. “Ethan, I must apologize
for my outburst at your home. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Yes, of course, it’s already been
forgotten,” Ethan said graciously.

Then it seemed Uncle Nick attempted to
lighten the mood further with a comment he meant as a joke—or did
he? “Thank you for bringing Danielle home at a decent hour, even
though it is later than in the past. Truthfully, I’m relieved
you’re keeping her out after dark. I was beginning to fear my niece
was dating a vampire,” he said in a tone laced with mirth.

Danielle nearly spat out her mouthful of tea,
but managed to collect her composure before Nick noticed. Ethan
didn’t even flinch, he only smiled and chuckled softly at the joke
and then glanced at her with a gentle reproving look for almost
giving him away. She bit her lip, stared down into her tea, and
began stirring it nervously.

“Clearly I’m not. I daresay, you wouldn’t
want to be face to face with a vampire at night, now would you?”
Ethan said with a similarly playful tone.

Danielle widened her eyes at his antique way
of stringing words together. She felt he came close to giving
himself away when he used words like “daresay.” Luckily, it seemed
Uncle Nick didn’t notice, and she thought maybe it was just one of
those “proper British” things.

“Definitely not. That would be quite
hazardous, for sure,” Nick concurred.

His supportive reply made her wonder again
about her uncle’s belief in the existence of vampires, and she
couldn’t stop herself from questioning again. “Uncle Nick? Do you
believe in vampires?” she asked, even knowing she shouldn’t feed
this hazardous topic. She checked with Ethan to see if she’d
angered him with her question, but he remained as calm and patient
as usual.

“I don’t know, love, but I think it certainly
is a possibility. There are many things we don’t know about in this
world.”

“True,” she agreed softly, and couldn’t help
but be grateful to Ethan for sharing many of those hidden truths
with her.

When they finished with the tea, she walked
Ethan to the front door. She stepped outside with him, and shut the
door so they could talk candidly for a moment.

“I’m sorry for asking that. It’s just that he
was the one who got me thinking about vampires when I first moved
here and before I ever met you. I wondered then if he believed in
them, and I still wonder that. Sometimes I would like them to know,
so they’ll be careful. But I—” Ethan silenced her by pressing his
lips to hers.