Destiny's Whisper (11 page)

“I shouldn’t be here,” Chloe whispered, she felt so cold, cold all the way to her bones, could almost feel her blood sliding to a stop. Her eyes held a fearful wildness as she looked around, seeking an escape. “Andrew’s waiting for me. I can’t be late,” she whimpered, her body beginning to shake.

Sergei heard the pain and fear in her voice and struggled to keep his tone light, his voice calm, “You’re off the ice for a while. Remember, Chloe?” he asked, dropping the bags to the ground without thought, ignoring the sound of breaking glass, walking slowly the few steps toward Chloe where she struggled to remain upright, her balance vanishing on the uneven walkway.

“But the competition, I can’t miss the competition. I promised Andrew I wouldn’t mess up this time. It’s not his fault I mess up. He could win if it wasn’t for me. He’s right, I’m nothing. Nothing!” Chloe explained, her voice quivering as tears overtook her, her legs dissolving as her mind shut down and she fainted.

Sergei watched her eyes start to close and rushed the remaining distance to her side, scooping her into his arms and lifting her effortlessly long before she hit the ground. Leaving crutches and bags littered on the front lawn, he carried her swiftly up the walkway, calling for his father as he went and nudged the screen door open with one foot. Stepping inside, the coolness of the house and the familiar scents of home assailed him and he looked into Chloe’s unconscious face, willing her silently to open her eyes and smile at him, realize she was safe.

Aleksei peeked over the upstairs railing and saw his son, holding an unconscious Chloe in his arms and hurried down the stairs. “What the hell happened?” he asked, gently placing his fingers against her neck, and felt her pulse beating strongly against his hand, checked her pupils and found them normal.

Sergei shook his head, “I don’t know. She started mumbling about competitions and Andrew and the next thing I knew, she was folding.”

“Did she fall?”

“No, I got to her before she got that far.”

“Good.” Aleksei nodded, “Take her upstairs and lay her down. My guess is her body’s dictating just how much she can take right now and it decided it was time to shut down for a while. I’ll call her doctor to make sure this isn’t something we need to be calling nine-oneone over.”

“Okay,” Sergei mumbled, a bit dazed, nodding in agreement.

“You okay? Have you got her, or do you want me to take her upstairs?”

Sergei shook his head no, “I might as well get used to lugging her around if we’re going to be partners,” he stated, and started carefully up the stairs, her slight weight in his arms barely noticeable.

“Sergei, it’s called
lifting
, not lugging, and for the record, it’s easier to lift them when they’re not dead weight!”

Sergei grunted an acknowledgment to his father’s words, and slowly, cautiously carried Chloe up the stairs. Only a part of the way up, Chloe stirred. With a small sigh, her eyes flickered open, and Sergei made the mistake of looking down into those shining eyes the color of a summer sky. He managed to make it as far as the landing before his feet refused to move him any farther forward, his ebony gaze transfixed on her warmly flushed cheeks, her eyes glazed and slightly confused. Suddenly it was impossible to take a full breath. From far away he could hear a steady buzz blocking out all surrounding noise.

Chloe’s soft words barely reached his ears, yet he knew her question, “What happened?”

Had he heard it slip from her full, softly pink lips that drew his attention so intently? The sudden desire to taste those sweet-looking lips, so pouty and full, shook him to the core. This was Chloe, his sister’s best friend, the little brat who had tormented him for years, who, along with his sister, had spent the better part of their days thinking up ways to make him crazy, just for the simple sake of doing so. Funny, the more things changed the more they stayed the same. She was still making him crazy, just in a different way and without the help of his sister. With a strength of will he didn’t know he possessed, he pulled his gaze from her tempting mouth, groaning silently when his gaze returned to hers and her eyes made him think of sliding into the warm water of the Caribbean. How could someone’s eyes be so blue? Chloe’s repeated question gained his attention and he shook himself free of her spell.

“You fainted on the front lawn,” he answered in what he hoped was a casual tone, unfortunately the deep huskiness of his voice said otherwise.

“You caught me?” She asked in amazement, her eyes going wide. She couldn’t remember a man ever rescuing her in such a way.

“It was that or let you fall. I didn’t think the first time I tried to catch you should end with you being splayed on the ground with dirt and grass in your teeth. If I can’t catch you on ground, how am I ever going to catch you on the ice?” he asked a bit gruffly, counting the stairs as he continued up them, wondering why they seemed to be never-ending.

“Thank you,” Chloe whispered, her gentle breath breezing over his cheek and down his neck creating small jolts of electricity that went straight to his hormones and sent his blood boiling.

Sergei almost made the mistake of looking back into her eyes, but was worried this time he might not escape their innocently seductive power and drown in their depths. As nonchalantly as possible, he shrugged his broad shoulders, his motion lifting her up and down, and mumbled, “Whatever.”

Chloe frowned slightly at Sergei’s gruff tone and suddenly standoffish attitude. Only moments before she had felt strangely cherished as he held her in his arms, his dark eyes transmitting a power that went straight to the deepest part of her soul–her heart–and left her wanting more. More of what, she wasn’t sure. She just wanted to feel that sensation of being the only one in a world filled with warmth and caring and possibly–someday–love. Silently she screamed
Ilove you Sergei
, holding her little secret close to her heart, hoping against hope, that someday he might return the feeling just a little bit. For as long as she had known him, she’d loved him, from afar and silently, but loved him nonetheless. Only in her wildest dreams did he return the sentiment.

When his face suddenly turned toward hers, deep blue and ebony gazes locked, his filled with surprise, hers with uncertainty. She opened her mouth to explain, found she couldn’t put two coherent thoughts together and found herself melting under his intense stare.

I love you, Sergei
. He’d heard it as surely and as loudly as if she’d screamed it from a mountaintop! Yet he knew she hadn’t said a word. This was getting too weird! He planned to put a stop to this nonsense right now. They were going to be partners, period. Skating was his life, he didn’t have time to be fooling around with skinny eighteen year old girls who looked more like twelve-year olds. Although, if the truth was to be told, she didn’t look anything like a twelve year old, more to his dismay.

Sergei opened his mouth to tell her exactly where things stood and suddenly all common sense deserted him. The little girl he remembered bore little resemblance to the young woman he now held in his arms. This lovely creature with her gold and honey hair in soft disarray, her eyes deepening to a dusky blue, her breath coming in shallow little gasps from slightly parted lips, her cheeks flushing under his scrutiny, bewitched him. Without thought, he slowly pulled her closer to him, lifting her upper body to bring that tempting mouth within reach, his head lowering to meet her approaching sweetness.

Chloe’s blood raged hotly as she watched Sergei’s head lower steadily toward her lips, anticipation threatened to consume her if she didn’t feel his kiss immediately. Her small tongue darted out to wet suddenly dry lips, her motion wringing a low moan from Sergei. So close, Sergei’s gorgeous mouth was so close she could feel it’s heat, could feel his breath entering her mouth, tempting her to share his need, daring her to taste of him.

Time stood still, breathless, filled with power, promising joy in the unknown. Their lips so close, their gazes locked and searching, their bodies taught with wanting…”

“Sergei, why are Chloe’s bags scattered across the front lawn?” Dani’s voice called from the guest room.

Two sets of eyes darted apart, the spell broken, tension still hot in the air that surrounded the two. Sergei couldn’t decide if he should kill or kiss his sister for the interruption; Chloe felt the same way. With a muffled groan that could have been a growl of frustration, Sergei carried Chloe into the guest room, deposited her just over it’s threshold, turned and without a word, left her in the company of his sister.

Dani’s questioning look was quickly dismissed as she noted Chloe’s flushed cheeks and immediately began seeing to the comfort of her friend and getting her settled into her room, despite Chloe’s protests of being fine.

From across the hall, Jordan had watched the encounter between her son and Chloe, remembered the heat of those early sexual awakenings, of realizing the opposite sex didn’t, in fact, have cooties, and wondered if it had been such a good idea to bring Chloe home after all. This was definitely a situation that was going to require monitoring and she just hoped she had the energy to keep up with them. At the same time, she wished Chloe luck, because she, of all people, knew just how persuasive Rocmanov men could be when they got you in their sights. Rocmanov men moved mountains to get to the women they loved, and Sergei was simply a reflection of his father.

Jordan’s breath caught in her chest and her mind whirled headily as the possibility of her son being in love took hold. Was it possible? She asked herself with a quick shrug. Surely not, she decided with a sweep of her head back and forth. Sergei and Chloe had known each other for ages, more often than not, barely tolerating each other for the sake of Dani. Yet, Jordan couldn’t forget the way the two had gazed at each other, lost in a world of their own, and again the question arose in her mind. It wasn’t impossible to imagine the two of them together, just very different.

Jordan smiled gently as the thought of watching the two of them fall in love played in her mind. She only hoped she wouldn’t have to watch the heartache that could just as easily follow.

The road to love could be heaven or hell, paved with rose petals or hot coals, filled with laughter and joy or tears and pain. Jordan sent a silent prayer into the still air asking their journey toward love be one they would remember with tender smiles and wistful sighs, not curses and a bottle of Jim Beam. Heaven knew, with the Rocmanov’s it was always feast or famine. Maybe this time, a Rocmanov would fall in love ‘normally’, whatever normal might entail.

But then again, since when did a Rocmanov ever do anything in a normal way?

Might as well admit it, Jordan thought, because from what she’d seen from her son, for all intents and purposes, Chloe had already lost a war she didn’t even know had begun.

CHAPTER 7 

“
W
hat horrible thing did Sergei do this time? Your cheeks are all flushed,” Dani worried, ushering Chloe toward the bed.

Chloe moved forward slowly, her arm looped across Dani’s shoulders as she limped along, her gaze focused on the mound of pillows she was more than ready to sink into.

The bed was huge, one of those beds you’d see in stylish home magazines, with tall posters and mountains of pillows in assorted colors and textures; a bed that screamed decadence but in a very subtle way. Covered in a comforter that was swirling shades of peach, the numerous pillows that graced the head of the bed continued the peach theme. Every pillow was a varying shade of peach, from the palest to the deepest tone of the spectrum, some bore lace, others satin, still others velvet. As Chloe finally reached the bed, her fingertips slid over the smooth spindle on the foot board that reached far over her head and she leaned her cheek against the cool wood. Closing her eyes, she hoped the visions of her encounter with Sergei, that still swirled hotly through her mind, would disappear like the morning mist. They didn’t. With her eyes closed, the vision of Sergei’s dark eyes, shining with a sensuous light and his gorgeous, mouth slowly lowering toward hers filled her mind and she snapped her eyes open, dizzy with the sensation.

Chloe’s muffled groan brought Dani’s attention immediately back to her and she returned to Chloe’s side, resting her hand against her forehead. “You feel a little warm,” Dani stated, noticing Chloe’s slightly glazed expression. “Are you okay? You’re not going to barf or something are you?”

Chloe’s short laugh and solid ‘No!’ had Dani feeling much better and she helped her friend up on to the bed, lifting her cast left foot onto the soft mattress and placing one of the numerous pillows beneath it.

Chloe watched Dani’s ministrations with a soft smile; her hands tingled against the fabric of the comforter and she then realized it was velvet. Velvet! Never in her life had she ever known anyone with a velvet bed spread.

Dani watched Chloe’s hands smooth over the surface of the fabric, remembered all the times she herself had done the same thing. There was just something about the way velvet felt beneath your fingers, soft and comforting and yet highly sensual. With a sidelong glance, Dani smiled at her friend’s questioning look. “I know. Who sleeps on velvet? But mom saw this and decided guests deserved to be treated to something totally outrageous and decadent–her word, not mine– so that’s why it’s here. All the pillows were her idea too. Granted, they’re a major pain when you have to make the bed but this is the best room to have a pillow fight–lots of ammunition!” Dani ended, grabbing a small pillow and tossing it lightly at Chloe.

Chloe caught the pillow, covered in shiny satin the color of bronze, trimmed with dancing fringe, and rubbed her cheek against the cool fabric. “Your mother’s very considerate,” she stated quietly.

“Yeah, she is.” Dani agreed in return, a bright smile lighting her face. “Now, is there anything you need right now? Anything you want?” Dani asked, looking around the room, and then grabbing up a silk throw that was draped over the back of a wing chair which sat beside the window that overlooked the front yard.

“No, I’m fine. I just wish I didn’t feel so useless. I feel like I should be doing something–anything.” Chloe answered quietly, her fingers fidgeting in frustration.

“Sorry, kiddo, for the time being, it’s downtime. You’ve been out of the hospital for less than three hours. If Mom found you doing anything more than taking a nap, she’d shoot the both of us,” Dani stated knowingly, draping the sumptuous silk throw over her legs, tossing little ‘fru-fru’ pillows aside and fluffing up the feather bed pillows before pushing her back against them. “Sleep well, Chloe. You’re safe now,” Dani whispered as she placed a gentle kiss against her friend’s cheek, and with a smile, turned to leave the room. At the doorway, she cast a final glance at Chloe, crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue and closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar as she listened to Chloe’s soft laughter.

Outside Chloe’s door, Dani turned to head toward the stairs and was nearly knocked over by her brother, as he bolted from his room. Dressed in what she knew were his workout clothes, others would have considered them rags long since meant for the trash bin: shorts soft and faded to a dusky blue, frayed at the hem, left his long, muscled legs to full view. His shirt, more a hodgepodge of fabric too stupid to disintegrate, hung from broad muscled shoulders. The missing sleeves showed off his well-defined arms; arms, Dani knew, pressed heavy weights with barely any effort. The torn neckline exposed his wide chest and the dark hair that curled thickly across it. Somewhere along the line, the bottom half of his shirt had been ripped off, leaving the majority of his muscled stomach visible and the ‘inny’ belly button, now hidden in swirling dark hair, she always teased him about. If nothing else, she had to admit, her brother had one gorgeous body!

“Off to work on those flabby pecs?” Dani teased as he brushed by her, his dark eyes flaming, his jaw clenched tensely.

“Back off, brat!” Sergei growled in response, casting a fiery gaze that encompassed both his sister and the guest room door.

“Don’t get all nasty with me, Sergei. I’m not the one that upset Chloe. By the way, what did you say to her that got her so frazzled?” Dani demanded hotly.

“Nothing. I didn’t say a damned thing!”

“You must have said or done something, she was all flushed and shaky and confused. I know you had to have done something to make her act that way,” Dani continued, following him down the stairs, stopping two steps from the bottom, so she was on an even level with him where he stood on the wooden foyer floor, watching her descent.

“Dani, I will tell you for the last time, I didn’t do anything to Chloe. If you don’t believe me, which you obviously don’t, go ask her, she’s your friend, not mine,” he stated hotly, his hands clenching and unclenching as he struggled against his desire to return to Chloe and make sure she was okay for himself.

Dani watched her brother’s hands flex and unflex, recognized the motion that signaled his frustration and tucked the question away for later. What on earth was going on around here, first Chloe, now Sergei? Things were getting weirder by the second! “We’ll talk later,” Dani finally suggested.

“Yeah, sure, feel free to talk all you want. Just don’t expect me to come up with answers that satisfy your nosy curiosity. Chloe just got out of the hospital, she’s dealing with being off the ice for weeks, her foot in a cast and being without her mother. That should give her the right to be shaky, confused and flushed, with–or without–your approval. Now, if it’s okay with you, not that I give a rat’s ass about your opinion one way or the other, I’m going to go work out!” He stated, his voice deep and calm despite the tension that radiated from him in waves. With a final fiery glance, he stormed out the front door, the screen closing behind him with a gentle swoosh.

Dani was thoroughly baffled. First Chloe, shaky and dazed, and now Sergei, looking for a fight. If she’d seen this situation in a movie, it would have meant the boy and girl were attracted to each other and, yet, fighting the attraction at the same time. Dani thought about the possibility for a minute. Chloe and Sergei–romantically involved? With a quick shake of her head she dismissed the thought as impossible. Then again, with the way the world had turned upside down in the past few days, anything was possible.

With a small frown, Dani called for her mom, heard Jordan’s answering voice call out she was in the kitchen and with a last glance at the guest room door, headed off to the kitchen.

Hopefully Mom had some answers to her questions because she sure wasn’t getting any answers from Chloe and Sergei!

Gathering up the forgotten bags of Chloe’s belongings, Aleksei heard the screen door open and close, watched his son stalk across the front lawn, and head directly for the separate building that housed a full gym. If there was a piece of exercise equipment made, chances were good it could be found in the Rocmanov’s home gym. Aleksei recognized the look in his son’s movement, even from a hundred yards away: frustration, tension, with a little anger thrown in for good measure. All signals that could be tracked to the same source–a female. As with himself, his son sought the same method of salvation; he’d push his body to exhaustion in the hopes his brain would follow, a tactic Aleksei had tried more than a few times. Unfortunately, each time had left him physically exhausted with his mind focused solely on the female who had sent him there in the first place–Jordan. All too clearly, memories of their early encounters rushed forward, filling Aleksei’s mind, and then body, with pictures and feelings that made his body go hot and his mind swirl dizzily. His breath grew ragged as his mind relived the first time he’d kissed her: the spirit of joy, the innocence of discovery, the rightness of love she had shown him. Now, it looked as if Sergei was facing the same dilemma and, as a parent, Aleksei wished he could take on the pain that was sure to follow as his son fell in love–really in love–for the first time.

With a wistful shake of his head, Aleksei made his way back into the house and up the stairs, quietly pushed open the guest room door and placed the bags on the floor, glancing over his shoulder toward the bed when the bags rustled as their contents settled.

The thick carpet muffled Aleksei’s steps as he approached the bed and looked down on Chloe as she slept. Her skin, softly flushed with sleep, was flawless, the color of thick cream. Long, dark lashes hid her lovely blue eyes. Her full, soft pink lips were slightly parted as she breathed peacefully in her sleep, her hands clutching a small pillow as if it were a shield. Her gold and caramel hair waved in sensuous disarray across the pillow.

Aleksei frowned as he spotted the cast on her foot, felt rage begin to simmer as he thought of the pain she had had to live with while skating on a foot so badly injured. The silk throw had slid down to her ankle, leaving her toes bare and exposed and Aleksei went to recover them, his smile returning as he spotted the lady bugs still residing on her toenails.

With a final quick check, he made sure she was all tucked in, placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, and whispered, “Why’d you have to go and grow up, Chloe? It was so much easier when you were calling each other names and throwing water balloons at each other!”

Silently he crossed the floor and exited the room, pulling the door closed behind him and leaving it ajar as he had found it. Just as he started to walk away, he heard Chloe softly call Sergei’s name in her sleep, her voice filled with longing.

Aleksei ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head as he pondered the rough days ahead and with a whispered, “Damn!” headed off to find his wife.

Jordan would know what to do or at least she’d better have a fairly good idea of how to proceed.

And if she didn’t? Well, then they were all in deep shit!

“Where the hell is everyone?” Whittaker’s voice boomed, as he opened the screen door and entered the house, looking up to the second floor when he heard Aleksei’s low hiss shushing him.

“Do you ever enter a room quietly?” Aleksei growled, making his way down the long staircase.

“I’ve been knocking on the damn door for a good ten minutes. Where the hell is everyone?” Whittaker asked again.

“Don’t exaggerate, it couldn’t have been more than five minutes and since when do you need to have the door opened for you. If I recall correctly, you’ve been entering rooms without permission for as long as I can remember.” Aleksei stated knowingly, “Besides, Jordan and Dani are in the kitchen making enough noise to deafen a heard of rampaging elephants. All you had to do was follow the noise.”

“It’s impolite to just barge in unannounced,” Whittaker stated, following Aleksei as they headed toward the kitchen, ignoring the sarcastic glance Aleksei tossed him at his comment and raised his eyebrows in question as he caught the whiff of brownies baking. “Uh-oh! How bad is it?”

“Depends on who’s cooking and who’s cleaning,” Aleksei returned cautiously. Over the years, Aleksei had come to learn when his wife was upset she lost herself in rearranging furniture and cabinets or cooking, the more involved the job, the higher her upset. Upon entering the kitchen, he found his daughter busy placing warm brownies on a plate and his wife noisily rearranging cabinets. His sighed expletive didn’t bode well.

“I heard that!” Jordan stated loudly, a tall stack of plates clanging together dangerously as she pushed a pile antique china bowls aside with her elbow and placed the tall stack of matching plates on the counter, cringing when she heard the bottom plate crack and split in half. Three sets of eyes all watched her, a knowing look in their eyes, a look that clearly stated they knew she was upset despite her cool façade. With a light toss of her head, she stated casually; “I never did like these dishes!”

“Then why the hell did Aleksei have to tromp all through England looking for extra pieces?” Whittaker blurted out without thinking, finding himself the center of her fiery green gaze and fully expecting to be incinerated at any second.

Aleksei’s subtle cough and warning look had Whittaker realizing his mistake and backpedaling rapidly.

“Of course, I always thought he was an idiot, myself, running all over the country looking for ugly pieces of glass,” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders helplessly as he floundered beneath Jordan’s angry gaze.