Fateful (5 page)

“Yes, ma’am, I would be happy to.” The
automatic response came out weak. With a considerable amount of
mental effort she grasped the handle of the pot tightly as if it
could help steady her. Then took a few steps toward the
kitchen—staggered a little—then somehow managed to pull it
together.

It was a relief to be in the kitchen by
herself to make sense of her thoughts. Danielle poured water into
the teapot, realizing her breathing was labored as she put the pot
on the stove and turned on the flame. The sound of clicking right
before the whoosh of the flame filled the room.

What kept happening with Ethan? Why did she
feel like she’d met him before when she looked into his eyes? Why
did they mesmerize her? She nearly passed out from what—the way he
smells? This was making no sense at all.

And hadn’t he made eye contact with Brianna
too? Why wasn’t her cousin affected like she was? Was the problem
her?

Soft voices from the adjacent room disturbed
her thoughts. Thinking it was Ethan’s voice she heard, her ears
perked up and she froze. It was him, and why was he whispering? And
who was he talking to? Danielle wondered if they'd come inside for
privacy and didn’t know she was in the kitchen.

“
Beon, how could this happen? I don’t
understand it! The sun!” Ethan’s voice sounded aghast.

“Tell me again what you felt,” a man
answered. His voice was calm compared to Ethan’s.

“I felt drawn in, like she could see
all of my secrets. And somehow, incredibly, I almost knew
she
would
be able to. Is this
what happened with Sophia?”

Danielle’s eyes grew wider. Were they talking
about her?

“It was a little different,” Beon
responded.

“Do you really think this could be her?”
Ethan sounded like a youth trying to understand something complex,
something above his own understanding.

“It’s certainly possible. You’ll need to test
it out further.”

“But how can I be certain? What if
she
is
the one and I can’t
see it? Or what if she isn’t, but I think she is?”

Danielle wasn’t ready for the high-pitched
whistle of the teapot to suddenly rend the quiet. She jumped, her
heart stuttered and they stopped talking.

What if they realized she was listening?
Deciding she would need to pretend she hadn’t heard them, Danielle
took the handle carefully and exited the kitchen. She expected to
see them standing there, but walked into an empty room. As Danielle
took the water outside, she still didn’t see Ethan or the others
associated with him. How strange, she thought, they all must have
left the house entirely. Surprised at how disappointed she was that
he’d disappeared on her again, Danielle’s gaze landed on her aunt,
and she began moving in that direction.

Chapter 4

Maddening Mazes

“What should I wear?” Danielle asked, sifting
through the clothes in her closet, the hangers scraping across the
bar they hung from.

“How about this?” Brianna lifted a hanger
with a red skirt hung from it. While she liked that particular
skirt, it was definitely not something she wanted to wear
tonight.

Shaking her head, she said, “I’d like to wear
my black knee boots, so let’s find something to go with those.”

“Oh, very well.” Brianna rummaged around
again, and after a moment or two, asked, “Will this do?” now
presenting a slim skirt and a knit top with a deep v-neck, both in
black.

“Yeah, I like that, and to peek out from
under...” Danielle moved around her cousin to the dresser, opened
the second drawer and lifted out a baby blue cami.

“Smashing! He’ll love it.”

“Who?” Danielle asked as innocently as she could,
mortified at the knowledge that she was blushing. How did Bri
know?

Brianna rolled her eyes. “You’ve only been thinking
about him non-stop for several days now. And don't tell me you
haven’t.”

Gathering up her make-up bag, Danielle set the outfit
out on her bed and then followed Brianna to the bathroom they
shared.

“But it didn't sound like he was interested in going,
so he might not be there.” After digging around for the right
shade, Danielle painted pink lip-gloss over her lips and looked at
herself in the antique mirror hung above the vanity. “Do you think
Ethan will show up tonight?”

“You just said it didn’t sound like it!”

“I know, but maybe he will.” She was
terribly curious about the conversation she’d overheard between him
and Beon, and her thoughts had remained consumed with Ethan ever
since the tea party. “What do you think?” she asked, now applying
mascara. Why was she cursed with light lashes when she had dark
hair?
It’s so not fair!
she
mused irritably as she added another layer.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him at things
like this before. I am curious to see if he does actually show up.
Just remember—Will has a couple of nice guys who’d just love to go
out with you.” Brianna swirled a big make-up brush into a compact
of mauve powder and rubbed it onto her cheeks with light circular
strokes.

“’
Kay. I’ll try to remember that.”
Danielle stuffed the mascara wand back into the bottle before she
overdid it and pressed her glossed lips together as a little crease
appeared between her brows. She still didn’t like the blind date
idea. Someone she’
d
already met, like
Ethan for example, seemed like a much better choice to
her.

“I can see why you thought he looked like an
angel,” Brianna said amiably, now glossing her own lips.

Their gazes met in the mirror as Danielle
smiled back, a little embarrassed that this attraction to her
rescuer was so obvious. Her cousin knew her a little too well.

Brianna drove them to the club, picking up a
few of her girlfriends on the way. Danielle paid attention to where
they went, still trying to learn the lay of the land. It turned out
to be more difficult in the dark. Even if she had a GPS to guide
her, she knew she would have missed that last turnoff and getting
lost was still going to be a problem for her.

The five of them entered the club that was
dark except for colored beams of light sweeping back and forth to
the rhythmic beat of the music. Light-up marquees flashed geometric
shapes along with the club’s logo. Silhouetted against the flashing
lights were the swaying hands of many dancers. Taking a moment to
people watch, Danielle decided this was definitely a student crowd,
and, much to her chagrin, she couldn’t resist scanning the place
for Ethan as well. Her heart did a few extra palpitations when she
saw a guy who looked like him from behind, but found herself
deflated when he turned around—it wasn’t him.

Brianna gathered Danielle’s hand into hers as
she led her further into the mass of moving bodies. While the
Ministry of Sound had several different rooms to dance in, they
entered the main dance floor with the huge mirrored ball hung
above. As they negotiated their way around clumps of young men and
young women, Danielle continued her search for Ethan, hating
herself for it.

She knew she was obsessing and also knew that
wasn’t a good thing. Certainly, there had to be tons of guys to
choose from. Forcing herself to focus on that thought instead,
Danielle received a tap on the shoulder. The guy smiling at her
when she turned was handsome, not Ethan, but still good-looking
enough to consider and she decided perhaps she could find someone
other than Ethan to date.

“Hi, I’m Zack. Dance with me?” came a
pleasing British voice.

“I’m Danielle,” she said, accepting the
invitation and taking his hand. Maybe this just might be the
distraction she needed.

Leading her to one of the more secluded dance
floors, he tossed over his shoulder, “You’re American. What brings
you to England?”

“School.”

He chuckled at her simple reply, “What type
of school?”

“Art school.”

Slightly bothered by the fact that she
couldn’t look for Ethan from this out-of-the-way location, Danielle
shrugged off the idea and focused on her dance partner instead.

The gentle strains of a slow song filled the
room and Zack drew her into his arms. Somehow that didn’t feel
right, but she allowed it.

As they talked and dance, Danielle
decided Zack reminded her of other guys she’d dated—guys who
shouldn’t
be trusted. He may have
been cute, but there was nothing more than that. She wasn’t
attracted to him, and really didn’t like being pulled so snugly
against his chest.

His hot breath on her neck as he tightened
his arms around her back began to grow annoying. She wanted to get
away from him, but felt it would be rude to leave in the middle of
the song, so she stayed, planning to ditch him as soon as it was
over.

However, while they swayed to the music,
Zack’s hand moved from low on her back to the side of her ribs and
then around to—Whoa! They’d just met and this guy was already
trying to get frisky? With karate training and instinct kicking in,
Danielle blocked his hand before he reached his goal, then trapped
his arm, locking it under hers.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, completely surprised, and
Danielle couldn’t help but be elated! Her moves had worked! Maybe
she wasn’t a poor excuse for a black belt after all.

“Excuse me? Where do you get off?” Tossing
his arm away, Danielle didn’t give him a chance to respond, and
left him without another glance.

Berating herself for ignoring her intuition
when she’d marked him for what he was earlier, Danielle made her
way back to Brianna.

“Hey, Cousin, where’d that hot guy go? The
one you were just with?” Brianna asked the second Danielle moved in
next to her.

“Oh, him.” Danielle gave a look of disgust.
“I’m afraid we didn’t hit it off so well. He had curious hands.”
She wiggled her fingers at her cousin.

“That’s horrible! What did you do?” Yet, the
horror fell away from Brianna’s expression when she next asked,
“Did you give him a nice little knee in the—?”

Danielle laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you,
Cousin. But nothing that extreme was necessary.”

“But it worked this time?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Becoming solemn again, Brianna asked,
“Do you want to leave? Did this upset you?”

It did upset her, but unwilling to admit that
said instead, “I’m fine. Let’s stay.” Though, she appreciated
Brianna’s offer.

Much to her disappointment, she did have
other guys ask her to dance. Perhaps she was biased now, but she
never met anyone who drew her like Ethan Deveroux did. Forget this,
she thought irritably, she didn’t need to meet others. Why waste
her time if even the British guys were just like the jerks back
home? Of course she’d met a number of nice guys in Colorado, and
still believed there were nice ones here too, but it seemed she
mostly attracted the bad ones. Deciding this was not the best place
to meet guys anyway, Danielle ignored them all, sticking with
Brianna and her friends instead.

Allowing the throbbing music to wash over her
and the twisting beams of light entrance her, Danielle danced.
After a few surging songs, she was startled when Brianna suddenly
grabbed her arm and jerked her around.

Ethan. With one hip cocked to the side
and one thumb tucked in the pocket of his jeans, he looked way hot.
Her heart skipped a beat, perhaps two as Brianna whispered, “Look
at that. He
did
show up.” Why
did her cousin have to sound so surprised? Okay, she could admit
that she’d also given up on seeing him tonight, but there he stood,
looking as debonair as ever, like a hip Gabriel with fashion sense.
No wonder Brianna’s friends ware staring as if under a spell. There
was something about him that could bewitch any girl. She wanted to
embrace him but resisted the impulse.

He smiled, and she thought for sure she felt
her insides melt at little. “May I have the next dance?” he asked
elegantly, his hand extended to hers.

For a moment she looked at him with a
slightly slack jaw. If she didn’t know better, she would have
thought she’d just met the hero from one of
Jane Austen’s
books. Danielle slipped her
fingers amongst his. “Yes,” she managed.

He led her out further onto the main
dance floor, and when he started moving to the fast music, Danielle
had to suddenly catch her breath—because he could really dance! The
last thing she needed was another reason to be infatuated with this
guy. But there it was, and she found herself staring at his body as
he twisted with ease to the thrumming beat. All right, she mused,
on second thought this guy is definitely not from
Jane Austen’s
time.

While they danced, Danielle tried to make eye
contact out of social habit, but he seemed to be refusing her that.
Intentionally? While tossing quick glances at her from under his
lashes, he’d managed to avoid any prolonged, direct staring. Why
was he being so bashful about that? Of course, she wondered if it
could have something to do with the strange things that happened
the other times their gazes had met.

He stayed with her through three
songs—touching her gently, never inappropriately. He seemed
reserved, and was careful about showing her the utmost respect.
When she stroked his arm in return, Danielle noticed hard muscles
also danced under his thick gray sweater, but she’d suspected that
with the way his shoulders tugged at the material of his suit while
at her uncle’s.

Growing rather confused, however, Danielle
considered that his manners actually screamed eighteen-hundreds,
but he was modernly dressed and moved like a rock star. That’s sort
of an odd contradiction. Shoving that silly thought aside, she
wondered if he really liked her, as it seemed from the way he
treated her, then why wouldn’t he really look at her? He never
faltered in guarding his gaze from hers, or was it the other way
around?