Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (12 page)

Against my will my gaze fixes itself on the road they’d just left vainly hoping for a retreating glimpse of them
through the winding path of the trees
,
but her cond
escension whips my head around.

F
ury
overtake
s the growing emptiness
inside me, and I can literally feel it contorting
my face
into ugly lines
.
“I don’t give a damn what you think.”
But it’s a lie and we both know it. Long, angry strides take
me to the porch.
I grab my bag from beside
her feet and march into the
wide open door of the
house.

I look around wildly at the living room, with its pair of
comfortably large
twin sofas, made up of a zigzag pattern resembling
Native American pottery.
A
wide wooden table
sits in the opening between the two sofas
. The kitchen sits
behind this. It
s
appliances and tile
s are
so white you know you’re in a rental home instead of one where spills and li
fe tend to leave their mark.

M
y gaze latches unto the two large bay
windows which
sit
on the opposite side of the breakfast table
tucked in a
corner. I look out at the view
which graces
the b
ack porch and I
stare
blindly
at the spot Aubrey and
I had been
standing on minutes ago
.

B
ut
I can’t see the beauty.
The sides of my head hammers with frustrated
emotions.
A
nger, despair.
But
more than anything e
lse, h
urt. It squeezes through me and
it’s
all I can
do not to cry out with the c
rippling force of it.

I gasp
with the effort at holding it all in.

B
link
ing I try to regain some semblance of control
. Aubrey and Elaine will
be coming into the house
any minute, it’s a wonder they haven’t followed me yet. E
laine has never before cared enough to give me the necessary space to
grieve.

S
omething wet splashes against my cheek and I swing
around in horror
.

I am crying.

Suddenly I’m
consumed by the need to prevent Elaine from discovering that
I am bawl
ing like a fool over Nate whose disdain for me couldn’t be more
evident
as he’s obviously taken up with Stacy again.

I
hurriedly swipe the tear
s
from my eye
s and t
he sounds of Elaine and Aubrey coming into th
e house
sends me fleeing
across the wooden flooring.
I run to
the nearest door and slip into the darkened room behind it.

Securing the latch, I
release a shaky breath,
and
feeling along the wall I
find
the necessary protuberance
and I
flip
on the light
.

I am stunned as the trappings of a
neat
bathroom
come fully into view
.
I have shut myself inside a bathroom again, except this time there is no Nate to come after me.
The irony o
f
the situation becomes too
much and
hysterical bubble
s well up
inside me and
burst
s
out
.

I laugh, frightened at
myself and
the sounds which
come
from my mouth
.
I bite
down hard
on my lip
to gain some sembl
ance of control
.

Pressing my lips together, I
h
astily undress
. Jumping into
the shower,
I turn the water on at full
blast
.

The
cold
sensation knocks some sense into me and brings my laughter under control. I
slump underneath
the icy needles which pound my f
ace and
bod
y
. T
hough my laugher has died
,
silent
tears
replace them and
course
unchecked
down my cheeks
.

Long minutes later
I rub a clean towel across my face, and examine myself in the
small
square
mirror
over the
sink
.

My eyes are
a lit
tle puffy but
the cold water has
taken
away much of the redness. I
sniff
like a child
and
study
my reflection
more carefully
.
And
then I see it. A
spark of d
etermination begins to build in my face,
covering the pain, erasing the lines of fear
.
I let it have its way through me.
My chest expands until my
breasts
which sit high on my chest begin to
vibrate
with
the burgeoning thirst for
revenge which begins to burn
through my body.

Over the last two days I’ve
become a woman I d
o
n’
t recognize and it has
brought me nothing but pain.
I shake my head vigorously to knock the idea deeper. M
y fing
ers grip the edge
s
of t
he sink
.

This has got to stop.
I am going
to
find a way to
take
my life
back
from Nate
Blackthorne
’s
ruinous grip at the first opport
unity which presents itself.
Then
I cringe back from
the most obvious cou
rse of action which opens before me
.

Glancing down at my naked body, I c
lose my
eyes.
I can still feel the imprint of his fingers on my breast
s
, the ravenous hunger of
his kiss, the feel of him
large and hard moving urgently inside me.
It should not be too hard to use his lust against him to gain my family’s freedom.

Nate

Dap
hne takes another wet plate from my fi
ngers
to rinse
, and I flick my thumb in such a way
that
I skim the sk
in on the outside of her pinkie.

S
he jerks
, but doesn’t move away from my charged caress like I’d thought she would
, but she do
esn’t meet
my eyes either
.
S
he keeps her head focused on rinsing and drying. My brows knit
together in frustrated desire.

But
all is
not lost
. H
er reaction to my touch has sent my heart soaring
again
after
three days of a subtle psychological
mating dance that has driven me mad. The change in her behavior, from the way she watches me to the
accidental
touches between us have me balancing on the absolute edge of my control. The lack of fulfillment is tremendously arousing and bewildering at the same time.

My patience is at an end now
. I grimace as I look
down
into
the brown
, soapy
water on which fl
oats
bits of bread and lettuce.
S
oggy leftovers from dinner just a few minutes before.

Aubrey yelps
in triumph and I glance around
in time
to see Elaine and Stacy smile at each other over the boy’s head. Th
ey are playing monopoly
and I suspect that they are letting Aubrey win on
purpose, a tactic that’s working if his cheeky grin is any indication.

I finish another plate and pass it to her, my lips quirk as I notice she is now using only the pads of her fin
gers to take the plates from me
.

I almo
st groan aloud. Oh God, how
I want to touch her, to feel her ben
eath my skin but she has avoid
ed any real touching between us. I haven’t touched her
since we’d arrived at the
pier, and certainly not since I’d returned from my im
promptu grocery run with Stacy.

I’d been prepared to face
some type of backlash from her but
there’d
been nothing as we’d trudged in the door, our hands full of groceries.
S
he’
d stood
at
the
stove brewing
mint leaves she’d culled from the many dozens which grew voraciously all around the property.
And she’d said nothing.

Now
I scoop my hand into the dirty water which is
mercifully
empty.
I release the stopper from the sink and watch with relief as the offending mixture
swirl
s
away.

She is drying her hand
s
briskly but I mo
ve before she can scamper away into the bedroom
,
another habit she’d i
ndulged in these last few days.

L
ower
ing
my
head t
o the nape of her neck
dusted with tendrils of curly dark hair, I
smirk
as her skin tenses at my closeness,
th
e pulse on her throat flutters madly.

“
Join me on the porch
for some fresh air
.”

Her head snaps around,
amber
eyes pierce mine. My face is completely blank as she searches it for the reason behind my request.

“Why?” There is
a
t
remor in her voice, though she
tries to hide it by sounding offhanded.

“I’d like t
o
spend some time
alone
with my
wife
.” I reply deliberately.

Her mouth drops open
before she snaps it shut,
and my nostrils flare at the whiff of excitement in her eyes before she demurely lowers her long lashes to shield her thoughts from me.

Has she dreamt of her me every night like I’ve done her
?
The hammock doesn’t
exactly make for the most comfortable sleep. That
coupled
with
the dragging hours of survey
ing the property from all sides to search for any trace of Emmanuel.  T
he snatches of sleep
I did get
were further strained by this demure temptress standing so innocently before me.

“Sure,” she says and the swiftness of the victory blindsides me, ratcheting up my anticipation.
I
have to break contact to avoid her seeing the naked desire
w
hich is sure to be clear on my face
.
Instead
I stare at the most innocuous thing in the room, the pantry
,
and fight for some semblance of
control.

I have been itching to get her alone these several days but there had never seemed to be the right opportunity.

She leaves me standing like a
n idiot
at the sink and
marches directly towards
the door and goes out onto the porch. I catch Stacy’s
angry
look
followed by a pout which I’d quickly come to despise during
our relationship. I give her a
stern
stare
and follow Daphne out the door.