by Baker, Apryl
Dammit!
“You lie to me, Ethan.”
He didn’t deny it.
“I didn’t take the book. I couldn’t have if I’d wanted to. You said it yourself. The wards were dangerous and I know zilch about the craft.”
“I agree you and Jeff didn’t take it, but I wish you’d tell me the truth.”
“Are you going to tell me everything?” I countered.
Silence.
“Thought not. So what’s so important about it anyway?”
He settled back against the tree. “It’s very old and holds many ancient spells and rituals that were handed down through generations of Coven members. There’s one in particular they’re concerned about.”
“Oh?” I tried very, very hard not to sound too interested. I failed miserably.
“It’s a ritual for Samhain.”
“Halloween,” I echoed. A ritual to be performed on my birthday. Coincidence? Hell no.
“They were going to attempt it once before, but the timing wasn’t right. They need the book to make sure everything is as it should be.”
“So they can’t perform the ritual without the book?” No book, no curse?
“No, they can. Mr. Martin remembers the spell and the ritual. The Coven just wanted to double check the details.”
Damn. There went that happy thought.
“Well…”
He put a finger to my lips. “No more talk about the Coven, okay? Let’s just enjoy the evening.”
“Did you bring me flowers to soften me up?” I teased.
He gave me that slow, lazy, wicked grin of his and his eyes heated to pools of molten steel. I swallowed. Hard. The butterflies took flight and my face flamed.
“Soften you up, Cassie Jayne Bishop? Are you back to having indecent thoughts about me?”
“I…I…” Damn. I was back to stuttering like an idiot. Why could he make me tongue-tied?
“Hmm…” He leaned in and kissed me lightly, his teeth catching my bottom lip. I put my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, needing to feel his arms around me. He obliged and I ended up in his lap. His hand tangled in my hair and pulled my head back to the angle he wanted. His kiss deepened, becoming almost bruising. I didn’t care. All I cared about was the emotions running rampant through me. I needed him like I needed the air I breathed. My blood heated to a boil as a fire exploded within. I wanted…
He pulled away, breathing harshly.
“No…” Why did he stop? I wanted to scream in frustration.
“Shh, Cassie,” he soothed, his voice full of the same need I felt.
“Is it so easy for you?” I cried, enraged that he had the will to stop and I didn’t.
“Easy?” he bit out. “Do you have any idea what you do to me, my little hellcat? Stopping just then was the hardest damn thing I’ve ever had to do. You make me insane, woman, drive me to do things…” He took a shaky breath. “No, it’s not easy.”
Did I really have that kind of effect on him? “You make it look so easy.”
He kissed my forehead. “Nothing about you is ever easy, Cassie.”
“Am I such a bother, then?”
“Only when you try and start something in a public place.” He hugged me to him.
My face burned and I hid in the broad expanse of his chest. I hadn’t thought about that.
“The Fates were with us, love. No one saw you try and seduce me.”
I pulled back, a shriek escaping. “I was doing no such…I’d never…”
He grinned.
“You say the most outrageous things…”
“Just to see you all riled up, Cassie Jayne. You’re so cute with your golden eyes spitting fire and your face beet red.”
I opened my mouth to yell at him, but he cut me off with another kiss. I melted, the outraged gasp turning into a whimper. Damn, but he was a good kisser.
“I’ll make you a promise, Cassie,” he murmured, his lips nibbling their way down my throat and leaving a blazing trail of fire behind them. “When I decide to start something, you can be damn sure we’ll finish it.”
“Promise?” I whispered against his ear.
“Guaranteed.” He pulled me close, his chin resting on my head.
I sighed and wrapped my arms around him. I wished to the Fates I could forget my doubts and just let myself enjoy the love that consumed me. If only he weren’t lying to me.
Dad’s words of ‘for now’ came back to haunt me. How could I be safe with him for now and not later? I didn’t know and it scared me.
“Ethan,” I whispered.
‘Hmm?”
“Don’t hurt me.”
He was silent for a long time. At last he said, “I’ll try, Cassie. I promise I’ll try.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jeff glared down at me. I grinned. I couldn’t help it. He looked ridiculous.
“CJ, I swear if you don’t pay attention, I’m going to leave right now!” He’d been trying to get me caught up on rudimentary magic over the last week. If I wasn’t with Ethan, I was with Jeff here in the tree house. It had become a makeshift school house.
“I can’t help it!” I collapsed backward, rolling with laughter. “You look like Mr. Herndon.”
He gasped in outrage and stalked toward me. “You take that back!”
“No, you do,” I managed to get out. “Remember when he tried to teach us about the differences in the triangles and droned on and on with that ruler tapping the board every other second? That’s you!”
Mr. Herndon, our old tenth grade geometry teacher, seemed to think that it was still 1959. He wore thick wire rimmed glasses and kept his hair slicked back with so much grease he could have fried enough French fries to feed a third world county. The kids made fun of him all the time.
Jeff growled and launched himself at me. I rolled and scooted backwards. His hand caught my ankle and dragged me back. Before I could do anything, fingers dug into my sides and he proceeded to tickle me until I cried, “Stop, stop! I take it back!”
He smirked.
“So wrong.” I shoved him and sat up, still laughing. “Do you promise to stop waving that ruler around?”
“Nope,” he grinned.
“Then how can you expect me to learn which physical properties each Element stands for?”
“By paying attention.”
“I can’t!”
He rolled his eyes and wiggled his fingers. “Do I have to use negative reinforcement?”
“NO! I promise I will try to stay focused and not see you as Mr. Herndon in his underwear.”
“CJ!” He looked outraged. I laughed and suddenly found myself thinking how much I’d come to depend on him over the last week. He’d done so much for me. My Neighbor Boy really was a great friend.
“Thank you,” I smiled.
“For threatening to tickle you into submission?”
“No, for everything. You’ve gone out of your way to help me when I know how hard it is for you. You’re a good friend, Neighbor Boy.”
“I aim to please,” he winked and then his face grew serious. He pulled a small bag out of his coat pocket and handed it to me. “Happy birthday.”
“My birthday’s not till next week.” I took the bag and shook it. I loved presents. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I bought it before you started dating Ethan. I figured I’d give it to you anyway. Go ahead, open it.”
The most gorgeous piece of jewelry I’d ever seen fell into my palm. It was the necklace straight out of the movie Titanic. The one Rose wore when she was about to jump overboard that first night. An exact replica. I loved that necklace.
“It’s zirconium,” he said in a rush. “The ruby in the center is real, though. It reminded me of your hair, blazing in the sun. Plus, you went on and on about that necklace for months after the movie came out.”
“Jeff…I…” I just didn’t know what to say. “You…”
“Just say thank you.” He looked down at his l
ap. I could see a faint blush on his cheeks.
“Thank you, but I can’t keep this.” Oh, but I wanted to…maybe…no, I couldn’t.
“No, CJ, it’s yours. I had it made for you.”
Damn.
“Look, I know you don’t think of me that way, but please, just take it.”
“Jeff…”
He did something I didn’t expect. He kissed me.
There was no fire as when Ethan kissed me, but I felt a warm heat seep into me and flow through me. The boy had learned to kiss. His lips were no longer wet or slobbery. They were hard and firm as they took mine in a gentle assault that left me breathless. Not good.
“What did you do that for?” I demanded, tearing my mouth from his.
“Because I wanted to,” he told me simply. “I wanted you to know that you have other choices, CJ. Ethan…”
“…is my boyfriend, Jeff, and I love him.”
It crushed him. His big, blue eyes filled with pain. He looked like I’d taken a knife and stabbed him.
“He’ll hurt you, CJ,” he said at last. “I can’t explain it, but he will.”
“I know he could hurt me,” I said softly. “I know that and I don’t care.”
“You should. You’re the smartest girl I know, CJ, but when it comes to Ethan, it’s like you’ve lost all sense of reality. You don’t care? Since when do you not think things through?”
“I have thought things through. I love him, Jeff. There’s no reasoning to love. It’s not something you can control.”
“I know.”
Shit. He did know. I saw it in his eyes. I recognized it because it was the same look I gave Ethan.
“I’m sorry, Jeff.”
“Don’t, CJ.” He pushed himself to his feet. “It’s not your fault.”
I knew he’d had a crush, but not this. “Jeff, I…”
He laughed harshly. “Just promise me you’ll be careful. He’s dangerous, CJ.”
“I will.”
He turned to face me, his eyes hard. “You’re almost eighteen, CJ. I swear I am going to do everything I can to protect you. No matter what.”
“The curse?” I knew it had something to do with my eighteenth birthday. I just didn’t know what. It was driving me insane not knowing.
He sighed.
He couldn’t say a single word.
“So, don’t you think we should get back to teaching you about the Elements?” He tried to sound as carefree as before, but didn’t quite manage. “You need to know as much as you can.”
“I promise to pay attention.”
“Even if I sound like Mr. Herndon?” he smiled half-heartedly.
“Even if.”
He went back to tapping the ruler and I tried in vain to concentrate.
It was a hell of a mess.
Chapter Eighteen
Ethan was waiting on my front porch. His eyes narrowed when they zeroed in on Jeff and me coming up the lane. He denied being jealous, but he so was. I smiled. Jeff snorted.
“See ya, Neighbor Boy.” I left Jeff at the gate to his house and continued on until I stood on the bottom step of my porch. I craned my neck to look up into his smoky gray eyes. They were flashing with fire.
“Are you going to explain to me why I keep finding you with that boy every time I see you?” Ethan growled.
“Not until you start explaining things to me.” I tried to go up the steps and around him, but he caught my arm. He frowned at the bag I held. “Birthday present,” I shrugged in answer.
“From Neighbor Boy?”
“Yup.”
Before I realized what he was doing, he took the tiny cloth bag and emptied its contents into his hand. He nearly choked. “You can’t keep this!”
“The hell I can’t.” I snatched my necklace and its velvety bag from him. “It was a gift. You seem to forget I really don’t like it when people try and tell me what to do. You don’t own me, Ethan.”
“Cassie, you’re my girlfriend,” he hissed. “You’re not supposed to accept gifts from other guys.”
“Jeff is my friend and I’ve known him since I was born. He isn’t just some other boy.”
“You’re damn right, he’s not just some other boy. He’s in love with you.”
“I know.” Ethan sounded like an ass, but I didn’t get mad. He was so jealous he couldn’t see straight and I loved it.
“You know?” His eyes widened in shock. Then they narrowed angrily.
I nodded. “We sorta talked about it today.”
Gray eyes locked onto mine. “And?”
“And I explained to him that I have a boyfriend that I love with all my heart.”
He went still. He’d told me he loved me, but I’d never said the words back to him.
“Oh…huh.” He scuffed his shoe on the step.
That was his response to my declaration of love? He was a guy, I reminded myself. Did I really expect him to melt at my feet the way I had him? Yeah, but I knew better. Guys just didn’t have the same emotional level girls did. Lucky them.
“And I’m not giving this back.” I shook the bag at him. “I have wanted a necklace just like this since I saw it in Titanic years ago. Jeff remembered that and had it made for me.”
Ethan’s lips pursed, but he nodded. Smart boy.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked. “You said you’d be busy all day.”
“I came to tell you I have to leave for a bit. I need to go home for a couple days.”
He was leaving? “You’ll be back for my birthday, right?”
He smiled that lazy smile full of devilment that drove me to distraction. “There is nothing in this world or the next, Cassie Jayne Bishop, that could keep me away on your birthday.”
What an odd way to phrase it. Ethan said some of the strangest things to me at times, but I really didn’t care. At least not just then. He’d be back for my birthday. That’s all that mattered. “I’ll miss you.”
He smiled and pulled me to the porch swing. I snuggled into him. I loved the feel of his arms wrapped around me. He made me feel safe when he held me like this. I could forget my doubts, forget he was lying to me, forget everything. Mr. Melt In Your Mouth Gorgeous pulled me into his lap, turned so that he was stretched out on the swing, and I settled into him. His chest cushioned my head and he stroked my hair in long, gentle glides. His legs wrapped around mine and I was content to just lay and listen to the pounding of his heart in my ear. I’m not sure how long we stayed like that, enjoying the peace and contentment that filled us. It could have been minutes or hours. I really did lose all sense of reality around my M&M.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“For what?”
“For telling me you loved me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I know you probably think it’s too soon to feel like this,” he told me softly. “There was a time when people were simpler and didn’t over think things. They took time to appreciate what was in front of them and trusted their instincts. I knew you were important to me the moment I saw you dragging Kay from the bonfire. The more time I spent with you, the more I knew you were the missing piece of my heart. It’s had a hole for a long time and you filled it, soothed the hurt, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you, Cassie Jayne Bishop. Never doubt that…no matter what might happen.”
A part of me cringed at his words. He knew what was going to happen, but wouldn’t tell me. I hated that. The other part of me didn’t care, it only heard the love in his voice and felt it as it wrapped me in a blanket of warmth. He loved me and that’s all that mattered.
“I love you too, Ethan Matthew Warren.”
“So I don’t have to worry about strangling Jeff and dumping his body in the woods when I get back?” he teased.
I laughed. “No, but you might have to worry about me strangling you if you don’t get back in time for my birthday.”
He chuckled and I felt his body relax even more. “The old ding bat is staring at u
s from her window.”
I turned my head to stare across the lane. Ethan was right. She was watching us from her living room window. Nosy old biddy. “Hmm….should we give her something to gossip about then?”
“My, my, Miss Bishop, you have turned into a wanton little thing haven’t you?” He grasped my arms and pulled me up until I could stare down into his face. “Are we having indecent thoughts again?”
“Mmmhmm.” I leaned down and barely pressed my lips to his. “You do always accuse me of trying to start something in public places, Mr. Warren.”
“That’s because you do, Cassie Jayne,” he whispered as his hand cupped the back of my neck and pulled me to him. His lips crushed mine. An inferno started in the pit of my stomach and the blaze spread outward. The fire licked my limbs as it raced to consume my very being. I whimpered when he tore his lips away, but gasped as they wove a fiery trail down my neck and burrowed under my coat to my shoulder.
“Cassie Jayne Bishop.”
I shot up so fast, I nearly fell. Ethan’s strong hands caught me before I could. My father stood glaring down at us.
Oh, Damn. Oh, Damn. Oh, Damn. My eyes widened in shock and horror. I was mortified. My father had caught me making out with my boyfriend. He looked ready to tear Ethan apart on the spot.
“In the house. Now.”
“Dad…”
“I don’t want to hear it, CJ.” Golden eyes blazed with fury at both of us.
“That’s okay, Cassie.” Ethan stood up. “I need to get on the road anyway.” He tempted fate and gave me a quick kiss before tweaking my nose. “Behave.”
Dad growled, hands fisted. He really didn’t like Ethan.
“Mr. Bishop,” Ethan nodded and very carefully stepped around him before continuing on down the lane.
“Did you have to do that, Dad?” I demanded. I resented him for making Ethan leave. He’d be gone for days as it was, and this was the last time I’d get to see him for who knows how long.
“Stay away from him, CJ,” Dad bit out. “He’s not who you think he is.”
“Then who is he, Dad?” I demanded.