“To being here,” he says, clinking my glass. “It sounds like you’ve left for good?”
“Yep. I’ve left home and I’m free. My aunt’s family didn’t like me much so I won’t be going back.” I say it almost defensively. He, with his own troubled family, should surely understand that not every family is a happy one.
“What about your aunt?” he asks. “Won’t you miss her?”
“We weren’t close.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Life is that way for some of us, I suppose. But as you said, we gotta live it up and move on.”
“What made you finally leave?”
I shrug. I don’t want to talk about the beatings, about Dr Carrington and his prison of a care home. I don’t ever want to think about them again.
“I had the chance to come here, so here I am,” I say flippantly.
He frowns a little, but then shrugs as if he agrees that the past isn’t worth dwelling on. He tops up my mimosa with champagne from an ice bucket. “So, I’m assuming you’re the groom’s friend?”
“Why does everyone think that?” I ask a little sharply.
He looks surprised at my tone. “It didn’t seem likely you were Caroline’s. She doesn’t befriend beautiful women, and she didn’t seem to like you much, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“Oh.” Beautiful. He thinks I am beautiful. And he hadn’t been implying that I was one of Xander’s cast-offs.
“How do you know him?” he persists, watching me with a slight frown.
It strikes me that Storm might be jealous, and I like the feeling. It lifts my mood. I bat my eyelashes at him and teasingly say, “What if I told you I don’t know him either? That I got a mystery invite to this party?”
He laughs. “I would say that’s highly unlikely.”
“And yet it might be true.”
“You’re not going to tell me are you?” he says, his lips quirking.
“Hmm… Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Then I shall have to persist until you tell me everything. Everything.”
I flick him with my napkin. “But don’t you like a lady with a little mystery?”
“Only if I get to unlock the mystery.”
My heart skips a beat. I’d like that too. I’d like it a lot. Someone who is really interested in me is all I ever wanted. Someone who wants to spend his time with me, who looks at me the way Storm is looking at me right now.
“So tell me something cheesy,” he says. “Like your favorite color?”
“I don’t have a favorite color. I like them all.”
“Favorite song?”
I shake my head. “Not really.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Come on now. You must listen to music?”
“Sure. I listen to what other people are playing. I like this jazz. It’s nice.”
“I bet you’re a believer in star-signs. When’s your birthday?”
I blink. I had forgotten all about my birthday. I’ll soon be turning twenty-one, the age I was supposed to be free. And here I am, already free. I’m not doing too badly.
“I can’t read that expression on your face,” he says curiously.
“Actually… It’s my birthday tomorrow,” I say, my voice surprised because I had totally forgotten.
“Birthday girl, huh?” he says, beaming. “Now I’m going to have to get you something special.”
“No!” I say quickly, embarrassed at the thought of being made a fuss of. “I really don’t celebrate my birthday.”
“But you must want something?”
“I already have everything I want.”
“And what’s that?”
“Being here. Being free.” Being with him. But I don’t say that last bit out loud.
“Okay… So what you definitely want is no surprises?”
“Yep, no surprises.”
“I will do my best.”
He clinks his glass with mine. As he takes a sip, his other hand lingers on mine, like they belong together. He only lets go when we start eating. He asks me how I’ve been enjoying my time here, and who I’ve met, and what I plan to do during the rest of the week.
I quickly divert the conversation to him, worried that if I speak too much I might accidentally mention my visions. I really badly do not want to think of them again. I want the rest of this week to be as blissful as this.
“What do you want to do with your time here?” I ask.
“Spend as much time with you as possible,” he says. “I intend on keeping you all to myself, my sweet.”
He seems utterly confident that I will want this too, and I don’t contradict him. I can think of nothing more I want right now.
“Would you like that?” he asks, determined on hearing me say it.
“You know I would. But what would we do with all that time?” I say, intent on teasing him.
“I can think of plenty of things,” he says, a twinkle in his eyes.
Determined not to blush, I pretend that I don’t know what he means. Mercifully, he lets me off the hook.
“I’ll plan no surprises for you tomorrow,” he promises. “We’ll have a day out, just you and me.”
I very nearly throw my arms around him. It’s like he’s read my mind. I want nothing more than to get out of this castle and away from under Caroline’s watch. Since our confrontation, I have felt like an intruder in her space and under her thumb. Like I must perform the role she has put me in, or be thrown out.
And I never realized how much I have been longing to see more of the greenery and beauty I saw on the drive here. To breathe that fresh air. It’s the best gift I could get.
“I’d like that,” I say softly. My breath catches as he raises my hands to his lips and plants a kiss on each one.
I am glad the little voice is not here to see this. She’d be disgusted with me. She’d tell me to slow the hell down, and that romance is for fools. Throw your trust away so easily, she’d say, and you’ll deserve what you get. But already I feel I have known Storm forever. Like he and I were meant to find each other.
At some point I glance accidentally at the main table where Caroline and Xander are sitting. Xander has forgotten I exist, and is happily chatting to his friends, but Caroline is staring at me. Her icy glare tells me she hates what she has seen. Instead of looking away, I stare back, defiantly holding Storm’s hand in mine. She can warn me off her man all she likes, but she can’t warn me off this man. This man is mine.
Storm and I linger at our table long after we finish eating, chatting long after most other diners have left the room. Storm’s phone beeps several times. Sighing, he finally looks at the messages. “It’s work,” he says. “I have to get this.”
He insists on walking me to my room first. Outside my door he kisses me gently on the back of my hand. “Work be damned,” he says. “I’ll come and find you later.”
I gaze up at him towering above me. I am not ready yet to let him go. Caution be damned. I tiptoe up to kiss him on his cheek, my lips lingering on the hint of stubble. For the first time in a long time I feel completely safe. Happy even. And excited for the future.
Chapter 22
DIANA
I throw myself onto my bed with a big sigh of delight. Wow! I have finally met the guy of my dreams and it is every bit as joyful as I had imagined. He only just went and already I miss him. I almost cannot believe my luck. A tremor of sheer joy runs through my whole body. This is going to be the start of something wonderful. I feel it. It’s what I came here for, and I cannot believe it is already happening.
I am glad the little voice is staying away. She would not be sharing in my joy. I can imagine her telling me I don’t even know him. That it is wrong to fall for someone so fast. I would tell her to shut up. That maybe if you’ve been living your whole damn life wrong in the first place, even the right thing feels wrong when it finally comes along. I am sick of the voices and visions turning up uninvited and trying to control the direction of my life
.
I’ll find out more about Storm soon enough. Everything about him intrigues me. And he wants to see me again! I drum my heels on my mattress and squeal in excitement until I am laughing. Delight. Gosh, what a wonderful, incredible feeling. It fills my entire body making me feel like I could float. And he likes me. He likes me back!
Some time later, a knock sounds on my door. I had been lying on my bed, gazing up at my canopy and humming the jazz tune we had danced to earlier, and daydreaming about what Storm might plan for us to do tomorrow. I was hoping his work would finish quickly so he might come and find me and take me down to lunch. If not, I’d see if I could persuade Lila to have lunch in our rooms. I want to tell her all about Storm. And I don’t want to have to see Freddie again today, or anyone else for that matter.
When I hear the knock, I leap up from my bed. Storm must have finished his work quickly. Or maybe he told them to go away so that he could spend all of today with me! I am about to rush to the door when I realize that I shouldn’t be so overeager. I take a few moments to calm myself. I spend them looking in the mirror to smooth my hair and make sure that my lip gloss is shiny.
I open my door, beaming. My smile falters when I see Freddie there. For a very brief moment I feel that intense rush of anxiety I’d felt whenever Buck turned up at my door. But it is only Freddie. He is smiling, and though it might be a slightly sulky smile, he looks pleased to see me. It reminds me of a puppy.
“I thought I’d come and take you for a walk,” he says. “Since I couldn’t spend breakfast with you.” He sounds a bit grouchy about it.
And maybe he has a right to be. It must have been embarrassing for him when I left, and right after he nearly got into a fight with Storm too. All his friends must have seen. I feel guilty. Freddie has been my friend ever since the airplane. He defended me to the nasty flight attendant, Tess. The least I can do is let him down gently. It is about time I told him that I only want to be friends. I feel bad. I should have told him before I met Storm.
I really don’t feel like doing it now, but it is best to get it over with. And it is sunny outside. I would quite like a walk in the gardens. I had looked at them earlier from outside my window, and they seemed vast. It would be fun to explore them.
“Okay,” I agree. “Let me just get my shoes.”
I leave him waiting in the hallway, and keep my door ajar so that he doesn’t think I am being rude. In my wardrobe I find some flat sandals. I should probably put on a sunhat. I’m excited about this. I’ve never worn a pretty hat before. I pull a few of the hat boxes down from the top shelf and put them on my bed.
Most of the hats are delightful confections of feathers and flowers and gorgeously intricate designs. One is a large brimmed sun hat, perfect for a walk in the sunny outdoors. I place it on my head and turn to leave the room, and I see Freddie has come in. Startled, because I hadn’t heard him, I take an involuntary step backwards and bump into my bed.
The smile he had on his face goes slightly funny. “That looks pretty,” he says, about my hat. “But it would be nicer if you wore your hair loose.”
He comes closer and reaches behind me to unfasten some of the pins that Lila had put in my hair earlier. My heavy bun comes tumbling down, and the long locks stream over his hands.
“So silky,” he says, twining one around his finger. “You’re so beautiful.”
Then he kisses me. My hat falls off. His hand is buried in my hair, tightly pulling it to tip my head up towards his mouth. I fall backwards as I try to push him away. He yanks me against his chest, pinning my arms to my sides. His mouth presses harder.
“Stop it, Freddie,” I try to say, but the words are smashed up against his lips. I try to shove him, but he’s holding me too tightly.
The little voice uncoils snake-swift in my mind. Bite him, she hisses furiously.
But biting only made it worse with Buck. I just want Freddie to know that I don’t want him to kiss me. I push harder, and when that doesn’t work, I manage to wriggle an arm free. I slap him hard.
He pulls away from me, his face flushed, and looking a little startled.
“I said to stop it, Freddie!”
Now his face goes dark red. “You little tease,” he accuses.
Kick him, the voice commands. In the groin.
“I’m not a tease!” I cry out, insulted. “I never –”
His hand slaps into my face, sending me sprawling onto the bed. I quickly roll to the side and scramble to get off my mattress. Standing by the wall, I stare at him in shocked disbelief. The little voice is incensed. She urges me to scream at him. To pummel him with my fists, to show him he can’t do this to me. But instead I stay there like a cornered animal, too shocked to move.
“Get on the bed,” he says.
“No!”
“Get on the bed, you whore,” he roars.
Suddenly an image rips into my mind. White sheets soaked in blood. A flash of a still body on a bed, all its life gone. A glinting knife. The smell of blood and applesmoke and… and … Something on the wall. Something gruesome. I see a flash of it and suddenly I know what it is. The most awful thing. Awful…
My lungs tighten. I can’t breathe. Freddie grabs me by the arm and starts dragging me towards the bed.
“You should know your place,” he says. He calls me a filthy word.
I resist him, digging in my heels to stop myself from sliding across the floor. He picks me up and throws me onto the mattress.
“I’m going to get what I came here for,” he says. “I was first in line.”
I manage to fight out a scream, but he clamps his hand over my mouth quickly, muffling it. Nobody can hear me.
“Shut your mouth,” he hisses. “This is what you’re here for, my sweet. To entertain the guests. So you’re damn well going to do your job and entertain me.”
I kick him with my legs, but he grabs them and uses them to yank me closer. He can’t do this to me. I’m the Angel of Death. Except I’ve never felt more human. I can’t move him. I’m trapped. I’m not even a succubus. I can’t defend myself. I’m stupid. Helpless. This cannot be happening. Not now.
Freddie pins me down with his body. He is touching me and I am frozen. His hand goes under my skirt. And then he flies back from me, as if someone has grabbed him and yanked him by the scruff of his neck.
Gasping in shock, I sit up and scramble away. I huddle against my pillows, grabbing my blanket and yanking it over me as if it might offer me some protection.
Storm is here. Storm is looming over a cowering Freddie and pummeling him. His big fists are fast, his movements precise, hitting spots that seem to stun Freddie into immobilization. Freddie doesn’t even try to fight back. This is probably what saves him.
When Freddie is bloody and limp, Storm looks almost disappointed and full of contempt. He grabs Freddie by the scruff of the neck and drags him out of the room and throws him outside. He says something to him, but my ears are ringing in shock and I cannot make it out.
He locks the door and comes back to me and takes me in his arms. He holds me tightly, his embrace hot and fearsome and safe.
“Hush, sweetheart,” he says. “I’ve got you. I won’t let him hurt you. I’ve got you now.”
I start sobbing. My tears burst forth like a dam. All of the visions I’ve been having spew up in my mind like some vile melting pot. Me dancing with Storm, Xander being shot, the knife the killer left behind, the awful thing on the wall, and all the while me and Storm dancing and dancing. I know who the killer is. I know.
Chapter 23
STORM
Storm lays Diana’s head gently down on her pillow. Her sobs had turned into a full blown panic attack, and her embarrassment at him seeing it had seemed to make it worse for her. He is sure she had wanted to tell him something during her ordeal, but once her breathing returned to normal she had gone quiet, seeming to retreat inside her own mind. She had fallen asleep in his arms.
He tucks her duvet snugly around her to make s
ure she is comfortable. His movements are tender and gentle so as not to wake her.
If only she had managed to tell him what was on her mind. He had reassured her that she was safe now, and soothed her in an effort to help her get the words out, but she had seemed in the grip of horror and had swiftly descended into what could only be called hysteria. No wailing or screaming for her, but a quiet gasping suffocation and terror that had seemed worse somehow.
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