Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (4 page)

I press my lips together to keep from screaming at him, we glare into each other’
s eyes. “That’s just a piece of paper.”

He chuckles above me, the soun
d
reverberates in his body and causes the harsh muscles of his chest to brush across my nose, I resist the urge to jump back
, “
t
hat’s what most couples say. But here me well
Daffee
Blackthorne
,” I bristle at the stupid nickname resurfacing again, “you are my wife in every
way.”

“No I’m not,” I whisper furiously, “I don’t care what I agreed to but I am in no way your wife.”

I am off my feet before I can take another breath. He has scooped me up in his arm
s. I twist furiously in his hold
trying to evade his
looming face. H
e tightens his long arms around my waist and I gasp. His mouth descends o
n mine. I squeeze my lips closed
and determinedly keep my eyes open. I watch in fascinated horror as our eyes meet, his are so close, I am caught by the furor in their depth,
and
the …
pain.
T
his close I can see that their silver brilliance is hiding a
hideous amount of fear and uncertainty.
For us?
Not likely. This man has never cared about anyone but himself.

Still
I cry out as his torment pours from him to me and I wriggle desperately to get out of his arms. I will not le
t myself feel sorry for him
, the most selfish human being I have ever had the misfortune to meet.

He grasp
s
my face with one hand, freshly amazing me that he can hold me aloft with only the aid of one arm wrapped around my waist. He lowers his head and I open my mouth like a shark, ready to bite off his lips if he places them anywhere near mine, but the kiss on my mouth never comes
. I
nstead, I feel a flutter of sensations across my forehead, my cheeks. I cannot help it and I inha
le the unadorned maleness of his scent, it
fills my lungs and an involuntary moan escapes my
parted
lips.

“I want to kiss you so badly,”
he whispe
rs, a hairsbreadth from my lips.
M
y traitorous lips burn in anticipation but h
e tips his head back a fraction and looks at me, his silver eyes hooded
.
B
ut even so
I gasp with the frightening amount of need which pulsate in their depth
s
, his thin, soft lips quirk in a sad smile, “but you’
d probably bite
my lips
off
, wouldn’t you.”

I swallow unable to answer.
How did he know that?
His gaze devours me for a few more seconds and unable to help myself I take deep draughts of his scent
, my bod
y
remembers and
clenches in anticipation
. Shame
at my shallowness
immediately suffuses me
, swamping my desire
and I close
my eyes and hang my head. Why
am I such a fool
over a man I’ve just met
?

I feel the ground beneath my feet and I blink my eyes open and stare
confused
up at him. He has alre
ady put several feet between us
. T
he coldness is back in his eyes.
“Get the clothes. We need to leave now.”

I stumble into Elaine’s bedroom and
do
as he bids.

I am walking beside Elaine and our gaze is fixed ahead on Nate who is carrying a
sleeping Aubrey
. It’s hard to believe but as I glance at my watch, an old relic I refuse t
o
part
with
,
I see that it’s only 5:15 a.m.

With the
light of
dawn the dirt road with its familiar scattering of banana trees and weeds sway in the light, cool breeze
s that usually accompany
this time of day. I have trudged this road so many times during this hour that despite my turmoil, a part of me feels peace at this most free and precious part of my day
before I would head
off to work. But I am not going to work today or as far as I can tell neither tomorrow. A second unexcused absence
will see me swiftly terminated.

As if reading my thoughts
Elaine turns to me. “Where is your man taking us?”

I bristle at her
derogator
y tone, n
arrow my eyes at her round
cho
colate colored face. To anyone
outside she can appear maternal but I know the real woman and for me she has been nothing but demanding an
d cruel since dad passed away.
Leaving
me the sole burden of providing for our small family.

“He’s not my man,” I snap.

She opens her mouth abruptly but then perhaps seeing my murderous expression she rethinks whatever it was she was about to say. “Why then did you marry him?”

I grit my teeth against the answer. What could I say? After
these many months of chastising
Elaine for greed and selfishness, my actions with Nate h
ave made me into mini-Elaine
.

I look away into the abandoned field. “That’s none of your concern.”

“You’re my daughter.”

That brings
my head spinning around
like a poltergeist
. A rush of tears fills my throat as we lock eyes.
“
No, I’m your stepdaughter. 
I have never been a daughter to you.” I am aghast that my voice wobbles but
I cannot help it. The pain is too much
for me to be able to
continue to
hide it completely.

She probes my flaming face, the
hot tears in my
eyes. “That’s not fair Daphne. I tried …”

I fling up a hand, “Don’t give me that bullshit,” her eyes bulge at my
unaccustomed
disrespect. I don’t thin
k I’ve ever sworn at her before.

Her mouth turns sour and she lapses into silence.

Dad had married Elaine
two years before Aubrey’s birth. Mom had been dead for five years before that. I had been seven at the time of their marriage, too young to remember mom, eager to love the beautiful woman in white who would be my new mother.
Tears of remembrance burn my lids and
I
have to
swallow back the
huge
l
ump in my throat.

I stare straight ahead at Nate’s back, his effortless gl
ide across the uneven dirt road, I’m glad that he’s not close, that Aubrey is asleep.

I turn back to Elaine
.
“You have never given
me a chance to be your daughter.
” I am sniffling now, barely able to stop myself from crying. How can it hurt so much, even when I have known the
truth for so
long? I
look her in the eye,
“
It’s
too late now.”

I start to speed up
to get away from her but she matches my pace, “Daphne I’m so sorry
.
I didn’t …
some things were
different then
.”

I flinch and ignore her.
Too little.
Too late.

S
he
lapses into silence and I steal a glance at her
, her face is drawn with anxiety
. “Do you know where we’re going?”

I shift uncomfortably. “No.” I throw a glance at Nate’s silently moving form ahead of us.

Elaine
exhales sharply. “I don’t know what trouble
your
… Nate is running fro
m but if he wants to get off this
island Montserrat may be a good place. I’ve got family there.”

I
raise skeptical brows. I don’t
remember Elaine
ever mentioning them bef
ore. “Isn’t that
the
island experiencing
volcanic disturbance
s
?”

She chuckles dryly. “
Yeah
but it’s just some ash, nothing serious
. And
that may make it a good place to stay for a while. Not too much people
in certain parts
.”

I say nothing but what she says does make sense. Montserrat, an island thirty miles away may be a go
od
place to
stay for now until I can figure out how to get away from Nate and the danger he’s p
laced us in.

I speed
up and come abreast with Nate. I feel him turn to glance at me but I stare straight ahead. “Where are you intending to take us?”
I ask.

He shifts the still sleeping Aubrey in his arms. “I thou
ght the south side of the island may be a good
place
for another few hours
.
U
ntil we
c
an figu
re out how to get off of Antigua
without Emmanuel knowing.”

The south side?
Antigua is not that big, only 108 square miles total. If Emmanuel had tracked Nate all the way from Sunset Cove to my house, then he could
find us within half a day if we went to the south s
ide.
I study Nate’s
serious, intent face, his thick eyebrows low over his pale eyes
.
Again fresh anger at Nate’s selfish actions poured through me. “
This is
all
your
fault. If you had stayed at
Sunset  Cove
none of this would be happening to my fa
mily. And now you’re afraid-”

Nate
stops so suddenly
, he cuts off my tirade and
I
have to jump back to avoid
nearly bump
ing
into him. His gaze pins
me t
o the ground, his square face is
set in furious lines. “
Afraid? Y
eah you could
say that but my staying in Sunset Cove would not have protected you from Emmanuel.”

“Really?”
I quip
letting the sarcasm drip from my voice. Who the hell did he think he was?

“Really?
” he mimic’s
me
perfectly
, “tell me do you think the man you just met would have spare
d
another soul if he had found
me
in a room with a maid? I had pegged you for a thinking person.”

His insult stung and I
open
my mouth to furiously refute his hurtful words but then I thought of Emmanuel’s face
, his eyes,
the
way he’d
stalked
and taunted
me in my own home. There is no doubt in my
mind that he would have at the very least hurt me terribly i
f
I
had been unable
to tell him
Nate’s whereabouts. I lift a hand to my throat. I
t
would not have
mattered that I told
him
the truth.

I try to shake off the sickening sensation
of so much brutality being directed at me.
I clear my
suddenly dry throat and recall why I had caught up with Nate in the first place.
“Elaine has family in Montserrat.”

“As in the island where the
Soufrière
Hills Volcano
is erupting?”
he asks disbelievingly.

“Exactly.”
I quirk a challenging brow at him.

He thinks
about it for a few seconds his eyes narrowing. “There is a daily ferry service, correct?”

I shouldn’t
be but
again I’
m taken aback by how much he knows about the islands. “
Yes. T
ourist
s love nature in action.
”

He flashes a grin at me. “You mean stupid tourists don’t you?”

I can’t help but return his grin. “Something
like
that. Most Caribbean folks tend to run away from volcanos and those crumbling bridges that hang over the
sea but tourists seem to love
the stuff even more than the
local
rum punch.”