How to Turn a Frog into a Prince - Bree Wolf Page 0,110
in front of him. Her hands shoved against his chest as she blocked his path. “Stop!” she yelled, her eyes as wild as the pulse in his veins. “Stop, Nathanial!”
Dumbfounded, Nathanial did not know where to look, what to focus on. His gaze moved back and forth between the man he loathed and the woman he loved.
Then Lord Ashhaven cleared his throat, his hands moving to right his cravat. “You have your answer,” he said in that annoyingly calm voice of his. The ghost of a smile flitted over his face as his gaze moved from Nathanial to Charlaine. Then he turned and strode toward the door where Emma stood, eyes wide and jaw hanging open, staring at the scene before her in what one could only describe as utter shock.
Nathanial knew well how that felt.
“Emma,” Charlaine addressed her friend, her hands still lying on Nathanial’s chest, an unrelenting barrier he could not cross. “Would you see to Lord Ashhaven? He’s been…hurt.”
Emma swallowed, her pale cheeks flushing red before she dropped her gaze, but nodded. “Of course.”
A moment later, Emma and Lord Ashhaven had vanished, the door closed behind them, leaving Nathanial and Charlaine in a world where nothing and no one existed but them.
His chest rose and fell with a deep breath, her hands no longer there to keep him at bay. Then his gaze fell to meet hers.
Charlaine stood before him, her hands on her hips and her chin raised. Fire rested in her dark eyes, and he could see that there was nothing gentle or restrained in the way she was looking at him. Indeed, she seemed furious, her pulse beating wildly in her neck.
An echo of his own.
“What happened here?” Nathanial barked, his hand flying outward to the door through which Lord Ashhaven had disappeared. “Explain yourself.”
Charlaine’s jaw dropped, and a look of utter annoyance came to her eyes. “Explain myself?” Her voice was calm, too calm, and Nathanial swallowed hard as she stepped toward him, her gaze fixed on his. “I might as well ask for the same.” Her brows rose in challenge. “What were you doing? You struck him. Why?”
Nathanial could have groaned for she had found the one question he knew not how to answer without baring his heart and soul to her. “I…I was concerned for you. He—”
“Don’t lie to me!” Charlaine snapped before a frustrated growl rose from her throat. “We promised each other brutal honesty, do you remember?”
He nodded.
“But lately, we’ve not spoken truthfully to each other, have we?” Her voice calmed. The pulse in her neck, however, continued to beat rapidly. “I have questions, so many questions I didn’t dare ask because I feared the answer.”
Nathanial closed his eyes. “I know what you mean.”
“Tell me why you kissed me that day at the lake.”
His gaze flew open.
*
Charlaine’s heart rejoiced when she saw the panicked expression upon Nathanial’s face. Indeed, the day at the lake had changed everything. While there had been moments before that had whispered of a deeper bond, of something that went beyond friendship, it had been that moment when all restraint had fallen from them and they had acted upon feelings thus far kept in check that had changed everything.
“Why did you kiss me?” she asked again, stepping closer. Her gaze sought his, but found Nathanial’s averted, not daring to meet hers. “Why?” Again, her hands came to rest upon his chest, but gentle this time, seeking a connection he seemed determined to run from.
“It was a mistake,” he gritted out, his gaze darting to hers before returning to stare at something beyond the top of her head.
“So you’ve said.” She inhaled a deep breath, watching him closely. “Nothing happened between me and Lord Ashhaven.”
Instantly, his eyes dropped to hers. “But I saw…”
“It was a test.”
His gaze narrowed. “A test?”
“I’m sorry,” she told him honestly, cherishing the feeling of finally revealing all that she felt to him. “I did not mean to deceive you. It was…the spur of the moment. But I needed to know.” She moved her hands across his chest, closer to his left side, to feel his heart beat frantically against her palms. “I wanted to know if it would affect you to see me with him, if it would affect you the same way seeing you with Abigail affected me.”
Below her hands, his heart skipped a beat.
“You see,” Charlaine began, willing her gaze to remain on his, to not look down and hide from him. “I love you.”