“This is an unbelievably insane situation,” he agreed, maddeningly calm. “Your neighbor would never assume the truth. Merely tell him I’m your acquaintance and I came to help you with the painting before he could.”
She nodded, then squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could go back to her class. She should have gone with some of the gym patrons when they invited her for protein shakes in the cafe. Then maybe someone would have stolen the painting before she ever set eyes on the damn thing and she wouldn’t have to be making up cover stories at all.
“Okay, points to you for level-headedness,” she said begrudgingly. “But listen. I’m engaged.” She waved her ring around only to find she wasn’t wearing it. She’d taken it off before her class. Daniel raised an eyebrow at her and she had the overwhelming urge to punch him in the throat again. “You’re going to just have to believe me. Now get that mess out of here and let me try to head him off at the pass.”
He twitched, looking like he might argue with her. Instead he scowled and began gathering up the broken pieces of frame. She hurried to the hedge, just in time to see her neighbor squeezing through to her side.
“Hey Frank,” she bellowed in an unnaturally cheery voice. “Thanks for coming, but it’s all worked out now.”
Frank greeted her and peered up at her veranda. She followed his gaze and saw Daniel at the edge of the pool through all the fronds of various plants she had up there for privacy. Not enough fronds, she noted. To her horror, Daniel stripped off his shirt and breeches and dove beautifully into the pool. She slowly turned back to her neighbor, wondering if he’d noticed all of Daniel’s rippling muscles before he disappeared from view. Frank gave her a strained look and then couldn’t seem to meet her eye.
She knew if she didn’t set him straight everyone on their secluded little street was going to know she had a blazing hot man getting naked and jumping into her pool. To make matters even worse, Frank looked pointedly at her un-ringed hand. She couldn’t say it was someone she trained. Her neighbors knew she didn’t bring clients to the house. It would also be easy enough for the nosy bunch of jerks to determine Reynolds’ car wasn’t in the drive if she tried to say they were entertaining. God, was it worse for them to think Reynolds and she were some sort of gross swinger couple who had naked pool parties or—
“My cousin dropped by unexpectedly,” she blurted. “He’s a real pain in my ass if I’m being honest. He’s been bumming around the west coast and finally ran out of money. So of course he shows up at sucker Jade’s house.” She tsked and shook her head, glad to see Frank seemed satisfied with the story she was feeding him. “But what am I going to do?” she asked, looking to Frank as if she really wanted him to answer.
He guffawed. “My wife’s the same way,” he said. “Family first. We had her kid brother and his hippie girlfriend staying with us for three god-awful months last year.”
“I hope it’s not three months,” she said with a forced laugh. She prayed it wouldn’t be three hours. Maybe Daniel would turn back into a painting at midnight. “Thanks for coming over, but at least my good-for-nothing cousin is good for hauling heavy packages.”
Frank laughed some more as he squeezed back through their shared hedge. Her story probably wasn’t as juicy as her cheating on Reynolds or them being a swinger couple, but at least she’d given him something to talk about that wouldn’t hurt her or Reynolds’ reputation. She was proud of herself for defusing a sticky situation as she skipped back toward her yard.
Then she heard a splash from the pool and she instantly felt like her legs were made of lead. Her addled and shocked brain had almost let her believe she had an annoying family member at her house. Not a man who’d somehow escaped from a very old painting. She heard him whoop delightedly as another loud splash caused her to remember he was now naked.
“You,” she called as she shielded her eyes. “Get out and get your clothes back on so we can figure out what to do with you.”
She heard him swimming toward her and stepped away from the edge of the pool. He groaned like a disappointed child and splashed her legs, but climbed out of the pool. She heard water drops hitting the smooth pavement and heard his feet slapping away from her. She wanted to peek so much it almost caused her physical pain. The tantalizing glimpse she’d seen of his backside when he whipped off all his clothes made her yearn to get a tiny gander at the front.
“Are you decent?” she asked. “Hurry up so I can uncover my eyes.”
She swore she could feel him leer at her as he chuckled. “It won’t hurt my sensibilities if you uncover them.”
The gravelly timber of his voice and the suggestive invitation to look made her drop her hand. It was completely out of her control at that point. Her eyes wanted to see. He was still sopping wet but he’d pulled his breeches and his shirt back on. The clothes clung to every defined muscle and were nearly see-through now that they were wet.
“Argh! You’re still nowhere near decent,” she accused. “Why didn’t you dry off before you got dressed?”
He huffed out an irritated breath and shrugged. “You told me to hurry.”
She turned away. It wasn’t only her cheeks that were heating up. Her entire body seemed engulfed in flames at the glorious sight. Why was she so ruffled? Reynolds had a great body. The men who worked in her gyms were as buff as Thor. What was it about this man and his particular muscles that made her want to swoon?
To cover up her weak knees she sank into the nearest chaise and focused solely on his face. It didn’t help much. Now that he was relaxed and happy from his dip in the pool, those brown eyes all but twinkled at her. Water still dripped from his scruffy beard and his hair was slicked back from his face, showing off a very nice bone structure.
“What are we going to do about you?” she asked weakly.
“I wouldn’t say no to some food,” he said in such a way she couldn’t have denied him everything in her pantry.
“I’ll fix you something while I try to figure this out. And you can get properly dried and changed into something less distracting.”
He laughed heartily at that, getting much too close to her as they went up to the house. “Distracting? However am I distracting you?”
She could feel his skin blazing through his wet clothes as he brushed up against her side. Her pool was heated to a comfortable swimming temperature, but the evening breeze should have cooled him off considerably. He should have been shivering, but instead he was making her feel like she was on fire again. Why was he so hot? Why was she so hot? It should have made her jump away but instead she pressed closer as they both went through the French doors. The second they were inside and she saw the engagement picture of her and Reynolds on the console table, she was finally able to jump away.
This man Daniel was real, not a figment of her imagination. She felt she owed him a small bit of hospitality since he’d come to life on her property, but after she made him a sandwich, she had to send him away. She could not have this distraction in her life.
“How long were you in that painting?” she asked, pushing a roast turkey and avocado sandwich toward him.
“I was cursed in the year 1513,” he said, furrowing his brow. “My friend— I was trying to save him. But unless the witch was lying, he suffered the same fate as I did.” Daniel shook his head sadly before taking a huge bite of the sandwich. “My word, this is delicious.”
The fact that he’d been in the painting for more than five hundred years made her legs wobble. What he said about his friend made her have to grab the counter top to keep from buckling to the floor. She ran outside and gathered up the pieces of her phone, snapping them together. Thankfully, it restarted and she called Seda with trembling hands.
“Did he come out?” Seda asked without saying hello.
“It’s all real?” Jade asked. “The thing about the painting was all real?”
There was a sound like high-fiving and she heard Seda happily tell someone else that she was right this time. Could it
be Hugh? The man from the painting that was supposed to be hers but ended up being in love with Seda? She groaned and doubled over.
“It was all real,” she repeated, half to herself and half into the phone.
“Yes,” Seda said. “I know you’ve been in denial all this time, thinking I was crazy. But Hugh really came out of a painting because I’m his fated true love. And since Daniel came out of his painting— he did, right? Just to be clear?”
Jade sighed. “He did.”
“Then I was right,” she squealed. “You’re his fated true love.”
Jade stopped short, right at the spot where she’d dropped her smoothie. She stepped over the broken glass and continued on into the house, not wanting Daniel to be left to his own devices.
“Excuse me?” Jade asked, her voice rising shrilly. “I am no such thing. I’m engaged.”
“Ugh, you’re still engaged to Reynolds?” Seda groaned.
“Yes, Reynolds and I will be engaged until we’re married,” Jade said as calmly as she could. “He is my fated true love. You need to tell me what to do about this situation I have sitting in my kitchen.”
“Do you feel compelled to do things for Daniel?” Seda asked anxiously.
“What do you mean? I don’t think so. I mean, I made him a sandwich but— No,” she finally snapped.
“Hmmm, that must mean he’s the one who has to… Listen, I’ll call you when I’m back in town. We’re flying in tomorrow. Don’t let him out of your sight. It’s very important, okay?”
“Is he in danger?” Jade asked, looking through the French doors. “Will something bad happen to him if he’s out of my sight?”
She didn’t want that. She didn’t want any of this. The poor man had already suffered so much. She didn’t want anything even worse to happen to him. There was a long pause before Seda answered.
“Er, yes,” she said slowly. “He might be. Just keep an eye on him until we get there. It’s good that you care about him, that’s a step in the right direction to admitting he’s your true love.”
Jade choked at that brazen statement. “I care about another human being,” she sputtered. “Only in a purely humanitarian way. Not wanting someone to be hurt does not mean you’re in love with them.”
Another long pause. “Sure, sure. I’ll call you when we’re back home tomorrow.”
Jade stared at the phone long after the call ended. When she forced herself to face her strange new reality and go back into the house, Daniel waved at her and pointed to his empty plate.
“That was lovely,” he said with a contented smile. A smile that tugged at her heart much more than it should have. Since it shouldn’t have tugged at all. “I couldn’t have another, could I?”
“Fine,” she sighed after making sure she wanted to do it out of kindness and didn’t feel compelled to. What was that nonsense about? “Go get changed into dry clothes first.” She pointed toward the master bedroom. “There’s a bathroom through there with a dressing room. You’ll see some men’s clothes in the closet, just wear whatever you want.”
She couldn’t help look him up and down again, finding it hard to care about the puddle he’d left on her tile when he still looked so scrumptious. Maybe she needed to eat something so she could stop thinking of him in terms of food. It had to be low blood sugar that kept causing the strange flutters in her nether regions whenever she looked at him.
He gripped the sides of the barstool for a second as if he was fighting something but finally sighed and got up, heading in the direction she’d sent him. As she watched him leave the room a thought struck her like a thunderbolt. She hurriedly dialed Seda again.
“What do you mean about being compelled to do things?” she asked as soon as Seda mumbled her sleepy greeting.
“Uh, what? We’re three hours later than you, Jade. And we had an eight hour flight. And I got strip searched at the airport for smuggling spices. I know it’s hard to accept, but can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
Jade let all that gibberish wash over her and repeated her question. “What did you mean?” she demanded.
After an interminable pause, Seda answered. “One of you has to do what the other says. If it’s not you, it’s him. Because, believe me, he wouldn’t have come out of the painting if you weren’t the one, so now the rest of the curse has to play out. Which means he has to do what you say until you both realize you’re in love with each other.”
“Not going to happen, but thanks for clarifying. Go back to sleep, but call me the second you’re back in Annabel.” She ended the call and tried to make sense of what she’d been told.
Daniel had to do whatever she said? Things kept getting more and more impossible. Perhaps she was Daniel’s fated true love, but he certainly wasn’t hers. That was Reynolds, all Reynolds.
“Who’s Annabel?” Daniel asked, returning to the kitchen area.
She had to smother a gasp at how handsome he looked, all but bursting out of Reynolds’ clothes. The dark jeans fit him like a second skin and the gray t-shirt hugged his pecs in a way that made her hands want to run up and down his chest. This magnificent specimen had to do whatever she said? She cleared her throat and leaned against the bar, trying not to seem like a cat that had gotten into the cream. Not until she knew for sure.
“Annabel’s the name of the city you’re in,” she said. “But that’s not important right now. Touch your nose.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed. The curious smile he’d had when he came into the room slid off his face. He lifted his right hand and touched his nose, all the while his eyes were shooting fire.
Jade turned away to hide her obvious glee. Oh, this wasn’t going to be so bad, after all. If Daniel imagined he was in love with her, she would disabuse him of that notion and fast. Fate could kiss her perfectly toned butt.
Chapter 5
Daniel awoke well before dawn and stretched, amazed that the fractious woman had let him sleep at all. He could barely believe he’d been freed from his five hundred year nightmare only to be enslaved. And how she’d figured it out so quickly was beyond him. He’d been so careful, straining as long and as hard as he could not to immediately jump to do her wishes. The moment she was certain it was true that he was somehow forced to do whatever she said, she’d gone from beautiful and confused, perhaps still a little frightened, to a domineering shrew.
Though he had to admit to himself he still found her beautiful, even as he was scrubbing out the refrigerator and disposing of anything that might be “expired.” His eyes still hurt from straining to see the tiny print on all those bottles and jars. So much food. His stomach growled, making him swing his legs over the side of the bed to get something to eat.
As his bare feet hit the plush carpet, he smiled and savored the sensation. He was free. He could see and hear and taste and feel again. It might not be ideal, being enslaved as he was, but he was free of the painting.
How many years he’d longed for death, wondering if the world might end with him still trapped motionless in that canvas. Long, slow centuries had gone by, but to his eyes, the world didn’t seem close to ending. He could regain a life somehow. As soon as he got out from under the clutches of this new witch.
It seemed impossible she could be related to the first one. It was probably just his bad luck. As he rummaged through the sparkling clean refrigerator and took out more of the delicious sliced meats, he wondered if it was the first witch who’d made this happen. A failsafe of sorts if he ever managed to free himself.
He frowned, stuffing slices in his mouth, enjoying the smoky taste. Perhaps she was a victim of the curse as well. It wasn’t as if she’d known right away. She’d had to test her theory. And had she ever tested it. Besides making him touch his nose, she’d had him twirl in a circle and do deep knee bends before setting him to work cleaning her kitchen.
His face burned with humiliation, but at least she hadn’t lorded it over him or gloated too much. After she gave him an explicit list of things to do, she�
��d shown him where he could sleep when he was done, then had curtly told him not to leave the property and locked herself in her own room.
There was no bread to be had, but he finished the meat and drank a long swig of almond milk, surprised that almonds gave milk, but not disgusted by the flavor. He supposed he should be grateful the lovely despot hadn’t left him with a list of things to do this morning, but it was probably only a matter of time until she woke up.
He poked around the luxurious abode for a while, coming across a stash of wine bottles. He didn’t recognize the vintage of any of them, but why should he? Any wine he had exported back in his day would be long gone.
Thinking of wine made him think of his old ship. How he’d loved her. A gift from his father’s employer when he came of age so he could go do something with his life. He tried to summon memories of that grand estate. He’d grown up there, running through the halls with his childhood friend, but he could only remember the darkness at the end. After Daniel’s father, gatekeeper and trusted confidant of the old marquess, passed on, Daniel had turned restless. Wanted adventure. Wanted away from the gatehouse that held memories of the upright and dutiful man Daniel could never live up to.
Wanting to honor his faithful employee’s memory, the old marquess had given Daniel the ship. With the help of some of his great-uncles in Italy, he was able to start a wine export company. The old marquess loved a good bottle, or two or three, and with his recommendations to all his friends, Daniel’s little business became quite lucrative. Until the old marquess passed away and Hugh had become the new marquess.
He smiled ruefully, recalling all their wild antics before Hugh had to put on the mantle of responsibility. A mantle that was far too heavy and had eventually weighed him down. Daniel was older by a few years, and shouldn’t have encouraged him to go astray. But he wasn’t old by any means and also loved the thrill of adventure. It turned out there were so many ways to make money when one had a fine ship. Ways that might have ended up with Daniel hanging from a noose, but with the Marquess of Altonshire to back him, he had felt invincible. And they had grown very, very rich.
Renaissance Rogue (Cursed Painting Book 3) Page 3
