Fascinated Read Online Free PDF Page A

sight of Melissa and Julian’s passion had agitated her, the feeling of Edward’s heartbeat calmed her.
    “Alicia.”
    She looked up. The moonlight had gotten into Edward’s gray eyes, and they shone as he bent toward her. His lips brushed hers, as gently and deliberately as his fingers had earlier. He drew her closer with that light touch. It seemed her whole awareness pressed against the glass wall in her mind. That wall strained to hold her back, but it could break. She pressed closer to Edward, pressed closer to the barrier of her mind.
    Then, suddenly, he broke the kiss. Edward’s head went up, like he’d caught some strange scent or unfamiliar sound. It was not a pleasant sound, either.
    “What is it?” she asked uneasily.
Did I do something wrong?
    “Something…” he murmured. “Something…” He stepped back, turning in place, his hand sweeping the air, as if feeling for an invisible object. He turned again to face her, his outstretched hand reaching for her brooch. Alicia shrank back, and Edward opened his mouth to speak.
    A knock sounded on the door, hard, followed by a man’s voice calling. “Carstairs? Carstairs, are you in there?”
    “Damn it!” Edward marched across the room and yanked the door open. A tall, black-haired man strode in, and froze. His eyes shifted from Edward to Alicia, and back again.
    “Sorry to interrupt,” said Mr. Rathe calmly. “But a messenger has arrived, Carstairs. Captain Smith has sent for us.”
    Edward snapped at once to attention. “I will be there directly.”
    Rathe nodded to Edward, bowed to Alicia, and left, shutting the door firmly behind himself.
    “I’m so sorry, Alicia.” Edward took her hand in both of his and kissed it swiftly. “This is a government matter and I must go. Will you return to the ballroom and make my excuses?”
    “Of course.”
    He cupped his hand around her cheek, lifting her face so she had to look into his eyes. “We will continue our conversation later, I promise.”
    With that he was gone, and she was left alone in the moonlight. As Alicia stared at the closed door, she could feel her awareness backing away. Almost without knowing it, she retreated into the mists that cocooned her away from all violent sensation. She should have been relieved, for it was a return to normalcy. But she was not. She wanted to race after Edward, to beg him not to leave her alone. Alone she was lost, smothered, dead.
    But slowly, that impulse fled. It was a temporary fancy after all. They said engaged women grew nervous. Surely that was what was behind all this charging about. These idle notions of walls and mists, were bred by those same nerves. She was who she was, and she was well suited to the practical, straightforward marriage offered her. She was also fortunate that Lord Carstairs was not easily perturbed. Something tickled her cheek. She brushed at it, and looked down at her hand. Her fingertips were damp. Curious.
    Head held high, face placid, Alicia opened the door and started down the long, dark corridor toward her engagement party.

Three

    W ithin moments, Carstairs climbed into the waiting carriage. Rathe signaled to the driver, who touched up the horses and pulled away from the steps.
    “Are you all right?” asked Rathe.
    Carstairs nodded curtly. But he was not all right. He was disturbed and surprised, profoundly so. There had been no messenger. He had used his power to call Rathe to his side.
    He had seen Alicia leaving the party after talking with her cousin Verity. Partly from curiosity, partly from the desire to find a moment alone with his fiancée, he had followed her. But what he had found was far more than a moment alone.
    “What happened in there?” Rathe asked. “Aside from the very obvious, that is.”
    “I don’t know,” replied Carstairs. “I was kissing my fiancée, and all at once I felt a great, cold knot of magic tightening all around us.” Rathe did not need to hear about the circumstances that led up to