Legend of the Forbidden (10 page)

“A move?” Dani asked.

“Yes, well, from what I know about Terran, the girls don't wait around for the guys. At least, that's what all the Terran movies are like. Come to think about it, any movie the normal humans make reflects it. The dragon culture is the only one that practices such primitive dating rituals. I mean, in the sense that the girl has to wait for the guy to come and take her away,” Maya explained, but she was still dodging what needed to be said. “Anyway, I bring this up because I made a move. I shouldn't have, and I pray you forgive me, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.”

Dani stared at her with a mixture of awe, shock, and confusion. “What do you mean,
made a move
?”

“We kissed?”

“Oh…”

Not quite the reaction Maya had been expecting, and she didn't know how to take it. Was Dani jealous? Mad? Okay with it?

“I am really sorry,” Maya whispered.

“Why?”

“For some reason, I wanted to see what he would do if he was advanced on. Maybe break him out of his shell or something,” she explained, hoping Dani would understand the logic.

Dani shook her head. “No, I mean, why are you so sorry?”

“Because he's
your
fiancé.”

“I know, but you didn't mean any harm, and it's not like it meant anything to either of you. Maybe it's better he give it a try, so he can get some confidence. Good idea,” Dani said with a small smile.

Maya couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was being congratulated for kissing another woman's man? Was there something wrong with this girl?
Or maybe she's looking for a reason to get out of this whole thing after all?

After a brief moment of quiet, Dani glanced over her shoulder at Maya, still smiling. “Can you zip me up here?”

She reached toward Dani, and pulled up on the zipper at the back of her dress. It was simple in design. It had thin spaghetti straps covered in silver jewels, and an empire waistline that flowed into a chiffon skirt with a small train. Under the bust was a jeweled band decorated with a flower pattern. Over the cleavage of the bust was another flower made from the same silver jewels. Absolutely beautiful, and it suited Dani well.

“Are you sure you're not upset with me?” Maya asked.

“Surprised, but not upset, no.” Dani shook her head. “Not sure what to think, to be honest, but why dwell on it?”

“Right,” she said. Then she helped Dani walk out to the waiting room where her mother, father, and now Ethan waited. Maya watched as both the men's eyes lit up.

Dani's father smiled. “I don't know what your problem is with the dress, honey. I think it's perfect.”

Maya watched Ethan swallow, and tried to squash her jealousy. That had to be a normal guy reaction, right? Seeing a girl in a pretty dress would make anyone stop to admire the beauty. Still, Maya needed to be sure.

“Tyson is going to just
die
when he sees you,” she said with a giggle, glancing at Ethan from the side to see his reaction. She watched him smile, and sighed in relief.
Could he want me as much as I do him?

 

 

All of the hard things were out of the way. Dani was amazed at how much could be done in such a short period of time. The money the Terran nation was providing for the wedding helped of course, and that made the people of Shanrea that much more excited to cooperate with the tight deadline.

For the first time since the whole planning process had begun, she was truly alone with Tyson, and it felt strange. Things had never felt awkward between the two of them before, and now there was a whole mess of awkward. She hated it.

They looked for the perfect place to say their vows. She had her heart set on a beach wedding, which was hilarious in a way, since the water still made her so nervous. But she had a lot of fond memories from the beach, and most of them involved Tyson in some way, shape, or form. So why not? It seemed fitting. Plus, it would be more romantic than any place in town. The two walked along the shore. He gazed out at the water, and she down at her fingernails.

“Any particular spot?” he asked quietly, breaking the silence.

She shook her head. “I guess not. It's all beautiful and… it'll be hard for me to leave here. I imagine we'll be living in your home?”

“With the money we'll be getting, we'll have enough to get a house here and over there. We can see which one we like more,” he said.

“I'd like that.”

Tyson stopped walking and faced her. He reached out to grab her hands with his own and stared into her eyes. She'd never seen him gaze at her with such tenderness, and was that other look in his eyes longing? It was hard to tell, because she'd never had him peer into the depths of her soul before like he seemed to be doing now.

He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and leaned forward with his lips puckered. It took her a moment to realize he was trying to kiss her. She had only a second to prepare for it. She briefly tried to reciprocate it, but it didn't feel all too natural. If anything, she wanted to pull away from him, and she didn't understand why. Wasn't this what she had been wanting? For Tyson to notice her, to show he was in this with her. If so, why did she feel so grossed out by it? Like she'd just kissed one of her brothers?

Frowning, Tyson pulled away and turned his back on her.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “I'll find a way to be better the day of the wedding. I was just caught off guard.” For whatever reason, she felt like she needed an excuse to make up for her lack of experience. After all, he'd kissed at least one other girl besides her. Were there others that she didn't know about? What else hadn't he told her?

He shook his head. “That's not it. You're fine, Dani. In fact, you're more than fine. You're perfect. I'm not sure why this is so hard for me. But something about that didn't feel right. Am I the only one?”

“No, it didn't feel right to me either,” she admitted.

“But I wanted it to…”

“Same…”

Tyson faced her again, chewing on his lower lip. “If we can't kiss, how are we going to…?”

Dani swallowed and shook her head. “We can't go through with this.”

“But how can we say no?”

“We can't go through with this,” she repeated, adding more force into her tone.

“Wow, I didn't realize I was so gross,” he mumbled.

She laughed. “No, it has nothing to do with that. But you know we won't be happy. How are we going to make this work to begin with? Besides, I think you were onto something when you said this whole thing is just going to add more political fear among all of the nations. If we stick with this together, and get our parents to agree, then we can… we could fight this. They can't make us. There's no way for that to happen.”

He nodded. “I know you're right. Part of me is scared to go against my lord's wishes.”

“You can always move here, and he can't hurt you. We'll adopt you.” She was teasing of course. For the most part. It could be done if needed. She doubted there'd be a lot of backlash from her side of things. The only one who so obviously desired the wedding to happen was Lord Bolton. Even Lord Taylor had been more relaxed during his ruling. It's why they had gotten away with not going through with the whole thing for so long. There had to be something in it for Bolton. There was no other explanation for it.

“This is a huge decision, Dani. Don't you want to think about it some more?”

“Do you want to try kissing me again and see if it goes better?” she offered.

Tyson scratched his chin, as if he were considering it, and then averted his gaze to the sand. “I'd rather not, but if you think doing it will help…”

She sighed and gently touched his cheek with her hand. “Did you feel something when you kissed Maya?”

“I—how—wha—?” Tyson stammered. “S-she told you?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She nodded with a laugh.

Tyson's cheeks flushed ever so slightly. “I liked it. Yeah.”

“Then I think that's your answer on if we should be making such a big decision, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Dani grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “We can do this. We'll march in, tell him what's happening, and that'll be the end of it. It'll be okay. Don't be scared, and just think, then you can be with Maya or anyone else you wanna be with. You don't have to feel stuck with me.”

“I'm sorry,” he whispered.

“I am too. I did try to be what you wanted.”

“Same, but I know I can't be Ethan. And you need to say something to him fast, because I think he's going to do something crazy soon.” Tyson stroked her hair.

She raised an eyebrow. “Good to know.”

Ethan do something crazy? That didn't sound like him at all. He had an adventurous spirit in him, but for the most part he was reserved. There was hardly anything he did without first taking a logical approach. Something he'd tried to use to help her with the dilemma with Tyson, but Dani was learning she couldn't always rely on logic. She had to obey her heart too.

 

 

The thought of Dani and Tyson kissing wouldn't leave Ethan's mind. Funny, because Tyson practically admitted to doing
something
with Maya, which was slightly annoying, but not for the reasons it should have been. Ethan was thinking about accepting the girl's proposal, which technically made her
his
territory, and instead of focusing on that, all he thought about was how poor Dani would feel when she found out. And why did the idea of Tyson kissing her bother him so much?

Because she deserves better? Is that it? Yeah, the Terran have a different way of courting, but whatever happened between Tyson and Maya shouldn't have. Does he have no sense of honor?
Ethan shook his head.
He's the luckiest guy in the world, and he's risking it all for some kind of fling?
He sighed.
No, that's harsh. He couldn't have done anything awful.
But Ethan still believed Tyson to be lucky. He'd kill to be in the other guy's shoes. It would make life so much simpler if Ethan could marry his best friend and have the whole thing worked out for him.

For some reason, Ethan felt the need to pace the front yard while he waited for the young couple to return from their search for the perfect location. Curiosity was getting the better of him, and he had to know how the whole thing was going. When he saw Dani come back to the house alone, he was more than a little surprised.

“Solo?” he asked, going to greet her at the beginning of the drive. She sure looked happy. In fact, she was practically glowing. Dani had the largest smile on her face, and her eyes glittered in the fading sunlight.

Dani nodded and gazed up at him, her smile getting even wider. Something he didn't think would even be possible. “Solo. We have a lot to think about.”

“Too many options? Couldn't find the best spot?”

“In the end it didn't matter much. Come on, let's go into the town and take a walk. I want to talk to you.” She grabbed his hand, and he could see her hesitate for a moment before her fingers wrapped around his.

He frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, but it is important,” she said.

“Okay, what's up?” He glanced down at her and noticed the smile wasn't going away.
Was it that great of a kiss?

Dani looked up at him, opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “I'm having a hard time thinking of how to say it. Still trying to figure out if it's even real to begin with.” She closed her eyes. “Tyson and I are going to get out of our arrangement.”

“What? Why?” Those were not the words Ethan had been expecting her to say at all.

“Because we don't want to, so why should we? It's a mutual decision, and we gave it a shot, but it seems stupid, don't you think? Especially if there's no real reason to go through with it?” She opened her eyes, and their gazes met.

“Just political repercussions,” he pointed out.

She shrugged. “I have a feeling we'll be able to work around them. But this can't happen. Tyson and I won't be good as husband and wife. Maybe it's all of the pressure. In another lifetime we'd meet and court normally. There wouldn't be all of this stress involved with an arranged marriage. And maybe in that other lifetime there wouldn't be someone else taking all of our attention.”

“He's going to go propose to Maya, isn't he?” Ethan asked. “What happened between them? Is it worse than what he's implied?”

“They just kissed. I don't know what he's going to do. Besides, I wasn't talking about Tyson and her.” She squeezed Ethan's hand. “He's not the only one who's looking elsewhere.”

Ethan laughed to hide his surprise. But he'd never thought of Dani as the type to have wandering eyes. Weren't the Inero raised to uphold their traditions? It was common for an Inero to drop their spouse, but not before the marriage even happened. There were rules that had to be obeyed. Did they mean nothing to her? The better question was: why did his heart beat faster? It was almost like it was working on overtime even though he hadn't done anything physically exhausting. It wasn't affecting his overall health. His breathing was a little constricted from the tightening in his chest, but he didn't feel dizzy or concerned. Only confused.