Willow burst out of the woods, slamming into him, and knocking them both to the ground. “Hey!” Julian yelled angrily.
“Oh, sorry!” she cried, jumping to her feet.
Isabelle sighed as she ran a hand tiredly through her still wet hair. If any of her younger siblings survived to maturity, she would be truly amazed. Vicky and Abby suddenly appeared behind them, their eyes wideas they caught sight of everyone. Isabelle glowered at them as they came forward, openly admiring Stefan, before stepping to the edge of the hole. “And where were you two?” she demanded.
“We were tired!” they both criedin unison.
“How were we supposed to know that they were in trouble again?” Abby demanded.
“Yeah!” Vicky yelled.
Isabelle took a deep breath as she attempted to control her anger and frustration. It wasn’t only them that she was annoyed with, butalsoherself, and Stefan, and the whole damn worldfor playing this cruel joke on her. “By Willow’s tone,”she retorted.
They both gave her identicallooks of disbelief as they propped their hands on their hips.“Willow always panics when they do something wrong! We just thought that they had dared the twins to do something stupid again!” Abby protested her green eyes flashingangrilyasshe gazed rapidly betweenIsabelleand Stefan.
“I do not!” Willow protested vehemently.
“Wow thatis deadly!” Vicky breathed as she gazed into the hole.
“No kidding!” Isabelle snapped.
Vicky looked at her in surprise, not used to catching Isabelle in a bad mood, or even having Isabelleyell at them.“What’s got you in such a mood?” she demanded.
Isabelle’s jaw clenched as she bit hard on her bottom lip to keep from exploding. “He could have been killed.”
“So could you.”
Isabelle’s eyes snapped to Stefan. He was standing in the same spot, his arms folded causally over his chest. There was an amused gleam in his eyes that set her teeth on edge. It was as if he knew that it was really him and herself, that she was mad at, andhewas thoroughly enjoying it. As if he knew exactly what had been on her mind when she had looked at him.
She realized with a jolt that he had. Just as she had known exactly what that hungry gleam in his eyes had meant. He was a very handsome man afterall;of course he knew the effect that he had upon her. Pride and anger stiffened her spine as she tilted her chin defiantly. It didn’t matter what he knew, she had every intention of staying as far away from him as possible.
A small smile curved his full, hard mouth as his hungry gaze traveled leisurely back over her. A small tremor began to wrack through her as his gaze burned into her, causing her skin to warm everywhere that it touched upon. When it lingered upon her heaving chest, Isabelle was horrified at the prickling sensation that caused her nipples to tingle and harden. She forced herself to shove the new sensations he awoke aside as she glowered at him. She didn’t know what he found so amusing about this situation, but she didn’t find anything at all funnyabout it.
“YeahIssy!” Vicky cried grabbing hold of her arm. “You are so lucky that Stefan was coming back to the house!”
Yeah, she was the luckiest person alive, Isabelle thought angrily as Stefan smirked smugly. She turned away from him, taking a deep breathas sheforcedherself to remain calm. She had to get away from him, all of them. She was too damn aggravated right now, too damn unsettled to be able to deal with any of this. All of her fear for Julian, and herself was gone, but there was a new fear gnawing at the pit of her stomach. One that was threatening to strangle her.
She hurried back to the path, ignoring Vicky and Abby’s chatter as she mumbled a quick thanks to Stefan, refusing to look at himagain. It took all she had to hold her head highand keep on walkingasshe felthis gaze burninginto her backwith every step she took.
CHAPTER 5
Stefan wiped the sweat from his brow as he grabbed a bottle of water and dumped it over his head. His gaze settled on Delia, Jess, Vicky, and Abby. They had set up lounge chairs and donned their bathing suits in order to absorb the sun. Suntan lotion, magazines, and a radio were scattered around them.Soft music driftedthrough the air to him.
They looked extremely relaxed as they flipped through the pages of magazines and talked softly. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, nor did he particularly care. He knew for a fact that Jess’s ability to communicate about anything other than fashion, or hair, was severely limited. He didn’t know how someone who went to college knew so little of the world, but somehow,shehadmanaged to do it.
He shook his head as he grimaced slightly. Raising aneyebrow his gaze ran back over them as he wondered why Isabelle wasn’t with them. Obviously her sisters enjoyed the leisurely pass time of doing nothing.From what he had gathered, Isabelle was usually with one relative or another, so he’d assumedshe would be with her sisters and the other girls.
Popping the top off his bottle, he drank a long swallow of water to wet his parched throat.Ethan appeared beside him, his gaze settling on the quartet spreadacrossthe lawn. “I wish I could work on my tan,” he grumbled as he grabbed a water bottle.
Stefan nodded his agreement as he took another swig of water. “Why isn’t Isabelle with them?”
Ethan laughed softly as he took a swallow of water. “Isabelle, work on her tan,” Ethan snorted. “That’s a joke.”
Stefan looked at him in surprise. “Why is that?”
Ethan shrugged as he took another drink. “Isabelle is one of those people thatarealways doing something to keep occupied.Plus she’s a bit of a tomboy, lounging around in the sun is about as appealing to her as eating a box of ants,” Jack answered as he appeared beside Ethan.
Stefan’s eyebrows rose in surprise.The last thing he would have pegged Isabelle as was a bit of a tomboy. From what he had seen of her, she was dignified, beautiful, and completely un-tomboyish. She was too much of a tempting, desirable woman to ever be pegged as anything else. He had pictured her spending hours brushing her hair to get it to shine like it did, painting her nails, and flipping through fashion magazinesin order to keep up on the latest fashions. The picture they painted of her though didn’t fit in with his imageat all.
