Free He's No Prince Charming (Ever After) by Elle Daniels Page A

answered her question.
    “You’re going to pull me up, of course.”

Chapter Six
    With willing hand and ready grace,
    Mild Beauty takes the Servant’s place;
    —“Beauty and the Beast” by Charles Lamb
    Y ou’re jesting.” He was nearly twice her size!
    “Not in the least.”
    “You’re intoxicated.”
    “Wrong again.”
    “How exactly do you propose I do that? You are literally a giant!” she snarled over the wall, careful to keep her voice low.
    “Need I remind you, you are the one who does this for a living?”
    “It’s becoming increasingly obvious I need to retire,” she muttered.
    “Not until our arrangement is complete.”
    Danni lapsed into silence as she realized he seriously thought she was going to somehow manage to pull him up. She turned in her seat, surveying the garden below her through the shifting shadows formed by clouds moving across the moon. The garden was surprisingly feminine and decidedly lacking in thorny rose bushes. She could just make out rows upon rows of the bleeding hearts and irises that lined the garden beds, mixed among a variety of many flowering plants. The garden was a well-tended masterpiece. As she scanned the freshly budding greenery, Danni realized why they could not locate a tree before. There were none. It also meant she had nothing to which to tie a rope.
    “I really do not see how you’re going to get up. Why don’t you just wait here and I’ll come back with her?” she whispered down to the marquis, a dark form pacing anxiously among gray shadows.
    “You mean come back with the authorities?”
    “How could you think I’d do such a thing?” she sniffed, pretending offense.
    “Do I need to remind you of what I can do to you, Miss Green? I will be back with the constable long before you could even get inside that house. You will be the intruder. I will be the hero witnessing and reporting your break-in.”
    Grinding her teeth, she glared down into the gloom, his green eyes the only object visible as the moon slid behind a cloud.
    “Get me over this wall at once, madam.”
    She glanced around her again. There really wasn’t anything she could use—
    Smiling, she rolled over on her stomach and dropped down off the wall.
     
    Marcus couldn’t believe his eyes. One moment the fraud was sitting atop the wall, pretending to be affronted by the idea of kidnapping, and the next moment she’d disappeared. With the way his night was going, he wouldn’t be surprised if she had fallen to her death. “Miss Green?”
    Silence.
    The image of her bent and broken body lying in a bed of thorns sent him reeling. He panicked. “Danni!”
    Marcus ran his hands through his hair, fumbling for his old metal friend for a drink. Despite his attempt to remain aloof, he couldn’t deny the sudden mix of dread and regret that gripped his chest. It was bad enough he was forced to kidnap, but if he was responsible for someone’s death, he was not sure he’d be able to survive. Especially hers. Her caramel eyes would never again spark with indignation or cloud with confusion. She could be dead. Because of him.
    He whispered sharply, “Danni! Answer me!”
    A snort came from the other side of the wall. Relief swamped him as he leaned against the cool mortar. Until another thought occurred to him. Rage followed quickly. “If you think you’re going to raise the alarm, you are even more witless than I originally thought!”
    Her voice rose over the wall, dripping with disdain. “And what do you purpose to do to stop me? You’re on the other side of a ten-foot wall.”
    Marcus ground his teeth to the quick. The damned girl was shredding his, at best precarious, patience. “Do not test me, Miss Green.”
    “You’re really not so terrifying when I’m on this side of the wall. You need me, so I suggest you stop threatening me, my lord .”
    “Damn it. Get me over this wall!”
    “Certainly. Whatever you command, my lord.”
    Marcus whipped around, surprised when her voice