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“Oh… Well, that’s alright. It’s my fault anyhow. Take me back to the house, and maybe we can do dinner later.”

“It’s just an old friend, nothing too personal or pressing. You could come along, if you wouldn’t mind. He and I always meet this time of year when he’s back in town, and I don’t want to push him off, but I also don’t want to…” he trails off, and I’m left longing for whatever he was going to say.

I also can’t help but notice the deflation that occurred in my posture when he said the pronoun ‘he,’ meaning he’s not meeting a woman for lunch.

“If you’re alright with me tagging along, I’d love that.” Thinking about returning to the creepy estate I signed on to live at actually makes me want to scream.

I keep that thought to myself, giving him a bright smile that contrasts with the inner war going on in my body.

“Awesome! I should warn you, Elias is a bit… intense. Don’t take anything he says to heart, okay?”

“Okay…”

He reverses, pulls out of the restaurant’s parking lot, and back onto the highway, and I’m left wondering if I’m making a colossal mistake by intruding on this lunch because a gnawing feeling in my stomach won’t go away.

But it’s too late now, so I guess I’ll find out.

5

ROYALEMENT BAISÉE

SERAPHINE

We pull into a restaurant I’d normally scoff at. The name is French, and it’s totally out of my budget. I don’t know if I even have the palate for French cuisine, but I’m already crashing his man-date with his friend, so I don’t want to ruin anything else by suggesting a locale change.

The hostess shows us to our reserved table, and I look down at what I’m wearing as we pass tables of finely dressed patrons. I dressed today in a cozy-chic wardrobe, since I knew I would be unpacking and settling in: black leggings, an oversized sweater, and knee-high leather boots. I get a few withering stares, but I do my best to ignore them.

The hostess seats us in a back corner, thank God. Not long after we arrive, a man is shown back to our table.

He looks startled to see me sitting beside Kyrin when I look up from my menu that I’ve been staring at far too long, trying to decide what to order.

This man is blood-boilingly hot. His shoulder-grazing haircut is haphazard, matching his jeans, rugged shirt, and tattoos. He has a devil-may-care vibe that I’m weak for, and my mouth dries as I take in every inch of him, from his caramel-colored hair to his sharp-as-hell jawline that looks like it could cut through steel.

I clear my throat to cover my reaction, as if he can hear my heart pattering behind my ribs.

The newcomer settles in across from where Kyrin and I share one side of the dim booth, and Kyrin introduces him to me as Elias.

I don’t recall what Kyrin said he did, or if he mentioned his occupation at all, but he looks as though he’s a god sent to earth to torment me.

Like his dark name, he doesn’t look nice. At all.

Darkness radiates off him, and there’s pain floating in his nearly gray eyes that narrow on me when he notices me looking too long.

He intrigues me as much as Kyrin does, and that fascinates me to no end, especially since I’ve been a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of girl for as long as I can recall. I want to dive into these two men and never return. Fear settles in my stomach at the realization, and I flick my eyes back down to my menu.

“It’s nice to meet you, Seraphine,” Elias says, his gravelly voice raking through my psyche like a sharp knife, leaving damage in its wake.

I consciously work to keep from clearing my throat, but I unabashedly press my thighs together as wetness pools between them.

Mustering all the confidence I can, I say, “Likewise, now which of you fine gentlemen is going to order for me, because I’ve never been here. I don’t know what’s good.”

That seems to have broken the ice, and both men boom out a laugh at my expense. I revel in the way my body responds to the sound.

I need to get a hold of myself.

I desperately need to go home, get my handy-dandy wand out, and quell this fucking madness.

My chest burns as I think of masturbating in the darkness of that house, with ghosts lurking, and I reach for my water and swallow down nearly half of it with Elias’s damning eyes on me the entire time.