Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
And I feel...nothing.
No electric tingles. No racing heart. No burning blush.
Just...nothing.
What is happening to me? Could Lykhan Qahiri Syndrome be really a thing?
“Seriously, though,” Vaughn says, leaning forward. “You seem different today. Everything okay?”
I take a deep breath. Might as well get this over with.
“I’m engaged,” I blurt out.
Vaughn freezes, coffee mug halfway to his lips. “You’re what?”
“Engaged. To be married.”
“To who?” The mug clinks loudly against the table. “Since when do you even date? I thought you were—”
He stops abruptly, and I raise my eyebrows. “Thought I was what?”
Vaughn looks suddenly flustered. “You know. Focused on your career.”
Or hopelessly hung up on you? I almost say, but swallow the words.
“His name is Lykan Qahiri—”
Vaughn, who’s always been rather proud of not knowing anyone with more than four digits in their bank balance, actually cuts me off, asking, “Not the sheikh, surely?”
I blink in surprise. “You know him?”
“Everyone who reads a newspaper knows of him.”
“Uh, right.” Says the same man who also used to be proud of not reading the papers because it’s all paid B.S. Or so he used to say. But maybe he’s changed recently, and I just didn’t notice?
“How did you meet him?”
“At work.” I work hard to meet his gaze as I say this. People look away when they lie, and this is not a lie...even if it feels like one. “It all happened pretty fast.”
“Fast, huh.”
The strange edge to his voice is impossible to ignore, but I’m not sure how to feel about it. Everyone who’s been a regular of this bakery—heck, maybe even the entire town of Chisa—knows I’ve been into him since forever. But he’s never even cared to acknowledge it. So why is he acting so weird right now?
“Like what, a whirlwind office romance?”
I almost laugh at how wrong he is. There’s nothing romantic about our arrangement. It’s a business deal, plain and simple. Except for the part where Lykan’s kiss turned my brain to mush and my knees to jelly...
Oh, dear.
“Something like that.” The memories have me mumbling and squirming, and even without Vaughn saying a word, I know he’s completely misinterpreting everything.
“This doesn’t sound like you, Scar.” Vaughn stares at me, his blue eyes intense behind his glasses. “You don’t do impulsive. You’re the girl who color-codes her planner and makes pros and cons lists before buying coffee beans.”
I know he means well, but does he notice how condescending he sound?
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
Even though my tone is soft, it still has Vaughn stiffening, and I can’t blame him, really. I’ve never answered him back like this. I’ve always bitten my lip around him, wanting to agree with everything he says in the hopes that it will, I don’t know, finally notice I’m a girl?
Pathetic, Scar.
That’s what I’ve been all these years, and I guess, if there’s one thing I can be grateful for about this engagement sham, it’s for opening my eyes to the truth.
“Is he pressuring you?”
It’s Vaughn’s abrupt tone, more than his words, that catch me by surprise.
“Is that what this is about?”
Oh, and he’s actually serious—
I hastily shake my head. “No, of course not, it’s nothing like that.”
“Because if you’re in some kind of trouble—”
“We’re in love!”
Vaughn freezes.
And...so do I.
Because I can’t believe I just said that.
But...it’s just...Vaughn...I mean...
“You’re in love.”
The way he stresses the last two words makes me want to bristle for some reason, and that’s never happened to me before either. I used to adore everything Vaughn says and does. So why does everything feel so different now?
I lift my chin. “Yes, Vaughn. I’m in love, and that’s why we’re getting married in three weeks—”
“Three weeks?” Vaughn’s voice rises enough that several heads turn our way. He lowers it again. “Scar, that’s insane. You can’t marry someone you just met.”
Wait a minute.
The sharpness of his tone makes me look at him. Like, really look at him, and I can’t help but wonder.
Is Vaughn actually...jealous?
But that’s not possible.
Is it?
I mean, he’s always been there for me, but he’s never been into me.
Never.
In fact, I can’t even count the number of times he’s indirectly but oh-so-politely let me know this, with how he always emphasizes what a good friend I am to him, or how I’m like the baby sister he doesn’t have but didn’t knew he wanted.
“You need to think this through,” Vaughn insists.
“I already have—”
“Clearly not enough,” Vaughn derides, “if you still insist on marrying him.”
“I’m not insisting—”
“Lykan Qahiri—”
“It’s actually Sheikh Lykan—”
Vaughn gives me the evil eye.
“But you can call him Lykan, too, because we’re all going to be friends.”
“He’s from a different world, Scar.”
“You make him sound like an alien,” I protest.
“He might as well be,” Vaughn snaps. “Men like him see themselves as above the law. They see something they want, they take it. No matter what.”