Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“Listen,” Pandora said, turning back to Lucy, pressing her lips together to keep from smiling. “I might be desperate, but I haven’t quite hit rock-bottom yet. If I propose to anyone, it’ll be someone … someone like—”
“Like the guy you’re secretly obsessed with?” Lucy shook her head at Pandora. She’d made her feelings known about Pandora’s crush and adamant refusal to do anything about it. Often.
“Shh!” Pandora’s head whipped around, making sure no one, least of all said guy, was hanging around, listening to them. “I’m not obsessed with anyone!” she said, even as her mind filled with images of a certain someone who was almost an hour late for his usual trip into the shop. “I’m just going to have, you know, some standards here.”
“Yeah, I mean, maybe it’s better if it isn’t the young, handsome, smart guy you’ve been drooling over for the past few months, who doesn’t know you’re a vampire. The old dude is definitely the better bet. With any luck, he’ll slip away peacefully in his sleep before you even have to consummate the marriage.”
“You’re so mean.”
“I like to think I’m practical,” Lucy said. “A dead husband means you technically got married, like your parents want, so you get your inheritance. But you also are free as a bird to pursue Caramel Macchiato Cutie,” she added, using the nickname Pandora had coined for the customer who’d been coming in every night for months.
Pandora shook her head. “I’m not going to pursue anyone.”
“Even though you’re hopelessly, miserably single?”
“Even though,” Pandora said. “Being unhappily single doesn’t mean I’m not going to be, you know, a little selective.”
“Should probably be more than a little selective.” A third voice joined the conversation, making Lucy’s golden eyes brighten, and a strange shiver moved up Pandora’s spine. She knew that voice.
She’d had many steamy dreams featuring it, his lips near her ear as he whispered words that had her pulse thrumming and butterflies swooping in her belly.
That was Caramel Macchiato Cutie’s voice.
All baritone and rumbly.
Pandora whipped around to find him right on the other side of the counter. They really needed to get some bells on that door or something.
Caramel Macchiato Cutie stood there in all of his rain-soaked glory. He was tall and lean under the dark jeans and emerald-green jumper that made his light green eyes pop all the more.
Pandora would bet good money – that she didn’t have – on there being some delicious muscles under those layers of clothes. Or, at least, that was what her fantasies suggested. Often. In great detail.
He had a sharp jaw, generous lips that were prone to frowning, and a brow that could be called nothing other than “broody”. Looking very much like a dreamy Mr. Darcy had stepped out of the pages of the Jane Austen novel and into a little all-night coffee shop in modern-day London.
In short, the guy was Pandora’s dream man come to life.
And there he was.
Three feet away.
While she talked about her embarrassing little predicament.
“Oh, uh, didn’t realize you were … right there. Hear much?” Pandora asked, stomach twisting in knots, begging him to have just walked up right then.
“Just the part about you being miserably single.”
Those were more words than she’d ever heard him speak. Normally, he gave out one- or two-word answers at best. She’d never got to appreciate just how appealing his voice was. The sound of it shivered down her spine, despite her humiliation. Her fantasies were going to get some updating.
“Oh, fantastic,” Pandora said, feeling a little queasy. And vampires weren’t even supposed to get nauseated.
“This is going great!” Lucy said, beaming, looking close to clapping her hands, like this was one of the beloved romcoms they were both always reading. And not Pandora’s embarrassing real life.
“Your usual?” Pandora managed to squeak to Caramel Macchiato Cutie, desperate to get this awkward interaction over with.
He gave her a nod before walking over to his table, pulling off his backpack, and unpacking a laptop, several books and a notebook full of colourful tabs. She had no idea what he was working on, but she loved to watch him deep in thought, the way his brows pinched in concentration as he flipped the pages of a book while his other hand moved frantically over the page.
“Kill me now,” Pandora grumbled under her breath as she reached for a paper cup featuring a seasonal flock of bats. The irony was not lost on her.
“You’re already dead.” Lucy passed Pandora the caramel syrup. “Besides, I changed my mind. You’re not going to marry Charlie,” she said, glancing back over at the sound of the older gentleman blowing noisily into his handkerchief. Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, inspecting the fabric before shoving it into his pocket.
“No, I’m definitely not,” Pandora said, wrinkling her nose as Charlie ran his, likely snotty, hand over the table, tapping his fingers lazily on the surface.