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)
At that same moment, across the room, Ophelia’s smile fell as she looked at her daughter.
14
“OK. What else?” Lucy asked in Pandora’s ear as she rushed around her room, trying to get together for her shift.
“It was mostly tame after that. I mean, as tame as my family can be anyway. They wouldn’t let me walk Victor to the Tube, though, which was ridiculous.”
“As if any mere human could overpower you, even running on pig’s blood and anxiety.”
“Right?” Pandora asked, pulling her hair back into a clip, shrugging on her coat, then making her way to the door.
Where she almost plowed right into Elias, who was standing there with his arm raised, poised to knock.
“Pandora,” he said, glancing at her work place logo, then back up at her face.
“Is that him? The vampire?” Lucy asked.
“It is,” Elias replied.
“What are you doing here?” Pandora asked, glancing past him into the hall, but not seeing anyone else lingering around.
“Your mother asked me to escort you to work this evening,” he told her.
“Ooh. This is getting juicy,” Lucy said in Pandora’s ear.
She could barely think with her own thoughts in her head, let alone Lucy’s.
“I’ll see you in a bit, Luce,” she said, hanging up and dropping her mobile into her pocket.
“I don’t need an escort. But thanks anyway,” Pandora said, pushing past him to make her way down the steps before Elias could say anything further.
She felt him following her, but he said nothing until they were on the first floor.
“I’m afraid I must insist.”
“Why are you doing this?” Pandora asked, whirling on him.
“Taking you to work?”
“No. Yes.”
“Which one is it?”
“Both,” she said, throwing up a hand. “Why are you here? Why are you playing this game?”
“I can assure you it isn’t a game,” he told her.
“It has to be a game. You don’t even know me.”
“Which is the purpose of escorting you to work.”
“I’m engaged,” she said, turning and walking toward the door, ignoring Bellatrix and her mother in the sitting room as she went. She was too angry to speak to her mother right then. She would end up saying something she’d regret.
“I noticed.” Elias followed her down the cobblestone path, then along the road, staying half a step behind her, despite being longer-legged with a bigger stride.
“And yet you are following me to work.”
“Are you concerned you might cheat on your fiancé with me?” Elias asked, making Pandora turn and gape at him.
“Of course not.”
“Then why does it matter if I tag along?”
Oh, only because she was lying to her whole family and also lying to her fake fiancé, and she really needed to be able to talk about it openly to the only person who knew the whole story. And his presence was only going to make that harder.
“Suit yourself,” she said, turning away. “But you have to buy something to sit there all night.”
“That will not be a problem.”
“And you can’t eat any of the customers.”
“Not even a little sip?” he asked, making her grumble until she realized he was teasing.
They made their way down to the Tube and Pandora couldn’t help but marvel at how he seemed incredibly out of place, but also perfectly blended in.
A group of women seated across from them on the train kept checking him out, whispering and giggling to one another, and one even got ballsy enough to snap a picture of him.
“What?” Elias asked when he caught her staring at his profile.
“That entire group of girls is mooning over you.”
“They’re not exactly subtle about it.”
“They’re all very pretty,” she said.
“I suppose.” He shrugged, not casting them another glance to check.
“Prettier than I am,” she added.
“You sell yourself short,” Elias said, shaking his head.
“Fine. Then they’re at least on the same level.”
“Is there a point to this line of conversation?”
“Why are you so intent on spending time with me when there are plenty of other pretty and, the most important part, willing, interested women around?”
“If you’re so happy with your fiancé, why does it bother you so much?”
“Is it because of my inheritance?” she asked.
“You insult me,” he said.
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s certainly not a yes. I have my own fortune. I don’t need your inheritance. Your mortal, however …”
“Don’t insult him,” Pandora said crossly, though she was well aware of the irony.
“You don’t find it the least bit suspicious that he proposed shortly after you learned the terms of your inheritance?” Elias asked.
“How do you even know that? What else has my mother told you about me and my life?”
“Only what she believed was pertinent, I imagine.”
“Like what?”
Elias watched her for a second before deciding to answer her. “She mentioned that you have an unnatural affection for humans.”
“It’s not unnatural to like humans.”
“They’re your food source.”
“So what?” she asked. “By that logic, it is unnatural for a human to like cows or pigs or chickens?”