Page 9 of Heir of Darkness

Valerio smirked. He would be. He would make sure he spent adequate time with his fiancée, showing her exactly what type of man he really was.

FOUR

LUNA

“This has beenthe longest week of my life. Did I tell you guys I already have an exam to start studying for? An exam. It’s the first week,” Cecilia cried out, frowning at her ice cream.

Luna patted her on the back. “You’ll get through it. Probably.”

They had officially reached the end of the week. One whole week. God, Luna didn’t know how she had done this for the past three years, but she was completely and utterly exhausted. All week she had been taking different routes to class to avoid running into the devil.

The sweets shop they had decided to visit was new to campus, packed to the rim, and wonderfully delicious. There was a variation of cookies, brownies, frozen yogurt, ice cream, milkshakes. It was overwhelming.

“I have a paper due in a few weeks that I need to start,” Blair said. “I’ll probably start it this weekend. Hell, I’ll probably be busy working on it the next couple of weekends.”

“What the hell? When did we get so boring?” Gianna asked, her eyes wide.

Luna took a spoonful of her cake batter frozen yogurt. “I’ve always been boring.”

“Ugh, cover your mouth,” Cecilia said, feigning gagging.

“We’re in college. We have to do our work to graduate,” Blair told Gianna. “Well, the ones of us who actually want to do something with our lives.”

Gianna glared at her. “I’m going to ignore that dig at me, and instead bring up how initiation weekend is in a few weeks and there’s a shit ton of parties happening every weekend until then.”

“No way,” Luna said, shaking her head. “First of all, I’m never going to a party you recommend again. Second, I’m not going to initiation weekend events. One event is hosted by my brother, the other by the devil. There are no events for me to attend and enjoy.”

“I’m sure Valerio would make you feel good at The Chase.” Cecilia grinned, pushing her brows up and down.

Luna smacked her shoulder. “What the hell are you talking about? Isn’t The Chase some barbaric, violent thing with weirdos playing tag in the forest together?”

“I thought you were into that,” Gianna said with a smirk.

She reached over the booth to smack her this time. “I told you that in confidence.”

“Well, this is news to me,” Blair said, raising her brows in shock. “Little Luna, do you want to be chased and manhandled?”

“I’m done talking about this,” Luna said. She could feel the heat on her cheeks at their comments, desperately trying to ignore what they said.

So what if she fantasized about something as primal as that? It wasn’t wrong to think about her being taken desperately and roughly. And it wouldn’t happen anyway; it was just something she read in a book and maybe searched to watch on her computer when she had some alone time. God, leave it to them to make her feel flustered about it.

“Any run-ins with your future fiancé this week?” Cecilia asked, changing the subject.

Luna rolled her eyes. “No, thank God. Like I’ve said, I can go without seeing him.”

“Marrying him couldn’t be that bad,” Gianna said, shrugging. “I mean, he’s related to me, so he has some redeeming qualities.”

“Not enough to let me enjoy a lifetime being married to him,” Luna said, shaking her head. She shoved another spoonful of cake batter frozen yogurt into her mouth.

“Well, think about it like this. There had to be something you liked about him in the first place to have a crush on him,” Blair said. “I don’t know, maybe you can find that thing in him again?”

“Why do you guys want me to like him so much?” she asked.

“Because you’re stuck with him,” Cecilia said.

Luna rolled her eyes. “I thought he was hot and mysterious, not to mention he was my family's enemy. I was like fifteen at the time. Of course I was into him because of it.”

“Into who?” a deep voice asked from beside them, making all the girls turn their heads to the two intruders who now stood in front of the booth.

---