Page 41 of His Haunted Desire
Evangeline is still wearing a flowing nightgown. She waves a hand as we walk across her bedroom toward the balcony. “You don’t need these silly things with me.”
It takes me a moment to realize she means the masks. I take mine off, wishing I could keep in on. It would be easier to lie with it on.
We sit around the table on her balcony. There are pastries and coffee laid out already.
“You see why I needed company?” She says, her cheeks flushed, with a youthful grin on her face. “I always order too much.”
“We’ll be happy to help,” Raiden says, reaching for a pastry. Raiden winks at me. “Don’t worry about table manners, Aurora. We might be richer than God, but luckily, we’re all pigs.” He stuffs a pastry in his mouth.
Evangeline and I laugh, exchanging a look. It’s a look that says,What’s our man like…as if we’ve got a shared history with him, and I didn’t agree to this only a few days ago.
“Raiden still hasn’t told me how you two met,” she says.
Raiden smirks in that half douche, half captivating way. “It’s an interesting story, actually,” he says.
“Good, because I hate uninteresting ones.”
“I needed some work done on a few suits over the summer. I dealt with Margot mostly, but every time I came by, Aurora found an excuse to come into the shop. It was all eyes at first. She looked at me like I was a meal, honestly.”
Evangeline laughs in delight. “Ameal!”
“She was obsessed, it seemed to me,” he says, winking at me.
I know I’m supposed to go along with it, but this is just ridiculous. Obsessed with him. What planet is he on?
“It turns out your grandson let his arrogance get the better of him,” I say.
Raiden tries to hide his wince, but I see it. Relish it. Even if it could mean risking the deal.
“I just happened to be in the shop at the time. When he came onto me while my grandmother was busy, I was completely taken off-guard.”
Raiden’s cheeks color a little, but he can’t stop the corner of his lip from twitching in that near-smirk I love to hate. “I’ll admit I got ahead of myself,” he says ruefully. “I should’ve made sure I had a full grasp of the situation before I made my move.”
“What did you do?” Evangeline asks me, fascinated.
“I’m sorry, Evangeline, but I slapped your grandson.”
She claps her hands together, laughing. “Oh my, thisisgetting interesting.”
“Don’t sound too happy about it,” Raiden says gruffly. “After the slap, I only wanted her more. You know what the women inour lives are like, Grandma, how they throw themselves at the Blackwell name. Aurora wasn’t–isn’t–like that.”
He looks at me seriously, and I think he means that part.
“Aurora was genuine. The next time I went back, I asked her on a date.”
“You didn’tjustask me on a date, Raiden. Aren’t you going to tell the whole story?”
He raises his eyebrow at me. “And what would the whole story be exactly?”
“Aren’t you going to tell Evangeline how I said no at first, so you fell to your knees and begged me to forgive you for the kiss? It was so funny… and, honestly, cute too.”
“I did it in a joking way,” Raiden says. “Remember how you laughed, Aurora? So hard snot exploded out of your nose. You were so embarrassed.”
I smile, laugh. The charming prick. He’s trapped me.
“Yeah, that was pretty gross. I’m surprised you still wanted to date me after that.”
“It sounds like nothing could’ve stopped him from dating you,” Evangeline says, her hand on her chest. “How long have you been seeing each other?”
