Punished (16 page)

“What I do is none of your business,” I said, as I stood on my toes and defended myself.

Tony looked over me and set his eyes on Lucus. “She’ll never really love you,” he said with a vain confidence that only the truly privileged possessed.

“Arelia there you are.” Sabrina came stumbling through the front door with a Hurricane in her hand. Obviously, Mr. Dumpty was rubbing off on her. “Hey Tony.”

“Hey,” I said, as I stepped down and backed away from Tony.

“Lucus! I’ve been looking all over for you. The ballroom is empty without you, sugar.” She stood on her toes and gave him a long smooch on the cheek. It left a huge red lipstick stain. My left eye twitched at the sight. “Come on let’s get a dance in before dinner.”

“Sabrina, I can’t. I apologize. I have to go attend to things in the kitchen.” His eyes met mine, and he gave me a small smile which went unnoticed by Sabrina. “Excuse me.” He acknowledged Tony, peeled Sabrina away from him and headed inside.

“Ah, what’s with him! He’s so sullen, why doesn’t he just kiss me already? It’s been forever!” Sabrina whined as she chugged down the rest of her Hurricane. Her make-up was smudged, and she was oblivious that she had lost one of her diamond earrings.

“Why don’t you ask Arelia?” Tony said.

“Huh? What you mean?” Confusion crossed Sabrina’s face as she looked from Tony to me.

“Go on Arelia; tell Sabrina why that guy isn’t interested in her.”

“Shut-up Tony,” I hissed. “Sabrina don’t listen to him, he’s just like his Mom.” My eyes blazed with fury as I saw a sparkle form in Tony’s eyes.

“Arelia, I’m thirsty tonight, I can help you,” whispered a familiar voice. It was Sousson Pannan. Shivers overtook me at the sound of his wicked tone. “I can help you get revenge on this Tony; he’s hurt you, hasn’t he? Give me a bottle of rum and I can take care of him.”

Although Sousson Pannan’s offer was beyond tempting, I knew that it wasn’t right. No one deserved to die like that, not even Tony.

I needed to get Sabrina inside the house and safe. “Let’s go inside, I’m hungry.” I grabbed her and pulled her inside the house before Tony could say another word.

Sabrina’s blue eyes were suspicious, as she examined my face. “What did he mean, Arelia?” she demanded, as she tapped her stiletto against the marble floor.

“I’ll be in there when you’re ready to talk,” Tony said, as he headed back to the ballroom.

How was I going to explain this one to her? I took a deep breath and decided to tell her the truth about Tony and me. “Do you remember last summer when you went to Spain?”

“Yeah, a few weeks after your grand-pere died, you said you were okay.”

“Remember I worked at one of Tony’s family’s hotels?”

“I don’t know how you put up with horse-faced Mrs. Dreaux, but yeah, so what?”

I took a deep breath. “Well, I kinda fell for Tony.”

“What!” Sabrina exploded. I could see drool forming at the corner of her thin lips as she digested the juicy tidbit that had been thrown at her. “You and Tony! But…you’ve never gone out with a guy ever! Why didn’t you tell me?”
 

“I don’t know. It happened so fast. Grand-pere’s death hit me a lot harder than I thought and then when you left for the summer, I was kind of lost. Tony was around and he seemed really nice, you know… He listened to me at a time I needed someone to talk to.
 
I thought he was hot, and one thing led to another.” I didn’t want to start crying again.

“But he treated you like crap?” Sabrina filled in the blanks.

I nodded sullenly. “It was my own fault. I didn’t stand up for myself.
 
He convinced me that we should keep our relationship low-key, and I stupidly agreed. After his parents found out, they fired me. He just left me hanging and then went out with Melissa Labouf.”

“Eww, why would he go out with her? She’s got such bad hair.
 
You’re way hotter.” She suddenly stopped talking, and her eyes grew wide. “Ohh.”

I knew what Sabrina was thinking even though she didn’t say it.

“I know,” I said softly. “The Labouf’s are the fourth richest family in New Orleans. Anyways, the Dreaux’s are here for the summer, and Tony won’t leave me alone. When he saw me with Lucus, he was just being an ass.”

“I’m sorry, Arelia.” Sabrina wrapped her arms around me and encased me in an overwhelming cloud of Chanel 5. “Mrs. Dreaux is a bitch, Mr. Dreaux is a cheater and Tony isn’t
that
hot.” She paused and looked at me. “Do you still love him?”

I let out a heavy sigh and shook my head. “I don’t know, I don’t think I do.”

 
Her lower lip trembled. “So, there isn’t anything going on with you and Lucus?”

I know I should have told her the truth, but I couldn’t. I honestly didn’t know what was going on with me and Lucus. All I knew was that… I was…just… “I’m being polite.
 
That’s all,” I said the first thing that came to mind.

Sabrina let out a huge sigh of relief, as she let go of me. “Do you want me to go say something bitchy to Mrs. Dreaux? You know I’ll do it,” she offered.

I let out a dry laugh. “No, that’s okay.”

“If Lucus doesn’t fall in love with me who’s going to take care of me?” she grimly asked out of nowhere. “What will happen to me?”

“What do you mean?” I asked not really sure what she was meant.

“Oh please, Arelia.
 
You know ever since Vanessa died, my parents can barely look at me. My Mom’s a psycho who thinks her daughter is still alive even though it’s been forever.”

Sympathy washed over me as I thought about Vanessa, Sabrina’s older sister whose body had never been found. The accident happened eleven years ago, but Sabrina’s Mom refused to give up hope that her daughter was still alive and basically spent all her free time in Morocco chasing after a ghost.
  

“Hey, you always have me and grand-mere.” I put my arm around her. “You don’t need a guy to take you in. You’re not an orphan or anything. Plus, there are tons of other guys out there.”

She let out a small laugh. “Not like him! I want him to love me,” she pouted. “I need him to love me.”

My heart stopped for a few seconds as I tried to think of what to say. “I’m sure he will,” I said finally, as I dropped my hand from her shoulder.

Sabrina immediately perked up and ran her fingers through her blond hair. “You’re right! He will. I’m going to go fix my makeup.” She gave me another tight hug. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Chapter 17

People Like that Don’t Care about People like Us

After she left, for some strange reason I felt guilty. I hadn’t really lied to her about Lucus and me, because there wasn’t anything going on, or so I told myself. I headed to the kitchen and let myself into the garden, so I could visit my flowers and be alone for a few minutes. To my surprise, Lucus was there. He sat on a white metal chair and stared at the chrysanthemums. The sight of him mixed with the bitter-sweet scent of the flowers made me faint and light-headed.

“Hey,” I said. I suddenly felt very unsure of how to act or what to say.
 

“Arelia.” His face brightened as he rose from the chair. “I thought you’d come here.”

“Of course you did.”

He shook his head and gave me a large smile that made my knees weak.

“Thank you for the necklace,” I said, as I tried to regain my poise.

“It looks beautiful on you,” he whispered, as he came closer.

“That thing you saw outside with…” For some reason, I felt the need to explain my kiss with Tony, but I didn’t know how, so I stared at the ground. I felt so bad for feeling the way I did, especially when I knew Sabrina was basically obsessed with Lucus.

As I stared at my toes, I felt a pair of very secure arms around me. I rested my head against Lucus’s solid chest and inhaled as much of him as I could.

“You don’t have to say anything; you don’t owe me an explanation,” he said, as he ran his fingers through my hair, which for once, wasn’t full of mud.

I did want to talk about it a little. “Did you ever love someone but all they did was hurt you?” I asked.

I felt Lucus’ muscles tighten. “Yes, but that was too long ago.” His voice was wistful and detached.

“What happened?” Although I didn’t want to hear Lucus gush over some girl, he had me a bit curious.

“I offered her the world, but she left anyways.”

“Why?”

“I honestly don’t know. She claimed that she loved me, but disappeared without explanation.”

I wondered if Lucus still loved that girl, whoever she was. I wasn’t going to ask because I was afraid of the answer.

There was a long pause before Lucus asked, “This Tony, did he hurt you?”

I nodded.

Lucus wrapped his arms around me even tighter but didn’t say anything else. Thankfully, he didn’t ask me if I still loved him. I suspected that maybe Lucus didn’t want to know the answer either.

I let him hold me and for a spilt-second tried to forget the strange circumstances we were under. I didn’t want to talk about spirits, curses, gris-gris, Louis Beau, Tony. “What’s your favorite ice-cream flavor?” I asked randomly.

“French vanilla,” he replied.

“That’s so boring.”

“I like to think of it as classic rather than boring.” Lucus defended his choice. “Is yours chocolate, by any chance?” he asked.

“No. I hate chocolate ice cream.”

“No? How is it possible that you basically eat chocolate instead of meals yet don’t like chocolate ice cream?

I shrugged. “I don’t know it doesn’t taste good for some reason.”

“You’re an enigma. You do realize that, don’t you?”

He had called me an enigma. That wasn’t good, was it? Did it mean he thought I was insane and overtly complicated?

“So then, what is it?” he asked.

“Strawberry cheesecake.” I let out a little giggle. God, why did I just giggle? Strawberry cheesecake ice cream and giggling were such girly things.

“Hey queen, we need you to help out that fat kid, he’s locked himself in one of the upstairs bathrooms and refuses to come out. He says he wants to talk to you.” Ivan’s voice prompted me to pull away from Lucus in embarrassment.

He stood in the doorway with an arrogant smile on his face. I felt like slapping it right off. “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” I muttered.

“Make it quick,” he said, as he headed back into the kitchen.

I looked up at Lucus and gave him shy smile. “I guess I’ll catch you later.”

He gave me a slight nod.

In reality, I could have let him hold me for hours. There was something comforting yet undeniably terrifying about his embrace. I was beginning to long for his company, and that horrified me.

“Did I interrupt your little fairytale?” asked Ivan, as I passed through the kitchen.

“Go away.” I said, but he started to follow me.

“What do you see in him?” he asked, as he stalked me down the hall and up the spiral stairs.

I turned around and faced him. His blond hair was disheveled and his grey eyes full of fire.