Take Me (31 page)

Felicity was so insulted she couldn’t think up any sharp retort to scathe him. Instead, she resorted to crossing her arms and muttering.

“My hair is not that dry. I have naturally curly hair.”

“Mmhmm, doesn’t mean you can’t deep condition it every once and while,” he said.

Felicity clenched her jaw then jabbed her elbow back. It landed in the meat at Edwardo’s soft belly making him gasp.

“And she’s violent!” he said in affront.

“Damn right I am and if you don’t stop insulting my
gloriously beautiful
hair then it’ll be more than an elbow next time. Got me?”

He snorted.

Sighing loudly, Diane took a sip of her drink then went back over the etiquette for what had to be the tenth time.

“Try not to be speak unless spoken to that should keep your conversations to a minimum. We don’t want you to speak up and make a mistake.”

Boy, everyone just loved to insult her.

Dom loves you and he’s going to make you his mate tomorrow night. Think happy thoughts, Fel
.

“Remember to smile, be polite, but do not be enamored with these people or they will eat you up. You must appear just as good as them, if not better.”

Felicity flipped through the eight by eleven photos of the important faces she needed to know. She studied each image with the name and species of the person listed at the bottom of the page. When her stomach growled, she looked up at the tall grandfather clock in the corner of the room.

It was half after nine. They’d been at this for hours and though Dominic said he’d be working here at the estate today she’d yet to see him. She missed him something fierce.

Diane stood and eyed Felicity with a small smile. “Drink?”

Felicity nodded, tugging her hair out of Edwardo’s curling iron. He said something snide about her not sitting still as he snatched the curl to redo the strand.

“You know my hair is naturally curly, right?”

Edwardo laughed. “Naturally curly and having beautiful, shiny thick curling locks of hair is something completely different, my dear lady.”

Felicity shrugged, supposing he was right. As an afterthought she called out to Diane, “None of that fancy stuff, please.”

Diane went to the warming oven that was designed to look like a piece of antique furniture. It was made out of a dark colored wood and had a dark gray latch that opened the small door. It looked to be hundreds of year’s old when in fact it had a plug in the back that went into the wall that kept the blood warm.

“Which is fancy to you?” she asked.

“Whichever blood had the wine laced with it. It was too much. Last time I had some—” Last time she had some, she’d been on her interview with Dominic, and she’d nearly crawled into his lap. A blush colored her cheeks. “Well, let’s just say the last time didn’t go over so well. Something simple for me.”

Smiling, Diane poured her a glass of deep red blood then brought it to her.

Felicity took little sips so as not to disrupt the feisty hairdresser working tirelessly at her apparently horribly dry and atrocious hair.

Halfway through her glass, Edwardo clapped. “I’m finished!”

Felicity went to find a mirror, curious at what the hairstylist had been doing to her hair for over an hour, but paused when both Edwardo and Diane stared at her with soft expressions.

“What?” Felicity said. Nerves had her reaching up to touch her hair; it felt different than normal, softer and slicker.

“You look lovely, my dear.”

Edwardo’s chest puffed up. “Of course she does, I did her hair.”

Shaking her head, Felicity looked around but didn’t find a mirror. “Well you’ve been working on my hair for over an hour. Where’s a mirror so I can finally see what he did to me?”

Diane pointed towards the door. “Down the hall, second door on the right is the bathroom.”

Felicity turned from their stares and almost ran out of the room. She liked to dress nice and every now and then. She’d be complimented on her clothes or a pair of shoes she wore. But people didn’t stare at her, they looked at her clothes. Yet, Diane and Edwardo stared at
her
with soft, pleased eyes. It unnerved the hell out of her.

Just what did you think it’s going to be like tonight, Fel, with all those eyes on you, wondering why he left the beautiful Julianna for a plain miss.

Shaking her head, Felicity banished the negative thoughts and stepped into the bathroom. She didn’t turn the light on at first, just stood there, breathing a bit unsteadily. Had a hairstylist really been able to change her appearance so much? There was only one way to find out.

Felicity reached out to the wall, her hand sliding against it until she found the switch and flicked it up. At once, the overhead light flickered on and Felicity stared into the mirror across from her. An oval, tall mirror that reflected a face very familiar, but adorned in hair she could only describe as utterly beautiful, hair that hardly looked like her own.

The blonde curls had been tamed and remodeled into something beautiful. Edwardo had treated it and sprayed something that made the locks shine and the color look more vibrant. The curls were thick and heavy falling all around her shoulders and back. Tentatively, as if they might break if she touched it, Felicity reached up and ran the pad of her fingertips over one curl. A slow smile curled her lips. He’d managed to take her natural curls and make them look tamed, like something beautiful.

She had a sudden need to find Dominic and show him.

Smiling, Felicity stepped out of the bathroom and froze at what she saw, or whom she saw. None other than Lucas Blackmoore was striding down the hall towards her, a fierce scowl on his face. His eyes were dark-rimmed from lack of sleep and something else; his clothes looked haggard, disheveled as if he’d slept in them.

“You!” she said, seething.

* * * * *

Felicity didn’t think twice about it, she stalked down the hall to meet Lucas Blackmoore halfway. She stood on the tips of her toes and spoke between clenched teeth when she caught up to him.

“How could you? She is my friend and you
played
her!”

The warmth and humor from Lucas that she’d experienced when she first met him looked as if it’d never existed. Lucas’s eyes were hard and cold, but with a sarcastic glint in the corner. His lips were curled down into a plaintive frown and lingering vile scents clung to his clothes—smoke, alcohol, sex, and something else that made her skin crawl. Drugs.

A cruel, sarcastic smile tilted his lips. “Played her? Babe, I never even touched her. I’d have to have at least fucked her to qualify as playing her.”

Felicity’s arm snapped out at the insult to her friend; the ringing sound of flesh from her vicious slap made her gasp as she took a hurried step back. So slowly his eyes narrowed on her. She stood frozen in place, stunned at what she did.

“What was that for?” he drawled. “Come on now, don’t back away. We were just starting to have a bit of fun.” He took a step forward then stopped. He was playing with her.

That knowledge relaxed Felicity’s muscles, somewhat, because that meant he wouldn’t hurt her. “Why did you do it? Why run after her like, like, she was someone you’d been searching for? Why ask her out then turn up with two humans…you know what.”

“Sucking me off?”

Her face burned. “Yes.”

The sarcastic glint died in his eyes, leaving them cold and hard. “To be clear, they weren’t both sucking me off, only one. I’ll have to suggest that next time. Two women, two mouth wrapped around me—”

Felicity sputtered. “She’s a good person. She practically loved you. Why’d you do it?”

He blinked at her words, and then his gaze cut away so she couldn’t read him. What was he feeling? What was he thinking? Did he have any remorse at how badly he hurt her friend?

“You know, I’m glad she saw me like that. She’s good people. It’s better that she found out early on how I am. That way neither of us could get our hopes up.” His gaze cut back to Felicity and she flinched at the raw pain she saw there.

At once she reached to touch him, to draw him into a hug, to give him an ounce of comfort, but he jerked back a step his eyes clouding with anger. “Don’t.”

Then he was gone as if he’d never shown up in that hallway, as if they’d never spoken.

Felicity stared down the dimly lit hallway feeling lost and out of sorts. She felt like running over to Beth’s and hugging her tight, and she didn’t know if it was to comfort Beth or herself.

She needed some comfort, and she needed it now. There was only one person who could wipe away the raw, pained look from Lucas Blackmoore’s eyes. With that in mind, Felicity ran upstairs to Dom’s room and grabbed her cellphone off his dresser. Already she started to feel better as his scent saturated the air, calming her.

Her fingers hesitated over the call button. What if he was busy? He said he would be. With the campaign so close he must be working like a mad man. So maybe she shouldn’t call him. He might be in the middle of some important meeting and it’d embarrass him if she called.

“Damn, damn, damn,” she muttered, pressing the phone to her forehead.

Or maybe he’d like a break and would welcome her call. Maybe he’d even be happy to hear from her.

“Just do it, Fel.”

Letting out a deep breath, she decided to go the safe route and text him.

I need to see you
.

A minute passed. Then another. Felicity stared at the little phone in her hand willing it to
ding
at her.

It didn’t.

Dejected, she headed back downstairs on heavy steps. Something caught her attention when she reached the stairs. The door to the study was ajar and inside she could hear voices rising in the beginning of a fight.

“Where have you been? You haven’t returned any of my phone calls and Dominic’s election is right around the corner, Lucas. You said you’d run some campaign awareness at your next concert but you failed to do that too.”

A bitter, male laugh sounded. “Yeah, I forgot, okay?”

Silence passed. “Are you high?”

“What? No. Fuck, mother. Always thinking the worst of me.”

“There’s been good reason for that.”

Another heavy moment passed then Felicity heard soft footsteps heading towards the study door. Her eyes widened and she quickly looked around for a place to hide. Her phone chose that same moment ding. Shit! Quickly, she ducked into the dining room. It was closest to the staircase and across from the study. She heard the study door shut then the murmuring of voices. She exhaled a sigh of relief that no one came after her for eavesdropping.

Ignoring the voices, she opened up the message. What she read made her heart pound and her lips go dry.

Then come find me.

She was walking through the dining room in the next second. Ignoring the rooms where she knew he wasn’t: the kitchen, the bathrooms. She headed straight for his personal lounge. The place where she’d first met him. Warmth grew in her belly as she caught sight of the door at the end of the adjoining hallway. It stood closed but light flickered underneath it.

Her stomach muscles clenched in anticipation. Walking to it, Felicity walked inside and pressed her back against the door as she surveyed the room with quick eyes. It was still masculine looking with dark wood everywhere. He wasn’t at his desk. Someone had lit the fireplace. It was the source of the flickering light she’d seen beneath the door.

She heard his voice then, coming from up above. Her gaze swept up to the overhanging balcony and she saw his shadow moving along the wall. As she listened to him talk about numbers, votes, and percentages, she quietly made her way up the staircase to the upper room where he’d first interviewed her, and first kissed her.

His gaze caught hers the second she stepped foot onto the platform.

He leaned back against the bar, a glass of blood in one hand and a phone pressed up to his ear with the other. He looked lazy, almost comfortable, but he didn’t deceive her. Lines of strain hung around his eyes and mouth showing the true stress he was feeling. Even his whole body looked harder, tenser. Felicity wanted nothing more than to wipe it all way. A wicked thought drifted through her mind like a feather caught in the breeze. At first she followed the thought, her blood warming while she bit her lip, but then she thought of all the consequences and fidgeted in indecision.

“Good, that is good to hear. About time our numbers started going up. I knew it would work. Any word on that assignment I gave you with Zeke?” He grunted, listening to whomever he spoke to on the other line. Still his warm eyes never left hers.

What finally helped her to make her decision wasn’t her, but him. The person on the phone said something, probably disappointing, because Dom chugged back the contents in his glass and slammed it on the bar hard enough to make Felicity jump.

“God dammit!” He hunched over the bar looking almost as if he were staring longingly into his empty glass.

Seeing the worry etched into the lines of his face and body, Felicity made her decision. And at that decision, she whipped off her top.

Dom’s gaze swung to her so fast she inhaled, but didn’t stop. She tugged down her skirt and let it fall around her ankles. Kicked the material away. All the while, she watched his eyes, watched as they darkened into that inky look that made her wet between her legs and her breath catch in her throat.

Yes
,
this is what I want
.

His body fully turned towards her, giving her his full attention even with the phone pressed to his ear. She reached behind her to tug off her bra and spilled her breasts to the cool air.

“Yeah,” he said into the phone, his voice deeper, raspier.

Felicity stopped where she was in her little striptease to run her hands down her hips and across her belly touching herself in ways she wanted him to. All the while his eyes followed her movements, his cheeks darkening with color, his body growing stiff like a predator taking notice of prey. Getting ready to pounce.