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I kicked at the gray society member while my oppressive savior swung me around and landed me next to Anna.
“You’re going to buy me a drink,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulder and ushering us both away from the driver, his strong hand like a vice around my waist that made me distractingly aware of how strong and capable he was, like I hadn’t just seen him stop a car. His strength should be terrifying, not attractive. “I’d like a nice cranberry and club soda, if that’s all right. Pity about sushi, but I will accept the vagaries of life which we cannot change instead of allowing all of our unrestrained fury out for the world to see,” he said, giving me a slight frown which was the most emotion he’d ever shown.
I struggled in his grip, trying to get at the driver. How dare he insult my only good friend just because she had a few scars on her face? She’d got me my sushi before the kitchen closed. I mean, what else could you possibly need to understand the soul of a person?
“Let me go!” I hissed at Michael, trying to yank off his fingers, but they were as solid as steel and felt so absolutely right against me.
He gave me another glance with eyes that were growing darker every moment. “And lose my free drink? Do you take me for a fool?” His brow flicked, and for a moment he matched my glare with slightly narrowed eyes, before his mouth twitched and he turned his handsome face towards Anna instead. “I don’t believe we were properly introduced. I am Michael Stead. I work with Miss Morell in the Library of Antiquities.”
I snorted. “You work beneath the Library of Antiquities, not with me in any way.”
He turned back to me for a moment, his voice as low as mine. “It was a great deal of work to not fall over this morning. You have a lot of velocity for a person so delicate, Miss Morell.”
I lunged against his grip and succeeded in knocking the breath out of myself. I gasped as he released Anna to open the door of the Cat’s Pause, giving her a mild smile as he ushered her in before entering with me, closing the door firmly behind him, and only then releasing his grasp on my waist.
I rubbed my stomach and glowered at him. “You’re going to let him get away with manslaughter!”
“No, I’m saving you from being executed for manslaughter. You’re welcome. Where is my drink? You shouldn’t leave me alone with your friend. You can never trust the monsters.” He lifted a brow, then followed her deeper into the room, past the long bar and towards the dining area and piano bar.
For a moment I stood there, staring at him, stunned at his nerve, his self-acknowledged position as a monster and the confident way he ushered Anna forward before I hurried after them, because he was right. I absolutely couldn’t leave him alone with her.
The décor was atrocious, as usual, countless bamboo plants mixed with Easter rabbits and pigs stuffed or otherwise. They still had a Christmas tree in a corner, bright twinkle lights and glass balls reflecting the customers who stared at us, no, at Michael, like he was a star mingling with the mortals.
I ran a hand through my hair before I remembered that it was in a neat bun, at least a bun that had been neat this morning. Now it was mostly an impression of a bun with strands of yellow gold framing my apparently gorgeous face. I rolled my eyes because my beauty came and went, and I’d never understand why something so ephemeral would ever make a man think that excused bad behavior. He couldn’t help be a jerk to Anna because she wasn’t attractive, and he couldn’t help being a sexual predator because I was beautiful? It was infuriating.
Not that Michael Stead wasn’t a historically accurate representation of extreme handsomeness, but real beauty was beneath the surface where his monster lived. I would bet my apartment that he was as ugly as they came once you scratched away the perfect facade.
Anna sat down at a table in the corner away from the piano and the group gathering for their evening dose of show tunes.
“So,” she said, once she was seated across from The Scholar. “You work with Libby? I don’t think she’s ever mentioned you, but I could be wrong because I have a terrible memory. The only person fitting your description would be a demon working in the research labs under the library. What was he called, the Scholar?”
I sank into the seat to her left. Seriously, of all the things she remembered, it would be that? I shook my head slightly at her, trying to catch her eye, but she was beaming at him before waving at Rynne, the server and daughter of the woman who owned the restaurant. Gabby, Anna’s daughter, and Rynne were great friends.
The Scholar smiled charmingly at Anna, so handsome that she leaned towards him, slightly entranced in spite of herself. “I am called the Scholar, although I’m not sure why. I’m more of a researcher than a scholar.”
She smiled a slightly loopy smile. “You are so handsome. Too bad, but you could probably grow a beard and dress terribly if you put effort into it, don’t you think, Libby?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m hesitating between being flattered and insulted. Why is being handsome too bad?”
“Libby despises handsome men who are all feathers and no soul, like a—Ah!” Her brown squirrel climbed on her face and then jumped on her shoulder, leaving her to spit out fluff and rub her nose. “What was I saying?” she asked, turning to me.
I could have redirected her, but I made a point to be honest with her because taking advantage of someone’s weakness for one’s own comfort and convenience was vile. Also, sometimes she remembered the most inconvenient things. “You were saying that he’s too handsome because I hate handsome men. He’s like a pretty bird that’s too scrawny to eat.”
“Here’s your sushi,” Rynne said, sliding a plate of beautiful deliciousness in front of me before glancing at Michael. “If you want a drink, you have to order at the bar.”
“I’m buying him a drink,” Anna said, standing up and patting my head while her squirrel, Peter, dug his claws into her green sweater. “He rescued our sweet Libby from being murdered by a car and then life imprisonment for manslaughter. Too bad he’s so handsome.”
“Too bad,” Rynne said, rolling her eyes then whispering low to me, “You could do worse, and it’s not legally required for librarians to dry up and die all alone in the stacks without anyone finding their body for weeks.” She flashed me a bright smile before she went back towards the counter.
“Charming,” Michael murmured once she was gone. “I don’t know you terribly well, but I would guess that you became a librarian because it was advertised as a lifelong pursuit of loneliness and isolation.”
I scowled at him. “You have very good hearing. Of course that’s why. It had nothing to do with the fifteen tomes in original Cyrillic for me to translate on my breaks, as well as all the time I went to spend there after hours with said dead language.”
His eyes flickered, and he leaned slightly closer to me. “Why do your friends think that you are not attracted to attractive men? That would be biologically unlikely, and I know for a fact that you are highly physically attuned to me and have been since the first time you saw me, four years ago.”
I blinked at him, sitting back while the nerve of him washed over me. Not that he was wrong, but to say it out loud was so incredibly awful. Even I knew that you didn’t do that, and I had absolutely no idea how to talk to people.
He smiled slightly. “You didn’t deny it.”
