AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I run from the kitchen, leaving the bread sitting about in its various stages. Someone else will come upon the mess and clean it for me, and I can’t bring myself to be sorry for leaving things like that. I need my room, need to close my door and fall into my bed and hug a pillow to me while I take a minute—just a minute—to relive the utter magic of that kiss.
I almost make it.
Father stops me just as I reach the foyer, with its curving staircase that leads upstairs to the bedrooms. “Luciana!” His voice booms across the marble-tiled expanse, halting me with one foot on the first step. I sigh and turn to face him.
Hopefully, my face doesn’t show what I’ve just been up to. “Good morning, Father.”
“I’m looking for Damon. He didn’t answer his phone when I called. Have you seen him?”
My cheeks heat, but I force my expression to remain neutral. “I did see him earlier. He was on the terrace with Vivi.”
He was also in the kitchen. With his mouth on mine, making me feel all sorts of delicious—
Father nods to himself, rocking back on his heels. “Ah. He’s good with your sister, I’ve noticed.”
“Yes.”
He’s good with me, also.
With Angel… not so much. The thought reminds me of the almost wolfish expression I caught when Damon faced off with Angel. He was itching for Angel to make a move, to give him the excuse he needed to thrash him.
“Father…” I stop him as he moves to walk away.
He turns and raises an inquiring brow at me. “Yes?”
“I…” I swallow, tentative about how to proceed. I don’t want to say anything that could land Damon in trouble, but my instincts are screaming that there’s something we don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a personal situation between him and Angel or something bigger, but the thought of it is like an itch beneath my skin.
“Well? I haven’t got all day,” Father says, impatient as always. In the end, I fumble, going with something else altogether.
“I just wondered if there was anything I could help you with.” The words topple over themselves in their rush to be spoken.
Father simply looks at me, seeming confused. Then he waves a hand and turns, striding across the foyer toward the arched hallway that leads to his office. “Just find me Damon.”
I watch him go and tell myself it’s irritation I feel at being treated as though I’m twelve.
Not hurt.
***
“Why on earth you wanted to come here to shop, I’ll never understand.” I mutter a prayer for patience when a tourist bumps into me for the umpteenth time, too busy gawking at the Midtown majesty of Bloomie’s to pay attention to other people.
“They have everything, that’s why.” Vivi shrugs. “And you said it yourself—I need it all.”
“Yeah, I guess I did. Stop for a second, though. Let me fix this shoe.”
Agreeably, Vivi steps a few feet away to study the window display while I sit on a nearby bench.
My sock has been pestering me all morning, refusing to stay in place and continually sliding down into the space created by the arch of my foot against the short boot I’m wearing. I fix it now, glancing up as I do to keep Vivi in my sights.
She’s chattering away about some purse in the window, and I watch her with a half-smile, enjoying her bright company. It’s so good to see her like this, free of worry and drama, and childlike in her enthusiasm.
She’s been a bit down lately, as apparently Damon has been avoiding her as religiously as he has me.
I glance away, looking down the avenue at the flood of humanity coursing along, focused on this or that thing that occupies their attention. New York is always like this, loud and chaotic andbusy. I would much rather be on our large but quiet estate on Staten Island, but the busyness is serving its purpose, I suppose. This is the first time I’ve thought of Damon in the past hour.
Something catches my eye as I people watch—something out of place.
There it is.
