Page 85 of Mama Si's Paradise

Releasing a long breath, I walked with Valentine to the doors, arms around myself to rub away the goose bumps on my skin. It was cold out here, I realized. And much darker than usual. And so…silent.

The more my instincts relaxed and I wasn’t fearing for my life so much anymore, the more I noticed how unusual the feel in the air here was. Not like in the Paradise, where it smelled of roses and cupcakes and gave you warm, fuzzy feelings. Here, it was more like rain in the forest. More like moonlight. More like the reflection of stars on the surface of a lake.

We went through two more doors, into hallways just as dark and cold and silent, before we finally reached a warmer, brighter space. A dining room with a long black table in the middle, and paintings—portraits of headless men and women decorating the walls. Black roses in the vases, which were possibly made out of plastic. Black cushions on the chairs as well.

“This is the dining room,” Valentine said as he watched me take in all the details, the gorgeous black and silver plates, the drawer stands at the corners, the silver candleholders, the lamps. “You will eat all your meals here for now.”

For now.

“So…gothic.So dark,” I muttered without really meaning to. But it was all so very beautiful I couldn’t get enough oflooking at it. So much better than the white and pink aesthetic of the Paradise.

“It’s the Whispering Woods,” Valentine said, like that was supposed to answer all my questions.

“Why the headless people?” I wondered.

“Because they all died before their time.”

Shivers washed down my arms instantly.

The next second, something fell over my shoulders. Something warm and soft that chased the cold away as if by magic.

It was a jacket—the same leather jacket he’d had on a second ago. “You’ll be wearing thicker clothing later. The dark is always colder than the light. Come.”

Slowly moving toward the right of the table, he went around it and pulled out the first chair. The maids at the Paradise did that for me all the time, but a man never had before.

Fuck, this guy was really getting to my head. The way he moved. The feel of him, so dark and gloomy, had developed an itch deep in my curiosity that only knowing more about him could scratch.

Holding onto the jacket he put over my shoulders that smelled like the rain outside, I moved around the table as well. I bit my tongue before I could saythank you—this guy was still keeping me here against my will no matter how he behaved.

But before I could sit down, something moved on the other side of the table.

Foursomeones.

The men must have materialized out of thin air in front of the open door I’d been by just a second ago, and all their eyes were on me.

My body froze in place, my heart still, my mind suddenly blank because my instincts already knew.

Out of all the people in the world I’d ever met, including Mama Si, these were far,fardeadlier predators—and I was their completely helpless prey.

Twenty-Two

“Look what we have here…”

The first man who stepped into the dining room couldn’t have been much older than Valentine. His hair was a deep brown, curly, cut closer to his head, but his eyes were the same—wells of darkness that sucked in the light. He was smiling, never moving those unblinking eyes from me as he walked in, and the others were the same.

Well, no, notall. One of them had eyes so light I could have sworn they were white.

The realization made my stomach twist and turn a million times. It washim,the dragon rider outside the window. I hadn’t made him up at all—it was him!

In his thirties, if I had to guess.Wetdark hair standing in all directions like he’d just walked out of the shower—or inside from the rain. From riding his damn dragon. Stubble covered his square jaws, but it didn’t hide his pale lips. They looked wet,too, but the jacket he had on, and his dark wash jeans were dry. He had big shoulders, bigger than the rest of them, and the looks of him, the colors on him, the deep contrast between his hair and fair skin and light grey eyes was so damnstriking I couldn’t look away for a good moment. He was holding me hostage with his attention, until a hand on my arm pulled me back.

Valentine—and he was stepping in front of me as he stared at the others.

The otherswho all shared the same aura about them, vicious enough to send anybody running in the other direction.

The problem was, only walls were behind me and to the sides. I had nowhere to run, and my knees were already shaking.

“It’s her first day,” Valentine said through gritted teeth, widening his shoulders, standing a bit taller than a moment ago.

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