Page 12 of All Saints: Pledge

My door unlocks and I flick on my light. My stomach drops as I walk into my room. There on my desk is another black card. And when I turn around to shut my door?

A huge black figure lurks in my doorway, waiting.

6

Astrangled scream makes its way out of my mouth before I figure out it’s Dominic and not a secret-society-monster-hit-man here to steal my kidney.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” I say, clutching my heart and collapsing back against the doorframe.

“I’m sorry about scaring you. I…” His eyes drop to his hands where he holds a bag. “I have something for you. A welcome to Oxford present. I didn’t want Li to see.”

Gulps of the cool night air aren’t doing much to settle my racing heart, but I nod and push my hair back. All this secret society stuff has me seeing monsters and mysteries everywhere. Those girls didn’tdisappear, they left of their own volition. I will not get kidnapped and chopped up into pieces. I’m a valuable student taking part in a long-standing fraternity at one of the oldest colleges in the world.

“That is so sweet of you,” I say, tossing my own bags onto my bed before turning to face him. “Do you want to come in?”

He shuffles his feet. “No, thanks. This is a present for outdoors, anyway.

The bashful thing does me in. “Did you buy me a rowing outfit?” I tease him. Over dinner, I’d divulged my distinctdistaste for deep water.

He laughs as he reaches into the bag. “No, definitely not. I saw you looking at it in the store, and I knew you needed it. From one coat person to another.”

I gasp.

He holds out the emerald green wool coat.

I reach out finger tips, and touch it reverently. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I should. A coat says a lot about someone.”

I step toward Dominic, and take the coat from his hands, slipping it on. The silky lining on the inside of the arms is chilly and raises goosebumps on my arms. Dominic doesn’t back up…he doesn’t crowdme, but he is very much in my space.

“What does this coat say about me?” I ask, looking up at him, feeling bold.

“You desire to fit in yet also be noticed. You honor quality, and care about taking good care of people and things.”

Wow. That’s deeper that I expected.

“You stand out to me,” Dominic says, reaching out and fiddling with the lapels of the coat.

My heart races now for a different reason. My pulse sings in my ears. A girl could do a lot worse than this: a hot man giving her a first British kiss on a lamplit street in Oxford. Everything I’ve waited for. Everything I dreamed for myself is coming truesoquickly, it’s almost unnerving. My earlier life as a nobody in a small-town American school seems a small penance to pay to arrive at this: Helena 2.0, dressed in an emerald green coat, courted by an elite secret society, and now showered with gifts by a beyond-beautiful Englishman.

“And now,” Dominic says, pulling me closer under the guise of turning the collar up so that it brushes my heated cheeks, “you are properly British. Coat and all.”

His nose brushes mine.

My hands reach out and grasp his solid forearms. For a scholar, Dominic is stacked.

My gaze drops to his lips, parting. Expecting. He’s going to kiss me, and I want him to.

“OY!” Li calls from up above, through her open window. “Do you know what this means?”

Dominic steps back, hiding his embarrassment by smoothing the coat over my shoulders.

Stepping onto the street, I glance upwards. Li is squinting at us, her expression unreadable.

“What?” I ask, wondering ifnowI’m about to hear the English equivalent of “get a room”.

“Itmeansyou need a makeover. A proper one. Can’t wear that coat with frizzy hair. Come over early on Friday.”

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