Page 8 of Forbidden Dark Vows

Today, I choose the same book my dad is reading:A Stone for Danny Fisher. It makes me feel close to him, like I can get inside his head and know what he’s been thinking all day.

I lose track of time until I hear whispered voices and the gentle click of the front door. I close my book and listen. “Mrs. Bates?” I call out. Mrs. Bates is my boss and although she’s easygoing and happy to let me read when my work is done, she’d never go home without checking if the building is empty.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her in a couple of hours.

I stand up, make my way towards the front desk, and stop when I reach the end of the history section. The ceiling lamps have been switched off, ready to close for the night, but the main entranceis aglow with golden light. Is there an event tonight that I’ve forgotten about?

“Mrs. Bates, did I forget?—”

I round the corner of the bookcase and freeze.

The entire library has been decorated with fairy lights, giving it the appearance of Santa’s grotto. Music is playing in the background, an old song by the Carpenters, and Mrs. Bates is nowhere to be seen.

Then Alessandro steps out from behind the romance section and grins at me. “Do you like it?”

I blink like this is a dream and I need to wake up. But no, he’s still there.

“I brought champagne.” He reaches behind him for a bottle which he pops open, then pours the bubbling liquid into two tall crystal flutes. He hands a glass to me.

I take it in silence, my brain still trying to process what’s going on.

“You left so suddenly last night,” he says. “I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” I sip the champagne, the bubbles fizzing on my tongue. “Where are you going?”

“LA. Hollywood. We start shooting next week.”

Of course he’s going to Hollywood. My mom didn’t expect him to meet me and stick around in Chicago for a while, did she? Or maybe she hoped he’d take me with him, lavish me with expensive gifts and a new wardrobe befitting the role of anactor’s girlfriend, while I proved to him that he couldn’t possibly live without me.

“You could’ve picked up the phone.”

His smile is wide, and I remember the woman climbing him in the pool of the InterContinental. He’s oblivious. “You didn’t give me your number.”

“Do you do this for every woman who doesn’t give you her number?”

“What do you take me for?” He spreads his arms wide.

“The kind of guy who can snap his fingers and have any woman he wants.”

“Ouch.” He doesn’t look like he’s in pain. “You sting me, Ruby. Have dinner with me. Please.”

“I don’t know.”

The image of them naked in the pool isn’t going away, and it’ll take more than a glass of champagne and some fairy lights to erase it. Even if he is destined to become a household name.

“I brought you a gift.” He picks up a small neatly wrapped package from the front desk and holds it out so that I have to step closer.

I put down my glass and take the gift from him, his long, slender fingers caressing mine a beat too long. I pretend not to notice as I unwrap it.

It’s a first edition copy ofWuthering Heightsin mint condition. I run my fingertips across the cover and turn it over to make sure the back is as perfect as the front.

“It’s a rare edition,” he says. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I found it.”

I want him to stop talking. I want him to stop making this about him and me, and just let me enjoy it before I give it back to him. Because I can’t keep it. I have no idea how much it would’ve cost, but it wouldn’t have been cheap, and he doesn’t even know me.

“It’s beautiful.” I glance up at him and catch his eager eyes before the smile is back. For a moment, he looks like a little boy surprising his first crush with a present. “But?—”

“This is me now, standing in this library with you.”

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