Page 34 of The Book Reader
I jump down from the stool and walk over to Mekhi. “No, it’s not him, it’s the guy from my grandfather’s memorial… Gaelan.”
“Mmmmm, the hottie with the blue eyes?”
“Yes, him.”
Mekhi tsks, giving me a pointed look. “We’ll see…” He marches out of the room mumbling, “He’s only a hottie if I say he is.”
I know that as soon as Mekhi sees Gaelan, he’s going to swoon over him.
Running myself a hot bath, I add my rose-scented bubble bath and watch as the tub fills up. Most of the morning I spent reading the daemon book from my aunt’s things from cover to cover—the stuff about the sorcerer daemons again didn’t give me much joy—I did find at the back of the book some coordinates. Still, the odd part about it was that it led to my aunt’s house. I feel like every time I get an answer, it comes with even more questions.
I sink into the bath and let the hot water soothe me. Tonight will be a welcome break from the stress of having to find this book.
Closing my eyes, I pull in a relaxing breath, but it’s short-lived when Mekhi comes into the bathroom and sits on the edge of the tub.
This man really has no boundaries.
As if sensing my thoughts, Mekhi shakes his head. “Hitch, please. You are fine as hell, you know I like theharderthings in life—pun intended—plus I’ve seen you naked so many times I’ve lost count.” He blows on his nails, which now have a layer of silver glitter on them. “So, talk to me… Where is Mr. Hottie taking you? Wining and dining, I hope?”
Mekhi has decided to ignore the elephant in the room. Since coming back from my aunt’s funeral, he hasn’t mentioned daemons, magic, or the fact that I need to find this book. He’s been diving headfirst into more self-care and even more men. I love him, but I wish that he would settle down.
Picking up the sponge, I begin to wash my body. “Dinner, I think.”
Mekhi raises a brow at me. “Mr. Hottie had better be taking my girl to a nice restaurant or he’s going to have me to deal with.” Mekhi hums, pointing a finger at me. “Mmmmm, don’t you go giving him any kitty tonight, let that man work for that jewel.”
I burst out laughing. “Mekhi?!? Stop it! It’s my first date with a guy I’ve spoken to a couple of times; he isn’t gettingany. First date rule, remember?”
“No matter what this date ends up being, I’m just happy my baby girl is going out, after…” He gives me a pointed look and hands me a facial mask.
“My aunt was murdered?”
“Yeah.” His voice is soft as he speaks, and then his eyes drop to the necklace. “You haven’t taken that thing off. Girl, it’s ugly.”
“No, it’s not,” I sigh, “it’s… different.”
“I’m different, Hitch. Different as in fucking hot… that—that is ugly.” He points to it, shuddering. “It’s also giving me the creeps. I feel like it’s looking at me.”
I frown. “What is looking at you?”
He leans closer to me—any other guy and I would think they wanted a closer look at my tits. He reaches out to touch the necklace, but pulls his hand back like he’s been stung by something. “Fuck,” he says as he sucks on his finger. “Hitch, the dragon on that thing is looking at me, and it justshockedme.”
I laugh and lift out of the bath, grabbing a towel. “Mekhi, that was just static, and it’s just got weird eyes. You know, they can make them look like they’re following you.” I lift it to show him it’s just a necklace. “Aunt May probably made it; it might have a spell on it, but I can’t feel one.”
Mekhi pouts. “Well, my fine ass knows what I saw. And that”—he waves a finger around— “was staring at me.”
We both laugh, and then he’s gone, walking out of the bathroom to do god knows what.
I turn to look at myself in the mirror, and the necklace is hanging from my neck—it’s stunning. I always thought so whenever my aunt would wear it. She would let me try it on when I was younger, and I would run around the garden pretending to be a princess who had been captured by the ‘big bad monster.’ This necklace was my key to escaping.
Now, when I look at it, all I see is death and pain.
I try to clear my mind and think about tonight. I promised this morning that I would have tonight to enjoy myself, and then tomorrow, I’ll go back to searching. I’m planning to stay at my aunt’s house next week—it seems like the best place to look for more answers.
Mekhi has primped,poked, and styled my hair into so many different ways. Then, I decided it should be down in long, black waves. My nails have been three different colors because he couldn’t decide on one. He also picked out five outfits for me to try on—the gold and black dress that I’d wanted to wear before wasn’t any good—his words, not mine. “Hitch, it’s not fuckable. I's specialty looks are fuckable, and damn hot!”
So, I’m currently standing in a short black dress that hugs my curves, feeling slightly overdressed. I refused to wear the heels that he wanted to put me in—far too high, I don’t need to be falling over in front of Gaelan. I look up at the clock and see that it’s almost six o’clock. When I woke up this morning, I found a message on my phone from Gaelan asking for my address so he could come and pick me up.
The house has strong wards of protection on it, so he won’t be able to get through the gate if he wishes to harm us.
