Page 27 of His True Beloved

Ping, ping, ping.

Grabbing it roughly, I pulled up the chat to find a donut and eggplant emoji, followed by the okay sign and a finger pointing through it. Then a bunch of water droplets. I rubbed my hand down my face. None of those needed to be followed with a reply.

Shifting through my closet, I found a black dress that could be dressed up or down. It had thin straps on the shoulders, came down to mid-thigh, and fluttered around my wide hips. Pairing it with a pair of black strappy sandals and a jean jacket to dress it down if I needed to, I heard the doorbell ring.

Glancing at the clock, it already read seven p.m. Grabbing my clutch, I silenced my phone and stuffed it inside. There would be no interruptions.

Interruptions of what?My subconscious screamed.It isn’t like you will do anything with him. He has a mate somewhere.

Right, right. I knew that.

Shaking my head, my lightly curled ends came to a halt when I heard screaming from Ashton. “The fuck are you doing here, bloodsucker?” Growling, I pushed open the door, stomping down the stairs loud enough for Ashton to hear. If I knew Ashton as well as I thought I did, which I felt very confident I did, once he saw me, he would change his tune.

Of course, Ashton tousled his hair, ran his thick nasty fingers through it, and threw me a smile. “Chrissy!” I cringed. It did not sound great coming out of his mouth, and I’m pretty sure he tarnished the name as his beer-stained teeth came to view. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I was just seeing thisvampireout.”

Sebastian was dressed to the nines, of course. From the two times I’d seen him, he had on dress pants. This time, he had some fancy Italian shoes and a black buttoned-up dress shirt with a deep red tie as he held his dress coat over his shoulder.

His dark hair was gelled back. One section that he must have meticulously put together had fallen straight over his forehead, tickling his brow. The signature smirk and the hint of his left fang biting his lower lip almost had me drooling.

And now I’m wet.

“Sebastian, right on time,” I chirped, prancing down the stairs. Now that I saw that Sebastian was indeed dressed up, I took off my light jean jacket and put it on the coat rack. Turning back, I see Ashton shuffling his feet, his hand still on the cold doorknob that he won’t be placing a rubber band on tonight.

Sebastian stood speechless, his face unmoving, but it was the eyes that caught me. The eyes had me almost squirm. They were dark, his eyebrows pointing downward slightly. He was eating me with his eyes. There was no question about what he was doing. He was shamelessly gawking.

Good thing I wore a padded bra to hide my sharp as diamond titties.

“Ready?” I smiled, my hair swaying until it hit Ashton right in the face. “Don’t wait up!” I put my arm in Sebastian’s, trying to shut the door until Ashton grabbed my wrist.

“The hell are you doing?” Ashton hissed. “He’s a vampire. He’s one of them,” he spat. “He took your mother away from you. You know what will happen eventually, right? Someone is going to end up eating us alive—”

Sebastian growled. As my date pushed me behind him, my body wanted to melt into a puddle.

How chivalrous.

“The expectations were clear when you came to live here. We told you the rules that we uphold. We don’t feed on unwilling participants.” Sebastian scoffed. “Not that I would feed off your plaque-ridden veins.”

Burn.

Ashton huffed in annoyance. “Just be careful, Chrissy.” He changed his tone abruptly. “You don’t know what kind of guy he is.” With that, he shut the door, but Sebastian didn’t look back. His concentration went to me, my arm still wrapped around his until his hand trailed down and tickled my bare arm, grabbing my hand.

He lifted my arm slightly, his fingers twisting around mine, leading me until I was doing a full circle in my spot to look at my dress. “Wow.” He breathed. My body let the good bumps run over my skin. I was so damn proud I wore this dress.

But we are going as friends. Remember?

Right?

“Simply ravishing.” He growled.

Friends, my ass. Friends with benefits, maybe? Do vampires even do that with a mate somewhere around the corner?

“Right.” He cleared his throat, tucking my arm around his. “I thought I’d take you somewhere you haven’t been.” My eyebrow raised, but the tightness of his hold had me blushing. He was trim. I could feel the muscles under the thin material of his dress shirt. After his devilish grin came down to look at me, my witty comments left me.

This was not good.

I was falling for a damn vampire I couldn’t even have. He had a mate. Someone that was waiting on him. Or was he tired of waiting?

“Your thoughts are loud,” he mused, leading me up to the white stoned path. A limo waited for us a few blocks down.

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