Dark Deception (Vampire Royals of New York #1) - Sarah Piper Page 0,36
early while she figured out what she wanted to study.
Charley might not have had the opportunity to go to college, to follow a path of her own choosing, but she’d be damned if she wouldn’t give that to her sister. Sasha was the best thing in her life, and she deserved the world. There was nothing Charley wouldn’t do to protect her. To keep that big, live-out-loud smile on her beautiful face.
“This calls for a celebration,” Charley said, already rising to rummage through the cupboards. “Chocolate chip banana pancakes?”
“But I didn’t get in yet! I won’t know until the end of the semester.”
“You’ll get in. I know it.” Charley pulled out the flour, sugar, and a bag of chocolate chips.
“We should’ve planned this better! I’m on the lunch shift at Perk.” Sasha reached for her cell. “Lemme see if I can get Darcy to switch—she owes me. We can spend the whole day together.”
“Oh… I’ve got a lunch thing I can’t get out of.” Charley frowned, thoughts of Rudy souring her mood. There was no way he’d let her bail on their appointment today—especially after last night’s failure.
Sasha’s smile slipped. “Okay, no problem.”
Charley hated that she’d put that disappointed look in her sister’s eyes, but she understood all too well where it had come from. Between Sasha’s classes and Charley’s crazy job, the girls had barely shared a meal together all month, let alone spent any quality time together. And even though last night was totally Rudy’s fault, the end result was the same. Charley had missed plans with her sister. Again.
“Hey,” Charley said. “How about tonight? We’ll go out—just the two of us.”
Sasha brightened. “For real? You don’t have to work?”
“Nope—just the lunch thing. So… we’ll grab an early dinner somewhere later, maybe see a movie?”
“Let’s go to Bryant Park!” Sasha bounced on her toes, her blue eyes glittering. “They’re showing Sleepless in Seattle tonight. We can do a Shake Shack picnic.”
“It’s a date.” Charley dumped the chocolate chips into a bowl, deciding to make the pancakes anyway. Her anxiety about Rudy was already melting away, the thought of a picnic and outdoor movie with her sister bolstering her mood.
Sasha hugged her from behind as she leaned in to steal a chocolate chip. “What did I do to deserve you, Chuck?”
Charley grinned, turning to press a kiss to Sasha’s cheek.
You showed up, she thought. And you stayed.
Chapter Fifteen
That fucking closet was going to haunt him for the rest of his immortal life.
Charlotte had awoken something inside him—a hunger that had lain dormant for far too long. Now, Dorian couldn’t even hang up his suit coat in the office this morning without his cock getting hard—a situation that would become problematic if he didn’t do something about it.
Like track that woman down, drag her back to Ravenswood, and show her exactly what she’s been missing out on her whole life…
Dorian sighed. He was the one missing out. Last night he’d sent her home with another man without a fight, and now he’d probably never see her again.
Maybe it was for the best.
Behind those seductive copper eyes, Charlotte was a deep vault of secrets. Nothing about her was innocent, and with everything else going on in his life right now, Dorian didn’t need that kind of trouble.
At least she didn’t walk away with the Whitfield.
It was a small comfort—one that didn’t last long. How had she gotten so thoroughly under his skin? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt more than a vague curiosity about a woman, let alone the borderline obsessing he was doing right now.
Sipping coffee as black and bitter as his heart, he stood before his 40th floor office windows and took in the view, a vast sea of skyscrapers that stretched from his building in Tribeca up to the northern edge of Manhattan. In the distance, the top of the Chrysler Building gleamed beneath a gorgeous sapphire-blue sky, making it nearly impossible for his foul mood to linger. Despite the ache behind his eyes, his mind was clear today—a sign that the second round of demon blood had nourished him.
That was something, anyway.
“Rough night, mate?” Aiden Donovan, Dorian’s business partner and best friend, barged into his office with his usual lack of decorum. “You look like hell.”
“And you look like someone who thinks he can show up without an appointment.”
“So rude, right?” Aiden laughed, and—just as he’d been doing since they were children in West Sussex centuries ago—made himself at home.