One Mark: Steamy Friends to Lovers Paranormal Romance (Blackwell Djinn)

by Nikki Kardnov

“What do you think of this piece?” Lola asked Dae and nodded at the key-head picture.

  Dae was one of the city’s most respected businessmen who also sat on the board of directors for the Blackwater Center for the Arts. Lola happened to know he privately funded over 50% of the arts center and its organization. He understood art. He understood the whims and machinations of artists.

  Probably he hated this piece.

  Probably the message she was trying to get across in the photo was buried in obscurity.

  What was the message anyway?

  Lola wasn’t sure she understood it anymore.

  Hell, half her success had been by accident. It wasn’t like she set out to make fine art prints of headless girls. She had clearly been an imposter this entire time. Now her entire career was about to go down the drain and she would be wearing khakis and cardigans in no time. She’d start drinking Red Bull for breakfast and stashing chocolate in her desk drawer for an afternoon pick-me-up and—

  “I love it,” Dae said. “In fact, I love it so much, I bought it.”

  Lola narrowed her eyes at him. “No you didn’t.”

  “Didn’t I?” His dark hair fell in front of his eyes in that perfectly messy way only immortal men could muster. “I assure you, Lola,” he said in that awful (extremely charming) British accent, “I very much did.”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” He laughed. “Darling, you really must work on your salesmanship.”

  “I can’t have my best friend’s boyfriend pity buying my art!”

  Ashley stepped into her line of sight. “Breathe. Think about who you’re talking to. Dae doesn’t pity buy anything.”

  “Pity is beneath me,” Dae agreed.

  “See?” Ashley grabbed her hands and squeezed. “Do you have any of your special cookies? Maybe one would help calm you down?”

  She meant Lola’s CBD cookies and no she didn’t have any. They helped with the anxiety but sometimes made her sleepy, and she wanted to be clearheaded for tonight.

  “I don’t understand why you’re so worried,” Ashley said. “You’ve made your fortune doing this. You’re talented and everyone agrees with me on this.”

  “Then why are sales drying up?” She looked at the print again. “Why were people buying my prints in droves last year, and now? Half that. Not even. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what people want to buy.”

  Such was the plight of an artist.

  “Just make the art that speaks to you.”

  That was easy for Ash to say. She’d found her soul mate who was immortal and worth millions and billions of dollars. She didn’t have to worry about anything anymore.

  Okay, now that wasn’t fair.

  If anyone deserved a happily ever after, it was Ash.

  “If you’re worried about selling,” Dae said, “I’ll buy all of them. A sold out show would create a great deal of press. Think of it as a marketing tactic.”

  “No you absolutely will not buy them.”

  Ashley tried to hide her smile as she tucked into Dae’s side again. He wound his arm around her.

  “Why are you laughing?” Lola said. “Stop laughing.”

  “What?” Ashley broke out in a smile. “It makes me really proud to call him my boyfriend. Because he’s so generous and he cares about my best friend.”

  “Not a boyfriend, love,” Dae said. “Your Fated. Better even than a husband.”

  “I can’t go introducing you as my Fated. That sounds weird.”

  “It kind of does,” Lola agreed. And then, “You’re not buying any more of my prints.”

  “Very well.”

  “But I appreciate you offering,” she added. “I mean, no one has looked out for me in a long time.”

  “You’re part of the Blackwell family now,” he said. “If you need something, you need only ask.”

  Ashley beamed up at him again.

  “Thank you.”

  A part of her wanted to let him help. Selling twenty prints would let her breathe a little easier the next few months. But wasn’t that the same thing? Letting a man take care of her? Even if it was indirectly and also because of her best friend?

  Lola wanted to make it on her own in this world.

  Chapter 5

  LOLA

  The exhibit was just an hour away from its scheduled opening. Ashley and Dae had left a while ago to get ready.

  Lola sat on the sofa in the backroom and sipped at her green smoothie with the double shot of B vitamins added to it. Though the effects weren’t meant to be instantaneous, she already felt better.

  You are Lola Fucking St. James.

  You have 78,000 followers on Instagram.

  You bought a car for cash with your profits.

  You are a badass.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  Everything was going to be okay.

  She was going to sell all of her prints and make enough profit to ease the drumming anxiety she carried around like a damn monkey on her back.

  Though Lola’s mother lived just across the Rine River and occasionally stuck her nose into Lola’s business, she had never been in any position to bail Lola out of a tight spot. In fact, just last month, Samantha had come to Lola looking for some cash.

  However Lola moved through this world, she effectively did it alone. Regardless of what Dae said, she was not part of the Blackwell family. And hadn’t he just said pity was beneath him? She wouldn’t go asking for a handout from him and she certainly wouldn’t try to insert herself into his—and now Ashley’s—family.

  “There you are,” a voice said from the doorway.

  Lola looked up and smiled at her new friend. “Hey!”

  She met Meg at the doorway for a hug.

  Meg had come into Lola’s life suddenly and at a time when she needed someone like her.

  Lola loved Ashley with all her heart, but Ashley was as sweet as cotton candy and sometimes Lola just wanted bitter chocolate.

  Besides, Lola had never been the monogamous friend type. She collected people like old women collected ceramic teddy bears. Each one had its merits. Their own unique characteristics. Each one was important to Lola for different reasons.

  Meg almost had a harder exterior than Lola. She didn’t take shit. If she wanted something, she went out and got it and accepted nothing less. And she cursed like a factory worker. Meg delighted Lola with her depravity.

  “When I didn’t see you out front, I was worried you’d bailed,” Meg said in that accent Lola always had a hard time placing. She went to the counter along the back wall and hoisted her tiny ass onto it. She was wearing tight leather leggings and a quilted leather jacket despite the summer heat. Her dark hair was braided into a messy fishtail and was tied off with a strip of mustard yellow leather.

  Silver rings were stacked up on at least half of her ten fingers and a giant hematite stone hung from a silver chain around her neck.

  She dug into the inside pocket of her jacket and produced a silver flask. “Brought you a pick-me-up. The elixir of courage.”

  Lola frowned. “What’s in it?”

  “Tequila. And before you go objecting, it’s made with 100% pure, organic blue agave, minimally processed and bottled in recycled glass. All the buzzwords you love.”

  “You know me so well.” Lola twirled her straw through her green smoothie. “But no thank you. Tequila makes me do things I regret.”

  “Suit yourself.” Meg unscrewed the lid and took a swig. “The doors are about to open. You ready to get out there?”

  “Not yet.” Lola sat back against the sofa. “I just need a few more minutes to give myself an internal pep talk.”

  Meg came over and joined Lola on the sofa. “You want my advice? All you gotta do is sell people a story. Do that and your customers will buy anything.” She narrowed her eyes and grinned a devilish grin. “In simpler terms, manipulate them to your own ends.”

  “I think you’re better at that than I am.”

 
; “It’s a learned skill. Not one I was born with. Come on.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Let’s go take one more walk around the gallery to make sure everything is as it should be.”

  Smoothie in hand, Lola stood up and followed Meg into the gallery’s main room. They stood in the center and looked around. With the owner’s permission, Lola had draped gossamer fabric from the exposed ceiling beams and then wound twinkling lights through it.

  “I don’t know,” she said, a hand on her hip. “Maybe this is excessive. Like I’m trying too hard.”

  “In my experience, excess is a word made up by men to make women feel bad about themselves.”

  “You always have a way of spinning things to my liking.”

  “My dear, dear friend.” Meg looked at Lola, her brown eyes glittering in the light. “Stick with me much longer and your life will be a merry-go-round.”

  Lola hung her head back and laughed.

  Chapter 6

  THORIN

  Thorin had planned to drive to La Nuit, but Dae and Ashley popped into Blackwell House and offered him a lift. And by lift, Dae meant vade.

  Vading was an ability a djinn had only when invoked. Unless that djinn found their caeli—their Fated. Once a djinn was bound to their caeli, their magic was no longer restrained.

  Most djinn spent their entire life trying to track down their caeli, but Thorin had spent most of his life trying to avoid it.

  He didn’t want access to his magic at all times. He worried he wouldn’t be able to control it or himself if he did.

  “Ready?” Dae said, one hand on Ashley’s shoulder, the other on Thorin’s.

  Thorin nodded. Ashley said, “Yes,” and then the air crackled as Dae’s magic tore through it. Blackwell House disappeared and the three of them reappeared in the alley behind La Nuit Art Gallery just a heartbeat later.

  Dae’s magic quickly dissipated. Thorin took in a deep breath and beneath Dae’s spicy magic, he caught the scent of rain on the air. Thank the gods for that. This heat was nearly insufferable.

  The three of them walked around the block to the gallery’s front entrance. The place was already packed and rightfully so. Thorin had always been drawn to artists and writers and he’d met a lot of the most famous ones in his several centuries. Lola stood out in his mind as one of the greats. Her abstract approach to digital photography was fresh and unique.

  She, like most artists he’d known, routinely thought she was complete drivel, though.

  That’s how Thorin knew she was legit.

  He pulled the gallery’s door open and held it for Ashley and Dae.

  “Thank you,” Ashley said and squeezed his arm as she passed.

  Dae surged ahead to stick by Ashley’s side. “I hope tonight goes well,” Thorin heard Ashley say.

  Modern folk music played through the gallery’s sound system drowning out some of the buzz of the conversations happening in pockets around the room.

  “If it doesn’t, I’ll buy the prints discreetly,” Dae said.

  Thorin came up alongside his brother. “If Lola ever found out, she’d murder us all.”

  “Well lucky for us, we are not easy to murder.”

  Ashley scanned the crowd. “Let’s just wait and see how the opening goes. Oh, there’s Lo. I want to go say hi.”

  Thorin turned to catch sight of Lola and when he did…

  His stomach sunk like he was on the drop of a roller coaster.

  She was so goddamn beautiful. Sometimes it caught him off guard. And every time it did, he thought that surely would be the last. Surely he’d get used to it by now. But no. Lola had the unique ability to always reinvent herself and she always made it look effortless.

  Thorin admired that about her. How she could go from sweatpants and a t-shirt to bead-studded ball gown and still be fundamentally Lola.

  Tonight she wore an extremely form-fitting lacy black dress with a low neckline baring the swell of her breasts. Red lipstick accentuated the bow of her lips. She’d left her long, blonde hair down and it curled around her face.

  Tonight, for the first time in a long time, Thorin considered throwing his rules out the door. He thought about putting his hand at the small of Lola’s back and showing the room and everyone in it that she was his. And then later, he’d push her up against a wall and—

  “You’re here!” Lola called.

  Thorin shook his dirty thoughts aside, his cock jumping way too far to conclusions.

  He had rules for a reason and they were very, very good reasons.

  He would never give in. No matter how much he wanted to.

  “Hello, darling,” Dae said and kissed Lola’s cheek.

  Ashley gave her a hug.

  “Hey you,” Lola said as she craned her neck to look up at Thorin. Even though she wore sexy as hell stilettos, she was still a good half-foot shy of his 6’4”.

  “Hi you,” he said and bent down to place a chaste kiss on her cheek. “You look amazing, as does your work.”

  She smiled and ducked her head. Thorin could have sworn he saw her blush. That was very un-Lola-like. She blushed at nothing.

  “Thank you,” she said. “So far things are going well.”

  “Well?” Ashley echoed. “The place is packed!”

  Dae had that far-off look in his eyes like he was catching a conversation happening ten yards away. “The consensus in the room is that this showing is very…on brand. I hate that term. Everyone agrees that your voice is distinct and—” Suddenly his eyes narrowed and he cut his gaze to Thorin.

  Dae’s jaw clenched.

  “What is it?” Thorin said, but now his stomach was dropping for an entirely different reason.

  Somehow he knew the answer before Dae said it.

  “Northman,” Dae said beneath his breath, almost like a curse.

  The hair at the nape of Thorin’s neck lifted.

  Not now, Rose. Not here.

  This was Lola’s night.

  But he really shouldn’t have been surprised.

  Only a djinn could go a century without seeing someone, only for the next encounter to cross the expanse of years and make it feel like no years at all.

  “Which Northman?” Thorin said to Dae.

  Dae was caeli-bound to Ashley, which meant he had the better hearing between them. Thorin couldn’t seem to catch whatever it was Dae was listening to.

  Dae narrowed his eyes again and cut his gaze to Thorin.

  She’s here, his expression seemed to say.

  “Oh, you have to meet Meg!” Lola said. She hooked her arm through Thorin’s. His skin tingled at her touch.

  Lola turned him around and he came face to face with a five-foot-nothing dark-haired djinn.

  “Meg,” Lola said. “This is Thorin, the guy I’m always raving about.”

  His veins turned to ice.

  His ears started ringing.

  Meg was not Meg.

  She was Rose Northman.

  Chapter 7

  LOLA

  Lola felt Thorin’s body tense up next to her. It was as if he’d approached a cliff and was trying to decide whether or not to jump.

  “Hi, I’m Meg,” Meg said and offered her hand to Thorin.

  Thorin gave her a stony stare.

  Lola looked up at him. “Thor? What’s wrong?” When Thorin didn’t respond, she looked at Ashley who seemed equally confused by Dae’s sudden foul mood.

  “Meg, was it?” Dae said. He wound his arm around Ashley and yanked her into his side. “Tell me, Meg, what’s your surname? Are you from around here?”

  Meg flashed a smile. “From Blackwater? No. It was always a little too quaint for my taste.”

  Thorin bristled.

  Dae clenched his teeth.

  What the hell was happening?

  Did they know Meg from somewhere?

  “It might have been quaint many centuries ago,” Dae said. “But now it rivals many of the bigger cities on the eastern seaboard.”

  The gallery entranc
e swung open and a new crowd filtered in. Lola was torn between greeting them and seeing this awkward meet up to its quick end.

  “I should…we should probably go,” she said, but she wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Thorin? Meg?

  Maybe she should just abandon ship all together.

  She couldn’t deal with this right now, whatever IT was.

  “I’m going to circle the room again,” she said.

  “I’ll catch up to you later,” Thorin said.

  Meg flashed her a smile, her hands tucked into the back pockets of her leather leggings.

  Ashley disentangled herself from Dae’s side and followed Lola. “Do they know Meg?” she said in a whisper, even though both Thorin and Dae could likely hear her. “Dae can sometimes get like that around other men. Super standoffish and protective, but I’ve never seen him do it around a woman, and I’ve never seen Thorin act like that. He’s usually warm and fuzzy like a big old teddy bear.”

  Lola glanced over her shoulder. Thorin, Dae, and Meg were now standing in a triangle with Meg at the point. Their bodies portrayed an undercurrent of animosity.

  “They must know her,” she said. “But Meg never said anything about the Blackwells.”

  “I’ll ask Dae. You go mingle. This is your night, after all. You should be enjoying it.”

  “Thank you.” Lola squeezed Ashley’s hand and left her side. She tried to distract herself with the usual meet-and-greet, but her mind wandered.

  One thought kept echoing through her head, that Thorin and Meg had a past, and judging by the way they regarded one another, it was clearly a storied one.

  But whether they’d fucked or been engaged or hell, been at war, it didn’t matter to Lola.

  Thorin was just a friend.

  And his love life was none of her damn business.

  Chapter 8

  THORIN

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Thorin said.

  Trepidation beat behind his eyes sending a dull ache across his skull. It had been so long since he’d last seen Rose that he’d forgotten what she did to him.