Riley blinked. “You what? Why?”
“Because I, unlike you, have an obscene amount of self-preservation and, regardless of what my life may be, I would like to continue living it. The last thing I need is to guess wrong and get that life shortened.” He shrugged. “I’m going with the female book of ethics on this one.”
“The female…” She shook her head slowly, chuckling. “Where can I pick up this mythical book? And I do too have self-preservation. In fact, if we were attacked at this moment, I would totally use you to slow them down while I make my escape.”
“Well, I certainly feel safer being with you.”
They lapsed into a comfortable sort of silence the rest of the way, her mind blank from exhaustion. Their combined footfalls crunched on brittle leaves. She let the sound serenade them through the deserted street. The walk ended at her front steps. Riley fished through her purse for her keys and turned to Octavian with them in her hands.
“Thank you for walking me,” she said.
He inclined his head, all business once more. “My pleasure. Goodnight, Ms. Masters.”
Riley grimaced. “It’s Riley.”
He was silent for a moment too long before he spoke, his voice a low, gruff murmur. “Riley.”
Inexplicably, giddy in a way that was completely insane, Riley cleared her throat and turned away. “Goodnight.”
He didn’t move until she’d opened the apartment doors and slipped inside. When she glanced back, he was gone.
Chapter 5
Damn rain!
Like the traitorous snake it was, it had waited until she was too far on her way to work before coming down in a steady patter, soaking her clothes and ruining her makeup. No amount of keeping her head down and her pace brisk saved her from the cold, damp assault. It was because of her own personal dark cloud hovering so close that her sixth sense wasn’t quick enough to pick up on the change around her until the loud thwack split the night. Riley yelped in fright. Her foot skidded on a patch of mud and she just caught herself as she whipped around.
A figure brandishing an umbrella over his head, strolled up behind her at a leisurely pace.
“I’m sorry,” the owner of the umbrella said, as he came up alongside her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Squinting through the rain, Riley shook her head. “It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention.” The edge of the umbrella lifted and she gasped as she recognized the pale, familiar face. “Gideon? Where did you come from?”
He grinned with perfectly straight teeth. “Here, there.” He shrugged. “I’m like the wind… everywhere. Are you perchance headed to work?”
Riley couldn’t remember the last time anyone asked her anything using the word perchance, but she answered, “Yes, and this rain is making me late, so…”
Without waiting for him, she ducked her head and hurried onward. She made it four steps when the rain suddenly stopped. Not stopped from falling, but stopped from falling on her.
“Would you mind if I joined you in the walk?” He was back, walking effortlessly alongside her with his long gait, his umbrella wielding hand between them, seamlessly canopying both of them from the cold. “It’s a rare thing meeting another soul on this stretch of road.”
Riley slanted him a sidelong glance from the corner of her eye. He held himself with grace, shoulders squared, spine stiff, like not even the foul weather could deter him. As far as his brothers went, he always struck her as someone that belonged in a parlor, sipping brandy from a crystal goblet, which was amusing once you looked past his face to the rest of him.
He wore shiny, leather pants beneath a long, equally shiny leather duster. Maybe that’s why the rain wasn’t bothering him, she mused. He had on a rain repelling outfit.
“Is that comfortable?” she asked, nodding towards him with her chin. “I would think leather would only make you colder.”
He cocked his head in her direction. “Is that what you think?” He turned forward, brows pursed as though in deliberation. “Interesting.”
Riley frowned, disliking his condescending tone. “What is?”
His lips tweaked upwards at the corners. “That you’ve never worn leather before.”
At the entrance of Final Judgment, he gallantly swept open the doors and ushered her in with a theatrical bow. Riley snickered as she passed him, peeling away the uncomfortably damp material of her coat from her body. Gideon shook out his umbrella and swept it closed before following her inside and shutting the door behind them.
Someone had lit a blazing fire in the hearth in the center of the room and it was painting delicate brush strokes of crimson and gold across the walls. Without pausing, Riley went to it, thrusting her hands as close to the flames as possible without burning. She fluffed a hand through her damp tresses, fighting hard to keep her teeth from chattering as the warm swirl of air tried to chase away the chill creeping into her bones.
“Ah home!” he declared, propping his umbrella up alongside the door and joining her by the fire. “Let the slave driving commence!”
Riley laughed. “You are probably the strangest person I have ever met.”
Gideon blinked eyes that were so much like Octavian’s she momentarily forgot herself. “Only the strangest? Not the most handsome or charming or witty?”
“I reserve the right not to answer.”
He huffed incredulously. “Then I reserve the right to refrain from being handsome, charming and witty until you do!”
Shaking her head, Riley opened her mouth to answer when the kitchen doors smacked open and Octavian charged out looking like he was prepared to take on a flock of demons. His features took on a mask of surprise when he caught sight of Riley and Gideon by the fire. His gray eyes shot to Riley almost instantly and darkened.
Gone was the cold, the heat, the room, Gideon and even the air. Everything around them shimmered like heat waves coming off the dessert floor. Riley felt the singe of every second mark every breath she attempted to claim, but breathing was breathing him, drawing him into her veins like a fast acting drug, like taking a reckless swig of vodka on an empty stomach. He went straight to her head and through her body with a sharp burn that left her heady and blissfully lax.
“Hello dear brother!” Gideon shattered the moment by throwing his arms open wide as though expecting an embrace from the figure standing not five feet from them. “Were you waiting for us? You shouldn’t have, not when I can see how busy you’ve been.”
The sarcasm went over Octavian’s head for a moment as he stared at his brother like he’d lost his mind. Gradually, it seemed to dawn on him as he glanced at the emptiness of the room.
“Where have you been?” he asked instead, but his gaze went to Riley again, drawn like he couldn’t quite stop staring.
“Here, there.” Gideon waved his hands in circular motion. “Everywhere.”
Painfully conscious of her wet clothes and the rain dripping from the ends of her hair, Riley tucked a coil behind her ear and turned to the fire, her cheeks rosy from the cold and the glint in Octavian’s eyes. She twisted her hair in her hands, wringing out the water before using her fingers to comb out the knots left behind, all the while feeling her every movement watched. It took a great deal of effort not to give in and look. But she managed to toss her hair over her shoulder, shrug out of her jacket and start towards the kitchen without glancing at the man who was making himself impossible to ignore. She made it all the way to the staff room.
“You’re late!”
Riley whipped around, surprised that he’d followed her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It hadn’t been raining when I left and—”
“My fault.” Gideon ambled into the room and dumped his lean frame into a chair. “I kept Ms. Masters with my mindless ramblings. Don’t be cross with her.”
Octavian glowered at his brother. “What are you doing here, Gideon? Don’t you have other things to do?”
Gideon beamed, drumming his fingers on the table. “Why, I’m hurt. M
ust I need a reason to drop by on my day off and visit my brother?”
The annoyance on Octavian’s face was nearly comical, if not a bit frightening, even if it wasn’t directed at her.
“All right. All right!” Gideon threw up his hands. “You’ve caught me. I’m here to flirt shamelessly with our lovely new waitress. Go on.” He held up his wrists. “Throw me into the naughty cage. I won’t fight. I deserve a good spanking.” He glanced at Riley, wiggled his eyebrows. “Care to don a French maid’s uniform and do the honors?”
It was probably the wrong thing to do, encouraging him, but Riley couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped. She clapped her hand over her mouth, but the damage had been done. Both men were watching her now, Gideon with a grin and Octavian with a look of someone very close to committing bodily harm to another person.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But it’s very hard to believe you two are related.”
“Don’t we look related?” Gideon grinned mischievously.
“No,” she said honestly. “You look nothing alike and you don’t act alike either.”
Gideon chuckled. “That’s because I was blessed with all the charm, grace and handsome features of a gentleman while Octavian… well, he got the foul disposition of an ogre.” He smirked when she laughed.
“Don’t you have a job to do, Ms. Masters?” Octavian muttered through his teeth, gaze fixed on his brother.
Her smile quickly vanished. “Oh, right.” Hurriedly, she stuffed her coat and purse into her locker and left room, but not before she heard Gideon say, “Well that wasn’t very nice. I was just beginning to enjoy her company.”
“What are you doing, Gideon?” Octavian demanded
“I was bored.”
“And you just happened to run into Riley on your way to not being bored?”
“Quite accidentally, I assure you.” There was a slight pause before he added, “She’s a gorgeous little thing.”
Riley felt her cheeks flush.
“Stay away from her, Gideon.” The warning in Octavian’s low growl sent a strange thrill coursing through her chest.
“Is that possessiveness I hear, brother?” Gideon asked with just a hint of dark amusement. “Are you going soft for the pretty little Ms. Masters?”
Riley moved in closer to hear Octavian’s next words, but they were said so softly that it was impossible to pick them up.
Gideon burst out laughing. “That’s a good one!”
“I’m not joking.”
Gideon sobered. “You’re serious?” A pause, then, “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know!” There was panic edged in Octavian’s tone.
“Are you sure? Of course you are,” Gideon muttered a moment later. He exhaled. “Man, this is bad.”
“Tell me about it.”
“We need to tell Mom and Dad.”
“No, they’ll be obligated to report her to the Summit. You know what they’ll do.”
“You have to—”
“No!” The snarl made Riley jump. “I won’t let them near her. Keep your mouth shut, Gideon, or so help me I’ll make you.”
Hot coils of tension wove through the air as thick as tar seeping through the silence. It was Gideon who broke it.
“Would you like to know what I would do?” The buoyancy was back in his voice. He didn’t wait for Octavian to ask as he resumed airily. “I would march out there and make you an uncle, or at least practice… a lot.”
“Jesus, Gideon!”
There was a loud smack, followed by an ow of pain from Gideon.
There were hardly any tables at all to bus. The few occupants who actually braved the weather were still nursing their drinks, probably to prolong the inevitable, like facing the elements again. She couldn’t blame them, but she wished they would order more than one drink, because honestly, she could only scrub the tables and sweep the floors so many times before it became obvious that she wasn’t really doing anything.
Octavian and his brother were still in a heated debate at the counter. Well, it looked more like Octavian was doing the talking while Gideon watched on with silent amusement. Whatever they were discussing was really infuriating Octavian because he looked about ready to punch his brother out. Riley wondered if she should intervene and maybe save Gideon’s life. But at the same time, that would put her in the path of the lion and Octavian already had reason to throttle her. Nevertheless, she had no choice, she realized. Either she stood in the middle of the room and become one of the wood pillars or move and stand somewhere else for a little while. The room didn’t give her very many options. She opted to just get it over with.
She couldn’t have taken more than a handful of steps when Octavian slammed a fist against the table with a violence that cracked through the room. He blurted something in a language Riley didn’t understand before he turned on his heels and burst through the kitchen doors. She hesitated a fraction of a second before venturing to the bar and the blond man sitting there.
“Is everything all right?” she asked carefully.
Gideon glanced up as she rounded the bar to claim Octavian’s old place. “Perfectly. Octavian has the panache for dramatization. It’s usually best to just let him run out of steam.”
Curious, she tossed a glance in the direction Octavian had taken. “He still doesn’t like me being here, huh?” she mused, turning back to Gideon.
“Octavian doesn’t like anyone being here, truthfully,” Gideon replied with a careful shrug. “He’s quite belligerent like that. It’s always more pleasant to just ignore it. He’ll eventually get over it and move on.”
“So, it’s not just me.” There was some degree of relief in the knowledge.
Gideon folded his arms on the counter and leaned forward. “Would it matter?”
Riley frowned. “I would think so. I mean, I have to work with him. Plus, I really dislike being an annoyance to anyone.”
“Ah!” Gideon sat back. “You’re not an annoyance. Not in the sense you’re thinking. Octavian has a deep passion for rules. You go against them.”
“I don’t understand.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Nothing to worry yourself over. Just ignore my brother’s foul moods and you should be fine.”
Should be. Well, she supposed it was better than nothing.
“I think I need a drink!” he declared, changing the subject as he hopped off his stool and ventured around the bar. “Red wine, I think.”
Maybe it was because he just didn’t strike her as the wine drinking type, she was surprised by his choice of beverage. Nothing about this guy fit right with the image of him.
She watched, fascinated as he unearthed a bottle from the cooler beneath the counter and speared the cork with a corkscrew. His movements were so fluid, like he’d done this a million times before. When he jerked the bottle free of its stopper, Riley flinched, half expecting foam to spew everywhere like it did in the movies, but only a soft coil of smoke rose from the neck.
“You’re good at that,” she murmured, seriously impressed.
“We take turns manning the bar,” he said. “Octavian’s usually here most nights because he’s the eldest and likes to pretend he’s in charge.”
Riley chuckled. “So how much older is Octavian?”
“By a few centuries.” His eyes twinkled as though they were sharing a private joke.
“If Reggie’s the youngest at eighteen, you guys must be very close in age.”
“You would assume correctly.” He placed the bottle opening to the rim of a glass and poured. “There’s four years between me and Reggie and a year between me and Octavian.”
“What about Magnus?”
Gideon slanted her a glance from the corner of his eyes. “Didn’t Reggie tell you?”
She shook her head. “What?”
“Magnus and I are twins.”
Riley nearly dropped her jaw. “You guys look nothing alike.”
“Hard to believe, I know, but I was trapped for ni
ne months with that guy in an airtight bubble.”
Riley chuckled. “Your poor mother.”
Gideon grinned. “Yes, but then she got lucky and had me. I was an angel.”
“I somehow doubt that,” she muttered, using a rag to mop invisible spills off the bar.
“Does this face seem untrustworthy, Ms. Masters?”
She could only laugh. “I don’t think any of you are very trustworthy, honestly. You all remind me of naughty little boys doing things you know you shouldn’t.”
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