Seduce
Page 17
The letter! I started back to my room, ready to read what she’d left. The black envelope was lying on the floor, looking abandoned and forgotten, the same way I felt. I bent at the knee to pick it up and stared at the thick letters my name was written in. Running my thumbnail along the top, I opened it. Inside was a thick, cream-colored paper that drew up memories from New Orleans again. Turning it toward the sunlight filtering through my blinds, I read the message my mother had left for me.
Love Potion #9
Luke Bloom
I tapped the card against the palm of my hand, wondering who Luke Bloom was and how he could help me. Reaching for my cell off my nightstand, I wondered if Love Potion #9 had a website like everything else in today’s world did. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t grasp why. I sat on my bed, cradling my phone in my hands. My thumbs flew across the keyboard as I typed in the name. Images of a nightclub came up, and I knew right away what Love Potion #9 was.
It was the only witch nightclub in the city.
My eyes skimmed the images until I found one of a young guy with blond, spiky hair and a sexier-than-sin smile. Beneath the picture were the words: Luke Bloom, owner of Love Potion #9.
I stared at him, taking in his panty-dropping smile and wickedly blue eyes, wondering how in the hell this arrogant-looking guy was supposed to be my savior.
Come tonight, I guess I would find out.
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AURA CHARTS:
Supernatural Colors:
Succubus – bright red
Vampire – midnight blue
Werewolves – golden brown
Witches – Green
Demons – Gray
Fairies – Pink
Human Aura Chart:
Yellow/Golden:
Easy-going, optimistic, intelligent, happy, friendly, upbeat.
Muddy Yellow:
Fear of losing control, stressed, tense, anxious, nervous, worried.
Green:
Jealous, resentful, insecure, low self-esteem, envious, agitated, bitter.
Yellow/Green:
Creative, talkative, outgoing.
Red:
Obsessive, strong-willed, determined, active, energetic.
Deep Red:
Sexual, horny, passionate, lustful.
Muddy Red:
Anger, rage, annoyance, resentment.
Gray:
Depression, sadness, exhaustion, low energy.
Blue:
Sensitive, moody.
Milky blue:
Addictive personality.
Brown:
Greedy, arrogant, self-centered, opinionated.
Black:
Twisted, evil, wicked person.
Orange:
Courageous, overconfident, adventurous.
Orange/Red:
Cocky, self-assured, an arrogant ass.
Orange/Yellow:
Detail-oriented, perfectionist.
If you enjoyed Seduce, you may also enjoy Alyssa Rose Ivy’s The Allure Chronicles. Please keep reading for a preview of Seduction’s Kiss, an Allure Chronicles prequel novella. Seduction’s Kiss is currently free!
Seduction’s Kiss
An Allure Chronicles Prequel
Alyssa Rose Ivy
Book Description:
Never agree to a road trip to New Orleans with your roommate. At least not when your roommate is dragging you along while she reconnects with an ex-boyfriend. Possible consequences of failing to take my advice:
1) Unknowingly going out with a vampire stripper.
2) Getting kidnapped by said vampire's nest mates.
3) Falling head over heels for your winged hero.
Believe it or not number 3 is the worst one, especially when no one believes you that he exists.
Prologue
You’re probably not going to believe a word I say. If you’re like everyone else I’ve told, you’re going to read this and tell me to get help. That’s fine, because the only thing I care about is finding my winged hero. So whether you believe me or not, if you see him, tell him I’m searching for him, and I have no plans to give up. Because when a man can kiss like that—can make you feel alive in every grain of your being—there’s no comparison. The only clue I have to find him is his first name. Owen.
Chapter One
“Please, Daisy. It’s going to be fun.” That one line out of Reyna’s mouth was the beginning of the end for me.
“I don’t know. I was hoping to just have a quiet Halloween this year. Driving all the way to New Orleans seems a bit extreme.” I set aside my sociology textbook. There was no way I was getting reading done until Reyna said her piece.
“There’s nothing like New Orleans on Halloween. This is going to be epic.” She took a seat next to me on my bed and grasped both of my hands in hers. She was getting ready to plead.
“But why the sudden decision to go? Is it about a guy?” Reyna was usually motivated by a member of the opposite sex.
“No, not exactly. I just want to do something fun for a change.”
Not exactly? That meant yes. “Ok, who is he?”
“Just this guy I knew back in high school. We’ve started talking again, and he invited me and any friends to come crash at his place for Halloween.” She suddenly turned serious. “I’m so sick of the scene here. I need a break, but I don’t want to go alone. Please, pretty please.”
I sighed, realizing that saying no would just lead to a pouty roommate for the next few days. “You promise you’re not just going to ditch me?”
“Of course not! It will be awesome. He’s got so many hot friends. It’s crazy.”
I tuned Reyna out as she went on and on about Tulane boys. Admittedly, my dating life at East Madison wasn’t great, but I knew a random hook up with a guy I didn’t know wasn’t going to help matters either. “There’s just one problem. Isn’t New Orleans a full day’s drive from here?” I wasn’t an expert on driving distances, but Atlanta and New Orleans aren’t exactly next door.
“It’s doable. About seven hours. I’ll do all the driving. All you need to do is keep me company.”
“You really want to do this?” Despite her obsession with guys, Reyna was actually a really good roommate. We’d both joined the same sorority, Delta Mu, the year before and hit it off immediately.
“Yes.” She turned her doe eyes on me.
I wasn’t exactly jumping at the idea of the trip, but Reyna’s one of those people who always manages to find a good time, and sometimes I just liked to go along for the ride. “Okay.”
“Yes!!!” She jumped up and ran around the room. “I can’t wait to tell Chad!”
“Great.” I leaned back against my pillows. “I guess I really need to find a costume then.”
“Just sex up that black cat costume you wore last night.” Reyna rifled through her closet.
“Sex it up?” I’d donned cat ears for our Halloween kid’s philanthropy event, but I had no plans to wear them again, and sex them up? Did she forget who she was talking to?
“Yeah.Tight shirt and short black skirt. It’s easy enough.” She tossed one of her skirts at me. “Try this.”
“You’re way shorter than me. This skirt is going to be up to my ass.”
Reyna grinned. “That’s called sexing it up. Wait until you see my firefighter costume. It’s hot.”
“Hotter than me wearing this?” I held up the black fabric.
“Ugh.” I put a pillow over my head. “Please don’t make me go.”
“You don’t have to wear that skirt. Wear one of your own, but please try to look decently sexy. We don’t want to stand out like sore thumbs.”
“Then ask someone else to go.”
“Nope. It’s only going to be fun if you go.”
“In other words, I’m the only one you can dupe into going.”
“Come on. Who else would be willing to miss the Iota party? I know you don’t care about that.”
I didn’t care because none of those guys gave me the time of day. The fact that every woman in my family had been Delta Mu was probably the only reason I’d gotten a bid from my sorority in the first place. I didn’t regret my decision to join, but living with a bunch of tens when you’re a seven, on a good day with the right makeup and hair products, can get old. “Fine, I’ll come up with a sexy enough costume.”
“Perfect. We’ll need to get on the road early Friday.”
“But I have three classes.”
“And perfect attendance. I’m sure you can miss one of each. This is going to be epic!” She hugged me around the neck.
I decided not to point out that she’d called the trip epic twice. “I’m sure it will be.”
“I’m going to text Chad and let him know.”
“Great.” I picked up my textbook and tried to get back into my reading. Not that social phenomena particularly interested me.
“He says awesome. We’re going out on Bourbon Street for Halloween and everything.”
“Cool.” I plugged a set of headphones into my phone and turned on some music. Reyna would never stop talking if I didn’t, and this method usually worked better than telling her to shut up.
I made it through all of three paragraphs before she pulled one of my ear buds out. “You’re the best. Just wanted to tell you that.”
“Yeah, Yeah.” I smiled.
“I need caffeine. Want to go over to the Java Circle to read? I heard they’ve got that white hot chocolate stuff you love.”
“Sure.” Reyna knew the way to my heart. Hot chocolate. I had a mild addiction.
“Great. We can strategize costumes on the way over.”
I laughed. “I’ll go with the cat idea if I don’t find anything else.”
“There’s no reason not to. It’s classic.”
“All right, I’ll stick with it. It’s not like I have a lot of time.”
“Nope. We leave in two days.”
“Exciting.”
She pushed my arm playfully. “Please try to get hyped up, for my sake.”
“Of course. If nothing else I’ll get hyped about the food. I’ve heard it’s amazing.”
“See.” She linked her arm in mine as we headed toward the stairs. “There’s always a bright side.”
Chapter Two
Seven hours is a long drive. Add on an extra two hours thanks to traffic, and it’s pretty much endless. I wasn’t the one driving, but sitting in the passenger seat with Reyna driving wasn’t much better. She didn’t ‘believe’ in GPS. Instead she tossed a tattered old map on my lap. “I know where we’re going, but we have that just in case.”
Although at first I missed the familiar computer generated voice reading directions, it didn’t take long to get used to using a paper map again. It brought me back to my childhood. My dad’s one of the types that is all about life skills. Evidently reading maps was still a life skill in his book, because he made my brother and I master the art before the end of elementary school. I planned to call him later and thank him.
A few hours into the drive I decided to ask some more questions about Chad. Reyna had been surprisingly reticent on the subject. For a girl who usually gave details, way too many details, her silence made me a little suspicious. “Are you ready to tell me about him?”
“He’s just a guy I knew.”
“Knew how?” I turned down the radio.
“He’s the one who got away,” she said in barely a whisper.
“What?” I said in anything but a whisper. Hooking up with an ex-boyfriend was always a bad idea. I knew from experience. “We’re going to New Orleans so you can hook up with an ex?”
“Calm down.” She looked right at the road. It wasn’t for safety reasons. She was avoiding my gaze.
“So how do I fit in? What am I going to do while you guys reconnect?” I resisted the urge to use air quotes.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just couldn’t do it alone. I needed my best friend with me.”
Best friend? Did she really see me that way? “Since we’re hours from Atlanta I’m coming, but I wish you’d been honest with me from the beginning.”
I was such a pushover. I could practically hear my brother lecturing me. He said I couldn’t spend my whole life as a doormat. He was right, but that didn’t mean I knew how to change it.
“His roommate’s single and excited to meet you.”
I groaned. “I am not hooking up with the roommate.”
“I never said you had to. I was just letting you know. He’s really cute.”
“Wonderful.” Reyna might as well have been getting a degree in matchmaker for all the effort she made trying to set other people up on dates. It wasn’t something she was particularly good at. To be honest, I couldn’t think of a single success story.
She changed lanes and gunned it to pass a truck. I held onto the ‘oh my god bar’ for dear life. She reduced speed once she was settled back in the right lane. “I really owe you for this. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Just don’t completely ditch me. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I won’t.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to make promises you can’t keep?”
She laughed. “Trust me on this one. I don’t even know if anything is going to happen. He invited me as a friend, remember?”
“You really believe that?” I didn’t. A guy wouldn’t invite an ex to stay with him unless he planned on rekindling the old flame—or getting her in bed—or most likely, both.
“I do. We flirt and stuff, but it hasn’t passed that.”
“If you say so.” I wasn’t in the mood to argue, but I steeled myself for a long few days. Hopefully I’d be able to navigate New Orleans on my own.
***
I checked the address twice after Reyna parked along the curb. When she said we’d be staying in an off-campus apartment I assumed it was going to be a complex or something. Instead we were parked in front of an old house that looked like it should have been condemned. Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it didn’t exactly have curb appeal.
“You coming?” Reyna asked leaning in through her open door. Miraculously she didn’t look like she’d been sitting in a car for seven hours. Now me on the other hand, that was an altogether different story. I’d barely slept the night before, and even if I wore makeup it wouldn’t have covered up the bags under my eyes.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” I reluctantly unbuckled and got out. I wasn’t looking forward to what I knew would be an awkward introduction.
Reyna pulled out my duffel in what she probably viewed as a peace offering. I put it over my shoulder and followed her over to the questionable looking set of stairs. I tentatively touched the bottom step before taking a deep breath and following her up to the porch.
She knocked on the door, and I was surprised it didn’t fall off the hinges.
A guy with brown hair opened the door and pulled Reyna into his arms. “Hey, Baby!”
My stomach dropped. Baby? They were on pet name terms?
“Hey, Chad!” Reyna kissed him on the lips playfully. “We made it.”
He rubbed her back in a very familiar way. “I’m glad you decided to make the trip. I promise to make it worth your while
.”
I just stood there in the doorway holding my bag. I wished I had the nerve to clear my throat, but I didn’t want Chad to hate me already.
I settled on a light sigh that came out sounding like more of a grunt.
“Oh, sorry.” Reyna stumbled back from him. “Chad, this is Daisy, my amazing sorority sister and roommate.”
“Hey, Daisy. Thanks for going along for the ride with my girl, Reyna.”
Yeah, I was on my own for the weekend. “Of course.Anything for Reyna.” Door Mat. Door Mat. I repeated to myself.
Chad and Reyna exchanged a look, and I knew it had something to do with me. I assumed it couldn’t be good so I showed myself into the cramped apartment.
I eyed one worn out leather couch. I assumed I’d be sleeping there. I walked over to drop off my stuff and noticed a few suspicious stains. Gross. Completely and utterly gross. I was so glad I’d brought a sleeping bag with me. At least I wouldn’t have to sleep right on the thing.
“Hey.”
I turned and nearly collided with a guy with spiky black hair. “Hi.”
“I’m Shaun.”