Sneak Peek #5: Personal Demons

If you're new to the blog and didn't catch the previous exerpts, you can find them here. (start at the bottom post and work your way up) Also, if you want to read more, I'll post two more previews, but you have to tell me you want them. And, next week, we meet Gabe =)

So...picking up where last weeks pages ended, Luc meets Taylor and Riley.


Luc

I’m working on those things I need to take care of during lunch, which mostly entail slinking around the parking lots, locker rooms, and loading docks on the prowl for anyone useful. But I’ve got to say I’m having a harder time focusing than I’d hoped. I’m imagining how a five-two, sandy-blonde would fit just perfectly against my body as I…

Okay…this is getting ridiculous. Focus.

But, for some reason, I find myself meandering past the cafeteria door—not once, or twice, but five times, until I finally give up and go inside. I walk up right behind Frannie, where she’s sitting near the door, in time to hear her say, “You know what, Tay? Go to hell,” and I smile, because I think it’s cute that she’s inviting her friends along.

“Hey,” I say. “This seat taken?” My smile pulls into a grin when she nearly jumps out of her skin. Mmm…what’s that? Grapefruit? Feeling a little afraid, are we? Smart girl. But then I catch a hint of ginger and my grin widens. She wants me. Excellent.

Her friends—a slender blonde with pink highlights, a gleam in her charcoal eyes, and a labret and a shyer-looking brown-haired beauty with intense brown eyes—are both staring at me. I’ll work on them later.

“No, I guess.” Frannie turns in her seat and her eyes flit to mine. “I thought you had things to do,” she says, the disappointment in her voice at odds with the ginger she’s giving off.

I scrutinize her as I answer. “Done.”

With a flash of her eyes, the blonde stands and presses her hands into the tabletop, enhancing her cleavage as she leans across the table toward me. “Ahemmmm…Fee, don’t you want to introduce us?” A suggestive half-smile quirks her glossy pink lips, and her eyes never leave mine.

Frannie shifts in her seat, turning away from me so I can’t read her face. But I’m sure I catch a hint of anise—licorice—sweet in the air. “Whatever…Luc, this is Taylor and Riley.”

I nod in their direction. “So why are you sending your friend to Hell? Not that it’s a bad thing. Just wondering…”

“’Cause that’s where she belongs.” She glowers across the table at the blonde—Taylor.

“You think?” Riley says with a grin.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” I smile encouragingly at Taylor. She might be useful.

Taylor’s eyes spark as she says, “So, Luc…did you hear about that party at Gallaghers’ on Friday?”

And now I understand Frannie’s disappointment. Her anise almost knocks me over. Envy. Interesting. I should be able to use that to my advantage.

“Think I heard something about it.”

“You going?” Taylor asks.

I give Frannie my best Sensitive Guy Penetrating Gaze. “Depends. Are you?”

She stares for a heartbeat then says, “I guess.”

My mouth spreads into a grin. “Then I wouldn’t miss it.”

I don’t miss Taylor’s glare or the way Frannie blushes as she turns back toward the table and pulls her hair out of the knot, letting it fall around her shoulders and hiding her face. I slip into the chair next to her and pull it up to the table so our shoulders are nearly touching. I’m sure she can feel my heat, but I don’t mind getting Frannie all hot and bothered. All in a day’s work.

“Will you ladies be needing a ride to this party?”

Frannie looks up, wide-eyed, and shouts, “No!”

Riley and Taylor both laugh, then Riley smiles shyly across the table at me. “What she means is we always go to parties together.”

Taylor’s eyes are eating me alive. “But we don’t always leave together,” the blonde says, arching an eyebrow at me and elbowing Riley, who cracks a grin and elbows her back.

“Good to know.” I try to catch Frannie’s eye, but her face is hidden behind her hair again.