“Remember to smile, be polite, but do not be enamored with these people or they will eat you up. You must appear just as good as them, if not better.”
Felicity flipped through the eight by eleven photos of the important faces she needed to know. She studied each image with the name and species of the person listed at the bottom of the page. When her stomach growled, she looked up at the tall grandfather clock in the corner of the room.
It was half after nine. They’d been at this for hours and though Dominic said he’d be working here at the estate today she’d yet to see him. She missed him something fierce.
Diane stood and eyed Felicity with a small smile. “Drink?”
Felicity nodded, tugging her hair out of Edwardo’s curling iron. He said something snide about her not sitting still as he snatched the curl to redo the strand.
“You know my hair is naturally curly, right?”
Edwardo laughed. “Naturally curly and having beautiful, shiny thick curling locks of hair is something completely different, my dear lady.”
Felicity shrugged, supposing he was right. As an afterthought she called out to Diane, “None of that fancy stuff, please.”
Diane went to the warming oven that was designed to look like a piece of antique furniture. It was made out of a dark colored wood and had a dark gray latch that opened the small door. It looked to be hundreds of year’s old when in fact it had a plug in the back that went into the wall that kept the blood warm.
“Which is fancy to you?” she asked.
“Whichever blood had the wine laced with it. It was too much. Last time I had some—” Last time she had some, she’d been on her interview with Dominic, and she’d nearly crawled into his lap. A blush colored her cheeks. “Well, let’s just say the last time didn’t go over so well. Something simple for me.”
Smiling, Diane poured her a glass of deep red blood then brought it to her.
Felicity took little sips so as not to disrupt the feisty hairdresser working tirelessly at her apparently horribly dry and atrocious hair.
Halfway through her glass, Edwardo clapped. “I’m finished!”
Felicity went to find a mirror, curious at what the hairstylist had been doing to her hair for over an hour, but paused when both Edwardo and Diane stared at her with soft expressions.
“What?” Felicity said. Nerves had her reaching up to touch her hair; it felt different than normal, softer and slicker.
“You look lovely, my dear.”
Edwardo’s chest puffed up. “Of course she does, I did her hair.”
Shaking her head, Felicity looked around but didn’t find a mirror. “Well you’ve been working on my hair for over an hour. Where’s a mirror so I can finally see what he did to me?”
Diane pointed towards the door. “Down the hall, second door on the right is the bathroom.”
Felicity turned from their stares and almost ran out of the room. She liked to dress nice and every now and then. She’d be complimented on her clothes or a pair of shoes she wore. But people didn’t stare at her, they looked at her clothes. Yet, Diane and Edwardo stared at her with soft, pleased eyes. It unnerved the hell out of her.
Just what did you think it’s going to be like tonight, Fel, with all those eyes on you, wondering why he left the beautiful Julianna for a plain miss.
Shaking her head, Felicity banished the negative thoughts and stepped into the bathroom. She didn’t turn the light on at first, just stood there, breathing a bit unsteadily. Had a hairstylist really been able to change her appearance so much? There was only one way to find out.
Felicity reached out to the wall, her hand sliding against it until she found the switch and flicked it up. At once, the overhead light flickered on and Felicity stared into the mirror across from her. An oval, tall mirror that reflected a face very familiar, but adorned in hair she could only describe as utterly beautiful, hair that hardly looked like her own.
The blonde curls had been tamed and remodeled into something beautiful. Edwardo had treated it and sprayed something that made the locks shine and the color look more vibrant. The curls were thick and heavy falling all around her shoulders and back. Tentatively, as if they might break if she touched it, Felicity reached up and ran the pad of her fingertips over one curl. A slow smile curled her lips. He’d managed to take her natural curls and make them look tamed, like something beautiful.
She had a sudden need to find Dominic and show him.
Smiling, Felicity stepped out of the bathroom and froze at what she saw, or whom she saw. None other than Lucas Blackmoore was striding down the hall towards her, a fierce scowl on his face. His eyes were dark-rimmed from lack of sleep and something else; his clothes looked haggard, disheveled as if he’d slept in them.
“You!” she said, seething.
Felicity didn’t think twice about it, she stalked down the hall to meet Lucas Blackmoore halfway. She stood on the tips of her toes and spoke between clenched teeth when she caught up to him.
“How could you? She is my friend and you played her!”
The warmth and humor from Lucas that she’d experienced when she first met him looked as if it’d never existed. Lucas’s eyes were hard and cold, but with a sarcastic glint in the corner. His lips were curled down into a plaintive frown and lingering vile scents clung to his clothes—smoke, alcohol, sex, and something else that made her skin crawl. Drugs.
A cruel, sarcastic smile tilted his lips. “Played her? Babe, I never even touched her. I’d have to have at least fucked her to qualify as playing her.”
Felicity’s arm snapped out at the insult to her friend; the ringing sound of flesh from her vicious slap made her gasp as she took a hurried step back. So slowly his eyes narrowed on her. She stood frozen in place, stunned at what she did.
“What was that for?” he drawled. “Come on now, don’t back away. We were just starting to have a bit of fun.” He took a step forward then stopped. He was playing with her.
That knowledge relaxed Felicity’s muscles, somewhat, because that meant he wouldn’t hurt her. “Why did you do it? Why run after her like, like, she was someone you’d been searching for? Why ask her out then turn up with two humans…you know what.”
“Sucking me off?”
Her face burned. “Yes.”
The sarcastic glint died in his eyes, leaving them cold and hard. “To be clear, they weren’t both sucking me off, only one. I’ll have to suggest that next time. Two women, two mouth wrapped around me—”
Felicity sputtered. “She’s a good person. She practically loved you. Why’d you do it?”
He blinked at her words, and then his gaze cut away so she couldn’t read him. What was he feeling? What was he thinking? Did he have any remorse at how badly he hurt her friend?
“You know, I’m glad she saw me like that. She’s good people. It’s better that she found out early on how I am. That way neither of us could get our hopes up.” His gaze cut back to Felicity and she flinched at the raw pain she saw there.
At once she reached to touch him, to draw him into a hug, to give him an ounce of comfort, but he jerked back a step his eyes clouding with anger. “Don’t.”
Then he was gone as if he’d never shown up in that hallway, as if they’d never spoken.
Felicity stared down the dimly lit hallway feeling lost and out of sorts. She felt like running over to Beth’s and hugging her tight, and she didn’t know if it was to comfort Beth or herself.
She needed some comfort, and she needed it now. There was only one person who could wipe away the raw, pained look from Lucas Blackmoore’s eyes. With that in mind, Felicity ran upstairs to Dom’s room and grabbed her cellphone off his dresser. Already she started to feel better as his scent saturated the air, calming her.