Dangerous Lovers (151 page)

“A friend once told me something I didn’t really understand until I met you. ‘
We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets
.’”

“Marilyn Monroe said that.”

He smiled. “She was right. You don’t have to worry about me having second thoughts. I’m not going backward. I’m only going forward. With you.”

I kissed him.

But then I pulled back once more. “You know you really need to tell me what happened with Marilyn Monroe. I want the truth.”

“I can’t tell you all my secrets at once,” he said slyly.

“Well, then it’s a good thing we have an entire lifetime. I have a feeling you’re going to keep me very well entertained.”

This time he kissed me.

Epilogue

“
Icing - a sweet glaze made of sugar, butter, water, and egg whites or milk, often flavored and cooked and used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies.”

Olly

The pink cup slid across the counter toward me and I gave it a dubious stare.

“What’s the matter, Olly?” Frankie taunted from the other side. “Is pink not your color?”

I grinned. “You tell me,” I said and picked it up and took a drink. “Does it match my eyes,” I asked, batting them.

“I knew you were gay,” she muttered.

“That’s not what you said last night.” I wagged my eyebrows at her and a feeling of smugness came over me when her cheeks turned pink.

“Olly, I’m at work,” she hissed.

“Just like last night,” I drawled, pointedly looking behind the counter toward the floor where all the naughty events took place after closing.

“That’s the last time I let you sample my new icing recipe.” She sniffed, her cheeks still pink.

“Give me a cupcake, woman.”

She gave me a surprised look. “
You
want a cupcake. Something filled with sugar?”

“Someone once told me food should be enjoyed.”

She reached in to pull out the Iced Princess’s signature cupcake. “Oh no you don’t,” I said. “I want one of your creations.”

Her hand moved past the signature one and grabbed up a pink cupcake piled high with white frosting and sprinkles that looked like pearls. Frankie called it “The Marilyn.” She handed it over on a very pink plate and shooed me away from the counter. “You’re holding up my line.”

I took the very girly cupcake, the pink plate, and the pink cup and went to sit at the empty pink table near the back. If a guy wasn’t careful, he might find himself turning into a pansy in this place.

One bite of the cupcake and I forgot about all the pink. My God, she was good at baking. And she was right; food was a lot better when you actually enjoyed it.

I could get used to this living thing.

The chair across the table pulled out and Piper dropped herself into it. We regarded each other for long, silent moments. She was the first one to break the silence. “You bought this place for her,” she said. “She looks really happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen her.”

I glanced over at Frankie. She was putting several cupcakes into a large pink box and she was laughing. “About what I did to you…” I said, not really knowing what to say. Apologizing seemed stupid, especially when I wasn’t really sorry. I’d been doing what I had to do. I knew I had to say something, though, because this was Frankie’s best friend, her family, and Frankie was, well… my life.

Piper held up her hand. “That’s not what I want to talk about. That’s in the past.”

“Then what?” I asked, setting the cupcake down and giving her my full attention.

She took a deep breath. “Give me your hand.”

“My—” I stopped because I knew exactly what she wanted to do. There was only one reason she would want to touch me.

She wanted to see what my future entailed. She wanted to be guaranteed that I wasn’t going to do something awful to Frankie.

I actually wanted to know too.

Slowly, I stretched my hand across the table. She looked at it for long moments, no doubt deciding if this was really what she wanted. We both knew whatever she saw might not be good.

I heard something clatter to the floor and we both looked. Frankie was staring at us with a pale face and round eyes.

I was about to pull away, to change my mind, when her hand covered mine.

Maybe I would get lucky and she wouldn’t have a vision. Maybe nothing would happen.

I knew from the look on her face the instant a vision overwhelmed her.

Her hand covered mine for several minutes and then she pulled away, her eyes coming back into focus and looking at me.

I couldn’t read her. Her face was closed off, tight. I knew it was bad.

I swallowed. “How bad is it?” Maybe there was a way to somehow change whatever she saw.

Her face softened and a small smile played on her lips. “Well, that depends. How do you feel about kids?”

Kids?

I stared at her dumbly. Was she saying Frankie and I were going to have kids?

She nodded. “With green eyes just like his daddy.”

A boy. I was going to have a son.

A huge grin broke over my face. It hurt my cheeks because I was positive I had never smiled so big in my entire life. After everything—after the fighting, the killing, the heartache—I was finally going to get a chance to live.

And damn, living was so much better than death.

The End

About The Author

Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult paranormal
Heven and Hell
series and the new adult
Death Escorts
series. Watch for her upcoming new adult series, the
Take it Off
series, debuting in late summer 2013. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children (both human and furry) where she is plotting her next book. You can find out more about Cambria and her work by visiting
http://www.cambriahebert.com

DARK WALTZ

A Praestani Novel

by

A. M. Hargrove

Dark Waltz 2
^nd
Edition

Copyright © 2014 A.M. Hargrove

All Rights Reserved

For more information about A.M. Hargrove and her upcoming book releases, please visit her at:

www.amhargrove.com

www.twitter.com/amhargrove1

www.facebook.com/amhargroveauthor

www.goodreads.com/amhargrove1

You can contact her at
[email protected]

Dark Waltz

Music Written and composed by

Matteo Saggese, Umberto Morasca and Frank Musker ©

We are the lucky ones

We shine like a thousand suns

When all of the color runs together

I’ll keep you company

In one glorious harmony

Waltzing with destiny forever

Dance me into the night

Underneath the moon shining so bright

Turning me into the light

Time dances whirling past

I gaze through the looking glass

And feel just beyond my grasp is heaven

Sacred geometry

Where movement is poetry

Visions of you and me forever

Dance me into the night

Underneath the moon shining so bright

Turning me into the light

Let the dark waltz begin

Oh let me wheel - let me spin

Let it take me again

Turning me into the light

Chapter One

The Planet Vesturon, 2030

Sarah turned her head as she heard footsteps approach.

“Well?” she asked the Guardian as he came to a halt in front of her.

“I think you may have something here.”

“Go on.”

“I have accessed all of Thomas’ Guardian records via the official CompSys and they’ve been wiped clean. It’s as if your brother never existed.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Sarah jumped to her feet and came nose to nose with Shandro Tellus.

“Please Sarah, you need to remain calm. If you can’t, I’ll be compelled to use my Power of Tranquility on you. I, more than anyone, realize the disappearance of his documents is highly irregular.”

“Don’t you dare use any of your Vesturion Powers on me, including Tranquility! I do not need to be lulled into a false sense of security right now. And you call this ‘irregular?’ You have got to be kidding me Shandro. People don’t just disappear out of the CompSys. I
knew
it. I just knew it!” Sarah began pacing, her mind spinning with all sorts of horrific scenarios.

Shandro reached out for her arm, but she snatched it out of his grasp.

“So help me, Shandro. Don’t you dare put me under your spell! You damn Vesturions and your supernatural Powers,” she spat, giving him a nasty look. “For months I’ve had my suspicions but no one would give me any answers. I knew Tommy wouldn’t just disappear and not say anything to me. But why the cover-up? What do you think is going on?”

Shandro shook his head and massaged the back of his neck.

“I can’t say. I can’t even hazard a guess. Whatever it is, it goes all the way to the top.” He looked at me knowingly.

“Are you saying, ‘The top,’ as in The Yarristers? Rowan Yarrister, and his sons, Rayn, Rykerian, Xarrid and Tesslar? The Great Leader, Rowan Yarrister, of the planet Vesturon, kind of top? The Leader of the Universal Free Rule kind of top?” The Universal Free Rule, or UFR, was the ruling entity of the universe, the one that maintained order and ensured freedom for all life forms everywhere.