Demure (Modern Legends of Sidhe #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Sierra Lopez rarely went on Tinder dates, but whenever she did, they always went horribly wrong.

That is how she met Aodhan and, like every Tinder date, it ended with Sierra wishing she hadn’t gone in the first place.

“You’re late,” she said as he stopped by her table, resting his large hands on the smooth surface and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Sierra didn’t even bother looking up from her laptop screen where she was currently making notes for her thesis.

“Yes I am.” His deep voice replied in an even tone that conveyed no notes of regret.

Sierra waited for an “I’m sorry” or a “My apologies”—but it never came. Instead, Aodhan silently folded his tall frame into the chair in front of her, looking at her expectantly as he crossed his arms over his broad chest.

The good news was that Aodhan looked just like his picture.

With sandy brown, curly hair that fell to his shoulders and pale, almost translucent skin that gave him away as an Irish native, he looked just as his profile had portrayed.

Even down to the black woolen beanie he wore, which covered the top of his hair and most of his ears.

Sierra didn’t usually go for men who followed the ‘skater’ style, but while he wore beanies in all his photos, he was dressed in fitted jeans and a long sleeve polo shirt, giving Sierra mixed signals on his true aesthetic.

She had only agreed to go on a date with him because of the way his style in his Tinder photos had intrigued her.

They had spoken briefly over the past few days on the app, but he hadn’t seemed to be much of a conversationalist. He kept his answers short and to the point, which Sierra also liked, to an extent.

She had always been drawn to direct men who didn’t play games with women’s feelings by trying to impress them by showering them with empty compliments.

“Sierra, obviously.” She stated her name, not bothering with pleasantries since he hadn’t either. She tugged down the sleeves of her sweater as she swept her messenger bag from the floor.

“Aodhan.” He replied, just as deadpan.

Well, this is going great, Sierra thought to herself. She tried to get the conversation going. “Aodhan, is that a family name?”

He shrugged, keeping his arms crossed, his eyes pinned on her messenger bag where she was fiddling with the zipper on one of the pockets.

What a date this was turning out to be.

“So, are you from around here?” She tried again. This was his last chance to try and salvage their date before she called it quits.

“No. Are you?” He raised one sandy brown eyebrow.

The corner of Sierra’s mouth quirked up in annoyance. “What, my accent didn’t give me away?”

As an expat in Ireland, all the natives knew immediately that she was American.

With her dark brown, almost black hair and light skin, Sierra could technically be Irish, but the moment she opened her mouth, they knew.

Though, now that she thought about it, Aodhan didn’t have the typical Irish accent either.

Before she could ask about it, he answered her rhetorical question.

“I didn’t know you had an accent.”

Sierra rolled her eyes and checked the time on her phone. “Well, this has been great, but I didn’t have a lot of time to begin with. You were late, sooo…” She stood, sweeping her notebook and laptop into her book bag. “See you around.”

Sierra remembered from Aodhan’s profile that he was also a student at Trinity College, just as she was, but she really hoped she wouldn’t actually see him around.

She was a master’s student, studying Aging and Fragility.

It was a smaller program marketed to those who had already completed their pre-med studies but didn’t want to become full-fledged doctors and preferred to go into medical research.

Sierra had chosen pre-med for her undergrad, hoping to one day help support her family, who had always struggled financially.

Her parents weren’t poor, by any means, but as blue-collar workers with five children, they had always had to use ‘creative methods’ to make ends meet.

Sierra exited the coffee shop without looking back and began her trudge to the dull and dreary room she called an apartment, pulling her coat closed against the fall wind.

She had moved to Dublin on a whim, needing a fresh start, free from her argumentative parents and their radical American lifestyle.

When she had first brought up going to college far away, her parents had assumed she meant in New York or maybe LA (pretty far from her hometown of Dallas, Texas), but they had been beyond shocked when she announced she had been accepted into Trinity College in Dublin.

They were more sad than anything because they knew they couldn’t afford to visit her during her 1-year graduate program abroad.

Truthfully, that was one of the reasons Sierra had enrolled in the Trinity College program; not seeing her parents for a whole year was a blessing in her eyes and just the break she needed.

Although Sierra loved her parents and her siblings, she also felt a little lost. One of the reasons she came to Dublin was to find out who she was, and what she wanted from life, without her parents breathing down her neck and trying to influence her decisions.

Even though she had completed her undergrad in Pre-Med, Sierra wasn’t sure what she wanted in life.

At home, she had felt forced to continue on the path to becoming a doctor, but somewhere along the way she had lost the passion and drive she had once felt.

Now, she felt like she wanted to do anything other than what she had just devoted the past four years of her life studying.

Sierra stopped her brisk walk at the intersection, waiting for the walk signal, only to feel a hand at her elbow. She spun around to tell off the stranger, to find Aodhan standing there.

Trying to suppress her annoyance, Sierra raised her brown eyes to meet his green ones. He was taller than her by at least a foot. At 5’5”, Sierra wasn’t short for a woman, but she certainly wasn’t tall either.

“You’re leaving?” Aodhan asked, his eyebrow raised, an unreadable look occupying his face.

Sierra looked around at the sidewalk and the other people making their way across the crosswalk, which had just started flashing the walk signal.

“Seems like it, doesn’t it.” She said, matter of factly.

She was just so sick of the terrible Tinder dates that she constantly found herself escaping.

At least with Aodhan, she had brought her computer and had accomplished some homework while he was late.

“But…” He started, trailing off as he searched for the words he wanted to say.

“But what?” Sierra cocked her head to the side as the walk signal started blinking red. Great, now she would have to wait for the next cycle.

“Don’t you want to meet me?”

Sierra scrunched her eyebrows. “Are you seriously asking me if I want to get to know a man who didn’t value my time enough to show up on time for our coffee date?

I’ll pass, but thanks.” Sierra turned back to the crosswalk, pissed that it was red, and she couldn’t dramatically exit as she would have much preferred to do.

“Oh.”

Sierra spun to face him. “That’s it? ‘Oh?’ You were thirty minutes late for a date we set three days ago, and you didn’t even have the audacity to text me and let me know?

Or say sorry when you did arrive?” Aodhan had a shocked look on his face, and Sierra had to admit he was attractive.

He likely never had to apologize to a woman because they probably fell at his feet at the sight of his long curly hair, pronounced jawline, muscular chest, and crooked smile.

That thought just fueled her anger. “You know what? Other women might fall for your looks, but I’m looking for a man who actually values me and my time.

Thanks for showing me right away and not wasting my time. Goodbye.”

Luckily, the universe heard her silent prayer, and the light turned green. Without a glance behind her, she crossed the intersection and walked briskly down the street.

Sierra didn’t live far from the coffee shop where they had agreed to meet, but she walked quickly, so he couldn’t follow.

She even debated stopping into a grocery store just to ensure he didn’t trail her home.

But after five minutes of walking, she glanced over her shoulder to see the sidewalk was empty. He hadn’t tried to follow her.

She smiled smugly to herself and rounded the corner to the street where her building was located. Checking once more over her shoulder, she reached in her purse for the key and let herself into her building.

Like most buildings in Dublin, the building Sierra lived in had once been something else, and only turned into apartments in the last few decades as the housing crisis had increased.

Because of the aftermarket division, almost all the apartments in the building were set up strangely, with some spanning multiple floors and some being just a room off to the side.

The two studios on the top floor even had to share one bathroom due to the location restrictions on where plumbing could be installed.

Sierra was just glad she had snagged a studio with a private bath, even though it was smaller than her family’s living room in Dallas.

As an international student without much money, Sierra hadn’t had much choice but to rent a small studio situated in between the larger apartments.

It was still expensive, and Sierra worked at the university library on weekends and some weeknights to help cover the costs.

She had financed the cost of her tuition (as most American students did) and planned to deal with it later after she graduated and hopefully had a job.

Sierra made her way up the two flights of stairs to her apartment, unlocking the door and tossing her bag on the side table just inside her door. She flipped on the lights before sinking into her second-hand couch.

Her apartment wasn’t much, just a queen-sized bed with a sitting area arranged at the end.

There was a couch that faced a TV hanging on the wall.

To the right of the entrance was the kitchenette, which had a hot plate, microwave, fridge, and sink.

A small table with two chairs served as both her dining room and desk.

The door to her bathroom was just past the kitchen.

It wasn’t much, but it was home—well, at least for the next eight months.

The Aging and Fragility program was a one-year master’s, and they were already three months into the first semester.

She was supposed to return to America after her studies, but Sierra was already looking at other post-graduate programs that she could stay and complete.

Even though it was eight months away, she knew she wouldn’t be ready to go back to the life she had come to detest just yet.

Sierra pulled her phone out of her pocket and began scrolling Instagram.

She liked seeing what her ‘friends’ were doing on the other side of the world.

She hated to admit it, but she didn’t think they were real friends to begin with.

She had come to Dublin hoping to find people she connected with better than those in her hometown, but even though she had been here for a few months, she hadn’t really met anyone she clicked with yet.

She had a few acquaintances she had come across in her program, but they weren’t at the point of ‘hanging out’ on weekends.

Although it was challenging to accept, Sierra knew she was lonely, which is why she kept going back to Tinder and going on dates that made her want to gag. Sure, some of the men were attractive, but most of them had no respect for women. Or they partied too much, or they simply weren’t her type.

Sierra sighed as she opened Tinder and unmatched Aodhan. Another wasted Saturday evening.