3. Too Easy
Too Easy
Vandal
When did this become so easy? Volunteering to step back into my old life was the scariest decision I ever made.
But that…how natural it felt to just become the thing I hate the most. The man I was born to be.
Vaughn Linckester should never have been born.
Linckesters don’t have second-born sons.
An heir and a spare only counts when it comes to kings, not when you rule the world from the shadows.
You don’t need the battles a spare can cause.
Not that I caused battles. The only demons I fought were my own until Vaughn Linckester died and Vandal came to life.
The idea that I can so easily flip back to that person shakes me down to my core.
This should be hard. I should be fighting to stay in character.
It turns out being a self-centered, arrogant jerk comes naturally to me.
“Whatever it is you're going through can’t be as bad as it feels,” a soft voice from beside me says.
She’s got to be talking to someone else. Before I can pretend to look away, she slides into the seat across from me with a cup of coffee in one hand and a massive piece of cake in the other. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to talk to strangers?”
Her lips tilt up into a small smile. It’s like her lips are hiding secrets. “Once or twice. But I’m not good at following directions.”
“Why don’t I believe that?”
“Seriously, I’m not at all good at it. I’ve gotten lost four times on the way to my dorm. And that was only last week.” She slides the cake forward.
Don’t smile.
Don’t encourage her. The last thing you need is some cute, innocent little thing falling for you. Wouldn’t Fly just love that? He would literally lose his mind if he saw me talking to the girl. I should say something rude so that she walks away. “That must make getting to class challenging.”
“You’d think. Thankfully, I have friends that walk with me.
Otherwise, I would probably just end up living in the library, which doesn’t sound so bad.
” She pokes the fork into the cake and breaks off a chunk.
“I mean, who couldn’t live in a library, especially one with a snack bar inside?
It’s like this college decided to create the most perfect place on earth.
The library is the reason I picked this school. What about you?”
A drug dealer isn’t a reason that I can share with her. What lie do I give?
“Surely the reason isn’t that embarrassing?”
No, but a logical lie hasn’t come to mind.
Her soft pink lips open as she slips the piece of cake inside.
Don’t stare at her lips…think of a lie, not if they’re more like a baby-pink or cotton-candy color. Definitely cotton candy. My favorite treat.
“Mmmmm.” Her eyes close as she savors the bite.
What would it be like to kiss her—
That thought is definitely not helping. Insult her. Do whatever you need to do to ditch her.
“Here, you need to try this.” She breaks off a piece and lifts the fork to my lips.
Why is every one of her movements seemingly in slow motion? This is total insanity. You’re hunting drug dealers. This isn’t the time to meet a woman.
“Open up.” She nudges my lip with the cake.
Her grin melts through every one of my defenses. I open my mouth while locking eyes with her. A single bite of cake shouldn’t feel this intimate. It’s like our souls are introducing themselves to each other.
The pull to touch her, to learn more about her, overwhelms every sensible thought my brain has ever had.
She inches the fork away. “Good, right?”
No idea. My brain can only process one thing, and that’s you. “Yes.”
“Do you want to talk about whatever it was that was stressing you out?”
The only thing I want to talk about is you. “What’s your name?”
“Lola.”
“Lola.” I taste her name on my tongue and am lost. “You really shouldn’t talk to strangers.”
“But you aren’t a stranger. We’ve had cake together. And when you tell me your name, I think we’re going to be friends.”
Vandal almost slips out of my mouth. Lying to her…it isn’t an option. “My friends call me Van.” Which is actually the truth and fits in with my cover story.
“Why?” She tips her head to the side so she can check under the table.
“That’s a story for another day.”
“Fair enough. But I should tell you, patience isn’t something I have a lot of.”
That I can believe. “What are some of your other good qualities?”
***
Lola sets the fork down on the empty cake plate. It rings out like a timer going off, telling me that this little bit of perfection is over.
We can’t sit here all day smiling and talking.
But I don’t want her to walk away, even though I need her to.
Love at first sight isn’t a real thing. It can’t be.
The innocence and sweetness of Lola doesn’t match at all with the biker I really am. It’s better to part ways now. To let this be a single, fleeting moment in time. A good memory among the filth I’ve been surrounded by.
A perfect…pure memory. “I should walk you back to your dorm, so you don’t get lost.”
Lola doesn’t react for a long moment.
Maybe she can sense just what I am or what I’m pretending to be.
“You should. It’s a long walk and I wouldn’t want to get lost and end up living in the library.”
“No. The only word that should come out of your mouth when a total stranger offers to walk you home is no.”
Her little button nose wrinkles as she smiles. “It’s a good thing we’re already friends.” Lola stands up and holds out a hand to me.
Like the fool I am, I take it. “You know, I could be a rapist or a human trafficker.”
Lola shakes her head with a laugh. “No, you couldn’t. That’s the last thing you could ever be.”
I stop, planting my body in the path of traffic to protect hers. “You don’t know anything about me.”
She reaches up and sets a hand on my cheek. “Don’t worry. I’ll get to know everything about you, eventually. But you’re no monster. I’d bet my life on it.”
You just did.
“My roommate is going to love you. Come on, we’ve got to hurry. She goes to work soon.”
Some people have no sense of self-preservation. How did someone like you stay alive this long?