Blood Debt (Touched Series Book 1) (28 page)

“Bianca,
you want me to spend time with your fiancé, to see if he’s the guy that I want to marry
?
 
Do you know how
idiotic
that sounds?
”

“
Don’t you see?  This is perfect
.  W
e couldn’t have planned it better if we tried!
”

“I don’t think this is such a great idea. 
I think this whole process is stupid
.
  Unless I’m forced to marry Gage, I may stay single my whole life.  My mom did
.  I
t worked okay for her.
”

This was going to be harder than I thought. 
Now was a perfect time for a late lunch. 
I picked up my cell phone and called Gage back.  When he answered
,
he didn’t sound all that happy with me
;
he started with,
“I’ve already told you to stop calling me.”

“Oh
,
stop it.  A friend and I are going to go to
Andolini’s
for
p
izza.  We’re leaving now.”
 

“I hope you two have fun.”

“I know
Andolini’s
is your favorite.”

“So.”

Cami eyed me suspiciously
;
she could only hear my half of the conversation. 
I turned to make my conversation as private as possible, “I miss you.  You don’t have to talk to us.  I just want to see you.  Please?”  I heard his sigh, “Gage, it’s just pizza.”

“Al
l
right, but this is it.  This is the last time
,
Bianca.”

Cami was watching me when I hung up
. 
I smiled and
dialed Drake.
  He worked crazy hours and told me he usually threw himself into his work and would forget to stop to eat lunch. 
“Have you had lunch yet?”

“Uh, no, not yet.”

“Do you want to meet for lunch at
Andolini’s
?”

“Do we have an escort?
”
 

“
All taken care of.  Can you meet us there in t
hirty
minutes?”

“Sure, okay.”

When I hung up,
Cami’s tone was accusatory, “What
’
re you up to?”

“There is no better way to get to know someone than to have
p
izza with them.  Let’s go
.  W
e need to get there before either one of them does.”

“You just invited your fiancé and your boyfriend to lunch with us?  Aren’t you the least bit worried?”

“You just said you needed to get to know Drake better
. 
I’m making that happen.”

“No, I didn’t.  I said this whole thing is dumb.”

“Cami, I know you have feelings for him.  Don’t you want to find out what those feelings are?”

“He’s your fiancé!”

“Not if you can convince him to dump me
.  L
et’s go.”  The car ride over was hard
.  While
Cami drove
,
I
tried
to tell her Drake was exactly the right guy for her.  She just kept telling me that she wasn’t husband hunting or something like that.  I still felt if I could just get the two of them to know each other a little better – convincing them would be easy.

Chapter 22

Camille

We
found a table in the furthest corner of the place.  Music was going, the place was full,
the aroma of marinara, basil and bread baking filled the air. 
I felt utterly t
errified
.  S
till new to the Centaur world,
I asked Bianca,
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to meet Gage and Drake?”

“We just can’t go anywhere alone with a guy.  Look around you
: 
there
are
at least a hundred people here.”
 

Drake was the first to arrive
.  His jeans
were covered in a white powder.  Drake had told Will that his dad’s construction business was going well
;
maybe he worked with his father, too. 
His bright blue eyes were wide when he realized I was their escort
.
  I did my best not to make eye contact with him, but my eyes refused to cooperate
,
and I stole more glances than I’d like to admit
as he approached our table
.

Bianca, still maintaining the façade that she was here to spend time with her fiancé
, welcomed him with
, “Hello, Darling, I’m so glad you could
break away
and meet us
.”

Drake mumbled something
,
but my heart was racing so fast I
didn’t
hear him.  This was an awful idea, one of the worst I’d ever been a part of.
  My stomach was
slowly knotting itself
.
  I wanted to blend into the wall
,
d
isappear into the background
,
or better yet
-
go outside and
wait in the car.

Without warning, Bianca stood up and excused herself.  She told us she was going to the ladies room
,
but I knew she wanted to leave us alone.  It was strained silence initially before Drake
murmured
, “About
Sunday
, I . . . I. . .we shouldn’t. . .you two are. . .I’m sorry.”
  When he looked at me, I could see the sorrow in his eyes
. 
I couldn’t be angry with him
no matter how hard I tried
.

He couldn’t get a coherent sentence out
,
and I wasn’t confident I’d be able to either.
  Instead, I simply told him,
“She knows.”

Alarm spread across his face, “She knows?  What
’s
she know?”

“She knows we kissed
on the yacht
.”

His a
larm turned to panic, “
What’d she say?”

“Ha!  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Drake looked toward the ladies room, willing her to emerge.  “Is she going to break off the engagement?”  I didn’t say a word
,
and Drake reached across the table, putting his hand on my wrist, “Seriously, Camille, is she dumping me?”

Before I could answer
,
I saw a tall, slender, light comp
lexioned
man come through the front door.  He had dark hair,
and
a
nicely trimmed goatee and mustache; his eyes scanned the room looking in all directions.  I couldn’t be sure, but if I were a betting person, it was probably Gage.  Drake saw that I was watching the door
,
and when he saw the man
who
had just arrived, he confirmed my suspicion, “I guess I got my answer
: 
there’s Gage.  Dammit! . . . I’m screwed
. 
I am so screwed.”

I didn’t see Bianca come out of the
restroom
,
but within a few seconds she had met Gage at the door.  The two stepped to the side and took a seat in a small booth on the opposite side of the room. 
When it was clear that Drake and I had been given some privacy
,
I thought it best to clue him in.  “Okay, you’re screwed, but so are Gage, Bianca and
I
.”

His elbows were on the table, and his hands
propped up his
head as if it weighed thirty pounds. 
“How do you figure?”

“Bianca wants you to break your engagement off with her.  She wants it to be a fairly elaborate break up, enough so her mother is embarrassed enough to overlook the fact that she dislikes
Kyle
Richardson.  Then she
thinks
her mother will let her choose Gage.”

“And then what?  I break the engagement
,
and then I’m forced to marry a human.  The Nash
blood line
comes to an abrupt end.  I’d be lucky if my parents ever speak to me again.”

“Yeah, I didn’t say it was a great plan.” 

Drake’s eyes narrowed, “You’re leaving something out.  How are Gage, Bianca and you screwed in this scenario?”

“Bianca is in love with Gage.”  I watched to see if he flinched with this little news flash – he didn’t
,
so he must have already known.  “She won’t break off the engagement with you because her mother doesn’t approve of him.  If Gage isn’t chosen by a
Centauride
before his twent
y
-
n
inth
birthday, I have to marry him
as payment of my mother’s blood
debt to Gage’s dad
.  So yes – if you marry Bianca, you do it knowing she’s in love with another guy.  If you marry her, I’ll more than likely get jammed into marrying the man my best friend is in love with.  Clear enough picture for you?
”

“
Wait,
when did you agree to
marry Gage?”

“
Saturday night, but
I don’t know if there was much of a choice.  I’ve never met Gage
,
but
his dad
said if he didn’t get married by the time he was
twenty-nine
, I would
have to
marry him.” 

“
But if Bianca marries Gage, you’re in the clear.  You can choose anyone you want, right?”

“Yes.”  I could feel my face growing warmer
. 
I
wanted
to shout, “But I don’t want to choose anyone!”  No matter how badly I wanted to shout it out, I said nothing
.  M
y “yes” hung in the air
,
and I saw that Drake had jumped to the same conclusion that Bianca had.

The full
weight of his eyes was
unleashed
,
and his stare
stopped my breathing
.
 
I felt Drake’s hand under the table as his finger tips gently wound around mine. 
The light touch of his finger
tip
s
caressing my knuckles
instantly brought a flashback of
Sunday
afternoon
in my mind
.
  At first I thought it was me reliving those few forbidden minutes, but I realized it was his memory of it that was pushed to me through his touch
.

“Drake, don’t.”

He whispered conspiratorially,
“Tell me you haven’t thought about me
,
and I’ll stop.”  I wanted to look away
,
but I couldn’t. 
His finger
tips continued lightly caressing my knuckles.  My heart
was still racing
;
I pulled my hand away from him
and put them both on top of the table
. 

Feigning a resolve I didn’t feel,
“I haven’t thought of you.”

“Not at all?”  He didn’t look wounded
-
more like he didn’t believe me.

I straightened my back, and shook my head.  “Not on purpose.”  Holy crap
,
I’m an idiot.

Drake leaned way over the table
.  H
e was only inches away from me, his voice low, “That’s too bad.  Every time I shut my eyes, I see you stretched out on the deck chair.
”

My resolve started to seep from my voice when I reminded him,
“You do realize you’re still engaged to Bianca, right?”

“From what you said
-
not for long.”

“I’m not going to be a rebound.  Whatever you decide is between you two
.  L
eave me out of it.”

“Rebound?  I’m not in love with her
,
Camille.”

“Then you shouldn’t be marrying her.”

“Not to state the obvious, but I think that plan will be off the table soon.”

“Look, I don’t know what happened on Sunday or why, but I’m not looking for anyone right now.”