Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

“I know where that
is if you’d like an escort.”

“Sure.” I tried to
sound enthusiastic without sounding
too
enthusiastic.

In reality, my
heart was doing flips inside my chest at the thought of walking around with my
own god in the flesh.  Who would have thought I’d be of interest to someone
like Brandon Cole?  He could probably have any girl on campus.  Why was he interested
in spending time with me?  It wasn’t like I had boys beating down my door to
ask me out. 

“So tell me about
yourself,” he said as we walked up the stairs of the chemistry building. 
Unfortunately, this was going to be a short walk.  Dr. Barry’s office was just
up the stairs and down the hall from our physics class.

“Not a lot to tell
really,” I shrugged.  “I’ve lived in Reeve
all my life, went to South Clark High School and now I’m here.  My best friend and I are renting an apartment
off campus.”

We reached the
second floor and slowly started to walk the short distance to my destination. 

“There has to be more
to you than that.  Why don’t you come out with me tonight?  I’d really like to
get to know you better.”

I suddenly felt
like my stomach was full of knots.  Before my hormones overruled my common
sense I regrettably said, “I can’t do that.”

It was instantly obvious
Brand wasn’t used to being turned down by the surprised expression on his face. 
“May I ask why?”

“Well, I know this
might sound old fashioned, but I just met you and I know absolutely nothing
about you.  It just wouldn’t feel proper to go out with someone I hardly know.”

Brand smiled like
he was proud of me trying to protect myself.  “I completely understand,” he
said without a trace of condescension.  “What about lunch tomorrow in the Commons? 
There’ll be plenty of witnesses around to make sure I remain a perfect
gentleman.”

I couldn’t help
but smile.  “That would work.”

“Does eleven-thirty
sound all right?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Ok, see you
then.”  He winked at me as he turned to leave.  I have to admit: he looked just
as good walking away and every girl in the hallway seemed to agree with me.

Tara jumped me as
soon as I walked into our apartment when I came home after work that evening.

“How could you not
call me?” She demanded excitedly.  “I had to hear from some strangers that this
Brandon Cole guy asked you out!  Tell me everything, girl.”

I filled her in on
what little there was to know.

“Well, I’m glad
you kept your head,” Tara said with a nod of her own.  “We don’t know enough
about him yet.”

I just rolled my
eyes at her and went to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich for supper.   

The next day I did
actually find my world civilization and college algebra classes all on my own. 
Unfortunately, Brand wasn’t in either one of them.  By the time eleven-thirty
rolled around, I had completely stressed myself out over what to say to him
during lunch.  I mean, how much of yourself do you reveal on a first date?  It
wasn’t like I’d experienced many of those.  I decided to take a page out of my mother’s
playbook and just go with the flow.  What else was I going to do?  It wasn’t
like a test I could prepare for.

It wasn’t hard to
find Brand when I entered the Commons at lunch time.  He was sitting at a table
by himself in the middle of the room, but almost every female in there was as
close to his table as they could possibly get without actually sitting in his
lap.  If I hadn’t been so nervous, I would have laughed at the absurdity of
their behavior.  It was like he was literally a babe magnet.

When Brand saw me
enter, he immediately stood from his chair, almost like he was relieved by my
presence and walked towards me.

“You look lovely
today, Lilly,” he said taking one of my hands and kissing it lightly.  I could
have sworn I heard audible sighs come from our attentive audience.

“Would you mind if
we ate out on the terrace?  It’s a bit more private out there but you won’t be
completely alone with me.  It just seems a bit overcrowded in here today.”

The expression on
Brand’s face seemed odd to me.  It was almost like he was experiencing physical
pain by having to be in a room full of willing female adorers.  Most guys I
knew would pay good money to have so many girls fawning over them, but Brand’s
expression told me he desperately wanted to get outside as quickly as possible.

“That’s fine,” I
replied.  “More privacy would be nice.” 

I happened to
glance behind Brand and caught sight of Nora.  I swear, if her eyes could have
shot out daggers, I would be have been dead where I stood.

Brand took my
books from me and put a guiding hand on my elbow to escort me outside.

There was only a
man and a woman sitting at one of the two tables on the terrace.  The terrace
faced the rose garden in front of the Commons building.  In the middle of a Mississippi August, most people prefer to be inside with the air conditioner blasting cold
air in their faces, but I didn’t mind sitting out under the awning.  The
atmosphere was definitely not as estrogen driven.

“Do you always
have that affect on the female population wherever you go?” I asked jokingly
but quite interested in the answer.

“Usually.”  Brand
said it so matter-of-factly I couldn’t tell if he was making a joke or being
totally serious.

“But they’re not
why I’m here today,” he continued, easily capturing me with his eyes.  “I’m
here to learn more about you and hopefully tell you a little about me so you
feel comfortable enough to go out on a proper date.”

It was then I
realized I hadn’t grabbed anything to eat for lunch.  I dug around in my small
shoulder bag to find some change for the vending machine.

“What are you
doing?” Brand asked watching me with an eyebrow lifted, clearly curious about
my scrounging for coins.

“I totally forgot
to grab something to eat on the way in.”

Brand reached over
and quieted my hands.  “Do you really think I would ask you to lunch and not
provide for you?”

“Oh,” I said
slightly confused, looking at the empty table.  “Did you want to go back in and
get something?”

“No, that won’t be
necessary,” Brand made a hand motion to someone behind me. 

Apparently the other
couple on the balcony was situated there for a reason.  The man pulled out a
picnic basket from underneath their table while the woman unfolded a table
cloth and produced two wine glasses and a bottle of sparkling apple cider from
a cooler.  In a matter of moments, we had a table set for two with roasted
chicken, pesto pasta, salad and buttered French bread.  There was even a small
floral arrangement of daisies and pink roses placed in the center of it all.

“Thank you, Rose
Marie and Carl,” Brand told the couple.  “Now if you wouldn’t mind standing by
the door to ensure our privacy.  I would appreciate it.” 

“Of course, Mr.
Cole,” Rose Marie replied with a slight bow of her head in Brand’s direction. 
Before she left the table side, I saw her shoot me a glance filled with loathing
which made me instantly nervous.  What had I done to deserve such a look from a
total stranger?  Regardless of what her feelings were towards me, she and the
man did exactly as Brand asked.

“Do they work for
you?” I whispered.

“Yes,” he
whispered back, a grin playing at the corners of his mouth.  “Why are we
whispering about it?  I think they know this already.”

I couldn’t help
but smile sheepishly at him.  “I’m sorry.  I just didn’t expect this,” I said
looking down at the table.  “Are you rich or something?”

“Yes, filthy. 
Does that bother you?”

“No,” I said
hesitantly. 

“You don’t sound
so sure,” he gently prodded.

“It’s just that
you’re the first rich person I’ve ever met.”

He smiled at me like
I’d said something funny and I couldn’t help but smile back. 

“I hope my having
money isn’t going to be a negative against me.”

“Rich, poor.  It
really doesn’t matter to me.”

He looked at me
for a moment as if contemplating my answer, “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

“You sound
surprised by that.”

He leaned back in
his seat and looked at me for a moment before responding.  “Most girls like to
know a guy can afford to take them out and buy them things.  It’s just rare to
find someone who truly doesn’t care one way or the other.”

“Oh, I don’t think
I’m that unusual.  I’ve known a lot of girls who don’t care about how much
money a guy has.”

“Some women may
say that and want to mean it, but deep down most of them want the reassurance
of being provided for.”

“And how would you
know that?” I asked, thinking I was the expert at the table on how other women
thought.

“I guess you could
say I have a built in lie detector,” he grinned and tapped his head with an
index finger.  “I always know if someone is telling me a lie or the truth.”

“Really?” I asked
thinking he was teasing me.  “And it’s never failed?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, I don’t
usually lie anyway.  I’m terrible at it.  My mom says you can read what I’m
thinking just by my facial expressions.”

“What does your mother
do for a living?”

“Varies,” I
shrugged.  “She’s never been someone to stay at one job very long.  She’s
worked in retail mostly but she’s also taught some Yoga classes at the Y,
cleaned houses, things like that.  What about you?  What do your parents do?”

“They’re dead.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” 
I lowered my eyes to the plate in front of me hoping I hadn’t inadvertently ruined
our first lunch together.

“It’s nothing for
you to be sorry about,” he reassured.  “It’s just something that happened.  Why
don’t you try the chicken? Rose Marie is a wonderful cook.”

While we ate our
lunch, I learned Brand had lived all over the world in his short life.

“Why on earth
would you settle down in Lakewood?”  I asked.  It was unimaginable to me why someone
who had lived in Paris and London would want to stay in a small inconsequential
town like Lakewood.

Brand shrugged.  “I
was passing through and thought it seemed like a nice place to live.”

I got the feeling
he wasn’t telling the whole truth but I didn’t know him well enough to call him
out on it.

“So you just
stayed and decided to go to college here?”

“Yes. I bought a
house on Lake Serenity.”

“You
bought
a house?”

Was he serious? 
Just how much money did he have?  I knew the lake houses started at half a
million dollars, easy.

“I’d love for you
to see it one day, when you’re more comfortable being alone with me.”  He
smiled.  How could someone have a smile like that?  Charming, disarming,
totally irresistible. 

“Will you be in physics
lab tonight?” I asked him.

Our first physics
lab started at 5pm and lasted until we got through with our work.  At first I
wasn’t completely thrilled with the idea of having a night lab, but now that I
knew it would present another opportunity to see Brand, I wasn’t complaining at
all.

“Yes.  Do you have
a lab partner yet?”

My heart sank a
little.  Even though I would rather have Brand as my partner, I knew I had
already promised Michelle I would be hers.

“Michelle and I are
supposed to be partners.”

“Oh,” there was a
definite note of disappointment in his voice.  “I was hoping to get the
smartest girl in class all to myself.”

“You give me a lot
of credit for being smart.  For all you know, I could be a complete idiot.”

He chuckled softly
at my self-defacing statement, looking at me with his beautiful laughing eyes. 
“I seriously doubt it.  I’m usually right about things.”

“Well, it must be
nice to know everything,” I teased.

Normally, I would
have been more sarcastic in my statement but he seemed so sincere.  I didn’t
want to tease him too hard.  I didn’t know him well enough to be my snarky self
around him yet.

“It’s just as
well,” he sighed in resignation over his loss.  “If you were my partner I’m not
sure how much work we would actually get done.”

How could he do
that?  Just say something and make me feel like I was melting inside.  And it
wasn’t just the accent, though that didn’t help matters much.  The only other
person who had ever affected me like this was Will.

Will.  Darn it,
why did his name have to enter my head at just that moment?  Hadn’t I pined and
cried over him enough the last couple of years?  It was obvious he was never
going to have the same feelings for me that I had for him.  I needed to move on
and Brand seemed to be a willing candidate to help me repair my broken heart
and pride.

“Do you have a
class next?”

His question
brought me out of my reverie.  I glanced at my watch and noticed I was ten
minute late getting to work in Dr. Barry’s office and the building was
completely on the other side of campus.

“No, in fact I’m
late for work.”  I grabbed my books and purse ready to make a hasty departure.

“Let me drive you
over there.” Brand motioned to Rose Marie and Carl still standing guard by the
door.  “Would you mind cleaning this up for me?  I appreciate you both coming
out here for this.”

“No problem at
all, Mr. Cole,” Rose Marie said, making a point to not look at me.  “Glad we
could help.”

Brand placed his
hand on my elbow again and led me in the direction of his car.  It was then I
realized Brand was indeed filthy rich.

His car was a
brand new silver Porsche 911 Carrera Cabroilet convertible.  It was the most
beautiful car I had ever seen in my life.  The top was down and I could see the
sumptuous tan Italian leather interior seducing me inside to take a seat.  It
was a far cry from the ten year old Toyota Corolla I had purchased just before
coming to college.  I’d used some of the money my mom gave me and made up the
difference with money I had saved since I was sixteen working in a convenience
store.