Chapter Ten: Summer

“On three!”  Reece said, a mischievous grin on his face.  “One…”

Daria rolled her eyes, but smiled back.  “Two…”

“Three!”  they both shouted at the same time, flinging their caps into the air.

The two caps went flying somewhere in the bushes behind them.  The other students gathered in their graduation gowns were too busy chattering with family and friends to notice.

“I’m not gonna go get it.”  Reece said, shaking his head with a sigh that sounded relieved.

“Me neither.”  Daria said, giggling.

Nirina hugged Daria with a sour pout on her face.  “I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you to copy notes from.”

“You could have walked with us, you know.”  Daria said with a sigh.

“Nawww.”  Nirina said, shaking her head as she pulled away.  “The chances of that were never really high.”

I hung back, watching the four of them with a shy smile on my face.  Reece noticed me distancing myself from the others, and excused himself.  He trotted closer to me.

“I believe congratulations are in order.” I said.

Reece blushed, scratching the back of his head.  “Thanks.”

I glanced back at the others.  Daria appeared to be telling Hale a very animated version of her post-graduation job search.  Hale’s eyes were glazed over, and he murmured, “Uh huh,” a few times.

“Daria says you have taken a job with a company in Moonlight Falls.”  I said, turning back to Reece with my eyes downcast.  “Does that mean you will be moving?”

“Oh… no.”  Reece said, shaking his head.  “They want me to work remotely.  I’ll still be in Dragon Valley.”

My face lifted.  “I am glad!”

Reece chuckled, and he reached out and embraced me.  “Me too.”

I returned to my humble shack and my job at Tome Traders the following day.  Mr. Peters greeted me wholeheartedly, and then spent the next half-hour searching for where he had mislaid his latest read. 

I found it sitting next to the register.

“Have you missed me?”  I said, giggling as I held his book out to him.

Mr. Peters looked down and grumbled.  “ ‘Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.’ ”

I gave him his book back, and he cracked a smile at me.

“ ‘Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.’  Yes, Sophia.  You have been sorely missed.” He reached out and lay a hand on my shoulder.  His eyes darted up to the door, and he chuckled, smirking.  “ ‘Something wicked this way comes.’ ” He added, brushing past me.

I turned, frowning, and then froze as my eyes came to rest on the person striding into the store.

I had seen him in passing a few times during the year.  His lavish car was difficult to miss as it sped through the streets when I walked to work.  Every few weeks I would see his name and his picture in the local paper, shaking hands with some prominent business figure or holding out a large check to a charity.

“Mr. Stenberg!”  Mr. Peters said, reaching out his hand and giving Thane a solid handshake.  “It’s a pleasure to have you visit again.”

“The pleasure is mine.”  Thane glanced in my direction. 

He gave me a smile that made my heart flutter.  I clasped my hands together on the counter and looked down.

“The first-edition you requested just came in yesterday!”  Mr. Peters replied, turning to me.  “Sophia… if you please.”

I fumbled behind the counter, and finally drew out the book with Thane’s name on it.  I held it out to him.  His eyes flashed with an alluring glint, and his fingers brushed mine as he took the book from my hands.

“Another for your substantial collection, yes?”  Mr. Peters asked.

Thane nodded.  He drew the protective plastic cover off the book and glanced down at the title.

I wrung my hands together behind the counter.  “Is your… associate… also a collector of rare books?”

Thane glanced up at me.  His eyes seemed to darken for a moment.  He slipped the plastic cover back over the book and tucked it into his jacket.

“When it suits him.  I’m afraid my business partnership with him, has been…” he paused, rubbing the stubble on his chin.  “…dissolved.  This one,” He gestured to the book in his jacket.  “Is purely for me.”

Mr. Peters chuckled.  “And what a good find to add to any collection!”  He pursued his lips together, his brow furrowing.  “Though, ‘Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.’”

Thane’s lips curled. “Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy…”  He turned his head to the side and spoke in a firm, seductive voice that sent chills down my spine. “ ‘I will it!’ ”

Mr. Peters straightened, and the smile on his face broadened.  “I don’t suppose there’s anything else I may acquire for you, Mr. Stenberg?”

Thane shook his head, watching me out of the corner of his eye as he turned away.  “Not at the present.  Though… I would like to browse for a minute.”

“By all means!”  Mr. Peters said, nodding his head.

Thane strode around the shelves, his eyes lingering on mine until he disappeared from view.  I let out a breath that I had not realized I had been holding.  With quivering fingers, I traced the edges of the register.

Mr. Peters leaned over towards me.

“He seems enamored of you.” he whispered.

I snatched my hand back from the register and turned to stare at Mr. Peter with an open mouth.  He bore a mischievous grin on his face.

“Wh-what?”  I stammered.  “No!  Impossible.  What could a wealthy man possibly desire from a lowly salesclerk such as myself?”

Mr. Peters shrugged his shoulders, still smiling. “ ‘Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.’ ”

I crossed my arms and frowned. “Does he make substantial monetary donations to your business?”

His eyes widened.  He had the same frozen look I had seen on a deer caught in the headlights of Reece’s Jalopy.  I rolled my eyes, resting my gaze back down on the counter.

Mr. Peters touched my shoulder.  “But still, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune-!’”

I shook his hand off my shoulder and held up a finger.

“Do not continue that quote.”  I said sternly.

I wrung my hands together and took slow, deliberate steps in the direction Thane had walked.  A lump rose in my throat and I froze for a moment, glancing back over my shoulder at Mr. Peters.  He made a shooing motion with his hands.  I swallowed, and clasped my hands back down at my sides.

I crept to the other side of the bookshelf, and there he was, holding a hardcover book open in his hands.  I felt flutters in my stomach, and I took a step forward.

My eyes rested on the cover of the book he held.

Paradise Lost.

“ ‘Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.’” Thane said, lifting his eyes to mine.

He shut the book and I stiffened.  The flutter in my stomach turned to a twist of nausea.

“Milton…”  I whispered.

“Have you read it?”  he asked, sliding the book back on the shelf.

“Yes.”  The heat of his eyes on mine made me shift in discomfort.  “For the first time just a few months ago.”

“One of my favorites.”  He stroked a finger down the book’s spine.

My mouth was dry.  “Are… are you certain there is nothing I can do for you?”

Thane turned his heated gaze back to me.  He took a step forward, so close I could feel the warmth radiating off his body.  I moved an inch backwards purely out of instinct.

“Perhaps.”  He smirked in a way that seemed self-assured, almost cocky.  “Accompany me to dinner tonight.”

My mouth opened, and I found my mind blank.  I had ceased to breath.  Heat spread across my face.

“I…”  I stammered, at a loss for words.

The simmering look in Thane’s face seemed too confident.  One corner of his lip turned up.  He looked triumphant.

I turned away and smoothed back a stray lock of my hair.  “I… I am afraid I must decline, Mr. Stenberg.”

Thane blinked.  The upturned corner of his lip went down.  “Another time, perhaps?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head.  “No… I…”  I swallowed.  “I do not believe another time would be any more appropriate.”

I heard him take a slow, smoldering breath.  I could feel it tickle the back of my neck.

“Very well, then.”  He said.  He brushed my shoulder with his hot fingers, and I stiffened.  “Until I see you again, Miss Lewis.”

He smiled at me, and my brow furrowed in confusion.  I opened my mouth to correct him, when in a flash of clarity, I remembered I had given him the wrong surname the first time I met him.  I shut my mouth and swallowed, nodding my head.

He backed up, watching me until he reached the door.  His blazing eyes seemed to bore straight through me.  Finally, he abruptly turned and the door shuddered shut behind him.

Mr. Peters appeared at my other side, scratching his temple.  “Why did he call you Miss Lewis?”