Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DD Chapter 25 - A Kidnapping

VIVIENNE WOKE up in a strange bed, her bed, in a bedroom in Blake's mansion. Sunlight flooded in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. She nearly fell out of bed in shock. Had he woken up early and carried her to bed?

She was still wearing the raspberry-pink prom dress, stained with spiked punch.

Vivienne heard a knock on the bedroom door.

"Blake?" she yelled.

The door opened, and it was Conall who appeared. He was holding a breakfast tray complete with a teapot and a miniature vase holding a single pink rose. Vivienne felt her cheek turn hot. Had she really slept the entire morning away?

"Mr. Oslen will be back tonight. He left instructions that you are to be made at home until then."

"What time is it?"

"Half past nine."

"What?" Vivienne screamed as she threw back the covers and frantically searched for her shoes. "It's almost ten?"

"What are you looking for, Mademoiselle Minthe?"

"My shoes! I need to get home. My parents are going to kill me. They're going to ground me for life."

"The shoes are downstairs. I'll have them brought to you."

"No! I'll go down," Vivienne insisted as she fled past him and went running down the stairs. Downstairs, a maid appeared with her shoes. Vivienne remembered the heels had been caked with mud and grass from standing in the meadow. But now they were scrubbed clean. Vivienne felt instantly embarrassed that the house staff had been cleaning her discount shoes with such care.

If that weren't enough, Glenn appeared at the front door.

"Did you say you needed a ride home?"

"Y-yeah!" Vivienne exclaimed. At least now that Glenn was here, she didn't have to run all the way home in her cheap heels. "Do you know where I live?"

"Of course."

"Have you been following me again?"

"No," Glenn placed his hand over his heart. "I swear."

Vivienne rolled her eyes, but she didn't have time to argue with Blake's driver. She scampered out the front door and practically torpedoed herself into the back seat of Glenn's car. There, she found Blake's discarded blazer that she had used the night before to protect herself from the teargas.

As Glenn drove her away from the mansion, Vivienne slipped her arms into the blazer. At least the jacket would cover the punch stain on her lap. Vivienne ran her fingers through her messy black hair. Was there any chance she could convince her parents that she didn't stay out all night?

Maybe she could tell them she went out for coffee early.

Yes, she had woken up early to study for her calculus test at the coffee shop.

Vivienne made Glenn drop her off about three blocks away from home, near the coffee shop. She didn't know who she was fooling, but as she entered the coffee shop, she realized she had left her purse back in the meadow. Vivienne sighed and marched her way home. There was nothing left to do now but to face the music.

~*~

As Vivienne neared her house, she saw a pile of cigarette butts lying on her front porch. It had rained overnight, and these looked dry. As she reached for the doorbell, Julian popped up from behind the garbage bins.

Even though he had been hiding behind some garbage, Vivienne couldn't help but notice how stupidly handsome he was. He could make the entire scene look like a magazine photoshoot. His full pouty lips contrasted with his gloriously masculine jawline. This skin was the perfect shade of tan, as though he were some beach god who had lost his way and everything in this tiny, uninteresting town. Now, in his boredom, he was chain-smoking cigarettes with that perpetual winkle between his brows.