*CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 2* FIRST DRAFT
Lila receives an ominous Valentine's Day card.
Cupid & Cal are keeping a dark secret.
Fate is being interfered with.
And a sadistic, and extremely powerful banished cupid is intent on stealing Lila's heart. Literal...
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My body freezes. Time seems to stop. For a moment all I hear is my heartbeat, thudding in my ears as adrenaline surges through my veins.
Valentine.
Valentine is here.
My hand – frozen in my satchel – grips tightly onto the Ardor arrow; its cool length brings me little comfort.
Roses are red. Violets are blue. I need your heart for what I'm to do.
Valentine doesn't move a muscle. His eyes survey me with a heated interest – I can almost feel his gaze burning into my body. And though my mind is screaming at me to run – my legs won't move.
I'm transfixed.
Held in his gaze.
"I've been waiting a long time to meet you, Lila."
His voice is a low, deep growl – a slight Irish lilt to it. It's laced with amusement, as though he alone knows the punchline to a joke. My breath catches in my throat and my pulse begins to speed up. I move my gaze defiantly up to his face.
"Likewise," I manage to say – my mouth is dry and the word comes out much weaker than I would have liked it.
I need to get out of here.
As his eyes look me up and down, I survey him too; the guy Cal seems so afraid of, the guy Cupid wants to kill.
He's tall, at least as tall as Cupid, and broad shouldered too. His hair is black, shaved closely to his head, and as I meet his eyes I see they are a shocking blue. He's wearing a sharp black suit, and an intricately decorated bronze bow is slung across his chest.
The way he stands - confident, arrogant, to attention - and the way he manages to look both rugged and clean cut at the same time, makes me think of a soldier, it makes me think of someone who has been trained to kill.
My heart thrums against my ribcage.
His full lips curl upwards devilishly and he chuckles at my response. It fills the abandoned gym and makes the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. Yet at the same time there's something almost captivating about it, about him. He exuberates power. And danger too. It radiates from him and the air around us crackles with it.
His eyes are fixed on my face – glinting violently. He's looking at me like I'm some kind of play thing; a mouse between the paws of a cat.
I need to get out of here.
I need to get out of here now.
My body suddenly comes back to life and I spring into action.
I spin around. My eyes latch onto the closed double doors of the vast hall.
