Black Diaries

76. The Villainous Savior

He asked me out! He (that is, Roy Stein, doctor of medicine and professor of looking sexier than hell) really and truly asked me out! On a date! You know, one of those things couples go to, that usually end in kissing?

Or at least he asked me out for coffee.

Does coffee count as a date? Maybe he didn't mean it like that. Maybe it isn't supposed to be a romantic kind of coffee. Maybe it's a "I want to be your friend" kind of coffee.

Oh my God, what was I going to do? What was I going to do? What was I going to do? What, what, in heaven's name what?

You might have deduced from the above that I was a teensy-weensy bit overexcited. I had been starved of romance for weeks on end, and now I, I Cassy Farleigh, nee McKinney, had a date with the pinnacle of all romantic dreams!

So what the hell am I going to do if he just wants to be friends?

I was still pondering that question when, the evening after the charity ball, a black Mercedes pulled up in front of Barrington Hall. I had been pacing up and down like anything but a caged tiger, yet the moment I heard the engine's purr, I raced towards the window and pressed my nose against the glass.

"Oh my God, is it him? Is it him?"

"I couldn't say, my Lady," Liverich the butler informed me, calmly continuing to adjust the hunting trophies on the mantelpiece into perfect symmetry.

"Oh my God! It is him! It's him!"

"I am gratified to hear it, my Lady."

In an instant, I was out of the room and down the hall towards the door. In another instant I was back to snatch up my handbag, and raced back towards the door again. Halfway down the hallway, I skidded to a stop and sprinted back to the coat hanger to snatch up my coat.

The doorbell rang.

"Coming!" I shouted, fighting my coat for possession of the sleeves. "I'm on my way!"

The walls of the manor must have been too thick. A moment later, the doorbell rang again.

Liverich stuck his venerable, bald head into the corridor. "Should I, my Lady?"

"Don't you dare!" Ramming my arms the rest of the way through the sleeves, I grabbed my handbag from where it had landed on the floor and rushed to the door. "I'll be damned if you're the one getting a kiss when that door is opened!"

"A highly remote possibility, if you will permit my saying so, my Lady."

I screeched to a halt in front of the door. Hurriedly, I straightened my hair as much as possible in the hallway mirror, and then, finally, reached out my hand for the doorknob.

Please don't let it all have been a dream! Please!

The door swung open.

"Good evening, Cassy."

There he was in all his glory, right in front of me. He was even more beautiful than I remembered. An impressive feat considering yesterday he had already been perfect, and there was no being better than perfect—at least not if you wanted to stay grammatically correct.

To heck with grammar! He was perfecter than perfect. The perfectest of perfect perfections.

"Hello, Dr. Stein," I said. It came out as a breathy whisper.

He smiled his dark, sensual half-smile. "I think we're past the 'Dr. Stein', don't you? Why don't you call me Roy."

"Thanks... Roy." I felt color stain my cheeks.