Chapter 6: An Invitation

[Stella]

The next morning, I awoke with a start and sat straight up in bed. I fought to catch my breath, and I gripped the sheets beneath me to anchor myself to reality.

What a terrible, awful dream.

It took a few minutes to finally get myself under control, and when I did, I smoothed my hair back away from my sweat-covered forehead and let out a sigh. It was just a dream, nothing more. Alistair didn’t deserve to live in my head for a moment longer.

Once I’d splashed some water on my face and calmed down, I got dressed and felt much better.

I’d agreed to stay in Cassius’ mansion for just one more day, but I needed to get back to my roommate, Florence, so I could move forward with my initial plans to get out of this city.

That nightmare had sealed the deal for me.

Even though Florence and I had only known each other for a few years, it felt like I’d known her my entire existence. She was my sister in every sense of the word.

I hoped that one day, the two of us would flee New Rome together and find a place far away from here to start over.

Gathering my cleaning gear, I set to work for one last day in Cassius’ mansion.

***

Toward the evening when I’d finished the entire living room, I collapsed into one of Cassius’ comfortable chairs and admired my work. It was impressive, and my confidence that I could find another job that would pay just as much as Cassius had offered–without the need to spend every day with a pureblood–was growing.

“It looks fantastic,” Cassius’ voice suddenly said from behind me. “You should be proud of your fine work.”

“Thank you,” I said, trying to get control of my heart back after the panic of a pureblood suddenly appearing behind me. “It’s nothing any other housekeeper couldn’t do.”

“You’re too modest,” said Cassius.

He sat down in the chair next to me.

“This is a really beautiful house,” I said.

“I sense a ‘but’ coming up in that sentence,” he said.

I nodded. “But I don’t think I…”

Cassius cut me off with a raised hand. “Let’s not make any permanent decisions right now,” he said. “We can discuss that later.”

“Okay,” I said tentatively.

“And we can start by chatting over a meal,” Cassius said. “Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner?”

“Dinner…” I repeated.

He chuckled gently. “Yes, I feed on human blood, which is generously given to me by friends in the local blood bank,” he explained. “But I also enjoy the flavor of a fine cut of beef.”

I relaxed a little and took a breath. I wouldn’t be dinner, for tonight anyway.

“So, would you join me for dinner?” he asked again after a pause.

I nodded. “I can, if you can arrange for a ride for me home in the morning,” I answered. “I need to get back to my roommate.”

“Fair enough, if that ends up being your final decision,” he said, standing up and looking down at me with those incredibly beautiful eyes. “Say, seven o’clock?” he asked.

“I’ll be ready,” I said.

“Good,” said Cassius. “I’ll meet you in the foyer then.”

He nodded and left the room, and when he did, my breathing returned to normal. I’d always been afraid of purebloods and being around them was nerve-wracking. But this was something different, something more intense that made me fear being in Cassius’ presence while at the same time, craving it.

I went back to my room and showered away the dust from all the cleaning, the warm water once again refreshing my mind.

Once done, I looked through my bags trying to find the right thing to wear. I didn’t want to look too sexy for a boss and employee dinner, but then again, that wasn’t really what this was since I had every intention of telling Cassius that I would be going home.

I settled on a slim-cut black skirt and a semi-conservative royal blue blouse that looked good enough for a formal dinner.

When I headed downstairs, I was surprised when Cassius opened the front door and had a car waiting. “We’re not eating in the dining room?” I asked.

He just smiled.

I guessed that he’d changed his mind about dinner and was driving me home right then. “Should I get my bags?” I asked.

“We’ll deal with that later,” he said.

He opened the car door for me and walked around to the driver’s side of the luxury sedan. I’d never been in a car that nice before, and I ran my hands over the soft leather interior.

Cassius smiled again and drove off without a word.

But instead of heading toward my house, he drove away from the mansion and down a road along the lake.

“This is my lake house,” Cassius explained as we pulled up to a large cottage. “It’s part of my estate, although away from the main house by a bit. I enjoy relaxing near the water sometimes.”

He escorted me inside, where there was a full dinner prepared and Albert smiling over it.

“Call me if you need anything,” said Albert. “I’ll be in the kitchen. I hope you enjoy your dinner, miss.”

“I will, thank you,” I said.

I was left alone with Cassius again and he pulled out a chair for me. We ate quietly for a while and I tried to focus on my meal, even though it was difficult to relax.

The filet mignon was juicy and tender, cooked perfectly.

Finally, I broke the silence. “Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked.

He looked up from his plate with his fork still mid-air with a bite of his steak and chuckled lightly. He set down the fork and looked into my eyes to explain. “You remind me of someone,” he said. “Someone whom I cared for a great deal.”

“Oh,” I said, not sure what to say to that. Did I look like a woman he’d been in love with?

“I also see something in you, an extraordinary strength,” he continued, “as well as some good old-fashioned tenacity.”

“You think I’m old-fashioned?” I asked.

He laughed lightly again and shook his head. “I just mean that you have a strong work ethic, that you work hard to get what you want. I admire that,” he explained.

“Thank you,” I said.

We ate quietly for a while longer, until he was the next one to break the silence.

“My grandfather loved New Rome,” Cassius said suddenly.

“Your grandfather?” I said, setting down my fork.

“In a way, this city was his creation,” he explained to me. “Hundreds of years ago, he was one of the founders of this area, which is why it was created as a haven for our kind.”

I blinked, surprised. That was the first time a pureblood had ever made a statement that implied that I was an equal.

“He worked very hard to make this a lively, successful city,” he continued. “And he accomplished that goal. Lately, it seems to have encountered some difficulty, and I’m hoping to help restore it to its former glory.”

“That’s very ambitious,” I said. “There are a lot of reasons the city has fallen apart. They’re to blame mostly. They only…” I stopped before finishing that sentence.

Cassius only smiled. “I’m well aware that it is the fault of certain purebloods that this city isn’t what it should be anymore,” he said. “And part of that is their thinking that they are somehow better than others.”

I nodded. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” I said.

“You didn’t,” he said reassuringly. “Unless, of course, you mean that I am one of the purebloods who acts that way.” He chuckled afterward as if to show me that he knew I wasn’t talking about him.

“You’re definitely unique,” I said, looking into his eyes.

“As are you, Stella,” he said. The way my name danced on his tongue made my heart skip a beat, and I felt a blush rising over my cheeks.

Cassius politely looked back at his plate and pretended not to notice. Maybe I was wrong about this pureblood after all. There was something so unique about him. He wasn’t like the others.

‘Should I accept the job?’ I wondered in my thoughts.

We finished the dinner in a comfortable silence; all the tension had seemed to melt away in the air. It was relaxing.

When we finished, we both thanked Alfred and got back into the car. This time I felt more at ease with Cassius, almost to the point where I could see myself working as his head housekeeper… and seeing him every day.

The sun had begun its descent, but the dim lighting of dusk still provided a pleasant view of the surrounding lake and its greenery.

“It really is lovely here,” I said.

“Yes,” Cassius said. “Yes, it is.”

When I looked up, he was looking at me, not the scenery.

I felt my cheeks grow hot once again.

It didn’t last long because a moment later, a siren sounded behind us. It was a police car, and Cassius dutifully pulled to the side of the road.

“I don’t know what this could be,” he said.

My heart nearly thumped out of my chest when I saw who the police officer was.