Awaken: Book 1 of the Dark Paradise Trilogy

by Isadora Brown

  She headed into the luxurious restaurant, attached to the Bohemia Suites, a ritzy hotel. Andie chose a form-fitting orange dress that wasn’t too low cut and reached just past her knees with black stilettos on her feet. She left her hair down and styled it messy, and she actually applied makeup that brought out her pale green eyes, her cheekbones, and her full lips. Normally, she wouldn’t have made the effort, but on top of seducing Bernal—seducing someone being something she had never done before—she was representing Jack and wanted to look good for him. She had even left a jacket at home, which, to her, was quite a sacrifice.

  “Miranda Winokour?” a voice asked as she walked in.

  “No,” Andie said, narrowing her eyes slightly. He didn’t recognize her. Or, if he did, pretended not to. Well, two could play that game. “Are you Bill Bernal? I’m Andrea Shepherd, Miranda’s intern. I’ll be observing the meeting, if you don’t mind. I’m a student, and there’s a lot I want to learn.”

  “Of course I don’t mind.” His lips curled into a smirk as his dark eyes took her in. He stuck out his right hand. “You are the most beautiful intern I have ever seen.”

  Andie pressed her brow together, hoping he didn’t notice her shift her weight in obvious discomfort. She wasn’t sure how to respond. When he brought her hand to his lips, her face did it for her by grimacing. She managed to smooth it out by the time he released her, his fingers much more gentle than they had been.

  This is good, she tried to remind herself. He seems to like you. Get a grip, Andie.

  “I’m not sure where—”

  “Ah, Bill, I see you’ve made it,” a voice called from behind her.

  Andie turned and her mouth all but dropped open. What was Jack doing here and why was he with possibly the most beautiful woman in Onyx Andie had ever seen? And where was Miranda?

  In all honesty, Jack looked good in his suit, and while Bill Bernal seemed to dress for perfection, Jack appeared more relaxed. The first button of his white collared shirt was undone and his short, chestnut hair was loosely pulled from his face, though a few strands still rebelled. She didn’t have time to scrutinize his date because the hostess seemed to have recognized the billionaire and was waving him over.

  “Miranda couldn’t make it so you’re stuck with me,” he explained. “So what do you say? Should we grab a table?”

  Andie was nervous, to say the least. She was sitting across the table from the most stunning woman she had ever laid eyes upon. Despite the fact that she didn’t approve of Jack’s choice of lifestyle, she had to hand it to him; this particular floozy was outstanding. Her face was heart-shaped and she had big brown eyes, round cheekbones, and full, angled lips. Her honey blonde hair fell just past her shoulders, no split ends in sight. Her makeup was immaculately done, and Andie had a sinking feeling she probably looked as good without it. Her body had nearly as many curves as Andie’s, but she was taller and more toned. She wore an amazing little black dress that revealed perfectly tanned skin, no tan lines in sight. The dress showed enough skin that it pushed the boundaries of imagination and hugged every curve of her body, stopping in the middle of her thighs. On her feet was a pair of what appeared to be diamond-encrusted pumps that pushed her height up four more inches so her already-long legs looked even longer.

  And Andie thought she had looked decent tonight.

  She rubbed her lips together as everyone settled in and made introductions, hoping there wasn’t any gloss on her teeth. The woman in front of her had straight, white teeth and lipstick probably never dared taint them. But even if it did, Andie thought flatly, she would probably look amazing.

  She really should be paying attention to Bill Bernal talking about where he got his suit while simultaneously comparing it with Jack’s, but she had a gnawing feeling in her gut that wouldn’t desist. Andie couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, exactly, but her conscience immediately disliked whatshername, seeing her arms all over Jack. In all honesty, the woman had shown no shame as she practically molested him in public. Andie actually felt sorry for him. Sure she was gorgeous, but that was not classy behavior. Jack couldn’t be seen with someone like her, it would ruin his reputation.

  Wasn’t that the point? a dry voice asked her.

  Shut up! another voice exclaimed. Look at her, smiling that ten million dollar smile, batting her ridiculous long eyelashes at him. He’s not even paying attention to her, by the way. Can’t she take a hint? Talk about coming on too strong. If I was Jack’s date, I would definitely play harder to—

  Holy shit. Holy shit. Was she— No. Tonight was about Keirah and the bank. Focus.

  “So Bill,” Jack said, his jade green eyes flickering over to his business acquaintance. “I thought your father set you up with a nice bank in New York. What are you doing in Onyx?”

  “A bank in New York is like a small fish in a big pond,” Bill said. “Why do that when you can be a big fish?” He flashed both Andie and Jack’s date a disarming smile. “My father’s thinking of branching out the company in Onyx. He needed help with that, so I contacted your assistant Miranda and scheduled a meeting. And let me tell you, I was incredibly surprised. I had no idea an intern could be so …” His eyes trailed over Andie and he gave her an appreciative smile. “… beautiful.”

  “You’re Jack’s intern?” the woman—Zooey, Andie remembered—exclaimed. Her brown eyes widened and she smiled. “I cannot believe it! I’ve heard so many stories about you. Is it true you got the job because he took one look at you and hired you on the spot?”

  Jack laughed. “Actually, no,” he said, giving Andie a warm look. “She called me an asshole and then dumped water on me.”

  “And you still hired her?” Zooey asked in disbelief. “Wow, you must have been wearing something good.”

  Though Andie tried, she couldn’t stop the look of utter disbelief from crossing her features.

  “Interesting, to say the least,” Jack said with a grin. “But despite her looks and charm, I really appreciate her blunt honesty. I knew I could trust her to tell me things, no matter how much I don’t want to hear them. In fact, she probably is so honest especially because I don’t want to hear it.” The table politely chuckled and Andie blushed. “But seriously,” he continued. “I’ve come to depend on her.”

  “The tabloids have speculated that you guys are sleeping together,” Bill said abruptly. Andie nearly choked on the water she was drinking and Jack’s face darkened. “What? I want to make sure my investment is going to be placed in capable hands.”

  “Let me make something perfectly clear,” Jack said in a low voice. Andie recognized this as his controlled anger voice and she felt a small smile slip onto her otherwise tomato-red face. “Andie did not get the job because she had, has, or will sleep with me. Our relationship is strictly professional; although, I do consider her a close, personal friend. Now, this restaurant has great food. Please have whatever you want, it’s on me.”

  Dinner was long and awkward. There were a couple of times Andie let her mouth get the best of her without thinking beforehand. For instance when she asked what Zooey did for a living, and the woman she replied with, “Oh, I’m an aspiring actress” to which Andie quipped, as though her mouth was on autopilot, “Why does that not surprise me?” Jack shot her an unreadable look, and Andie quickly covered her tracks by adding, “What I mean is, you’re so obviously gorgeous that it would make sense you’d want to capitalize on that.” Jack smirked, subtly shaking his head in wry amusement.

  Once the plates were cleared away, the four got some form of hot beverage but nobody ordered any desert. Andie was much too full and glad everybody else agreed to stay a while because she felt bloated and didn’t want to suck in her stomach so soon after eating. She also needed to try and talk Bill into showing her around the bank, but Jack had commandeered the entire conversation. When everyone was nearly finished with their drinks, Zooey had excused herself to go to the restroom while Bill took a call from his father in the lobby, leaving Jack and Andie al
one.

  “So what do you think of Bernal?” Andie asked before taking a tentative sip of her coffee. “Do you think he’d be a good investment for the company?”

  “Oh, absolutely not,” Jack said, making a face as he shook his head. “Bill and I went to Harvard together before he got kicked out, and I really don’t … Well, to put it frankly, we don’t get along. There is no way I’d allow the Bernal name to have any association with my company. He was focused more on your neckline than investment talks anyway.”

  Andie’s eyes narrowed. “I guess that means you and Bernal have something in common then,” she retorted, shifting under his gaze. “You were staring at the drop-dead gorgeous, Super Duper model sitting next to you.”

  Jack’s eyes sparkled as he took a sip of his black coffee. “Is that jealousy I’m detecting in your tone, Andie?” he asked, a coy grin on his face.

  “No. Ha!” Andie said, hoping her blush wouldn’t give her away. “Jealous? Of her? I’d rather keep those extra IQ points and a sense of shame, thank you very much.”

  “Sense of shame?” Jack asked, his mouth going wide. “Showing up to a business meeting in that?”

  Though the two tried to keep their voices down, people began to overhear their conversation and turned to see who was getting the notorious billionaire so disgruntled.

  “And you call me jealous?” Andie seethed, giving him a dark look. “Why couldn’t Miranda make it? Really?”

  “It’s a good thing I did tell her I’d take care of it, isn’t it?” he said through gritted teeth. “For all I know, you two could have signed him without consulting me first. Do you know how much our stock would plummet because of a stupid mistake like that?”

  “Do you really think I’d do anything like that without talking to you first?” she asked, feeling like he had slapped her across the face.

  She watched as he visibly flinched and turn his eyes down to his coffee. Andie sighed and stood just as Bill and Zooey came back. She needed to get out of here, to focus on Keirah and forget about Jack which meant the direct approach was best.

  “Bill, I’ve always wanted to walk around a bank afterhours,” she said, locking eyes with him. “Do you think you could hook me up?”

  An approving smile curled his lips. “Absolutely,” he said.

  “Andie.” Jack stood too, his eyes intense, pleading. The scrape of his chair against the wood echoed in her ear. “Don’t do this.”

  She almost listened to him. Almost stayed. But then Zooey grabbed Jack’s arm and it broke the spell. She clenched her jaw, the muscles popping, and with one last look at him, she turned away, allowing Bill to place his hand on the small of her back and lead her out of the restaurant.

  As Bill called the two a taxi, Andie’s stomach started to turn. This was wrong. She shouldn’t be with this guy.; something about him was off. Why had his father brought him back to Onyx? Wasn’t New York where the money was? And why had Harvard kicked him out? If Jack didn’t like him, that had to mean something. Maybe she shouldn’t—

  No, Andie, she thought to herself as she slid into the cab. This isn’t about you. This is about Keirah and finding some kind of message she must have left because there is no way Keirah would have voluntarily participated in the robbery.

  Bill was talking about how his grandfather had opened the bank, how it was the most profitable institution in the city, how he was going to inherit it, and how he was going to make it so it accumulated enough wealth in hopes to catch Jack Phillip. Her eyes were locked on the window instead of the person next to her, and she had to strain herself in order to stop from rolling her eyes. But she forced a smile and nodded when she thought necessary to keep up the illusion that she was listening to him. Because it was just after nine at night, the city wasn’t as crowded as it normally was, so they got to the bank in fifteen minutes. As Bill paid the driver, Andie got out of the cab and headed up the steps to the locked doors of the sophisticated bank. It was too dark to make anything out inside but she tried. When Bill touched her back, she jumped in surprise. He chuckled while he pulled out the keys and opened the doors.

  The instant the doors opened, Andie sprung from Bill’s grasp and looked around. She still couldn’t see anything in the dark as she walked, her heels echoing on the tile floor. It was too quiet. She heard Bill shut the door, and she walked further into the bank, looking for a scrap of paper, something that proved Keirah had been here. When it had been a few minutes and the lights still hadn’t flickered on, she turned, her mouth prepared to ask for him to do so when she faltered. Bill was standing close to her. Too close.

  “You know,” he said, his dark blue eyes dropping to her frame. “I remember you. From Phillip’s party. Phillip insinuated that you guys were together. But then he dated every beautiful woman he could get his hands on. When his bimbo mentioned the rumors about you and him sleeping together, I didn’t believe it. What are you, seventeen? And even though he’s only twenty-one, it wouldn’t look good to sleep with someone under the age of consent. Look at you. Look at those curves. Phillip doesn’t normally go for bombshells like you; he likes waifs. There must be something—”

  “Me and Jack aren’t sleeping together,” Andie snapped. “We never have, we never will. Like you said, I’m not even his type.”

  “I know.” His eyes were clouded so she couldn’t read them.

  “I haven’t slept with him!”

  Instead of laughing or exclaiming his surprise, she watched his lips curl up and heard him murmur something like, “Perfect.” Before she could even blink, his hands were on her shoulders and he had her pushed up against a wall.

  Her heart jumped in her throat. “What the hell are you—”

  “You’re clueless, you know that?” he asked in a sharp voice before smothering her neck with kisses. She squirmed underneath him, her instinct to sock him in the face thwarted. His grip on her was firm as he spoke to her. “You don’t see the way he looks at you, do you? And if what you’re saying is true, the two of you never fucked, then that means I have something he’s never touched. I’d be first. I’d best him.”

  Andie could barely hear him. She needed to get out of here. She should have listened to Jack. She shouldn’t have come. Her mind tried to come up with a solution, but her thoughts were too muddled. Her body tried to take over, wanted to react, but couldn’t, not now, not yet, and then—

  His right hand released her in order to rip her sleeve. He wanted easier access to her chest. It didn’t matter. Her arm was free, and while it wasn’t her dominant hand, she thrust her palm up so it hit his nose. She heard a crunch. He screamed and swore and slapped her face with the back of his hand. She yelped, but she didn’t want to. Before she could hit him again, he grabbed her and bit her neck. She made sure not to scream this time, but a whimper slipped out of her pressed lips. His hands were all over her and telling her everything he was going to do to her. Her neck throbbed. She needed to get out of here.

  Without thinking, Andie lifted her leg up and jammed her knee into his crotch. That elicited a howl, a few insults, and the immediate release of her frame in order to clutch himself. This was her chance. She pushed off the wall and dashed to the doors, ignoring the pain, the fear, Bill’s yelling. She grabbed the door handle, and just as she was about to yank it, it opened on its own. Because her momentum was too much to stop so abruptly, she found herself pressed against a bare chest, wrapped in strong arms. She screamed and was about to start hitting her captor when she finally looked up and found herself staring into dark eyes. The top half of his face was covered by a mask, one that looked like it came from a masquerade. It, too, was black, like everything else he wore, which, if wings didn’t count, only included tight black pants and black boots.

  “You’re okay,” he whispered in a gravelly voice. “You’re okay.”

  Andie stared at the Black Wing’s face, the defined features, the high cheekbones, the thin lips, the long nose. His canines peeked out from his lips and his eyes were dark but
not dark enough for brown. There was something familiar about him …

  “I want to go home,” she whispered. At first, she thought that maybe he didn’t hear her over Bill’s yelling, but after a moment, he nodded, his eyes never leaving hers.

  “Okay.”

  As though he were looking at something fascinating, he tilted his head and then reached out to touch the wound on her neck. She winced at the contact.

  “He bit me.” She swallowed. “I don’t know why.”

  “Once I get you home, I’ll take care of him.” He looked back at her, his eyes intense. “He won’t hurt you anymore.”

  She nodded and let him press her against his chest, moving her outside. She heard the snap of his wings as they unfurled from his body, and then they were in the air. They were really flying. Andie couldn’t help herself; she peaked out over his shoulder to get a better view of them.

  “Your wings look real,” she murmured to no one in particular. She tucked her head against his chest, letting his aroma of cologne, spice, and the night sky make her feel safe and relaxed. She was suddenly tired and couldn’t wait to sleep.

  Before she drifted off, she thought she heard him say, “They are.” But she couldn’t be sure if it was real or the beginning of a dream.

  29

  “Do you ever miss it?”

  Keirah stopped brushing her hair and glanced at him from the compact bathroom. Noir was currently fixing his long skinny tie, preparing to go on their second official bank robbery together. It was a week and a half after the first one, Wednesday, and they had just finished eating breakfast. His unruly hair was already pushed back, preparing for the fedora that would sit upon his head in a few minutes. Keirah was getting ready as well. Instead of something revealing, Keirah decided to go for casual. She would never wear high heels to a bank heist ever again so Noir stole some sandals for her which she broke in with relative ease. She wore a plain white wife beater and blue jeans. Rather than wear a wig, she straightened her hair and slipped on oversized sunglasses. If she did run into people she knew, she hoped they wouldn’t recognize her.