Libra Ascending: An Epic Urban Fantasy Romance (Zodiac Guardians Book 1) by Tamar Sloan (adult books to read .TXT) 📗

Static snaps as their hands touch, and they both pause and glance at each other. Tristan’s blue eyes look deep into hers, and the electric current coursing from her hand is more than just static, seeping into her chest and bathing her with a delicious warmth.

Brielle blinks it away and looks back at their hands, remembering what they’re supposed to be doing. “There, now let it go slowly.”

Tristan releases the donut with far more ease and, this time, there’s no splash.

“Perfect.” Brielle removes her hand and looks everywhere but at Tristan, hoping the moment isn’t as awkward as she feels.

The dough bubbles and browns in the oil as they watch.

“Are you doing anything after school?” Tristan asks, the sensation of his eyes on her like the blaze of a spotlight.

She slowly looks up at him. “Sorta. I have a meeting at three o’clock. Why?” Her heartbeat pounds in her ears as she waits for him to answer.

“Well, I heard there’s a great fro-yo place down the road. Creamy Dreams. Do you know it?”

Everyone in town knows Creamy Dreams. But as Brielle almost never has money—and few invites apart from Adalind—she’s only ever gone a couple of times when she fails to refuse Adalind’s insistence on paying for her.

“Yeah, I know it,” she replies, tucking her hair behind her ear as she ducks her head.

“Do you think you have time before your appointment to go with me? Fro-yo is better with friends, after all.” He flares a sharp brow, looking too handsome to resist.

Holy crap! Did he just ask her out?

Brielle is struck dumb for a moment, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering into a frenzy.

“Not today,” Adalind interjects, leaning over the counter to shoot him a quietly hostile glance. “Her meeting is very important.”

Shocked by Adalind’s interruption, Brielle frowns at her. “No,” she immediately retorts a bit too loudly. Then she turns to Tristan. “I’m sure I can spare a few minutes after school.”

Yes, the meeting with her hopefully new parents is massively important, but getting asked out by the hot new guy in school isn’t something that happens every day—or ever. What if this is Brielle’s one chance at normalcy? Does Adalind really expect her to pass this up? Surely she can do both.

Adalind rolls her eyes but says nothing as she leans back. Tristan’s smile looks as if he’s just won the lottery.

“Great, it’s a date,” he says, making her heart spike. “And don’t worry, Mom”—he casts a teasing glance at Adalind—"I promise to have her home before three.”

A date. Brielle’s never actually been on one before.

A date and meeting her prospective new parents all in the same afternoon.

Maybe her luck is finally changing.

6

Brielle

“I can’t believe you’re going on a date with the new guy. And right before your parent meeting!”

Adalind taps the toes of her right foot against the pavement, her arms crossed and hip jutted to one side as they stand outside the entrance of Mirror Point High after school.

“You really don’t like him,” Brielle states, scanning the heads of the students pouring down the stairs, a nervous ball forming in her belly.

Adalind scoffs. “I just don’t want him to screw this up for you.”

“He won’t,” Brielle says, adamant. “It’ll just be a quick, harmless fro-yo. Twenty minutes tops. Then I’ll be back with plenty of time for the meeting.”

“I hope so. You better call me after to let me know how it goes! The date and the meeting.”

“You know I will.” Brielle offers a reassuring smile.

“Okay. Have fun—but not too much fun.” Adalind wags a warning finger at Brielle, then smiles before heading off to her car in the parking lot.

Brielle hugs her arms as she stands on the sidewalk, waiting. She turns away from the stairs, trying not to look desperate.

Maybe Tristan just won’t show, and she can forget about him and move on with her day. She really shouldn’t have agreed to this today of all days, but who could say no to that face? And those biceps! She’s never felt this way about a guy before, especially not upon first meeting. What’s the harm? And besides, if she’d said no, he might never ask her again. Normal high school girls go on dates. And as she’s never been on one before, this is an important milestone.

“What are you doing out here?” a nastily familiar voice chimes behind her. “Don’t you have to get back to scrub floors and sew clothes, or whatever it is orphans do these days?”

Brielle doesn’t bother to face Cassandra. “Not that it’s any of your business, but the new guy at school asked me to go to Creamy Dreams with him.”

Cassandra rounds on Brielle like she was prey. “You don’t mean Tristan?” She arches a perfectly plucked blonde brow.

Brielle isn’t surprised Cassandra knows his name. As Mirror Point High’s own resident Gossip Girl, she always knows everything that happens at school.

Cassandra coughs an insulting laugh. “What would a hottie like Tristan see in a filthy orphan like you?”

“Careful, Cassandra, your skin is turning green,” Brielle says in a steady tone.

Cassandra narrows her eyes, then shrugs and makes a show of looking at her fake pink nails. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I saw Tristan drive off a few minutes ago. Looks like he bailed.”

The words are meant to sting. But Brielle knows as soon as Cassandra begins saying them that they’re a lie.

She can’t let Cassandra see that, though. Cassandra doesn’t know about Brielle’s lie-detection, and she doesn’t need further fuel to torment Brielle. So Brielle frowns and casts a look of disappointment down at the sidewalk.

Satisfied, Cassandra hmphs, turns on her heel and sashays away.

“I didn’t know you and Cassandra were friends.” This time, the familiar voice behind her is a welcome one.

Brielle turns, a triumphant smile spreading across her face. “We’re not. She was trying to convince me that you were standing me up.”

Tristan shakes his head as he looks