Chapter 3 Let Me Buy You

• "Here’s your coffee, please come again," I say to a customer in a stiff voice. God, I hated this job.
• It wasn’t the fact that I had to spend six hours on my feet with only a fifteen-minute break, serving coffee to overly cheerful customers while having to force out a smile each time I addressed them. All that might sound bad, but it was my boss who really got to me.
• I didn’t even need this job. Both of my parents were against it. But I needed a sense of independence in my life. Today was even more difficult than usual because I was in a sour mood. I felt terrible about what happened last night. I had tried to apologize, but Bill had beaten me to it. Why was he even apologizing when I was the one with the problem? Even my mom kept giving me those sympathetic looks, almost as if she felt guilty for what happened.
• Silas. Silas wasn’t home when I woke up. Bill had said he went off to a friend’s house earlier that morning, but I had an eerie feeling he was avoiding me. I was such an asshole!
• I would make sure to apologize to him as soon as I saw him. I mean, what kind of freak says she’s frightened of her own family?! Like, who cares if they drink blood? I think Bill mentioned it was animal blood. Ugh... whatever!
• I was pulled out of my thoughts by the soft chime of the doorbell. I raised my eyes to see the new customer who had walked into the shop. Despite myself, I felt my heart skip a beat at the sight of him. It was a boy who appeared to be around my age. He had honey-blond hair that formed a slight bang over his face, his eyes were a deep shade of blue, and his skin was incredibly pale. Just the sight of him had me clenching my thighs together. His scent was incredible and mouthwatering.
• I shook my head to snap out of my daze. I rolled my eyes, feeling incredibly stupid for falling so easily for his charms. He had "incubus" written all over him. One thing I knew was that incubuses were even harder to shake off than vampires.
• Thankfully, there were only older people in the shop. I would hate to have to handle the screams of teenage girls who couldn’t control themselves better. His eyes scanned the shop before landing on me. He approached me.
• "Hello, what can I get you?" Despite knowing the person in front of me wouldn’t need anything, I still had to ask. It was only common courtesy, I guess.
• "Hi, um... do you offer your services?" Even his voice sounded sultry and pleasant. I only knew a few incubuses in school and hadn’t interacted much with them, so I wouldn’t know if the sexy voice was also a trait passed down.
• "Of course I do. I make coffee."
• "No... not that. I mean... well, you know what I mean." He ran his tongue across his bottom lip, and I noticed how dry his lips were. He also seemed sweaty and a bit breathless, like he had just run a marathon.
• "Do you want coffee?" I asked with a slight frown.
• "No," he sighed in frustration. "I mean, do you offer your services... sexually?"
• "This is a coffee shop, mister!" It took everything in me not to scream that part out. I mean, I would have assumed it was obvious to everyone who came in here that we didn’t offer sexual relief to our customers. "We do not do that here."
• "Of course you don’t. Damn, that must’ve sounded so creepy." He ran a hand through his blond hair. "Hey, are you getting off work soon? Maybe we could..."
• "Can you just fucking go away?" My annoyance finally slipped out. But I think I had the right to be offended. I mean, how else would someone feel when they’re asked if they could whore themselves out? Damn incubuses. All they ever did was think with their dicks or, in some cases, vaginas. I get that they needed to feed off human lust to survive, but it didn’t mean they had to go around harassing people, did it? "I’m trying to work here."
• "Right." He looked embarrassed now. Good. He turned around and walked out of the shop.
• Not a moment after he was gone, my boss walked out of the back office.
• "What was that about, Kerina?"
• "It’s Kerry, and I know you must have heard everything already."
• Brad gave me a slight glare. It only lasted a second before his gaze turned thoughtful. "Do you think it would bring more money to add sexual services to the menu?"
• "This is a fucking coffee shop, Brad! So no, I do not think it would be wise to add that to our menu."
• "You know, I have a right to fire you for your attitude."
• "Good luck finding someone else who would work for you at such low pay." I grabbed my purse and made my way from behind the counter toward the door.
• "Where are you going?! Your shift’s not even over yet!"
• "I don’t care. I’m done for the day." I ignored Brad’s cursing and stepped out of the coffee shop.
• I took in a deep breath, relieved to finally get some fresh air into my lungs. I hadn’t even bothered to change out of my work clothes due to my haste to leave that place. The sun was going down by now, meaning the evening was approaching. I didn’t want to go home yet. I didn’t want to face my family yet.
• There was a park right across the street from the shop. I crossed over and found a bench under a shady tree to sit on. I stared into the green patches of trees that made up the space. This would make a nice painting. There was once a time when I was into that, back when my dad was still alive. We would go to the park on weekends along with my mom. She would read a book out loud, and Dad would try to paint the scenery. We weren’t very good at it, but it was still fun. Those were the good old days, the ones I wish more than anything I could go back to. But we all know that’s not possible. Dad left, and Mom remarried. I have a new family now. I should get used to it. It’s been two years already.
• "Hi."
• I nearly fell off the bench in fright at the voice. My wrist was pulled, preventing me from crashing into the soft grass.
• "Sorry."
• "You again! Don’t you take a hint? I told you to go away."
• "Technically, you told me to leave the shop. Besides, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable."
• "Uncomfortable? You asked me if I were a whore! That was sexual harassment."
• "I know. I was kinda desperate back there. I’m sorry. How about a fresh start, yeah?" He smiled at me. Once more, I found myself momentarily taken aback by his good looks. Dang it! Get yourself under control, Kerina!
• "Not." I made to get off the bench and leave, but he held onto me once more.
• "Don’t touch me."
• "Okay, okay, I’m sorry." He raised his hands in surrender. "But can you please hear me out?"
• "What do you have to say?"
• "I mean, I don’t want you to get a bad image of me, even though we don’t know each other yet. I mistook your shop for a place my friend recommended. Believe it or not, I don’t just go around asking pretty girls if they want to bang."
• "That’s hard to believe."
• "I know," he chuckled. "I forgot to feed earlier before leaving home."
• "Okay."
• "You don’t believe me, do you?"
• "I don’t know you."
• "That’s right." He looked toward the tree line, and I followed his gaze to find a small puppy peeing in the bushes. "Well, my name is Matt. Can I at least have yours?"
• "It’s Stella."
• "I know you’re lying."
• "How can you tell?"
• "Your emotions shift when you lie. I can sense them."
• "Can all incubuses do that?" I couldn’t keep the amazement out of my voice as I asked this.
• Matt nodded, then shook his head. "I don’t think all of us can garner that much focus to do it."
• "Right, because you’re always thinking with your privates."
• He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Is it just toxic to me, or is it to all the incubuses you meet?"
• "I am not toxic." He gave me a look, and somehow at this angle, his blue eyes almost looked a shade darker. Matt was breathtaking. Did he even realize that? "Maybe I am a bit, but it’s only because every incubus I meet either wants to have sex with me or... wants to have sex with me."
• "I don’t want to have sex with you. I mean, that doesn’t mean I won’t have sex with you if you want to, do you want to have sex?”
• “Matt!” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Matt grinned down at me, displaying those pearly white teeth. He didn’t have needle-like fangs like vampires or werewolves, but he could still bite you and leave a mark without even trying.
• God, did he smell nice. I almost gave in to the urge to bury my face in the crook of his neck and inhale more of his scent. I cleared my throat, clenching my thighs. Matt noticed my little action, and I’m guessing he knew where my thoughts were headed, but apart from a small smile, he didn’t say anything.
• We sat there in comfortable silence. I looked up and noticed the sun was going down, and the evening was fast approaching. I needed to get home.
• “I should go. Here’s my number,” I said, offering him my phone.
• “You want me to call you?” He seemed taken aback by my simple gesture.
• “I wouldn’t give you my number if I didn’t want you to call me, Matt.”
• “Right. Then I’ll call you…”
• “Kerry.”
• “Kerry. That’s a pretty name.”
• “Thanks. I’ll see you sometime, I guess.”
• “Definitely.” I held back a smile and walked away. My sour mood was much better now, and it was all because of Matt.
• ---
• The house was rather quiet when I walked in. I knew both my mom and stepdad wouldn’t be around at this hour, but I had seen Silas' car in the parking lot, so I knew he was home. I felt relieved at the thought that maybe he wasn’t avoiding me after all. Still, I had to talk to him and apologize for last night.
• As I prepared to go upstairs to where Silas and I had our rooms, I heard something crash in the kitchen. Retracing my steps, I thought it might be my stepbrother attempting to make lunch for me again. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all.
• A girl was sitting on one of our counters with her legs parted, and Silas stood between them, kissing her passionately. For some reason, my heart clenched painfully in my chest.