Page 30 of Sacrifice
“Not a bad ride you’ve got here.” She looked around with undisguised incredulity. “Little did I know when I chucked my coffee all over you it was probably Gucci I was ruining.”
Lucien shrugged. “It wasn’t a favorite.”
Eve looked horrified. “Oh god, it was.”
“Expensive things are still just things. Everything becomes normal after a while.”
She supposed that was true, but still. She took another sip. “This is lovely.”
“Perhaps if you drink it all, you might relax. Come on.” He sank his own in one swallow and watched her expectantly.
“Ha. Right.” Eve did the same and had to wipe a little overflow from the corner of her mouth. She cringed.
“I make you nervous,” Lucien stated baldly.
Truth was, Lucien gave Eve the impression that he was preparing to devour her.
“Don’t worry, I won’t eat you,” he said, a bit too close to the bone, and waved at Cecile, who came over to refill their glasses.
Eve blinked at him in surprise, took another sip from her refilled glass, and a deep breath. “A bit out of my comfort zone,” she said.
Lucien tipped his head in acknowledgement. “Where is that, your comfort zone? Tell me about Eve.”
Oh good, a spotlight.
Eve shrugged. “Oh, well, nothing quite so grand as what you’re used to.”
He narrowed his eyes in a smile.
Eve dropped her shoulders a little. “Oh alright. Eve Esther Areli, only child of Diane and Harry Areli, and resident of 25 Garfield Terrance, Southwark. But you know that.”
Lucien nodded his head. His limo had visited her home address a couple of times now. “Something a little more revealing?”
Eve pulled at the rising hem of her skirt. It was like it had a life of its own. “Well, I’ve always been a bit of a history buff. Gran’s family come from the middle east and she used to take me to the British Museum to see the exhibits when I was a little kid. She really brought it to life, you know? It used to feel like we were visiting family. Funny really.” Eve smiled to herself. “School friends used to think it was odd to be so interested in history, geeky.” She shrugged, “but it just came naturally.”
“I understand entirely,” said Lucien.
“You got your love of it from grandparents, too?”
Lucien shrugged. “Certainly, the many intricacies of the gods and belief systems have surrounded me my whole life.”
“Your father…”
Lucien eyed her quizzically.
“Wikipedia...”
He smiled, sank his drink, and waved a hand at Eve’s, suggesting she do the same.
She sank it. “We’ll be hammered by the time we get there at this rate.”
He waved over the hostess. “One can but hope.”
The next half hour passed in an increasingly relaxed back and forth as the champagne was consumed and Eve regaled Lucien with the story of her life.
“Time off school became a regular thing after that,” Eve said with a shrug. She’d been relating the tale of the childhood headaches that had kicked in with a vengeance at puberty. “The doctors never could pin down the cause, so days spent in darkened rooms every month or so became normal. They blamed hormones, but somehow, I never really believed that.”
She glanced out of the window to assess the gathering storm clouds on the horizon. “Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I’m convinced the weather’s got something to do with it. High pressure, or low pressure. I don’t know. Something.”
