Page 64 of Little Wing (Shades of Fairhaven #1)

A beam of light pierced the darkness of the room with the intensity of a freaking laser beam. And here I thought fucking a vampire would mean I'd get to sleep in.

"Don't you have places to be, human?" the blond man hissed from where he stood beside the heavy curtain, casually sipping on a glass of what I only assumed was blood. Because of course—I wasn't donating and the dude was getting hangry.

I lifted my pounding head from the softest pillow I'd ever slept on and rolled my eyes. "Human? Really? What happened to the 'Goddess who rocks my damned world'?" I said, mocking his vintage accent.

Moving quickly to gather my clothes off the floor, I didn't bother listening for a response.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, I did have things to do and people to see.

Since Alistair or Aaron—whatever the fuck his name was—decided to kick me out earlier than I had anticipated, I had extra time to make myself presentable before heading over to work.

Granted, it wasn't enough time to head back home and shower, but a quick rinse and brushing would definitely help make me look less…

disheveled. Whatever. While walking to the bookstore where I always kept a spare outfit for such situations, I jumped right back to tapping furiously on my phone.

After all these ye ars, I still couldn't settle on a dating app, so when one didn't work out, I'd just hop right on to the next.

Which was how I stumbled upon Fangerz. Stupidest name I've come across, but it wasn't the name that captured my attention, but the apps intention. Anonymous meetups. No strings attached.

While everyone else seemed to pair off, I wasn't rushing into anything serious.

I was still young— yes, thirty-five is young —so where was the rush?

I mean, my 300-year-old best friend just found the love of her life.

Sure, they're both vampires, but come on!

I still had some good years left before I needed to think about settling down, or if I even wanted to go down that path.

"Aaaand that's what you get for blinding me this morning, Nosferatu," I scoffed, swiping on the contact screen to erase it.

Before I started a new chat, I looked up to find my beloved Books & Bats coming up.

Our welcome sign was already out and ready to invite in our customers.

Even with the Black Cat Scribes, my old job, still around, it was nice to see that neither business suffered.

The Black Cat Scribes remained focused on more antiquated texts while we focused on our local authors and more mainstream titles that were younger than most of our clientele.

There was room in Fairhaven for both of our businesses, which was ultimately the goal.

We never wanted to take away from what was already thriving—we just wanted something that had our touch and love in it.

Plus, it meant that I got to work with my best friends.

I pulled the door open, smiling at the sound of the gentle chime before I rushed in with my purse covering the side of my face. I could already hear the sound of steam from the espresso machine, which meant that Kait was out front.

Oh, she's going to let me have it today…

"Hey—" she started .

"YOU SEE NOTHING!" I exclaimed, rushing to the back where I wasted little time in grabbing my hair brush and a change of clothes.

Fortunately, we had a separate bathroom in the back that was kept away from our customers.

Last thing they needed to see was their friendly bookshop co-owner fumbling with a bra in the public restroom.

After freshening up, I was back out on the floor and ready to tackle whatever questions Kait would likely have for me. Maybe…

As expected, I found Kait standing on the other side of her counter with a mug of coffee in her hands. All I could see was her ridiculous smirk on her face while she extended her hands for me to take the drink from her.

"Have a good night?" she asked.

I brought the mug to my lips and stifled a moan at the first taste of freshly brewed coffee and homemade blackberry syrup. "Holy fuck, Kait. If you weren't dating Sofie, I would probably take you home."

My darling friend all but rolled her eyes before walking back behind the counter. "How do you think I won her over? I kept sending her drinks when she came to shop."

"Damn, that's right." I licked the foam from my upper lip and walked back to her, glancing at the front of the store.

It was still early in the day, which meant that we wouldn't see too much business until around midday.

These early hours were mostly set for us to restock inventory and plan for the week ahead.

Because a good chunk of our customers were vampires, it meant that they wouldn't come out to enjoy our store until after sundown.

That's when Lotus would finally join us, too.

Well, typically, except she was still in Seattle with Silas.

"So, I take it last night was fun?" Kait smirked, swinging us back around to the topic of my physical state.

"Well, the guy wanted me to call him a Count even though I'm pretty sure he's from like… Staten Island. "

Kait choked back a laugh. "No…"

"Oh yeah, guess what he asked me to call his penis?"

"Stop!"

"Yeah, that's what I said. Sat on his face to keep him quiet," I said plainly, picking a fleck of dust off my shirt. "I heard no complaints, so I figured all was good."

"And it wasn't?"

I looked at my coffee then over at Kait who looked so well-put together.

In the last three years, she let her hair grow out past her shoulders, got some new ink that she didn't hide anymore, and she was in a happy relationship that would make romance-haters gag.

I was thrilled for her, but when I looked at her and Lotus, I couldn't help feeling like I was dragging behind. But was I? Really?

I shrugged. "Well, he did kick me out. Had the audacity to let the sunlight in."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you'd think he'd let me sleep in, but dude was huddled over by the window trying his best not to have any of the light touch his skin.

It was pretty amusing, but—" I trailed off, taking another sip of my coffee.

Then, as if the gods finally answered me, the door chime rang and welcomed in a customer who freed me from the conversation that I just knew was on the tip of Kait's tongue.

Why still do this? Why just mess around when you can finds a perfectly fine companion? I could almost hear her voice in my head.

It was either Kait checking in on me, or trying to get me to join her and Sofie on double dates. Can't say that I was a fan of blind dates. Now, anonymous hookups? I preferred that.

When I returned home after work, I noticed that I still had one notification on Fangerz.

No, it wasn’t a new match, but one I had been entertaining for over a month.

TattedRaven. The person who asked about my day and the people I matched with, not out of jealousy, but because they wanted to check in to see if I was okay.

That, and genuine curiosity. Their chats were the ones I looked forward to the most after a long day.

TattedRaven : Heading to work, but just wanted to make sure you got home safe.

I held my phone to my chest and smirked, because while my life differed from that of my best friends, I loved my routine. I loved coming home to long chats with TattedRaven. It worked for me, and it would take quite the wrench in my path to knock me off course.