Lady Kaiden's 24-Hour Bookshop

chapter two

"You?"

"You!"

When I first heard the sound of the door opening, I thought it was just the gusts and gales of the blizzard that erupted in the night sky, but when I did not hear the click of the latch notifying that the door closed, I foolishly thought my first customer had arrived. I even got excited, preparing the exact words I was going to say, but then that all plateaued when I saw his tepid face.

"You?"

"No! Not me. You!" I retorted back.

"Okay, I believe we have established it is indeed the both of us." He deadpanned.

"Why are you here?" My voice was almost as cold as the temperature outside.

"The snowfall has stymied out the entire street, I had no choice."

"Why the bloody hell were you walking during a blizzard in the first place?"

His growl resonated from the back of his throat, "I came in here for cover, not a berating."

"Oh really? Here I thought you were far too good for us 'mortals', let alone a woman's bookshop." I bit back with spite, clearly holding a grudge to the level of pettiness he used on me. "I should kick you out right now."

He had sighed audibly, knocking off the freshly fallen snow that laid on his coat. "Frankly, I have no excuse for my behavior during the ball. I apologize." Both my eyebrows rose. "A number of unfortunate events before you had provoked me and I had channeled my anger towards you and for that, I am sorry. Please do not kick me out."

I pursed my lips, satisfied with his explanation and gave him a curt nod. As well as I could not tell whether he was just being softening me, so he could stay in my shelter.

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and then opened it again, "That is it. You are not going to apologize to me?"

"For what?"

"For speaking to me in such manner, before."

I released a very unladylike snort, "I would not have spoken so vulgarly if you were not uncivilized yourself. I returned what you gave me."

"I am a Lord. You do not have the privilege to speak to me like that." His voice was crass and deep.

My book closed with a snap and my eyes narrowed into slits. I hopped off the counter and sauntered towards him even if he was a good head taller than me, I still me his darkening gaze with equal velocity. "Well guess what? You may be a Lord, but you are a Lord in my bookshop. On my property." I was almost chest-to-chest with him at that point, we probably looked like we were going to have a brawl or a violent kiss. "Therefore if you just can not stand the way I am speaking to you I guess you can, the Americans would kindly put it, get the hell off my lawn."

He, unwisely, lugged his big mouth open again, but the sound of the crackling lights intervened. I stared at the few light sconces that hung off the wall and recognized that they were all dimming. After a few moments of crepitating hisses, it suddenly silenced.

"That is peculiar—" My statement was interrupted by the abrupt darkness. My entire store was pitch black, even if you looked out the windows, the only source of brightness was the dim moonlight glinting through the clouds.