Ebony pushed open the door to Ashley's bedroom and shut it quickly behind her, leaning her full weight against the painted wood like she was barricading herself inside.
Ashley was sitting cross-legged in front of her vanity mirror, holding a damp makeup sponge mid-air. She took one look at her sister's flushed face and wide, panicked eyes, and immediately dropped the sponge into her lap.
"Okay," Ashley said, spinning her chair around. "You look like you just sprinted away from a burning building. What happened?"
"I ruined it," Ebony groaned, dropping her face into her hands. "I made it so incredibly weird."
Ashley's eyes lit up with instant, aggressive sisterly curiosity. "Ruined what? Did something happen with the giant?"
Ebony slid down the back of the door until she was sitting on the carpet, pulling her knees up to her chest. "We were alone in the kitchen. And there was this... moment. It felt like all the air got sucked out of the room. He stepped right into my space, and he looked at me with those crazy golden eyes, and my heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to pass out."
"Okay, I'm waiting for the bad part," Ashley prompted, leaning forward. "Because so far, this sounds like the cover of a romance novel I would absolutely buy."
"The bad part," Ebony muttered, resting her forehead on her knees, "is that I panicked. I got scared of how intense it felt, so I literally stepped backward and made up an excuse about coming up here to check on you."
Ashley let out a loud, tragic sigh. "Ebony. Tell me you didn't."
"I did! And he instantly shut down. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. I tried to backpedal and thank him for protecting me, and he just went totally rigid and said, 'It is my duty.'" Ebony groaned again. "Duty. He said the D-word, Ash. I basically forced the man to treat me like a piece of luggage he was hired to watch."
Ashley stared at her sister for a long, judgmental second. "You are literally the smartest person I know. You map microscopic DNA structures for a living. How are you so entirely blind when it comes to basic human—or, whatever he is—behavior?"
"I'm not blind," Ebony argued, lifting her head. "I'm realistic. We met on Friday. I was kidnapped, drugged, and shoved into a hospital. He's just... protective. He's a bodyguard doing a job."
"A job?" Ashley scoffed, standing up and grabbing a tube of lip gloss. "Girl, please. Look at the facts. The man dismantled an entire criminal extraction team in an alley for you. He blew up a commercial shipping port for you. He's currently standing in our kitchen radiating enough lethal energy to power the entire French Quarter. He didn't do all that because he has a strong work ethic."
"Then why did he do it?"
"Because he is completely, wildly crazy about you," Ashley said, pointing the lip gloss wand directly at her. "He looks at you like you are his last meal on earth. When you walk into a room, he physically angles his body to block anyone else from getting to you. I saw him tracking your pulse at the breakfast table just by watching the vein in your neck."
Ebony's stomach did a complicated, terrifying flip. "That's insane. People don't just fall in love in two days."
"Maybe normal people don't," Ashley countered. "But absolutely nothing about our lives is normal right now. Mom and Dad literally just told you that you've been subconsciously healing broken bones and controlling houseplants your entire life, and that you're currently being hunted by a shadow corporation. Do you really think a guy whose eyes glow in the dark plays by normal dating rules?"
Ebony rubbed her face, the sheer exhaustion of the weekend crashing over her again. It was too much. The magic, the syndicate, the interrupted truth about her past, the blood debt. And now Raphael. The pull she felt toward him was undeniable—a deep, magnetic gravity that made her want to press herself against his chest and hide from the rest of the world.
But if she let herself fall into that gravity, she wasn't sure she would ever be able to climb out.
"I can't do this right now," Ebony said, her voice tight with panic. "I can't analyze my feelings for a terrifyingly gorgeous killer while I'm currently on a hit list. I need space to breathe. But if you leave for the restaurant, I'm going to be stuck alone in this house with him and his pack."
Ashley capped her lip gloss and crossed her arms. "So what's your master plan? Hide in my closet until Mom and Dad get back from the consulate?"
"No," Ebony said, a spark of desperate determination hitting her. She pushed herself up off the floor. "I'm coming with you."
Ashley blinked. "To Baptiste's? Eb, the restaurant is going to be chaos. We have a massive dinner service tonight, and I need to do inventory."
"I don't care. I'll chop vegetables. I'll count napkins. I'll scrub the fryers," Ebony pleaded. "I just cannot sit in this house and look at him for the next four hours. I am not ready to deal with my own emotions. Please."
Ashley looked at her sister's panicked expression and let out a soft, sympathetic laugh. "Running away from your hot, terrifying protector. Very mature."
"I am tactically retreating," Ebony corrected.
"Fine. Whatever," Ashley smiled, grabbing her purse off the bed. "If we're leaving the perimeter, he's definitely going to insist on coming with us, but at least there will be a full staff of cooks and waiters between you two. Go put on real clothes. We leave in ten."
"Thank you," Ebony breathed, feeling a massive wave of relief.
She opened Ashley's door and peeked down the hallway to make sure the coast was clear, then darted across the hall into her own bedroom to get dressed.