Mending Soul by Lauren Ruiz (sites to read books for free TXT) 📕

into a hard chest.
Startled, she looked up and found herself gazing into large green eyes.
The man standing before her wasn’t as handsome as Caleb, but he sure did take her breath away.
This one did not have the harsh eyes that Caleb had.
He had dark blond hair, and eyes that looked right through her.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she took her gaze away from him.
“Sorry for sneaking out of your room? No problem.”
“I meant for bumping into you. But that too I guess.”
The man laughed.
Oh, he had a beautiful laugh.
“You guess? You’re funny. I like you already.” The more he spoke, the more she realized who she was speaking to now.
He was the one who had been in the room with Caleb earlier.
“Don’t you think you’re a little too…hurt?” The man said as he looked down at her with his sparkling green eyes.
“Not really. But I do feel better. Where am I?”
He smiled at her.
Oh, he had a beautiful smile too.
“You’ll know in time.”
He held out his hand and said, “I’m Duke Sanity. My pal Caleb told me to come back and check on you. But you weren’t in your room so I came to find you. And now here we are.” He said, ending with his beautiful laugh.
“Aurelia Hastings pleased to meet you.” She said, as she shook his hand.
His hand felt cold as ice so she quickly pulled away and shivered.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to wear my gloves. You’re not the only one who reacts like that when they shake my hand.” Duke said as he took out black fingerless gloves from his pocket and slipped them on.
“Are you hungry?” Duke asked as he led her down deeper into the hallway.
Aurelia’s stomach answered with a growl.
“I guess so,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s go down to the kitchen, and I’ll make you something to eat.”
“Oh no, I could make something for myself. It’s no problem…”
“If I don’t, Caleb would whoop my ass. And I sure as hell don’t want that,” Duke said cutting her off and shivered with the thought of Caleb, “besides, you’re a guest.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Aurelia said with a bright smile at his hospitality.
“Here we are. What would you like to eat?”
Aurelia couldn’t speak. She was standing in a kitchen that she always dreamed of having. Getting herself together she asked, “This is your kitchen?”
Duke laughed his beautiful laugh.
“Fortunately, yes.”
The kitchen was larger than her old apartment.
Oh, her old apartment.
“Is it all right if I warm up some steak that I had cooked last night? I swear to you, it’s still good.”
Aurelia nodded her head at him.
“Do you live here?” Aurelia asked, trying to block out her thoughts of Seth and her old home, while Duke prepared lunch for her.
“This is actually Caleb’s original home,” Duke said as he put together a salad for her, “He took us in for…personal reasons.”
“Others live here?”
“Yes. It’s me, Caleb, and three others. But the others, along with Caleb, will be back later.”
So, there were three others? I wonder if they’re as beautiful as Caleb and Duke; Aurelia said in her mind. Aurelia smiled at the thought.
She hoped that one of them was at least a girl; she didn’t want to be in a house full of guys, even if it was for just that night.
“Here you are.” Duke said as he sat a large plate full of steak, corn and peas, and mashed potatoes in front of her. Then he set the salad’s he had made into the silver refrigerator, and asked Aurelia what she would like to drink. She asked for sweet iced tea, and that was what she got.
Then afterwards, he sat across from her with his own plate and drink.
“Thank you so much.” Aurelia said as she dug into her food, and drank her tea. She was dehydrated.
She had never tasted anything so wonderful.
“Wow, this is delicious!”
“Thank you.” He said with a wide grin as he bit into his steak.
“Did you make us anything too? As usual, Caleb didn’t stop to buy us anything to eat. He didn’t even bother to ask if we were hungry. He’d rather let us starve than buy something to eat and spend his money on us.”
Aurelia turned around to see who was speaking.
He was at least four inches taller than her, which wasn’t that tall because she was 5’2. He had light chestnut hair and a smile to kill for.
He looked at Aurelia and stopped.
“God, are you all right?” he asked in a pained voice.
Just how awful did she look?
“Yes, thanks for asking.” She said as she ate more of her steak.
She was the one starving.
“Did you get into a car accident or did someone…” the boy was saying then stopped.
He had remembered what Caleb had told him and the others.
He thought that the girl would just have a few cuts and bruises, but she was far worse than that.
If she wasn’t moving or talking, she would look horribly dead.
He felt sick to his stomach but he didn’t let it show.
He knew that she would probably bite his head off.
Besides, she was one of them.
It was too bad that she didn’t know anything yet.
“Are there any steaks left?” he asked Duke jadedly.
Duke nodded his head in response.
“There’s still enough for everyone to stay full for three hours or so.”
He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips as he got a plate and poured food onto it.
“David Prouix, meet Aurelia Hastings.” Duke said without looking up from his plate.
David smiled down at Aurelia and said, “Hey,” and took the seat next to Duke.
Aurelia felt as though she were some kind of disease that had to be avoided.
“Yes! We could eat now!” Aurelia looked up again and saw Caleb enter the kitchen with a dark haired boy.
The boy looked like Caleb, but not quite as handsome.
“You must be Aurelia,” the boy said as his eyes landed on her, “I’m Sebastian Barron.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She said with a smile.
Both boys got their food and sat down at the table.
Sebastian sat next to David while Caleb took the seat on the left side of Aurelia.
When Caleb sat down, she felt sudden warmth and ease.
She already felt comfortable with all of them as they included her into their conversations. And she couldn’t help but laugh and smile with the rest of them.
Even the hard and timid Caleb was laughing.
There was Caleb, Duke, David, and Sebastian.
There were supposed to be five of them. So where was the last one?
“You boys are such pigs.” Aurelia looked up one last time and found herself looking at the beautiful girl with the long red hair that had just entered the kitchen.
“Don’t worry, there’s still some left.” David said with a laugh.
Without even bothering to get anything to eat, the girl sat on the right side of Aurelia and said, “I’m Lana Momsen.”
“I’m Aurelia, nice to meet you.” Aurelia said with a weak smile.
The girl made her feel so ugly.
If Aurelia didn’t look the way she did, the two girls would be equally as beautiful as the other.
Aurelia felt calm and happy.
But her happiness quickly ended and was replaced by sudden pain throughout her entire body. She felt as though she dived into cold water.
She felt a warm hand touch her arm.
It was Lana.
“Hey, are you all right? You got pale out of no where.” Lana asked in worry.
“I’m fine.” She lied.
She felt horrible.
She felt that at any moment, she would faint.
“She’s lying,” Sebastian muttered under his breath. Every one looked at him, even Aurelia.
He too had become pale.
“Let’s get you back to your room.” Caleb said. “Can you walk?”
Aurelia managed to stand up slowly, and almost fell to the ground, but Caleb had caught her.
Caleb picked her up and into his arms. Then, he carried her to her room.
Everyone followed. But Sebastian stayed far behind with David beside him.
“Do you ever eat? You don’t weigh anything.” Caleb said.
Despite the circumstances, she laughed.
“No. Back at my apartment, we only had enough food for one of us to eat. So I cooked for Seth.” Caleb got quiet at her words.
The guy probably treated her like a slave, Caleb thought bitterly, but she can never go back to him now.
Then Aurelia felt tired out of no where.
After a few more moments of hearing their soft whispers and laughs, Aurelia fell into dreams in Caleb's protective arms.
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Publication Date: 01-09-2012

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