Irresistible

The ringtone of Sara's phone reverberated in the living room on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. She rushed washing her dirty plates in the kitchen to check who was trying to call her. The display screen flashes an unknown number that is not registered in her phonebook.

Not only she was not expecting any calls from anyone but also she was not familiar with the number either. She was hesitant to answer the phone call for fear it might be a scam or just a wrong number.

'What if it is an important phone call? Or what if it is a wrong number and they need to relay an important message? And because I did not answer just to tell the caller it's wrong number, the actual recipient will not be able to hear the important message. All because of me thinking it's a scam? Oh the agony, how I curse the cause and effect mechanism!' she lamented.

With so much reluctance, she finally answered and greeted a meek 'Hello'.

"Sara." said a man with gruff voice.

"Yeees…Sara's speaking?" she answered questioningly.

"I'm downstairs."

"Yeah okay..?" Still unsure who she was talking to and what is expected from her.

"It's me."

"Uhuh and me is…?"

She can hear the man sighed and the background noise was filled with murmurs.

"Just come down alright?"

"Where exactly am I expected to be? And who am I actually seeing?"

"Bonington Hall! Downstairs! Now!" He sounded so urgent now and angry.

A thousand questions filled up her mind. The man does not sound like Harith and definitely not Bryce since he is in his own room. The next male person she knows that knows she lives in Bonington Hall would be Adam and that voice certainly does not belong to Adam.

Nevertheless, she went down to meet the mysterious man and was surprised to see the amount of people gathered outside of Bonington Hall. She looked quizzically but pushed her way through the door anyway.

'The man sounded angry just now, there's no way I want to make him even more angry by showing up late,' she thought to herself.

She walked out, anxious and not confident of whom she is expecting to meet. Looking left and right, she saw someone with a dignified aura and decides to go to the opposite direction to find a quiet place.

She sent a text message to the unknown number to let the recipient know she is downstairs already and to share her location. Few minutes later, she could hear the murmur started to turn into chattering sounds and was getting closer to where she was.

A pair of familiar dark brown loafers appeared within her eyesight range. Before she could react, the man said nonchalantly, "Come, let's go to my car." She was about to reject until she lifted her head and saw it was the man with dignified aura earlier on.

'But of course it was him! How could I forget about him?' She thought to herself sarcastically.

She entered his black with bronze Jeep Wrangler and greeted him.

The man looked at her and nodded as the engine purred awake.

"You dress fine enough to go on a dinner, right?" he said as a statement rather than asking her opinion, prompting Sara to just nod along.

The ride in the car was very awkward that she tried to break the ice.

"You came without your usual entourage today."

"Yep."

With such short answer, Sara took it as a hint that he is not interested to talk at all. But now she felt even worse than before. Worst because she tried to make an effort but it turn from bad to worse instead. The tense atmosphere was too much for her for the rest one hour of the ride that she became anxious.

Finally the long awaiting moment has come, they have reached a fancy restaurant, boasting of floor-to-ceiling window complete with valet parking.

They both stepped out of the car while the valet took Lucas' car key. The maître d' inside, welcomed them with a bow and ushered them to a private room. The composed man ordered food for them and waited until the waiter left.

"So, how have you been?" he asked.

"Yeah..Good I guess? And you, sir?"

"Please, call me Lucas. We're here as friends," he uttered. His words may sound warm but his tone was disagreeable. He seemed too distracted.

'It's best to keep quiet if there's nothing I can say,' she thought and nodded her head in response.

The conversation flow breaks again as the waiters came in bringing food. Lucas instructed the waiters to leave the food he ordered by the other table and dismissed them, as their assistance was no longer needed.

"Do you feel like you have a throbbing headache? Or discomfort somewhere?" Lucas asked out of nowhere.

"No, I don't think so." 'What a random man he is', she thought.

"Not even before the blood donation?"

"No." Sara is confused as to where this conversation is leading. Lucas has been asking nothing but medical – related.

'Is he worrying because he thought I am a patient of KHCI before I entered KEI?' Sara pondered, unable to shake off the silly comments by Harith some weeks ago.

In actuality, Lucas was trying to find a way to know what happened to Sara. If Lady Daphne is seriously injured, he does not understand why Sara is doing well. Agreed, he did drink more of Lady Daphne than Sara.

'Apart from the way the punctures on the artery, Lady Daphne was almost similar to Sara donating her blood. So what is it?'

He asked her many questions in relation to her health and she does not seemed to have any problems or complications. There was no report of her admission to any hospitals or clinics either, which baffled Lucas even more.

Based on rumours that Davian heard, the artery bite was banned since five years ago. It was never explained so the only conclusion they inferred was to reduce the risk of killing humans and exposes themselves to the public. But they have no one to confirm it with.

In preparation to figure out the condition of her neck, he thought of a step ahead and bought a simple necklace for Sara as an excuse if he was unable to see her neck. When he has run out of questions to ask Sara, he decided to use this opportunity to walk towards Sara to give her his gift.

Sara eyes widened as the small box was handed to her.

'This can't be it, can it? He's not proposing to me is he?' she panicked internally.

Lucas urged her to open it while trying to eye her neck and reluctantly she obliged. She felt relieved seeing it was just a necklace as opposed to a ring.

'This idiot Harith! If he had not mentioned all that, I wouldn't even be thinking of it. Silly Harith putting silly ideas on my head,' she thought embarrassedly.

To her surprise, Lucas took the necklace off her hand gently and started to put it on her.

Lucas was already standing behind Sara as he slowly placed the necklace on her neck.

"What do you think? Do you like it?" he asked insincerely, trying his best to find those punctured marks.

Sara was not sure what to answer as she did not get to look at the necklace properly. Her mind was too occupied blaming Harith for all the silly thoughts popping in her mind at the moment.

Lucas was placing the necklace painstakingly too slow for her comfort. She fidgeted about, trying to grab the necklace and wanted to refuse the gift but Lucas pushed her hands away.

He took the opportunity to see her neck clearly at a closer inspection, to find the two dots mark where he had bitten her but still, he failed to find it. It made him momentarily confused which side he bit her on. Both sides of her neck looked completely untouched and he was puzzled.

Unable to find any excuse to delay it any further, he finally clasp the necklace. Now that he has settled with what he wanted to do, he began to be aware of his surroundings and Sara was standing too close to him for his comfort. He began to notice her neck that was right in front of his eyes. It was inviting and irresistible. He felt the urge to give it a little lick and a bite. Mixed with that, Sara's blood scent was strong enough to punch his sense of smell that he took a step backward.