Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

Chapter Twenty Four
Hallie
Dinner takes an eternity to get through.
We don’t order dessert because Lance is afraid if we do, I’ll get fat before we make it to his
apartment. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but it’s implied by his obsession with all things superficial.
I cannot wait to never see him again.
On the way out, he actually holds the door for me, which is the first remotely gentlemanly
behavior he has exhibited tonight. The way he looks down at me after he follows me out the door
makes it seems like he thinks this date went much better than I think it went.
“Well, I had a good time with you tonight,” he says.
“Yeah, me too,” I lie, looking down at my purse.
“Sorry if the night got off to a weird start. I know this place is a bit tricky to find, and then the
whole drama with Chuck.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I never want to think about it or him again. I just want to go home, kick off my pretty-butuncomfortable
slingbacks, and curl up with my kitty.
The restaurant entrance was in a weird place, though, so we have to trek through an alley to get
back to a road busy enough for a taxi cab to pick me up.
“So, you want to head to my place?”
I look over at him, a little stunned he would even ask. “No.” Remembering my manners, I say,
“Uh, I’m not really a… I don’t home with guys on first dates.”
“Classy and hard to get, huh?” he says, smiling that smarmy smile again. “I like that.”
Ew. So much ew.
I need a shower after spending so much time with him. I’m going to kill Charity. She’s officially
never setting me up with anyone ever again. Her idea of a dating pool is my idea of a sewer, and I am
not here for it.
He grabs my wrist, yanking me from my thoughts and catching me off-guard. Before I can ask
what he’s doing, he walks me back against the brick alley wall and says, “Or maybe you just want to
be chased, hm?”
“No. Ew.” That one slips out, totally by accident. I am horrified, but I’ve thought “ew” so much