The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

36 | go to hell

important author's note at end.

• [ g o   t o   h e l l ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

ON A SCALE of one to ten, I'd always known I was a solid fourteen - of course, that's excluding an addition couple points for the killer confidence - but I'd genuinely never have thought I'd have the ability to make Louisa flush. If I bought it up, I knew she'd blame it on the heat inside the club but we all knew that was an excuse.

I was Gabriel Reid after all.

Her petite hands were clasped together tightly as her legs looked twenty times longer than usual. I could tell she was startled at my question yet Lou simply shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not."

Whilst telling her about my past, there were a couple stages at which I was bombarded with images; ending up in hospital after a gang who I thought were my friends had beaten me up, being robbed numerous times whilst drunk on top of the vivid nightmares that I'd suffered from in the immediate months after the incident.

Now I thought back, I had no idea how I got through it all in one piece.

The fact that Lou had simply listened to what I'd said without making any judgments had seemed to help. This time around, I'd managed to talk about it all without erupting into a shaky mess like usual.

Yes Gabe. Pro-bloody-gress. Maybe ask Nanna to give that amazing therapist a tip. She'd definitely been doing her job right.

A small smile danced on my lips as I raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you jealous, Louisa?"

"What?" She looked genuinely surprised at what I'd said. It was almost as if she had expected me to say something different. Her brown eyes widened as wisps of her ebony hair swayed past her long neck and tickled her sharp collarbones. "No. Of course not."

She probably was being serious yet I couldn't help folding my arms and glancing at her. "Mhm, sure."

Lou looked at me hard before tilting her head to the side in frustation. "Gabriel. I'm engaged." For emphasis, she waved her hand at me on which there was a huge jewelled engagement ring.

Of course Logan the douche would compensate for his total lack of personality with an excessive ring.

Attempt to compensate.

"Only just," I teased, causing her to roll her eyes her skin glowing even brighter than usual under the bright lights.

Come on Darling, give me some sort of reaction.

"Think what you want." Lou glowered at me, giving me a brief look before turning her attention to the crowd of people in masks. "I know you're just to trying to get a reaction out of me."

Ah shit, how could she read me that well?

"Course not, Lou. I wouldn't dare," I said whilst flashing her a boyish grin as we both laughed. "I'm just saying, why else would you be curious about her?"

Louisa's face went blank for a couple moments before she sobered up. The smooth olive skin covering the bumps of her spine that I'd seen earlier when my eyes had fallen upon the open back of her dress stiffened. I found myself naturally mirroring her, my face turning to concrete at what I presumed to be the more serious subject change. "I'm not. I don't know. I just think she could be a helpful link in finding out about that night."