Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) by Sydnie Beaupré Read Free Book Online Page B

daughter of a preacher.
    We walk to a table where Cara’s latest boy toy is sitting reading a book that I’ve already read. Five times. It’s one of my favourites, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ so I decide to actually try to like this boy.
    “Tristan!” Cara yells as we walk into the food court. 
    Cara gestures to Chris and Janie, “The other couple I was talking about. This is Chris and Janie.” Then she grabs my arm and pulls me forward, “This is my best friend in the whole world, better than ice cream with cherries and chocolate sauce on top, Khiara. She gets me out of trouble and I get her into it, but she somehow keeps coming back for more.” She smiles at me, to see my reaction. I awkwardly smile back and she just looks thrilled.
    “Everybody, this is Tristan. He’s nice, he’s gorgeous and he’s smart. Also, he’s super tall, it’ll freak you out when he stands up.”
    Tristan gets up and shakes my hand. Cara’s right, he is quite tall. He goes to shake Janie’s hand, but Chris who reaches out his hand instead, pulls her away as if to communicate, back off.
    He’s got dark brown hair that’s been cropped pretty short, and he’s got large muscles on his arms. He’s pretty skinny in contrast to Cara, but she looks so happy. Maybe this is for real; maybe she’s stopped being so damn-I won’t say it. She is after all, my friend.
    “So, this is Khiara,” he says in a voice that I can only describe as velvety smooth. “It’s very nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard so much about you.”
    I nervously smile up at him, “Yeah? Well I’ve not heard anything about you, so it’s really nice to meet you, and I hope we’ll get to know each other better today. You seem like a really good catch for Cara. You see, she’s a bit promiscuous and I’m hoping this is going to be a long term relationship for you guys,” Oh no, I’m rambling. “So it’s just really great to meet you, I already said that didn’t I, and uhh…” I bite my lip.
    Cara pats me on the back a little too hard. “She does that when she’s nervous. She just runs her mouth, if I were as promiscuous as she says I think you’d have already known that, seeing as we’ve been together for a whole two months already.” Oh. This must be serious if she kept him from me for that long…
    “I guess Cara told me about you before, but I have a hard time listening, always in my own little world… and such…” I say, trying to salvage the mess I’m sure I’ve created.
    Tristan sees through my lie and simply smiles. “Cara’s changed a lot since we first met. She tried to get me to go out with her the day we met, but I told her I wanted to get to know her. I guess she’s not used to people saying no to her.” Cara blushes and ducks her head. “So, we went out on a couple of dates and I guess we’re official now, since you know. I’m not surprised she didn’t say anything yet, I’m sure she’s wanted to tell you for quite some time.”
    Cara turns to me, “I have, my honeybun. I just didn’t want to jinx it. You know me; I’m not usually the…long lasting relationship type. But this is different.”
    I smile at her. “It’d have to be for you to keep him from me. But you’re lucky, I like him.” Tristan smiles at this and Cara fist pumps.
    “Well then let’s get moving already! I wanna find a dress,” says Janie, rather impatiently.
    We walk around the mall a couple of times looking for dresses, and I nod nonchalantly at everything Cara and Janie pick out for me; while Janie pretty much hates me, she’s Cara’s friend – when she needs a kick of girly companionship that I can’t always offer – and she isn’t always such an ass towards me.
    Tristan seems to disappear at times, but always returns when I least expect it, and I wonder what he’s off doing when he’s not around us until I see him on a bench just outside of the store we’ve chosen, which is owned by Janie’s aunt, reading quietly. I smile at