Gods & Angels | Sinners of Saint Benedicts duet 1 (dark/bully romance)

Chapter Seven

While Saint Benedicts had been built to be an inaccessible as possible - or as inescapable as possible - the modernisation of the world had made it far easier for people to get to, and students to get away from. Whether they were being allowed to or not.

The school itself was built cascading gently down the side of a hill. It was picturesque and beautiful, with a road that wound down and around to the nearest town, which tumbled further down the hill slightly less elegantly. Bieityn was home to some few thousand people and paid homage to the Callahan Estate. As a family who enjoyed the finer things in life, the Callahans had been good to the people of Bieityn, helping them to create up-market restaurants and shops, all kept open by the thick wallets of the Saint Benedicts' students' parents.

While I hadn't been told - I was never told - what the plans were for that night or where we were going, I had assumed that Apollo would take me to dinner at Bieito, the town's swankiest restaurant. A place where the Callahans were treated like the royalty they liked to think they were.

As Valen pulled the car to a stop in front of the brightly lit windows of Bieito, I knew I was right. One of the maître d's strode towards the car and opened the door.

"Miss Vanguard," he said with a warm smile. "Happy birthday."

I nodded to him and forced a smile of my own. "Thank you."

"Park the car. Do what you like. I'll let you know when we're done," Apollo said to Valen before patting his shoulder then getting out of the car.

Valen looked back to me. "Enjoy your dinner."

Everything he said to me was disdainful. It came across like a threat. Though what he could possibly be threatening in a simple, 'enjoy your dinner', I wasn't sure. Knowing Valk the way I did, he could make a threat out of nothing more than existing.

"Shall we?" Apollo pulled my focus and I looked out at him standing next to the maître d'.

Apollo looked fine in anything, but it never hurt when he made an effort. And I knew him well enough to know he'd made an effort. Just not the kind that would matter to anyone else but me.

He wore simple chinos and a button down shirt, top button undone. His hair was artfully messy and he wore brushed suede shoes. Nothing about him screamed money, nothing except the fact that he was eighteen and taking his girlfriend to Bieito for dinner on a school night.

He held his hand out to me and the warm mischievous look in his eyes promised me the world. And I knew he could give it to me. Had he actually been offering. But Apollo had never once thought of offering me the world, only the parts he was interested in. It was to be expected, but it was also a stark reminder that we had a long way to go before our relationship was endurable.

I put such thoughts out of my head and put my hand into his. There were times to worry about my - our - future and times to enjoy the present, and this was most definitely the latter. Apollo helped me out of the car and shut the door behind me.

"Your usual table's ready," the maître d' told him. Not me. Him.

Apollo nodded, his hand going to the small of my back as we were led inside. "Perfect."

The weather was still warm enough that the jacket I wore was decorum only. So we still had to go through the palaver of taking it off and checking it. But this wasn't the sort of place where you got a stub in exchange.

"Usual to start, Mr Callahan?" Apollo was asked as we went to our table.

"Yes, thanks," Apollo said with a smile. He looked at me. "Unless you want something else?" he asked me.