Free Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) by Airicka Phoenix Page A

serenade them through the deserted street. The walk ended at her front steps. Riley fished through her purse for her keys and turned to Octavian with them in her hands.
     
    “Thank you for walking me,” she said.
     
    He inclined his head, all business once more. “My pleasure. Goodnight, Ms. Masters.”
     
    Riley grimaced. “It’s Riley.”
     
    He was silent for a moment too long before he spoke, his voice a low, gruff murmur. “Riley.”
     
    Inexplicably, giddy in a way that was completely insane, Riley cleared her throat and turned away. “Goodnight.”
     
    He didn’t move until she’d opened the apartment doors and slipped inside. When she glanced back, he was gone.
     

Chapter 5

     

     
    Damn rain!
     
    Like the traitorous snake it was, it had waited until she was too far on her way to work before coming down in a steady patter, soaking her clothes and ruining her makeup. No amount of keeping her head down and her pace brisk saved her from the cold, damp assault. It was because of her own personal dark cloud hovering so close that her sixth sense wasn’t quick enough to pick up on the change around her until the loud thwack split the night. Riley yelped in fright. Her foot skidded on a patch of mud and she just caught herself as she whipped around.
     
    A figure brandishing an umbrella over his head, strolled up behind her at a leisurely pace.
     
    “I’m sorry,” the owner of the umbrella said, as he came up alongside her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
     
    Squinting through the rain, Riley shook her head. “It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention.” The edge of the umbrella lifted and she gasped as she recognized the pale, familiar face. “Gideon? Where did you come from?”
     
    He grinned with perfectly straight teeth. “Here, there.” He shrugged. “I’m like the wind… everywhere. Are you perchance headed to work?”
     
    Riley couldn’t remember the last time anyone asked her anything using the word perchance , but she answered, “Yes, and this rain is making me late, so…”
     
    Without waiting for him, she ducked her head and hurried onward. She made it four steps when the rain suddenly stopped. Not stopped from falling, but stopped from falling on her.
     
    “Would you mind if I joined you in the walk?” He was back, walking effortlessly alongside her with his long gait, his umbrella wielding hand between them, seamlessly canopying both of them from the cold. “It’s a rare thing meeting another soul on this stretch of road.”
     
    Riley slanted him a sidelong glance from the corner of her eye. He held himself with grace, shoulders squared, spine stiff, like not even the foul weather could deter him. As far as his brothers went, he always struck her as someone that belonged in a parlor, sipping brandy from a crystal goblet, which was amusing once you looked past his face to the rest of him.
     
    He wore shiny, leather pants beneath a long, equally shiny leather duster. Maybe that’s why the rain wasn’t bothering him, she mused. He had on a rain repelling outfit.
     
    “Is that comfortable?” she asked, nodding towards him with her chin. “I would think leather would only make you colder.”
     
    He cocked his head in her direction. “Is that what you think?” He turned forward, brows pursed as though in deliberation. “Interesting.”
     
    Riley frowned, disliking his condescending tone. “What is?”
     
    His lips tweaked upwards at the corners. “That you’ve never worn leather before.”
     
    At the entrance of Final Judgment, he gallantly swept open the doors and ushered her in with a theatrical bow. Riley snickered as she passed him, peeling away the uncomfortably damp material of her coat from her body. Gideon shook out his umbrella and swept it closed before following her inside and shutting the door behind them.
     
    Someone had lit a blazing fire in the hearth in the center of the room and it was painting delicate brush strokes of crimson and