Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
God, I hated this town with its stupid societal rules. Women should stay at home and have babies. While men should go off and run companies and then sneak off to their secret societies to have wild sex parties. It was so archaic, so ridiculous. Why did we allow it?
Women could run companies! And guess what? We also had sex! And not just to have babies. Gah!
I was driving down Route 63 when I saw the sign for Oleander Lane. My breath caught. And before I could think better of what I was doing, I stomped on the brakes and swung left, turning onto the road.
My heart started pounding in my ears as I headed down the road, shadowed by big huge trees on either side, their towering branches reaching over the road so that it became a tunnel. I’d always heard of the Avenue of Oaks, though I’d never before dared venture down this road.
But I didn’t stop. And I didn’t turn back.
What are you doing, Jas? What the hell are you doing?
Maybe I was living my goddamned life for once. Screw the consequences.
The road seemed endless, and yet finally I came to its end. And there it was. The famed, mysterious Oleander Manor rose up before me, lit like a candle in the dark night, all the windows ablaze.
Holy shit, it was a party night. Cars were parked haphazardly all across the lawn.
I should turn around right now and drive away. I’d seen the Oleander up close and in person. Which was far more than most in town could say they’d ever dared. It was enough. I’d caught a glimpse.
And then that daring part inside me scoffed. So I’d just go along with Mommy’s plans for me, satisfied with a mere glimpse of the wild, sensual possibilities the other half took as their right? Would I always be the scared little girl who lived by the rules?
No! Everything in me cried out against the future my mother already saw set in stone.
So I parked. And then I sat there, heart racing even louder. But I didn’t stop. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Because I wanted to see. Sully would never tell me what actually went on. And I was so close now. I could peek in the windows. Finally see for myself.
I shoved the car door open and stepped out. I didn’t go up the front stairs to the elaborate porch. No, I wasn’t an idiot. I hurried across the cobbled bricks to the side of the huge structure. The windows were huge, and there weren’t any shutters or curtains.
I glimpsed figures, and— Holy crap! It was just like the rumors said! Some men were in tuxes, but others were actually wearing silver robes, like it was ceremonial. And as I watched on, a woman, completely naked except for a lace veil and a string of pearls draped between her large bosoms walked boldly into the room, followed by another, and another.
I gasped and stepped backwards.
“What are you doing out here?”
I looked up in shock, caught.
An older man in full livery gestured me forwards from a side door. “You’re late. All the other girls are already ready. Come on, hurry, hurry.”
My heart in my throat, I stumbled forward. It was stupid. I should have fled. I should have made excuses.
But what could I say? I was just peeking? If they found out who I was… I blinked, the gravity of the situation suddenly hitting me. The secret society was powerful. They had the power over my family’s company and we’d been lucky, so lucky that they’d decided to be gracious and allow Montgomery to hold it in trust for me. I didn’t know the details of what my brother had done to screw up his Trial, but I knew these men were far too powerful to fuck around with—
Me being here might have just screwed everything up. What they had given, they could just as easily take away.
But if I ran now, I’d make a scene. So instead, panicked and not knowing what else to do, I allowed the man to usher me into the Oleander. A place absolutely forbidden to good little society girls like me.
3
WALKER
Sully VanDoren was going to lose his fucking mind.
What the hell was his little sister doing at the Oleander? Jasmine wasn’t a belle, as she was about as blue blood royalty as it came. Not to mention her mother would have a stroke knowing her precious princess had stepped foot on this property.
I quickly scanned the ballroom to see if any other members of the Order were seeing what I was—which was Jasmine VanDoren entering the Oleander ballroom—and saw that everyone seemed to be preoccupied.
I couldn’t say I blamed any of the men, since a line of women were entering the grand room wearing nothing but strings of pearls around their necks and lace veils covering their faces. The beautiful white they wore blended perfectly with the elegance of the white ballroom. White floors, white walls, a large grandfather clock with sabers as the face, and candlelight all around was the backdrop for tonight’s festivities. A symphony played an eerie soundtrack to what would no doubt be another decadent and sinful evening of the Order of the Silver Ghost.