Accidentally Pregnant with the Horror Boss novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: Night One
Blind without her glasses, Daisy kisses a stranger in the dark and finds a head held at his chest answering her, and the Master of Gravemoor tells her she is now his bride.
I couldn't see the man in front of me, so I went up on my toes and kissed him.
My mouth landed on something smooth and warm above his collar.
It wasn't his jaw.
It wasn't his cheek either.
"Madam," said a deep voice from somewhere around my stomach. "That is my neck."
I looked down.
Without my glasses the whole world was a smear of red curtains, black shadow and candlelight.
A pale oval floated in front of his chest, held between two large hands.
It had dark hair on top. It had a mouth in the middle. The mouth was moving.
"You're holding your head," I said.
"I am."
"Is it heavy?"
There was a long pause from the oval.
"Nobody has ever asked me that," it said.
Twenty minutes earlier, I'd still had glasses.
I'd had a whole normal Tuesday, actually.
I teach the four-year-olds at a church daycare in Columbus, Ohio.
I came home with glitter in my bun and a black card in my mailbox.
"You are invited to Gravemoor."
I touched it, because I'm the kind of person who touches things.
Then I was standing in a marble foyer with thirteen strangers and no front door.
The windows showed nothing but fog.
Every one of us was holding a little white card.
One. Survive 100 nights.
Two. Be in a bed by midnight.
Three. Never run from the Master.
Four. The Master's wing is closed to guests.
A blond man in a puffer vest had climbed onto the stairs and clapped his hands.
"Listen up. I'm Kyle. I've cleared two of these houses. You want to live, you do what I say."
A woman with red curls and navy scrubs had snorted loud enough for everybody to hear.
Kyle had pointed his flashlight at the rest of us.
"Vets on the outside, fodder in the middle. Fodder means you, sweetheart."
He meant me.
Then a clock somewhere had struck eleven, and every candle in the foyer went out.
Something howled down the hall.
Everybody ran.
An elbow hit my face and my glasses flew off.
I went down on my hands and knees, patting the cold marble.
My fingers found the frames.
Then a boot came down on them with a crunch.
"Oops," Kyle said, right above me. "Sorry, fodder."
His hand closed on the back of my sweater.
He hauled me up and shoved me through a door with a brass plate on it.
I heard the lock click behind me.
I heard him laugh through the wood.
"The Master's busy for a while. Go, go, go!"
So that was how I ended up in the closed wing, blind as a mole, kissing a stranger's neck.
Now the stranger was looking at me from about the height of my belt.
"Why aren't you running?" the head asked.
"Rule three," I said. "Never run from the Master."
"Everyone runs anyway."
"I can't see where I'd be running to."
The head made a noise.
I think it was a laugh it had forgotten how to finish.
His shoulders were very broad and very still. He smelled like cedar and candle smoke.
He was the tallest blur I'd ever stood next to.
"You understand what I am," he said.
"I'm a minus nine in both eyes. I understand you're tall and dark and you have a nice voice."
"I am the Master of Gravemoor."
"Okay."
"Guests scream when they see me."
"I can't see you," I said. "So I guess I'm the lucky one."
Behind me, the lock rattled.
The door opened a crack and a flashlight beam slid across the carpet.
"Is she dead yet?" Kyle whispered to somebody.
Then louder, sweet as pie. "Hey! Fodder! Run back this way, quick, we'll cover you!"
The beam found my feet.
It found the tall black shape in front of me, and it shook.
I turned around.
I couldn't see Kyle's face, but I could see his gold watch catch the light.
"You broke my glasses," I said. "And you pushed me in here so it would eat me instead of you."
"Come on, it was an accident. Get over here."
"No."
"Are you insane? Run!"
"No," I said again. "I'm staying right here."
The flashlight beam jerked, and the door slammed shut.
I heard their feet pound away down the hall.
My knees were shaking. I locked them.
Something small and cold slipped into my hand.
I looked down at a little white blur in a nightgown with a curtain of black hair over its face.
It was holding a stuffed rabbit by one ear.
"She kissed you, Daddy," the little blur said. "I saw."
"Mouse," the head said. "Bed."
I crouched down so we were eye to eye, or eye to hair.
"Hi, sweetheart. Are you lost?"
"I'm never lost," she said. "I'm home."
She squeezed my fingers so hard it hurt.
"I want her. She's mine."
The head sighed.
One of his hands let go of it, so it balanced on the other palm.
The free hand slid the white card out of my fingers.
He turned it over.
There was writing on the back I hadn't noticed, round and crooked.
He held it a few inches from my nose so I could read it.
"If a guest kisses the Master, she is his bride."
"I'm afraid, Miss..." he said.
"Lund," I said. "Daisy Lund."
"Miss Lund," said the Master of Gravemoor. "You've just married me."
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend