Part of Chapter Two (ELLA POV)

All rights to @ KaylaSilverss for this chapter extract that I had saved from when the book was still on Wattpad, this is a chapter from the book that has also been published on Wattpad from Stone's POV. I urge you all to get the published copy if you're able, it's fantastic! <3

I did not think the night could get worse.

With one buzz of my phone, I knew I had jinxed it.

I brought the phone to my ear and greeted Lana "Hello."

"How was your date?" She quickly blurted out and she did not wait for my reply before speaking again "I have met this amazing hot guy at the ice cream place."

It was good that one of us was getting a romantic night at the pier or at least a date that had stayed until the end.

"That is great." I told her before explaining "Chase had ditched me to go to some beach fight. Don't ask."

Lana hardly ever pursued the guys she liked. She had never introduced herself or tried to start a conversation, so I knew this ice cream parlour guy had to have made an impression.

"That is awful of him." She commented. "Tell me about it. He is away with my stuffed panda."

I said to the girl on the other end of the phone call "I might just go home and mourn my loss. The loss of the panda, not Chase."

The phone went quiet for a second or two. I looked around and wondered if I appeared as stupid as I felt. I was standing alone in one of the most romantic spots in the city. I felt like I should have been filmed for a heart-breaking angsty music video.

"There is no way you are going home. Get your little butt here now." She ordered of me before adding "I want to know what you think of this guy. I think he is my soulmate."

We had only been away from each other for twenty minutes.

"Yuck!" I blurted out, smiling to myself knowing she could not see it. It was not that I did not believe in and want the white picket fence happily ever after. I just did not believe that was possible with a guy from high school.

Teenage relationships were nothing but fickle. Rarely any lasted.

"He has a friend." Lana's voice lowered as she informed me "So you will not be a third wheel. I promise."

I groaned and agreed before I hung up on her.

My walk to go and meet her was intentionally slow. My pace was somewhere in between one of a snail and an old lady walking to the bingo.

A few minutes later and I was in front of the ice cream place. Along with the overall theme of the pier, the building was lit up like a Christmas tree. The place gave off an eighty's diner look with the bright interior and neon lights.

I eyed the decor through the big windows while I pushed open the door to the rectangular building.

The bright red booths of the place were almost empty. Only two tables were occupied and one of them was by a man that looked freakishly like Danny DeVito.

I spotted the back of Lana's blonde hair at a four-seater table in the middle of the room.

The back of her head faced me. She looked too engrossed in the conversation with the guy opposite her to notice that I had arrived.

I assumed that the one she was talking to was the guy she was interested in. I could see exactly why she took in an interest in him.

He was extremely good looking with dark skin and dark hair that was cropped short into a buzz-cut. He was wearing a turquoise short-sleeved shirt that showed off his impressive arm muscles and his significantly sized chest. The mixture of his blue shirt and his supermodel-worthy face radiated an exotic vibe like he spent all day on the beach surfing.

I tore my attention away from Lana's guy and peered at the other male at the table.

I stopped moving because he was a whole other level of hot.

Against the bright eccentric lights of the place, he stood out with a dark domineering presence. His pitch-black hair and his leather jacket made him look like someone found in a motorcycle gang. A start of a tattoo was visible where his neck met his chest, but his plain black shirt stopped me from seeing any more.

This man had the meanest and grouchiest face I had ever seen in my life, but he was stunning. So stunning that it was hard to assign a word to his darkly ethereal looks. He was not beautiful in a traditional way but there was something about his dark eyes and his rough facial features that made my heart start beating rapidly.

Even with a terrifying scowl on his face, he was by far the most attractive man I had ever seen.

I blinked twice before studying him further.

He was the largest human I had ever seen. He was sitting down but it was not hard to tell that he was over six and a half feet and weighed well more than three hundred pounds. His legs were not under the table but at the side and he looked far too large for almost about anything. His arms and chest swallowed his seat whole.

He looked so immovable like he was made up of testosterone and everything else that was all man. His shoulders were wide which made him look even more like a bodyguard and added to his intimidating appearance. He had the upper body of a wrestler with thigh-sized biceps and forearms the size of swollen calves.

The giant leather-jacket-wearing man was on his phone, and I doubt he was playing candy crush saga. He was not engaging in the other two at the table's conversation.

His dark eyes moved away from under the table as he noticed me standing there. His hard gaze studied me with intent, leaving me frozen in place. His attention roamed over me and left none of my body untouched by his eye. His focus remained on my face for what felt like a small eternity before he pulled his attention away from me and back to the floor.

I took another look around the place and tried not to look at him. I peered at a random picture on the wall as I watched the sexy skyscraper move in his seat.

Once the well-built stranger moved, Lana and the guy she was talking to moved their head to face what he was looking at.

I turned back to see that they were looking at me.

Lana's face became visible as she twisted her body to face my direction. She tilted her head at me as if she was wondering why I was just standing there.

My face must have looked like a rabbit in headlights.

"Ella." She called and motioned with her hand for me to come over "Get over here."

I nodded my head before joining them at the table. I took the seat next to Lana and sent her a smile, but my attention quickly strayed back to the man across from me.

The leather jacket-wearing Goliath was even more attractive up close. Being opposite him gave me a closer observation of him.

His dark eyes were almost black as he watched me too. His jaw was clenched, and the strict line looked like it could cut my skin if I ran my finger along it.

Nobody could have been that devastatingly handsome. There had to be a flaw with him despite the obvious which was that he was kind of scary.

I turned my attention back to Lana who was too busy in an intense staring contest with her surfer dude. Neither of them was speaking. They were just smiling at each other.

If I was not so glad that she had found someone that she liked, I might have puked.

It was like something out of a movie where hearts floated around in the air and little kiss shaped emojis floated around them. It was completely nauseating in a sweet kind of way.

"Are you going to introduce me?" I muttered under my breath to Lana because I was starting to feel awkward that I was just sitting there.

"This is Brennan." She giggled softly while motioning to the boy across from her and then her voice came out nervously when she motioned to the large man next to him and added "And this is his friend Stone."

The large man was called Stone and I almost burst out laughing at how much the name suited him.

He looked so big and powerful. He towered over everything, and he oozed a dark, dominant energy that threatened to consume me whole. He radiated a pure alpha male energy.

Stone glanced at me and then looked back at the floor before glancing at me again. His mean-looking face went strict, and his features tightened like he was clenching his jaw or grinding his molars.

His few glimpses were discreet and if I blinked then I would have missed them.

"Hi." I spoke up, offering both guys a little wave "I'm Ella."

Brennan looked away from Lana to greet me back "It is nice to meet to you, Ella."

I smiled and replied a little awkwardly "You too."

The huge man or Stone as he was called was looking right at me.

He stayed completely still for a few seconds, entrapping me in his gaze with his dark pupils.

I did not know if they were unusually black or dilated at that moment.

I met his gaze head-on and offered him a small smile.

His jaw tightened and it showed off the sculpted edges of his rough-looking face before he forced himself to turn away and focus on something outside.

He had not smiled at me or even tried to look friendly. He had just looked at me before going back to not acknowledging me at all. I peered over at the stoic face and concluded that he did not like talking.

Silence hung in the air at the table and it had me thinking that I should have just gone home.

"So, you are The Notebook crier then?" The friendlier male Brennan questioned with a smirk.

It had become apparent he was the talker of the two and the opposite of the silent killer type of man next to him.

"What?" I let out the word with a small laugh, twiddling my thumbs together as I rested my arms on the table.

"That was what Lovely Lana told me." Brennan pointed out, his teasing playful smirk still decorating his mouth.

I was shocked that he had given her a nickname ten minutes after meeting her and I was shocked Lana had ratted me out about my love of the romance film.

I had a reputation to hold of a semi-cool person. Not a girl that cried at Nicholas Sparks' greatest creation.

My lip pursed and I narrowed my eyes in an attempt to pull off an angry face. It needed work however and I found myself pondering if the giant opposite me would be willing to help.

The giant seemed to have the whole intimidating expression perfected that would have grown men running home to their moms.

"I told you it was my allergies." I defended and crossed my arms before adding "I have never cried at The Notebook."

Lana had her hand on her mouth, trying to contain her laughter.

I smiled at her evilly and got ready to take my revenge.

"Brennan, I think you should save yourself and run now. Get out of future dates with her before it is too late." I stage whispered over to him while motioning with my head towards my best friend "This Lovely Lana as you have nicknamed her likes to watch Barbie movies in her spare time. The movies with the fairies and the flying horses and the sparkly castles. She goes to the cinema with the five-year-olds."

I also went with her and the five-year-olds to see the Barbie movies. It was my best-friend duty to have the mortifying job of taking her to see the films.

Lana blushed at my comment and looked to her lover boy, waiting for his reply as she softly kicked me under the table.

Brennan chuckled before sending a wink to Lana "I think that is cute."

I rolled my eyes at my backfired plan.

"For a seven-year-old maybe." I deadpanned before adding in the direction of Brennan "Anyways, you should be on my side."

"And why is that?" He rebutted, cocking his head to the side. "As the Spice Girl's once said if you want to be her lover," I pointed to Lana who looked to be telepathically communicating with me to shut up while I spoke, "Then you got to get with her friends."

A pair of dark eyes belonging to the silent broody man were set on my face. He was staring at me fiercely like I had the answers to the universe on my forehead.

My whole face was heating up from his unfaltering stare. My cheeks were starting to tingle from the sheer heat of his study on me.

I was feeling particularly friendly, so I tried thinking of a way to include him in the conversation.

"Do you by any chance like Barbie films?" My voice came out quiet and soft as I uttered the question.

Stone was already watching me when I turned my attention to him.

He did not give me an answer or any kind of words of acknowledgement. He grunted a deep noise and that was it.

"I will take that as a no then, Lurch." I commented on his rudeness.

He was too volatility attractive to have an award-winning personality anyway.

Lana elbowed me and Brennan's eyes went wide as he turned his head towards his friend.

They were acting like I had poked a bear with a stick. Like the guy that was in front of me was a bomb about to go off.

The silence stretched until a small miracle happened.

A guttural noise came out in a rough series of words "What did you just call me?"

His voice was deep. Deeper than any voice I had heard before. It was strong and husky and low. That voice was one I could tell kept people up at night. I could not help but imagine him reading for a thriller audiobook.

Scary but hot was a pattern with this guy. He might not have given anything away about himself, but I could rule out that his flaw was his voice because it was certainly not squeaky. It was the opposite and the low-octave sound vibrated through me.

When walking in here, I felt a lot better being inside and away from the sight and sound of the sea. It turned out that I had found myself in a different type of danger from the wrath of the mysterious man across from me.

"Lurch from The Addams Family." I answered and then I went on to explain "He is the big guy that never speaks and only groans and grumbles occasionally."

His face remained stoic. His eyes however told a different story as they watched me unfalteringly.

I had the urge to jump up and scream boo to try and scare him. I wanted to make his expression budge, but it appeared quite a challenge.

I wanted to know how much he worked out to get so big and muscly. I wanted to know why his eyes were so black and if he wore contacts. I wanted to know if he was capable of smiling.

"Wait! I think he has a catchphrase." I spoke aloud before changing my voice to one of a monotoned heavy smoker male when I remembered the famous phrase from the character of Lurch "You rang?"

Brennan sat still in his seat next to the giant. He was watching Stone for his reaction like he was waiting for a jack-in-the-box to pop or for a volcano to explode.

Stone's mouth twitched upwards for a split second as he continued to watch me.

The small smile was too quick to memorise which I should have because I suspected I would not see it again.

"Maybe you are Wednesday Addams instead." I suggested to him before breaking contact so I could explain my hypothesis to Lana "It is like that scene where she tries to smile and it looks like it causes her actual pain to do so."

I glanced back at Stone who I had now decided to refer to as Lurch.

He was looking at me too. So intensely that my face was starting to heat up again.

The giant stranger watched me like he could not believe what was happening. He watched me as if I was something other than human.

Maybe he was not used to being called a name. I admitted to myself that even I would not like to be on the bad side of his muscles.

His body was built like a gorilla. Not even a normal gorilla but more like Godzilla.

Everything about him was closed off and monotonous. Even his eyes had no colour.

They say eyes are the windows to the soul, but his windows were hidden by blackout curtains and a brick wall the size of him.

They were a complete mystery.

He was a complete mystery.

I shook myself out of my trance-like state and focused on the happier side of the table. Brennan was watching Stone watch me and Lana was just watching me.

Lana's gaze flickered between Stone and me until she settled on me and asked "Anyway, how was your date?"

"It was fine." I shrugged before replying "The whole twenty minutes of it."

The small hint of a second-long smile was without a doubt gone from Stone's face now.

His hands were balled into fists resting on the table. His jaw clenched and unclenched like a ticking time bomb. He was grinding his molars as he listened to the conversation and his scowl had deepened even further.

Stone appeared murderous. Every part of his muscular body was tensed as if he was fighting back a predatory streak that lingered near the surface of his emotionless facade.

I had no clue why he looked so vicious like one more little thing could set him off on a killing spree.

He probably did not need a reason and I was looking far too deep into it.

Brennan sent a small smile my way as he mentioned "Lana mentioned you only went on the date for a stuffed teddy."

It turned out that this guy was not just a massive flirt. He was also a massive tease. It made me wonder why he hung around with the dark cloud beside him.

The scowling scary man looked like someone that did not take well to insults. He looked like he dealt with them fist-first.

"You must be a pretty damn good flirt." I commented before asking "How did you get all this out of Lana in the twenty minutes that I was not there?"

Brennan delivered with a mere roll of his shoulders "Just worked my charm."

Swivelling around in my seat on the booth, I pointed at Lana accusingly while challenging "Did you give him my bank details as well?"

Her response was a shrug and a small guilty filled smile.

I shifted in my seat when I felt the dark pair of eyes that were still unwitheringly studying my face.

"How did you two meet?" I asked while glancing between Lana and Brennan to keep myself distracted.

A dreamy sight left Lana before explaining "I went to get a candy apple at the stall and there was only one left. Brennan took it."

I was confused at how she found that romantic. If some random person had stolen food from me then I would not stay and chat. I would kick their ass or at least try to anyway.

Lana continued with her story "He promised that he would give me half the candy apple if I rode the Ferris wheel with him."

"I have to give it to you, Lover Boy." I delivered to Brennan with an impressed laugh "You are pretty smooth."

"I try my best." He replied with a smirk before adding "It is not as good as The Notebook where he climbed the wheel. That is probably why you are not fangirling right now."

I flipped him the middle finger but I smiled at him, so he knew it was light-hearted. I secretly admire his sense of humour, so he had earned the stamp of approval for me.

My best friend nudged my shoulder "You still didn't answer my question."

"What?" I replied, turning to her.

"How did your date go?"

Our table shook violently and indomitably before I could answer.

Living in Santa Monica meant that my first thought was that it was an earthquake. I quickly changed my mind when I saw the face of the man opposite me.

Stone had kicked it or punched it or his tensed body had moved it in a way. It was clear by the way he was clenching his jaw and the thunderous fury in his eyes.

I wanted to ask him who had peed in his ice cream.

Then I noticed he had not gotten an ice cream like the other two at the table. I almost let out a laugh at the idea of him with a colourful sweet treat. The rainbow sprinkles would clash with his all-black look and stern serious expression.

I ignored him like he had ignored me.

"It was fine." I answered Lana's question "I guess."

Brennan laughed and cocked his head to the side while pointing out "You are not very convincing."

"The main issue was that he never got my Great Gatsby reference." I replied before going ahead and explaining "He saw this green light in the distance and asked what it was. Naturally, I responded by calling him Old Sport. He looked at me like I was insane and that I was speaking some sort of ancient alien language."

Lana let out a small giggle "Not everyone can be as big a book nerd as you are, Ella."

"He is also away with my stuffed panda." I sighed and shook my head at the image of him running away with Pete "He better bring it to school on Monday or I will go all Kung Fu Panda on him."

I made a mock ninja pose to show how serious I was about the matter.

"You are going to carry a panda around the corridors?" Brennan questioned in disbelief "Does that not go against..."

Brennan trailed off and he did not complete the sentence as he stared at my wardrobe that consisted of a shirt, a black leather skirt and a pair of fishnets underneath.

"I could just say the teddy is for a satanic ritual."

I returned. "I'm sorry. I never meant to offend you." Brennan quickly assured me before complimenting "You look really cool."

"Oh." I said in surprise, glancing down at my hands on the table "Thank you."

A gruff noise sounded from the man opposite me that sounded like a strangled carnivorous animal.

I tried not to think about what that noise was supposed to mean.

Brennan glanced next to him before continuing to speak "What colour is your hair anyway? Emerald?"

I opened my mouth, but my reply got lost in the air when a new voice interjected.

"Puke Coloured?"

The voice was deep. Too deep and too rough to be owned by anyone other than the giant. The best way to describe it was gravelly or guttural.

The silent skyscraper had finally spoken and he had insulted my hair.

I happened to love my hair. The green suited me. Much more than my natural brown hair had. I loved my green colour and there was no way I was going to let him insult it.

Everything happened so fast. One minute I was narrowing my eyes and sitting back in my seat and the next I was leaning over the table and pointing a finger at the grumpy face of the man who had insulted me.

"Listen here, Lurch. You obviously have bad taste in colour." I bit out the words while narrowing my eyes further

"It is fairytale green."

I'm afraid that's all for this chapter! The published version is available on Amazon and can also be downloaded there aswell!

Hope you are all doing good <3