Fighting Darius

“What are you doing? Are you trying to kill me by scaring me to death???” I place both hands on my chest.

My heart is hammering against my ribcage. It doesn’t help that he is looking hot as hell. In the dim light, he’s all smooth skin and sharply contoured angles. His hair fair is in disarray as if he’d been running his hand through it so many times. His cotton pajama bottom is resting low over his hips. His white t-shirt fits snuggly like a second skin to his amazing sculptured body. My heart squeezes in my chest almost painfully. Stupid lycan. Stupid sexy lycan.

“Persephone,” he breathes, ignoring my theatrics. “I think we should talk.”

I don’t miss how his eyes are staring at my face, then raking my figure with longing and hunger. They linger on my bare legs before they go up again. My skin tingles. It almost feels like a physical caress. Damn him!

“No, I don’t think we do,” I reply quickly, pushing the shivers of pleasure down. “Where’s your mate?” I could’ve kicked myself.

Why did I ask him that? No way he missed the jealousy in my voice. Stupid Penny. “Nevermind. That’s none of my business.”

He’s looking at me strangely. “It’s not?” his eyes are suddenly intense on my face, studying me…looking for something.

“Of course it’s not. Not my concern. You can do whatever you want. You can mate with whoever you want. It has nothing to do with me.”

“It has nothing to do with you..” he’s repeating my words. He’s looking angry for some reason.

Already the air between us is crackling with awareness and tension. Me and him, alone in the dark is not a good idea.

He studies me quietly for a few more seconds before he takes a deep breath as if trying to calm himself. He runs his hand through his glossy pale blond hair, making it even more tousled than before. That only makes him look even hotter. It’s not fair.

I want to run my hand through that hair. I want to feel its silkiness between my fingers. My heart can’t take any more of this.

“I’m going to bed. Good night.” I need to get out of here, away from temptation.

“Persephone, wait! That night, we didn’t…I didn’t…”

“I don’t care!” I do, but I don’t want to talk about it. The image of their writhing bodies is still fresh in my mind.

He moves forward and I move back and suddenly he takes a sharp breath. I know he catches a strong smell of me in the still air. His nostrils flare. Pain and jealousy flash in his eyes before they darken into two black orbs.

I didn’t even see him move. He just appears. He was fifteen feet away then suddenly he’s in my personal space, staring down at me.

“Are you doing this to torture me now?” he asks through gritted teeth. I know he can smell other males on me, especially Mr.

Yummy lip ring, the slobber awful pickup line guy and some other guys who ground on me on the dance floor earlier.

“Doing what? It’s not always about you, you know.” I snap instead, turning on my heel to leave.

“By being with other men tonight. How close did you let them get to you? How far did you let them touch you?” He’s

following me. He’s not giving me a chance to put much-needed space between us. “You’re not sleeping with some random guys just to get back at me.”

How dare him! For a second I consider hitting him. He brought out this violent side of me. He’s also a lycan. So much stronger than I am.

I turn to face him again with a challenging look. His eyes are now back to pale blue, but I know he’s still angry. It’s there in his eyes and the stiffness of his jaw and body. Oh, I am so going to lose my v card before the week is over. A steely look comes across his face as if he knows what I’m thinking.

We stand there locked in a staring contest. My eyes are full of challenge and rebellion while his filled with jealousy and steely determination. His wonderful scent fills my lungs. My senses are filled with him. This is why I should stay away from him.

My heart is racing faster in my chest. I feel more alive now than I had been for months.

“You’re not going to do it,” he growls out, moving closer.

I just keep glaring up at him. My eyes are defying him, but I can’t deny the strong magnetic pull anchoring us together.

Powerfully drawing us into each other.

My heart aches at how beautiful he is. His beautifully sculptured lips, they were once on mine. Why am I staring at his lips? I lift my eyes up and notice that his glacier pale blue eyes are staring intently at my lips.

“I swear you’re not going to do it,” he says it like a vow. His breath tantalizingly warm on my lips. He’s leaning in like he can’t help himself.

My breath caught and my heart flutters like the wings of a bird trapped in a cage.

“Do what?” I challenge him. “How are you going to stop me?”

My voice sounds breathy and cracks at the end.

“I know you more than you know yourself, Persephone.” His voice sounds low and husky. His lips hover just a breath away from mine. I could feel the warmth of his body and smell his wonderful addictive scent. Our chest almost touching.

Delicious chills run down my spine. I want his lips on mine. I want the taste of him on my tongue. So badly.

I look back up into his eyes. He’s fighting an inner battle. I can see it…and it hurts.

The thought of Polina invades my mind. He took her to bed so easily, yet he doesn’t want me. He had her in his bed, yet he keeps pushing me away. Even now he’s fighting it. He might even be mated to her right now for all I know. The hurt and the anger comes back, in full force that I stagger a few steps back.

His hands instinctively come up to grab my arm to keep me from falling, but I push them away.

“Then you know I want you to stay the hell away from me,” I yell. I don’t care if I’m waking everybody up or if everybody can hear me now. “Pretend we don’t know each other! Pretend I don’t exist! Pretend whatever fuck you want to pretend. Just leave me alone! You had no problem doing that for the last three years. Why the hell stop now? Just leave me alone!” I turn and stalk away as fast as I can before I start to make a fool of myself like hurling myself into his powerful arms and ask him to kiss me the way I want him to. Like the way he did before.

Faintly I hear him say, “sorry, I can’t do that Malyshka.”

He climbs up the stairs right behind me. He’s still behind me when I cross the hall to my room.

“Are you following me?” I stop right in front of my bedroom door to glare at him. My hands are shaking from being so

angry. I can only see the silhouette of his powerful frame because of the light from the staircase behind him.

“My room is right here,” he points to the door of the guest room next to mine. He sounds calm, but the stiffness in his jaw and his body tell me otherwise.

Damn Caspian. There are three other extra bedrooms in this house and he gave Darius a room next to mine! There’s even a pool house at the back that he can stay in. I swear that prince’s mission in life is to make my life miserable. Stupid lycan!

Saturday morning. The sun is shining bright when I open my eyes reluctantly. The sea breeze is soothing. The bed is comfy.

This is a good place to hide from the real world…or more specifically from Darius.

I spent hours lying in bed, fuming before I finally fell asleep after my “talk” with Darius last night. Okay, so I keep imagining the “almost kiss” moment that we had too…then curse myself right after I did that. The shame. The want. The anger. The want.

You want a fucking fairy godmother, Penny! You want a

unicorn that poops jelly beans. You want a pet dragon that breathes fire on Darius’s stupid sexy a*s. That doesn’t mean that you could have any of those things. Stupid Penny!!!

I’m still fuming now. I’m mad at him and I’m mad at myself.

Last night was the most talk we had in over three years since we first met. Then that almost kiss. Nope, I don’t feel like

facing him today. Nope, I can happily hide in my room for the rest of the day.

Pretty soon, though, my stomach starts growling. It sounds like a family of monsters is living in there. Baby monster, mommy monster, daddy monster, grandpa monster…Oh no, I need

food!

Only the terrifying thought of death caused by starvation motivates me enough to get out of bed finally. It’s beyond pathetic to die of hunger while lying in bed on a Saturday morning. It’s beyond cruel to have to get up so early on a Saturday morning though. I grab my phone on the bedside table. Well, okay so maybe it’s not that early. It’s already close to eleven.

I brush my teeth and pull my hair up into a messy ponytail. I stretch and yawn and glance briefly down my sleepwear. I always go down for breakfast in my pajama on weekends, why should today be any different? I’m better covered than I was last night anyway. I think. It’s a white tank top with pink cotton boy shorts that has pictures of smiling pineapples all over it. I put this on uncaringly last night. Sometimes I sleep in shirts that I stole from Caspian. He has the most comfortable shirts to sleep in, I swear!

Everybody is already at the breakfast table when I got down.

Everybody is already showered and dressed except for Genesis, Caspian and me. The three of us are not morning people in this house.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Genesis is in a bathrobe that I know belonged to Constantine, just by the size and the smell of it. Caspian is topless. His

cotton pajama bottom seems to be in danger of slipping off his hips when he yawns and stretches his hands above his head.

His golden hair sticking everywhere.

“Good Morning,” I mumble, dropping onto the only chair available next to Caspian and Genesis. I try not to look at Darius who’s sitting right across from me. I know he’s all dressed up.

Everybody returns my greeting. From the way everybody is looking at us, I think they heard our “talk” last night. It’s hard to hide anything when you live with a bunch of nosey lycans with crazy super hearing.

Anya places my favorite mug with the face of a cow on it in front of me and I nod my thanks as she pours me steaming hot black coffee.

“I trust you slept well last night, Persephone?” says Darius casually sipping his coffee.

I almost choke and spit my coffee out. “Yes, awesome!” I snap out with a scowl. “I slept awesome!”

He must’ve known that I spent hours tossing and turning, knowing that we’re sharing a wall, wishing I could kick him in the nuts. Angry at him and wanting him. He should burn in hell.

He’s looking great this morning. No sign of late night tossing and turning. His white shirt stretches delightfully tight across his impressive chest. The sunlight streaming in through the big window behind him catches his shiny light blond hair. The

light that surrounds him makes him seem unreal. Shiny and perfect and too beautiful to be real. His pale blue eyes shining brightly as he stares at me from across the table. I have a sudden urge to kick him in the shin underneath the table.

Lazarus coughs and clears his throat loudly and I almost jump.

I suddenly realize that we’ve been locked in our staring match for a while. I look away with a scowl and notice Caspian’s smirking face and everybody else’s amused expressions. That woman Eva is looking back and forth between Darius and me with curiosity.

I look back up at him and give him the meanest glare. His mouth curls up into a sexy lopsided smile. How can a lopsided smile look so sexy and hot? Urghhh…he is so infuriating.

The conversation flows around us, but I’m not paying

attention.

I scowl harder as he raises his coffee mug to his lips with his eyes still on me. I watch him warily before I drag my eyes away and stab a stack of pancakes in front of me furiously with my fork. Stupid sexy lycan! Who likes a hot sexy jerky lycan? Nope!

Not me. Gosh! I hate him!!! I hate him so frikin’ much that I…I….I wanna poke his sexy eyes with this fork!

After breakfast, Darius and Eva went out. I didn’t even ask the others where they went off to. I don’t care. I’m not jealous at all. Nope. Not at all. Not even a little bit.

All the men have business to attend to as well, so Genesis, Serena and I decided to lounge around the swimming pool in our bikini. Serena and I are developing a nice tan. Genesis

remains pale with a nice pink glow to her skin. I don’t know how she manages that.

I’m painting Serena’s toenails bright red. Genesis is painting her fingernails. We’re taking turns painting each other’s nails. I don’t have Genesis’s careful precision, I keep messing it up and having to wipe the edges.

“I think we should go to the Spa one day. A day of relaxation at the Spa with my sisters,” sighs Serena. I love how she refers to us as her sisters now. I love how the lycans make me feel included and belonged.

“So…” says Genesis. “You and Darius..uh…patch things up finally, huh?”

I miss Serena’s toenail by a mile and smear the bright red color onto her skin. I curse under my breath as I wipe it off of her skin quickly.

That’s Genesis’s idea of being nosey and subtle at the same time. I can’t blame her. I’d do the same thing, only I wouldn’t be subtle. I would demand to know what happened.

“Nope, if you were listening harder last night, you would have known that he should stay far far far away from me,” I answer.

“Like in a different continent wouldn’t be far enough away.”

“Why???” She stops nail painting. “Darius must’ve told you that he didn’t mark that other woman, right?”

He didn’t? I remember he was trying to tell me something like that last night and I wouldn’t listen. Well, it wouldn’t matter because I still saw him in bed with that woman.

Serena and Genesis are now looking excited. They are looking at me as if all my problems are now solved.

Which reminds me that I never told Genesis or Serena about what I saw that night. It was too embarrassing for me. Their erasthais moved heaven and earth to be with them. Mine refused me for years and took another woman to bed to show me how much I’m not wanted.

It was all my own fault. I shouldn’t have spent those years waiting for him and going after him. Well, that Penny who had been pining after him is gone. This Penny isn’t waiting for anyone. I’m going to show him just how much I’m not pining after him.