by Con Template
He flashed me his most charming grin, and I felt my stomach twist in pleasure.
Watching him in this state made me realize what an amazing lover he would be in bed. He would be attentive, he would savor everything, and he would be the most delicious sin. There was a come hither look in his eyes that said, “You can eat me too if you want.”
Instead of vocalizing that, he simply said, “Just one bite.” He ripped out a piece of the doughnut for me, brought it to my lips, and gazed at me expectantly. “One bite won’t hurt, Gracie.”
Oh, what the hell? Why not?
There were too many temptations presented to me and because I was tired, hungry, and weak-minded for a ridiculously hot guy and ridiculously delicious food, I gave in. One bite wouldn’t hurt, right?
My mistake was taking one bite because, as we all know, it is virtually impossible to take a mere bite of a damn doughnut. I bit into it and instantly felt all the synapses in my brain flash into life, completely waking me up from the pit of lethargy I was in.
Oh wow, this is delicious.
Throwing all self-control out the window, I grabbed the doughnut and hot chocolate and devoured them. Actually “devour” was too serene of a word. I pretty much inhaled my doughnut and hot chocolate. It was the fastest and most delicious meal I had ever consumed and I wanted more.
As though reading my mind, Eclipse contentedly snapped his fingers. Another doughnut appeared before me. At the same instant, my once empty cup was replenished with hot chocolate. I was yet again given the opportunity to screw up my diet, and I reveled in every second of it.
After class was over, I was still munching on the doughnut and drinking my hot chocolate while Eclipse accompanied me to the student café to meet up with Dawn for lunch. In order to prevent anyone from calling the mental hospital in fear for my sanity, I made sure to wear my newly purchased earpiece as I walked with him. Bless my coveted soul for this foolproof plan because it was virtually impossible to ignore Eclipse. I was relieved to have an earpiece as an excuse to have a conversation with the invisible Demon.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked moments later, climbing up the crowded stairs that led up to the café. I bit into a newly appeared doughnut. My suspicious eyes landed on his when I realized that this had been a relatively nice day for me. However peaceful though, I suspected he was up to something. I just didn’t know what it was. “Why hasn’t anything embarrassing happened to me yet? Why are you giving me a break?”
He gave a light shrug as we stepped inside the café and took a seat in a quiet corner of the room.
“I sense that you’re very angry with me. I’m trying to make amends,” he told me simply, sitting right beside me in the red booth. A charismatic smile grazed his lips before he replenished my doughnut and drink. “If you haven’t noticed, I’ve taken a very strong liking to you. Though I’m here for business and am very adamant about taking your soul, I’m also adamant on being on your good side.”
I lifted a caustic brow at him. “By giving me fatty food when you know how obsessed I am with eating healthy?”
“There’s a difference between self-control and masochism. For you, Gracie, I fear that you’re teetering on masochism.” He sighed, his eyes encouraging me to keep eating the doughnut. “There’s nothing wrong with discipline, but there’s also nothing wrong with enjoying the sweet sins of life every once in a while. You humans are not like cats—you don’t have nine lives. You only have one, so you might as well enjoy the hell out of it.”
I smirked at him. “You realize you may have opened Pandora’s Box now, right? What if I get fat? Do you think you’d still want me then?”
His pleasant smile remained. “I don’t want a woman who is disciplined, unsatisfied, and miserable. I want a woman who is happy, wild, and demanding in my bed. If you enjoying sweets is what it’ll take to get you to the latter, then I’d gladly supply you with your own candy land.”
“You’re such a bullshitter,” I couldn’t help but say. I knew he was up to something. It was frustrating that I couldn’t figure out the possible rationale behind tempting me to eat a doughnut and drink hot chocolate. “I know that this is another one of your tricks to get me into giving you my soul. I just can’t figure out why you’re choosing this method. Are you trying to woo me with kindness?”
A chuckle escaped his lips. My accusation amused him to no end. “You know me too well, Gracie. You’re right. This is a persuasion tactic, one that I have been looking forward to the most actually. To be perfectly honest though, I wasn’t sure how hardheaded you would be when it came to sweets. I was pleasantly surprised when you opened your mind and started to enjoy all that I was offering you.” He laughed again, watching me as I munched on the doughnut. There was desire in his eyes, one that had me feeling hot all over. “I have to admit . . . I am a bit jealous. I would give anything for you to look at me the way you look at that doughnut, like you just want to go wild and devour me.”
Um, what was wrong with his Demon eyes? I had been looking at him like that since I first met him!
In fear of my instincts blurting out the wrong thing, I ignored his last comment and changed the subject. “Why me? Why did you choose me?”
The question had been lingering in my mind. I really wanted him to answer it. There was something unsettling about his answer about wanting to sleep with me. For some reason, I really believed that there was more to it than something so superficial.
He smirked at me in amusement. He clearly didn’t want to tread on that topic. “Didn’t I answer this question already?”
I regarded him sternly. I did not share that same amusement. He didn't want to venture on this topic, but I did. “You’re really here because you want to sleep with me?”
“Because I want you,” he clarified with a bored sigh. “As I told you the other night, sex with you is just a very nice bonus.”
“Why do you want me then?”
He fell silent for a few moments. In the silence, he simply took the time to gaze at me in a carefree and lighthearted manner. He looked like he was debating about whether or not he should encourage this direction of the conversation. When he saw the stubbornness in my eyes—that I wouldn't let this topic go—he relented.
“Did I not tell you that you’re famous in my world?”
“So that means my soul is very coveted,” I reasoned, following the train of thought he subtly led me on. “Getting my soul would be a hell of a trophy for a Demon.”
He nodded, impressed with what I concluded. “You’re right. Your soul is very coveted. It is quite possibly the most coveted soul in this millennium alone. Every Demon has heard of you, every Demon wants to meet you, and every Demon wants to be the one to own your soul.” He smiled with pride and shrugged. “And a Demon who owns your soul will have the most powerful bragging rights for the centuries to come. I think that's a very powerful incentive for anyone, yes?”
I smirked bitterly at him. It finally made sense why he was so determined to come after me and torture me. I was nothing but a trophy for him to take back to Hell. For reasons I didn’t understand, this subtle confession from him hurt my feelings. Don't get me wrong. I was sexually attracted to the Demon, but I was no way in love with him. It simply sucked to find out that someone was courting you because they saw superficial value in you, not because they liked you for who you were. This momentarily offended me, but much like other things that had disappointed me in life, I didn't allow it to consume me. I was a strong girl. Nothing was powerful enough to break me—at least not at that point in my life.
“Why are you the only Demon I’ve met then?” I asked him carelessly. It occurred to me that in my almost twenty-one years of existence, I had never seen another Demon.
A light changed in his eyes at my question. The instant I saw this change, I felt my mind come alive with alertness. Although he didn’t change his cool façade, that miniscule change in his eyes was all that I needed to know that I was on to something.
&
nbsp; “If my soul is so coveted,” I launched, gazing at him vigilantly, “then why haven’t I seen an abundance of Demons after my soul? Why are you the only one? Why aren’t there more competing with you for my soul?”
He regarded me with silence at my questions.
“Really?” I taunted, irate with his sudden silent treatment. “I’ve finally managed to shut up the great Demon of Lust?"
I wasn't typically this rude with anyone else. With Eclipse, I felt comfortable being true to my nature. Perhaps it was because he had such an exhaustive personality and the only way I could deal with him was to allow my true personality to shine through. Whatever the reason, it was odd. There were no cover-ups when I was with him, no false façade of innocence, and no two-faced personality. I was at my rawest and most imperfect form, and the weird thing was that I felt okay with it. I felt safe being myself around him.
At long last, Eclipse finally nodded, wordlessly telling me that he would grant me a boon. He placed his arms on the table and leaned in closer to me. I mirrored his movements, excited to hear the answer. The smoke curling away from his cigarette butt swam around us while his smile turned into a secretive grin.
After what felt like an eternity of anticipation, he parted his lips and said, “Because the Heavens opened for me and I found you first.”
“The Heavens opened for you and you found me first?” I repeated slowly, puzzled with the cryptic answer. I furrowed my brows together. “What does that even mean?”
“It means that I’m never giving up on you,” he assured me, his eyes pulsing with conviction. “It means that I can’t give up on you. My fate is sealed with yours. I can’t turn back now.”
I absorbed what he said, my eyes staring into his. Then, after blinking several times, I burst out laughing, nearly choking on my doughnut as I shook my head. The ridiculousness of what he said tickled my funny bone. I knew he wasn’t going to tell me the truth, but I hadn’t anticipated him to make up such a dumb lie.
Let’s be real. How could his fate be intertwined with mine?
He broke out of his secretive grin and laughed with me. Exhilaration twinkled his eyes at the knowledge that he was able to make me smile.
“That was a stupid lie, wasn’t it?” he asked, smiling as he watched me laugh my butt off. After a few moments of allowing me to simmer down from my giggling-fest, he looked at me and appreciatively said, “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” I asked absentmindedly, taking a sip out of my hot chocolate and biting into another piece of my doughnut. I was still reeling from the good laugh I had.
“That you’re so much more beautiful when you smile, when you laugh without a care in the world.”
My heart skipped a beat when those words rolled over me.
I cleared my throat and briefly broke eye contact. Instead of permitting myself to fangirl over this line, I simply smirked at him. I hadn’t forgotten that he was after my soul. He may have made me laugh, but at the end of the day, he was still my foe. I couldn’t allow this lighthearted moment to cloud my judgment. With my mouth filled with scrumptious calories, I asked, “How long are you going to pursue this hopeless cause?”
He looked at me with a resolved expression that startled me, for I feared it meant that he would never give up. His focus then rested on my lips. Eliciting a sigh, he lifted up a hand and tucked my loose bangs behind my ear.
“As long as it takes,” he distractedly whispered before leaning in to brush his lips over the upper part of my lip.
My breath caught in my chest.
I didn’t understand what was happening until his lips grazed mine softly—too soft and too fleeting to be called a kiss—and allowed a rogue doughnut glaze that was stuck to my upper lip to slide into the fortress of his mouth. My doughnut plate and hot chocolate cup was replenished again, yet, at that moment, all that caught my attention was his proximity and his hot breath swimming beside my lips. I found myself lost in him again. He was just so intoxicating, so—
“Don’t be too angry with me, Gracie.”
I was barely catching my breath when I digested the contents of his words. Before I could decipher what the hell he was talking about, he imparted me with a guilt-filled smile before disappearing, leaving me to sit there alone, lost in my own world of confusion.
What’s he talking about? Don’t be too angry with him for what?
“Grace!” a familiar voice called out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts about Eclipse and what he may have done to piss me off. “What on earth are you eating?”
Dawn’s outraged eyes were huge as she approached the booth I was sitting at. Dressed in a taupe summer dress, she gaped at the doughnut and hot chocolate I had in my possession.
“I-I only had a little bit!” I defended, my mouth still mindlessly munching on the doughnut.
After becoming close with Dawn, I had confided in her about my issues with my weight and had personally asked her to help police me should I ever lose control. Dawn had always taken her duty seriously because she was a health fanatic. I imagined walking in on me eating a doughnut and drinking hot chocolate was not a happy sight for her.
At my reply, she eyed the crumbs of glaze stuck to my coat, and I quickly dusted it off, my cheeks blushing a bit.
Her eyes turned into suspicious slits. “How much is a ‘little bit’?”
“Like about . . .” My eyes went upwards. I replayed all the times I ate the junk food in my mind. I was mentally counting in my head when I realized—holy crap! This was my thirteenth helping! “Holy shit!”
In a belated panic, I threw the doughnut and the hot chocolate away. I was appalled with myself. How did I eat so much without knowing it? Even after ridding myself of the caloric indulgence, I still found myself having cravings for it. I wanted doughnuts, I wanted hot chocolates, I wanted cookies, I wanted cakes, I wanted ice cream—essentially anything that could quench my sweet tooth. I wanted them all in my tummy. I could feel the overwhelming desire for all the sweets in the world overtake me, and I realized all too quickly what Eclipse had done to me. He had cursed me into having a mindless obsession over sweets, so much so that my yearning for it was all-consuming!
Crap.
Holy fucking crap.
This is what I get for letting my guard down with that freaking Demon.
Suddenly, the nice little bonding session I had with Eclipse was overshadowed by the fact that he had managed to screw me over again.
I was back to hating him, and unfortunately this time around, as I felt the evil calories make a home in my body, I knew I had to make things right and pay for my momentary bout of weakness. There was only one thing a human being could do after succumbing to thirteen helpings of doughnuts.
Regrettably for me, this activity was going to kick my ass so hard that I wouldn’t be able to move for a week.
"Don’t you get it by now?"
10 : War
“Fucking Eclipse. Fucking Eclipse!”
I was dying. I was literally dying.
I had just spent an hour running and was now finishing the last twenty minutes of my hour-long love-fest with the stairmaster. If you had been on a stairmaster, then you would know that the remaining twenty minutes would seem like a lifetime away. The endless seconds on that torturous machine taunted me, triggering me to feel like shit for all the crap I consumed. The blasphemous part was that I was still craving sweets while I was on this damn machine. How was it possible that I was longing for red velvet cupcakes when I was dying from exhaustion?
I hated my life. I absolutely hated my life.
I was on the verge of blacking out from exhaustion. I had never worked out this aggressively in my life. Right when I was about to keel over, the bane of my existence appeared to make me hate my life even more.
Eclipse.
I wasn’t sure how long he had been there, but there Eclipse was, running on a treadmill beside my stairmaster. He was smoking up a storm with his cigarette while he ran like he was modeling for a sport
ing goods commercial.
Wearing nothing but black basketball shorts and matching running shoes, Eclipse’s naked upper body glistened underneath the gym lighting. Sweat was trickling seductively down his body, running past his back, coursing down his chest, and kissing over his washboard stomach. The sight made me so weak in the knees that I had to hold onto the railing, afraid that if I lost my balance I would meet my death.
That jerk.
He had ruined me.
I would never look at another man’s body the same way again. How would anything impress me now that I had been gifted with the sexiest sight ever to be bestowed to a woman? Humans were created to be imperfect—to be flawed. It was against the laws of nature for me to see Eclipse like this, to be given a view of what the male body in the form of perfection should look like. Eclipse wasn’t the standard; he was the paragon, and he had ruined any future I would have with my future husband.
I couldn’t have hated the bastard more.
Clearly sensing my venomous glare, Eclipse veered his attention to me. He flashed me one of his breathtaking smiles, and with ease, he grabbed his small white towel and jumped off the treadmill. With mischievous eyes, he began wiping himself dry. Like the experienced tease he was, he grabbed a blue jacket from the floor and zipped himself up, hiding his body from me as quickly as he had shown it off. An air of innocence exuded from him when he lowered himself to sit comfortably on the treadmill belt.
“Damn, that was a hard workout,” he uttered, panting for breath as he continued to smoke his cigarette. Humor rippled in his eyes when he took in the exhaustive state I was in. “I'm glad I'm done with that workout. I can't imagine doing it for another hour. I'm so exhausted.”
I gritted my teeth.
He was mocking me. He knew that I still had to workout. While he got to sit there and chill, I had to continue to work my ass off. It was the very image of his triumphant smirk that reminded me why I was dying in the gym in the first place. Fury cloaked my face as I appraised him in all of his post-workout glory. It wasn’t fair that he looked unbelievably sexy while effortlessly sweating and I looked like a sweaty pig. It wasn't fair that he was so relaxed and I was so miserable.