“Okay. I’ll be ready.” I kissed her and left the kitchen with Seth and our loyal follower.
“Going to show him around?” Troy was already on his way to the stairs with Bryce while Jaylyn stayed locked in a conversation with Meg on the couch.
“Yup.” I went with them up the stairs and we took it slow with the babies in our arms. “Adele says dinner will be ready soon. She’s just making something quick.”
“All right. You’re going with her tomorrow, right?”
“Of course I am!” I snatched like the answer should have been obvious. “I’m not letting them walk into that place alone.”
“What do you think will happen? Will they make Meg stay there?”
“I don’t know. I just really want to get her through surviving first then think of that.”
“You want us to come?”
“No. I couldn’t ask you to take another trip like that. It’ll be slow and longer than before. Besides, Adele and I will both be there. With our combination of gifts, it shouldn’t be a problem for us. They’ll regret making it one.”
He laughed. “I believe that. It shouldn’t be that bad for us here except you’re taking the chef away.”
I laughed too. “You’ll be fine. Adele says Jaylyn is capable of making food. You’ll just have to keep her from eating while she does it so monitor her and you’ll be set.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll have to do that. Maybe you should tell Ruby and Darius about dinner. Something tells me that they won’t be joining us.”
“I think she handled it well though. She didn’t even look over.”
“Meg would have been terrified by the sight if she did. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t have to come to that.”
“Adele told her to stay away from her.”
“That may not stop Ruby if you think about it. She’s not the one that did anything wrong.”
“Well, we’ll make sure it won’t come to that.” We reached the fourth floor where Troy would split off to his room.
“Good luck.”
I laughed as I continued up and reached the fifth floor where Ruby and Darius’s room was. I thought maybe I should tell them about dinner and walked to their door with Seth still in my arms. I knocked on it and waited just a second before Darius came to it. “Zayden, hey.”
“How’s it going?”
“Perfect.” Ruby answered while lying on the bed with baby Dirk sitting up in the middle so he wouldn’t fall off if he decided to crawl around.
“Well, dinner will be soon. Quite soon by now actually. Adele was just going to make it quick so she can get some rest before tomorrow.”
It was quiet for a moment as Ruby and Darius shared a look.
“Ah, all right.” Darius said. “We’ll be taking that up here. Just let us know when it’s ready and one of us will be down to get it.”
“Preferably me.” Ruby muttered.
“Okay. I’ll be sure to.” I slowly turned towards the door, not to drag out the awkwardness. “Just as soon as I find out anyway.”
“Thank you.” Ruby smiled.
I smiled back with a nod and left the room.
Adele made sure dinner was ready quickly like she said and came upstairs to get me.
“We’ve got to tell Ruby and Darius.” I said, walking down the stairs from our room. “One of them will come down and get it.”
“Good. I wasn’t about to serve them. I have better things to do.”
I smiled and put my arm around her while she held Seth and I walked with her to Ruby’s door. We knocked and Darius came to it.
“Hey, it’s ready.” I said.
“Ah—good.” Darius paused for a moment and glanced back in the room. “Be right down.”
Adele and I didn’t carry it on and left with a nod. I’m sure they had some things to talk about this situation and we shouldn’t have been involved. It was their business.
Chapter 4
Darius
I closed the door and turned to Ruby. She was sitting up on the bed, giving Dirk a final feeding before lying him down for the night. She didn’t even seem aware that I opened the door and still had her eyes and thoughts down on Dirk.
“Ruby, dinner’s ready.”
She sighed and looked up. “Perfect timing. I’m starving and busy.”
“It’s all right. I can get it so it’s still hot.”
She paused with her eyes directly on me but not turning red. “Fine but be quick about it. We’ll have to put him to bed soon.”
I nodded and left the room. The sounds of my steps carried me downstairs and I could only hear light chatter coming from the dining room. I didn’t go in. I went into the kitchen where the food would be waiting but Meg was in there too, holding one of her babies. I instantly noticed but tried to act like I didn’t and walked over to the counter where our food was sitting.
“Oh, Darius!” Meg sounded surprised when she turned around. “It’s you!”
I was polite and didn’t ignore her. “Hello, Meg.”
“How are you?”
“I’m good.”
“Good. I’m glad you got to work things out.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“I saw your son. He’s beautiful.”
“Ah, thank you. And you having twins. How’s that going?”
“It’s only been a week but good so far.”
“Which one is this?” I gestured down to the one in her arms but didn’t want to get too close to look.
“My precious little Cadence.”
“Beautiful name.”
“Yeah, it was my grandmother’s. I haven’t named my son yet. I thought, you know, Wyatt would want a say.”
“Smart thinking. He probably would.”
I didn’t know what else to say and we just stood there, looking at each other and probably waiting for the other to say something.
I couldn’t wait any longer and was the first to look away and reached for the two plates in front of me. “Well, I better get these upstairs. It was good seeing you.”
“And you. Goodnight.”
I walked right out and headed back upstairs to Ruby. She had Dirk into a sitting position next to her. “Finally. How long does it take to grab two plates?”
I laughed. “Sorry. There’s a lot more stairs here and—” I didn’t want to lie about it. “I ran into Meg in the kitchen.”
I watched Ruby’s eyes turn red but she kept a happy tone on her voice. “Oh, so I guess that means getting laid tonight is out of the question. You already got yours.”
“Ruby, it wasn’t like that. Just some simple small talk and I left.”
“Okay.” She took her plate from me but I knew she wasn’t fine. “Can we just not talk about it? I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Good. I don’t want to fight with you either. It was nothing.”
I sat on the bed and ate the rest of my dinner with her in silence. Ruby mainly had her focus on Dirk next to her and kept giving him a taste of her food, only sharing smiles and delighted expressions with him, not me.
I was curious as to what was really going through her mind but I didn’t let out a word to find out. I didn’t want anything to lead into a fight like I said and just kept quiet the whole time but we may just have been in a fight, just not saying anything.
After we were finished eating, she put Dirk to bed and left the dirty dishes in the room like she didn’t want to take them down and never asked me to. We even got into bed with a silence still between us and she laid so far away from me that she could have fallen off her side if she twitched.
I couldn’t be silent about this anymore. I had to know if something was bothering her. “Ruby.”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you way over there? Come over here.”
“Why?”
“Because. I like holding you.”
“Is that all you want?”
She didn’t sound mad; she just sounded tired and I smiled, hoping to get away from what I orig
inally wanted to know. “I could go for some quiet contact so we don’t wake Dirk.”
Ruby turned over and had a smile of her own. “I always knew you’d give that up eventually.”
“Well, not wanting you when he’s around turned out to be harder than I thought.”
She laughed and inched closer, gently rubbing her finger tips on my bare chest which only heightened the needs of my request. “And as much as I love hearing that, it’ll have to wait until morning.”
“Too tired even for quiet?”
“I’ll make up for it later. I’m just tired from the trip. My head’s not really in the right place for that right now.”
“Ruby, this isn’t about—”
“No. Of course not. I’d be fine doing it right in front of the bitch. We could show her how it’s supposed to be done if you’d like?”
I laughed. I knew she was joking but it was still a little amusing. “That’s all right. You don’t need to prove anything.”
“Don’t I?”
“Of course not. You know you’re better. I’ve told you that. You should believe it by now.”
“Well, I promise we’ll make up for it, okay? In some high risk place where you can do whatever you want to me, however you want.”
I sighed with a quiet whimper behind it. “But I want that now.”
Ruby laughed and kissed me. “Your eagerness will make it better. I love it when you build off that.”
I leaned into her lips and kissed her, getting our tongues to touch. “If I build off it now, it’ll still be good.”
“It always is but we could both use the sleep. You can talk it up all you want but you’ll get tired after a few minutes of it. So, sleep. For me.”
“All right but you don’t have to be so far away.”
“I’m staying right here.” She kissed me again and started closing her eyes. “Goodnight.”
Chapter 5
Ruby
I knew how tired he was from the trip since he liked holding Dirk the most through it and I waited only about an hour before I knew he was out cold. Darius has never been easily woken by movement or sounds except for the unusual occasion that Dirk gets up in the middle of the night and I knew it would have been safe.
I slowly moved away out of his arms and got out of bed. I was on my own mission.
The palace seemed to be in complete silence and I made sure I stayed quiet as I moved through it. I took the stairs and slowly made my way down to the third floor. It seemed even quieter except for some light movement in the bathhouse. I smiled to myself and waited up against the wall by the door.
Just a minute passed before the door opened and Meg stepped out dressed in a white robe. I stayed exactly where I was and Meg didn’t even notice I was there and wouldn’t have had I not said anything. “Hello, Meg.”
She was jumped and quickly turned around. I could see her fear. “Ruby. You scared me.”
“Oh, really?” I kept my voice casual while I stood up completely and started taking slow steps towards her. “That’s good. I should.”
It only took a second for Meg to realize that I knew about her and Darius and she tried apologizing sympathetically. “Ruby, I’m sorry about—”
“I’m sure you are.” I cut in, keeping my calm and collected exterior. “You rather enjoyed trying to split up my family.”
“I didn’t—”
“I hope it was good for you because that’s all it was. So, if you ever go near him again or even think for a second that you could, believe me when I say, I’ll be right there and you’ll regret it—dearly.”
“I—I wasn’t the only one involved.”
I laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. He was punished fair enough just being with you. The truth of the matter is, you were just a filler to him and not a very good one at that. You couldn’t have satisfied him close to what I can and you should think of that when you go through the rest of your life, never having another satisfying experience because you’ll never get close to him again.”
There was a pause and the sound of a baby cry close by broke the silence with another crying afterward.
“Ah—those are my—I better—”
“Yeah, you better and better hope I won’t be seeing you.”
I left it at that and turned right towards the stairs. I didn’t look back but heard Meg’s door close and her shaken voice trying to comfort her babies. I just smiled and kept going back upstairs to my room on the fifth floor.
I was startled to a brighter light and Darius was sitting on the end of the bed, rocking Dirk gently in his arms to keep him calm. “Where have you been? He woke me up and you were gone.”
I couldn’t tell him. That would have only made him angry.
“Sorry. It was nothing. I just needed some water.”
“And that water wasn’t good enough?” I glanced over at the table where our dinner plates were and there was a glass of water sitting by it.
“I needed it to be fresher.” I took Dirk from his arms and walked to the head of the bed to sit comfortably on it so I could feed him enough so he’d go back to sleep.
“Why do you have to lie? I know where you went.”
“Is this you asking me about it?”
“Yes. What did you do?”
I laughed. “I didn’t do anything. My eyes never even changed. Promise.”
“I know they don’t need to be that way for you to kill, Ruby.”
I sighed and looked over while Dirk was feeding. “I didn’t kill your girlfriend, okay.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Darius said, returning the sigh. “But killing her would still be bad.”
“Well, I didn’t do that. We just had a little chat. That’s all and both walked away completely unharmed.”
“Why’d you do it at all?”
“Just had to get some things out in the open. This won’t be the last time we see her if her little mistake will be in our lives.”
Darius sighed again as a sure sign that he was exhausted. “All right. Can we just forget about it? It was all completely nothing and I don’t want you to be like this every time she does happen to come around.”
“It won’t be easy to just forget, Darius. I know you keep saying it but she’s always going to mean something to you.”
“Ruby, she doesn’t mean anything.”
“Then why did you make her see that? I mean you were going to give him up for her.”
My eyes were down on Dirk and Darius leaned in, gently stroking his hair. “I don’t want to think about that. I’m not sure that I really ever would have done it. You know how much I love him. Shit, I’d be doing that right now if I could.”
I laughed to hear his sarcastic tone. “If you could then we’d have a serious problem.”
Darius returned the laugh and kissed my head. “We sure would. Now, can we forget about this? I don’t want what happened to be the base of all of our conversations. I want to be us again.”
“We are us, Darius.”
“Are we? Because it doesn’t always seem like it.”
“We will be as long as you understand this isn’t just going to go away. I have a right to hate her and no one is going to take that away from me.”
“All right.” He sighed again, giving me another kiss. “I get it. Think he’s ready for bed yet?”
I looked down at Dirk again and started to pull him away. “Yeah. He should be fine now.”
“Okay, let me see him.” Darius took Dirk in his hands and brought him close to his body. “Burp then bed, buddy. Mama and Daddy need their sleep too.”
I smiled as I watched Darius gently burping our son and I dabbed a blanket up around his mouth. “There. All better?”
Dirk let out a loud burp and Darius tried not to shake when he laughed. “I think that means yes.”
“Does he need to be changed?”
“No. I took care of that when he got me up. He should be fine.”
“Okay.” I watched Darius place him down on his b
ack and I leaned down, kissing his head. “Goodnight, Dirk. Sleep a little longer, would you?”
“He will. Come on. He’s fine and I’m tired.”
“Sorry I wasn’t up here when he got up. I could have let you sleep.”
“It’s all right. I don’t mind getting up with him. Besides, we both know that you wouldn’t have changed him.”
I suppose he was right. It was the one thing I always hated about being a mother but Darius was good about taking up the job in my place.
“I know but we can go ahead and sleep now.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“I love you. Goodnight.”
I wasn’t going to leave the room again. This is where I wanted to be. She would be gone in the morning for her trip into Hintus and I was glad of it. If it only came sooner.
Chapter 6
Jaylyn
Adele and Zayden got the chance to sleep in before they had to leave on their trip into Hintus and I got up around my normal time; early. I thought to get breakfast started for everyone since I’ll have to be the one to do it when Adele was away and got started in the kitchen just as I was ready.
“Think you’ll be able to get used to it?” Troy was waiting with me with Bryce in his arms like he didn’t have anywhere else to be.
“It’ll be fine. I’m usually in here with Adele so doing it alone shouldn’t be so hard. I just have to watch what I eat.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Well, you don’t have to be. You can take Bryce out there and wait for others to wake up. Is he awake?”
“A little bit. He’s trying to keep those eyes open. They’re really starting to get bright like yours.”
“We knew that would happen.”
“Yeah, but it’s just nicer to see. The girls are going to drool over you!”
I laughed. “Well, of course they are. With looks like his father, he’s going to be a little stud. Let’s just hope he’s not completely like you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, the list of women you’ve been with that’s taller than you are. I don’t want him to take advantage of women like that.”
Rising Sun (Fate's Intent Book 9) Page 2