by Zoey Parker
He really did need to go to the store, Victoria decided. The only reason he wasn’t going was because he was stubborn. That was it; that was the only reason, and the way her stomach growled at the thought that she’d only eaten some cereal and a few things of veggies in the past two days showed that it agreed with her. And as much as Victoria didn’t talk to him – and him to her – he was constantly around her, and it drove her crazy.
Even all of the books in here weren’t a distraction from her situation. They were all dumb action novels, not the high-fantasy and dystopic novels Victoria preferred. She’d even have made do with some kind of mythology collection or a textbook (she was desperate!), but it seemed like the only things people were interested in around here were bombs, car chases, and realistic crime.
There were a few bookshelves decorating the sides of the living room. In another room, off of the hallway and down from the one bedroom she’d scoped out earlier, there was a library full of books. And, naturally, they were all these stupid crime novels.
She sighed, grabbing two off of the shelf. She wasn’t going to read them, but flipping through the pages might distract her from the feelings flipping through and knotting her guts.
“I thought you hated those.”
Victoria hadn’t even noticed Darren come into the living room, and she turned quickly. The book was already closed by the time she was face-to-face with him, but the damage was done. The smirk was on his face and the blush was on hers, and then she was scowling at him as his smile just spread all the wider. So he had been watching her this entire time! She was going to kill him.
And then she saw that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
It’d been difficult to pass the time without thinking about him that way, but it had helped that she had no images of him in anything but his clothing. Now her eyes were free to roam his body; the top half of it, in any case. His chest was chiseled and muscular, but not in a sharp way. His skin wasn’t nearly as pale as she was expecting, and actually had a slight golden tint to it – at least, where the dark ink of his tattoos didn’t contrast with it.
Her eyes went to his neck again. From there, she looked down to his pecs, to the planes of his chest, his abs, and then down to his naval and his little happy trail that led to his…
“Like what you see?”
Victoria mentally pinched herself a few times. Dammit! Why had she ogled him when he could so clearly see her doing so? It wasn’t like he hadn’t done the same to a bunch of other women, though, so maybe she should just ogle freely and let him get a taste of his own medicine. Yeah, that’s right. She met his eyes as confidently as she could.
And then she dropped them.
There was no way she could do this.
“Are you just not going to reply, Victoria? I thought you were all about sass.”
“And I thought you were all about some common decency,” she managed to get out over the lump in her throat. Why does he have to be so hot?
“What was that?”
Oh, no.
Oh, no, oh, no, oh no.
Shit.
Had she asked that out loud? She tried to play it off cool.
“What do you think I said?”
He strode across the room quickly, grabbing the closed book from her hands and then placing it down on the coffee table in front of the couch. “I think you asked why I was shirtless,” he said, turning around to wink at her. So that meant she’d never know if she’d just really embarrassed herself. Great. That was her favorite thing to do. He was such an asshole.
“Yeah, well. If I did ask that,” she let her eyes go down to his hard abs again, “would you tell me?”
“Yeah, but it might not be the truth,” he whispered, making her strain to hear what he said. “I’d probably say that it was for protecting you.”
“But it’s really for…?”
“Teasing.”
He grinned at her, and the way she wanted to pinch herself turned into wanting to hit herself as she eyed his perfect jaw. It seemed like the longer she stayed here, the more she was starting to lust after this guy. Her hands went to her hair, and she adjusted it quickly even though she couldn’t see it. If she was starting to feel this way – and she hated this guy, really, she did – maybe he was feeling the same.
The thought of it made her legs start to shake, and she pressed them against each other again to make it less obvious. But being around him more was starting to make her open up to him, figuratively, in ways she hadn’t planned, and now her body was pulsing.
She grabbed the books off of the coffee table, getting ready to go put them back on the bookshelves where they belonged. She could feel Darren’s heat close to her body as soon as she went over to the coffee table. She knew that one couldn’t really tell when a person entered the room, but she could work it out with Darren. It was super obvious to her when he was just nearby, too, and her skin felt hot at the idea of him being so close.
She looked over. He’d moved to sit on the couch just a few feet from the coffee table, and he was…
Looking right at her.
She brought the books to her chest and glared at him, noticing his eyes move upwards from her chest to her eyes as she blocked the view. “What?”
He repeated the question back to her before asking, “Do you think I’m doing something?”
“You’re up to something.”
“A man can be shirtless in his own house, V.”
His use of the nickname didn’t seem right, and it made her bristle. “Are you saying this is your house?”
“Well, yeah.” He moved his arm like he was telling her to move, pretending that there was a TV behind her that she was blocking. Why even have a couch if there’s nothing for it to sit in front of, anyway? “Did you think it belonged to someone else?”
“Yeah. Like…I don’t know. Maybe someone more important.”
“Are you going to add anything else to that statement?” His focus was entirely on her, and, for maybe the first time in all these hours, she noticed just how intense his eyes were even when he was completely calm.
“You know, originally I was going to say ‘in your club,’ but then I decided it was probably true enough without that bit.”
This got a laugh from him, but he cut it off abruptly and his eyes went from her eyes to her nose to her lips. “Watch yourself. You’re stuck with me, you know.”
This was as good a time as any to ask, so she jumped onto the couch beside him. Not so much beside him. She was as far away from him on the seat as she could possibly get. This was the first time she’d seen him sit on the couch at all. She’d been keeping the couch for herself. There were bedrooms, sure, but Darren let her know he was watching her and she didn’t really want to have a room that close to him. She didn’t trust herself, for one, and for another thing, she especially didn’t trust him.
“That reminds me. How long are you going to want me here for?”
“That depends on how long it takes to find who’s trying to kill you,” he said, looking at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And it was, to him. How did such a cute, sassy little thing like her miss things like this? She should know better.
“You haven’t been doing anything to find them!”
“That’s because I’ve been watching you.” She glared at him, and he smirked back. “Which reminds me…you should probably start sleeping in an actual bedroom.”
“What?”
“You don’t really think I’m going to be okay with you just staying on the couch this whole time, are you? Now pick a room, or you’ll stay with me.”
She looked from his eyes to that perfect jaw again, and imagined the small stubble there scratching up against her skin as they kissed. She knew what he was getting at. But he couldn’t possibly be wanting to share a room with her, could he? That was too soon.
“I am trying to protect you,” he clarified, like she might’ve been thinking he could have some ulterior motive.
B
ut he must. She looked to his eyes again, and what she saw there was pure, unbridled lust. Her thighs ached to be spread open before him, and her eyes fell from his face to the growing bulge in his pants. Yes, he meant exactly what she thought he meant.
Why would he ever be interested in her, though? They didn’t even run with the same crowd. The only reason Victoria knew about him was because of her job. And she kept that job for one reason, and one reason only: money to pay the bills. There was nothing in particular tying her down to Lanterns, and there was nothing in particular tying her down to Darren Saylor. But here they were, and it was where she applied that’d gotten her tied down to a man like this.
There was no way they could be tied together for so long. She would have to get back to her life eventually; she’d brought up these concerns with Darren, though, and he didn’t seem to be too bothered by them. If anything, he seemed more amused by the fact that she thought her job – and her lease – were more important than her life. Because that was what this was about: keeping her alive so some gangster didn’t kill her.
Victoria’s eyes went up to Darren’s for a second, her vision blurring as she forgot he was even there. She was so tired. She hadn’t slept well over the past few nights that she was here. She didn’t know why. Being closer to Darren made her more comfortable, but also more on edge, and she resented the way the feelings he stirred in her resembled a paradox.
Still, though, even if she did end up having some kind of feelings for the guy – which wouldn’t happen – there was no chance of anything more happening. Even though she had been through that teenage girl phase of thinking pretty much everyone she came across was attractive, Victoria had never been in love. She’d come close, once, but then the guy had just revealed what she already knew: that dudes were jerks who were just out to have sex.
And there was no way this guy was any different. It hurt her that she was hopeful, but there was no chance. Why would she go looking for some guy in a club if what she wanted was a sweet man to love her? Not that that was what she wanted. She could take care of herself, and did so happily, and would continue to do so for the rest of her days. She was just getting all hyped up because of the situation and the circumstances, and that was it.
But she really wanted to fuck this guy. And she was going to be stuck with him for a while, and he…
He caught her attention again. There were other places for her to sleep, but she guessed that he could argue she’d be safer in the same room as him.
“Do you understand?”
She nodded.
This was going to be a wild ride.
Chapter Nine
Victoria
They didn’t talk for days.
“This was going to be a wild ride…”
Or maybe it wasn’t going to be any ride at all. Darren had basically told Victoria that she was going to be staying in a room with him, like it or not, or that she was going to be somewhere close to him, in any case. And, not only that, he’d told her that she was going to have to be okay with it.
At the mere thought of it, her body had tensed up and she had felt goosebumps – the good kind – erupt all over her skin. But since then? Absolutely nothing. She still felt those same nerves up and down through her stomach when she thought of the way he looked at her. Since then, though, she’d been avoiding looking at him, and…
She shook her head.
Getting lost in her thoughts wasn’t going to be the way to deal with this. Besides, she might be better off if she could find a way to be pissed off at him. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in this place anyway, and it didn’t even take an entire day for her to be bored out of her mind. The safe house was as unexciting as it had been the moment she first walked into it; she didn’t know where Darren kept disappearing to, but she hoped that he was having as good of a time as she was.
She scowled. She stood in the living room, her hands at her sides as she roamed the room, looking for anything better to do than just stand there. Whoever had designed this place hadn’t done it with the intent of its inhabitants having a good time, though, and she couldn’t find anything to do no matter how hard she looked.
Not that she was looking that hard. She was just ignoring things that she didn’t think made for suitable entertainment. There were still those bookshelves lining the living room, yes, but there were no books she wanted to read there, so why bother?
She didn’t see Darren that often, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t always around. She twisted her head, looking around the room for him. As soon as she did, he appeared. His nod let her know that he was there, and that he knew she was looking for him. Then, when she turned her head again, he was gone.
She sighed. How long was this going to continue?
It couldn’t. It wouldn’t. Victoria didn’t know how much time had passed while she stood there glaring at action book after action book. There had to be better things to do in this place, god damn it, and she would find them or die trying.
“Still intent on hating on those books, love?”
“Are you trying to act like you’re British or something?” She didn’t even turn around to look at him. He’d gotten in the habit of exposing his skin to her, and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with the flutters that sent rushing through her chest.
“No, but,” he leaned over her, so she could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck as he lowered his head to hover near her shoulder. “Unlike you, I’m trying to be…” He exhaled some air towards her skin. “Hospitable.”
What was wrong with this guy? She jerked away from him, using her eyes to send daggers in his direction even as he started chuckling. Or was he giggling? He was definitely giggling. She narrowed her glare at him even more.
It took Darren a while to stop laughing. Victoria looked so cute when she was angry with him, like she thought she could just squish him beneath her feet or something regardless of the disparity in their size; he wanted to tell her so, but it didn’t seem like the best time right now. Besides, it might piss her off even more later, and she was just so adorable when she hated him.
It was also cute that she still tried to believe that she did hate him, though, and now was as fair a time as any to tell her that.
“Do you always try to lead men into believing you hate them?”
Victoria glanced up at Darren, her jaw tightening as she scowled. Her jaw wasn’t nearly as taut as Darren’s could get though, and part of her hated the fact that he wasn’t glaring down at her right now. She wanted to see it. Unfortunately for her, instead of scowling, he was smiling.
And this was never a good sign.
That didn’t mean that she was going to just let him get away with talking and acting however he wanted, like…like, he owned the place or something! Well, he did actually own it, she remembered. But that didn’t have to mean anything.
“You can’t just say whatever you want,” she said.
“I’d argue that I can,” he grinned. “And I’d argue that since you’re in my care, you’d better learn to deal with it.”
He retreated from where he was standing behind her, turning and falling back onto the couch. He was so pleased with himself. The bastard. He always corned her when she went to the bookshelves, she realized; it wasn’t like this was the first time he had done it.
It also wasn’t the first time she had gone to the bookshelves knowing full well what would happen. As much as she hated him, or wanted to hate him, her body had other ideas for the type of relationship they would be having, and he drove her wild to no end. Wild. Not so much a turn on. It couldn’t be a turn on. No, it was just extreme aggravation. That was all.
She wasn’t going to pretend not to be looking at him now, though. He had made his presence known, so he might as well have invited her to stare at him. She turned her body completely, not even bothering to only turn her head to look at him like she might have earlier. She could feel him staring at her, so why shouldn’t she look back?
Her face blushe
d red at the sight of him. She turned just as he was pulling the fabric of his shirt up over his chest, and she could see the hard outline of every chiseled muscle on his torso. She’d known he was muscular, but that was different from actually seeing his skin in the flesh.
His eyes rose to hers as he caught her staring.
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t say anything. Any small retort or insult she could come up with, he would just turn around on her. There was no way of getting out of the fact that she had been ogling Darren Saylor’s abs, his shoulders, his…
While she couldn’t get out of the fact that she had been staring at him, she could get out of wherever this was going to go. But she wanted it to go places. At the same time, though, she didn’t. She looked at him again once before moving her eyes to a point to the side of his head, avoiding looking at his skin.