“Why didn’t you call them? You were lucky it was me.” His mood dips, suddenly too.
“Or you were lucky it was me,” I snap back. “I’m pretty okay at protecting myself, actually.”
“You could have been taken. Killed before they did a thing. Then what?”
“I guess I’d be dead and buried by now. Jesus, thanks for the vote of confidence,” I bitch. My anger picking up in much the same way his is.
I get ready for round two, going to push myself up and out of Darius’s adventurous exploration of the dips of my ass, but Ramses throws his hands up. And all his anger vanishes like he’s a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
“It messed me up, Heidi. I want to believe you can look after yourself, and… fuck… I just saw what happened before.”
I sit up this time, scoffing. “Amazing. So, I’ll always be a victim to you?”
As I climb up to my feet, Darius rolls up to sitting and his hand clasps around my ankle. “Let me go!” I snap.
“Nope. Sit your pretty ass down. We need to talk about this shit or all we’ll be doing all weekend is this bullshit.”
“Or maybe we shouldn’t even bother.”
“Well, we’re not about to let you leave now, little moon. You know all our secrets.”
I look down at him, kicking my foot out. Trying to at least. And the freak winks at me. It’s like adding a little bit of gasoline to a bonfire.
Ramses stands up, his hands flicking his baseball cap around the right way before tugging it down low over his eyes. “I need to take a walk for a bit, but Dare’s right, we need to talk about this. I’m always going to freak out, Heidi. I get this is all new to you.” He waves his hand around. “But there’s no arguing we share a deeper connection that extends past being an instant lusty one. Part of that is knowing we’re scent matched but my family and I are big believers in life-time lovers, or the concept of eternal flames. It’s not new age. It’s not romantic hubba-loo, it’s how we were raised. One person, no matter designation or sex, but one person is the other missing part of us. And the instant I saw you, I knew it was you. So yeah, there’s a huge part of me that knows you’re capable, I can see it with my own two eyes, but there will always be another side of me that worries for you. Because of who you are.”
He throws his hands out before he walks off.
I go to follow him, but Darius still has my foot hostage. “Darius, let me go.”
“Nope,” he says, his voice without emotion. “He left for a reason. Give him the chance to come back.”
“Stop with the bullshit!” I snap down at him.
“No can do, little moon. If you start hearing what we’re saying, you’re quickly going to see we’re not exactly normal.”
“Presumptuous much?” I spit back at him, my foot kicking wildly around.
“Not at all,” he insists. “It is what it is. Now, are you going to try my cookies I made for you?”
“I’d prefer to know what I said to upset him.”
“Why?” Darius challenges, thankfully letting go of my foot.
My mouth falls open before it shuts, and I stop losing my cool. I take a moment before finding the words I was hoping to use before I got caught up in the emotions again. “Because, Darius, don’t you think it works better when you’re trying to get to know people and you upset them unintentionally that you know why, so you don’t do it again?”
“But you shouldn’t have to change who you are.” He shrugs like it’s okay to be who you are without being overly considerate of others.
“I’m not changing who I am,” I bite back. But as soon as I speak, I realise I’m the one still overly expressive. I tone down. “Do you really go through your life without adjusting yourself if you’re out of line?”
“To an extent,” he says, leaning back, relaxing into the conversation. “The thing is though, Ramses started that conversation saying he needed time. He did. And some of it was because you started yapping again, the other part is stuff you wouldn’t understand.” He finishes with a wide grin.
“Jesus, Darius, are you purposely trying to be offensive?” I snark back. Which only makes his grin bigger.
He looks relatively calm though, acting as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. “No need to get your knickers twisted, little moon. All you have to do is look at the situation a bit differently, and it might just make sense.”
I glare at him, taking a big breath which makes him laugh some more. “You all right for me to go on now?” he teases lightly. “Have you lived with a part of you that is so rigid and unyielding that sometimes it clouds the way you can see or hear a situation? Actually, don’t answer that because,” he leans over and fake whispers, “it is kind of why we’re having this conversation. You and he are a bit alike in that department.”
“What?” I shake my head before looking over at Kai for some assistance, but he’s nodding his head, agreeing with Darius’s way of explaining whatever it is he’s trying to explain.
