Chapter 446: Promise me.
Zevran.
She had almost lost control. I too, but she had and that was what I found most surprising in all of what had transpired between us.
Leilani was known as Ms Prim and Proper. She was known as the woman who never lost her cool, her composure... and most of all, she never loses control.
But she did today.
And I swear I had seen the look of pure horror that had settled on her face as soon as that realization finally dawned on her.
Her plush face had turned pale. She had frozen too and had looked at me with something akin to fear in her eyes before it slowly disappeared, solidifying into indifference which was the last thing I saw before she bolted like the devil was hot on her heels.
In surprise, I had turned to my brothers, wondering if they had seen it too but the looks I had found on their faces were too twisted... too stunned, and I knew then and there that I had nothing to say to them...
Until now.
Until Caelum finally broke the silence by asking;
"Was that wrong?"
I frowned. "What was wrong?"
"Touching her?" He said, dropping the bombshell that was still too hot to attend to. "Was that wrong of us to do? I noticed the way she seemed horrified and I cannot stop thinking about it."
"Neither can I..." Kael cut in quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.
I watched him as he walked past us into the house, walking slowly like the weight of the entire world now rested on his shoulders. He didn’t turn around when I made a sound akin to a scoff deep down in my throat, and didn’t either when Caelum shrugged in feigned nonchalance— but I didn’t miss the faint blush on his (Caelum’s) cheeks.
And I could not blame him.
I mean, I also couldn’t stop feeling weird either. I couldn’t stop the strange smiles that cracked my face at intervals whenever I thought about how close I had been to crossing the line with Leilani earlier. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her body had felt against mine... how warm... how good she (and her hair) had smelled.
Heavens, I could still feel the warmth of her lips on mine. I could still taste the strange tangy sweetness on her lips. I could still feel the way my heart raced when I stood a little too close to her, and by the gods, I wanted to feel it one more time.
To taste her one more time. To...
"Why are you both standing there smiling like dumb fools?" That was Kael, and as soon as his sharp voice rang through the quietness, snapping me out of my reverie with that question, my head whipped upwards only to find him glaring at me with a strange expression on his face.
I slapped my hand over my face and frowned when I realized that I was still smiling— even now.
Hades, I couldn’t stop.
"Nothing." I said but deep down, I knew that that was a lie.
A big fat one.
Gosh, how could I stop smiling when it was extremely difficult for me to stop replaying the sound of her soft moans in my head over and over again?
Or the way she had egged me on...
However, pushing these thoughts to the deepest corners of my mind and hoping to explore them later, I shook my head at Kael who was still glaring at me and hissed; "I am not smiling."
"Then what was tha—"
"It is a facial exercise I found on tiktok." I hissed, interrupting him even before he could finish with that annoying interrogatory question. "I have been doing it ever since I learned about it."
"But I haven’t seen you doing it befor—"
"Well, you’ve been brooding around the house for more than half the time so you’ll hardly notice." I snapped once again, interrupting him. And this time, before he could ask more questions, I pushed past him and headed into the house, but not before hearing Caelum say;
"I was also practicing the facial exercise. I saw the tiktok video some time ago too."
Something about his response almost made me want to throw my head back and laugh. Heck, the laughter had even begun to bubble out of my throat before I clamped my hand over my lips and swallowed it down, earning myself more strange looks from my brothers.
I heard Kael mutter something along the lines of: ’how strange I was acting,’ but deciding to ignore him, I headed for the stairs, only to stop abruptly when I found a familiar body curled into itself at the top of the stairs.
My pulse raced.
I frowned. "Leilani?" My voice was barely above a whisper but it was loud enough to make her lift her head slowly. And a soon as my eyes landed on her face, every trace of the excitement I once felt dissipated, leaving me with a hollowness that was impossible to name.
Why?
Because she looked sad.
Goddess, even the word ’sad’ was too light a word to use in describing the amount of sadness I found in her beautiful purple eyes.
Her face was still devoid of its usual color and the embarrassment I had once seen on her face was now morphed into something else... something darker... something that looked like... pain.
But that wasn’t all.
There were traces of dried up tears at each side of her face, casting a whitish line from below her lash line and disappearing into somewhere underneath her chin.
I crouched in front of her before I could stop myself and I didn’t even realized how affected I was by her overall behavior until my voice sounded like I was in physical pain when I asked;
"Leilani, what happened to you? Why are you here?"
"I cannot remember my way to the room which I woke up in." She answered softly, but I didn’t miss the slight coldness in her voice nor the way it was obvious that she couldn’t bring herself to look me in the eyes.
I hated that.
I gulped against the bile now rising in my throat like a freaking volcanic eruption and stretched out my hand to her. But she didn’t take it.
"Come, I can show it to you." I said softly like I was talking to a child— not a literal child. Like I was talking to someone I would hate to hurt."
I noticed the way her eyes widened slowly as they came to rest on my outstretched hands. But still, she didn’t take them.
She drawled; "You can just describe it. You don’t have to take me there."
Now, that was the cold Leilani I once knew.
That was the girl I had spent months trying to break through. The one whom I had managed to crack open, only a fraction, to have her return to her shell all over again.
But I won’t allow it.
"You don’t seem too good." I said, retracting my hands and standing to my feet while giving her the impression that I wanted to give her space when we all knew that that was false.
She nodded. "Yes, that is because I feel like shit. So please, will you tell me which room is mine now or do I have to—?"
"No."
"...beg you to show me?"
"If you insist on begging me, then yes you can go ahead and do that. I do not have any problem with that as long as it means you’ll have to continue speaking to me. But I am not going to show you your room until you promise that you won’t retreat into it for the rest of the day. That you won’t shut your door on us either and that you won’t go awool on me— us— suddenly simply because we shared a kiss!"
She froze.
I do not know where the courage to say those things came from but it felt somewhat good getting them off my chest.
I saw the shock register on her face before she hid it with her usual mask of indifference. But at the time, it was already too late.
Too late because I could clearly see her tremble. I could see the small blush staining both of her cheeks and I could feel the change in the atmosphere. Small but definitely there.
She hissed; "I do not understand what you mean."
"Oh, you do. You know damn well what I am talking about. However, I do not need much from you. All I ask is that you promise me." I continued, not missing the almost infinitesimal twitching of her eyelids.
I could also sense the presence of my brothers as they’d been drawn to the ruckus between Leilani and I but I didn’t turn to acknowledge them.
Neither did she.
Heck, she wouldn’t stop staring— scratch that, glaring— at me.
Fuck it.
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