Chapter 34: Chapter 35

“We were ordered to make an appearance, but we were planning on avoiding it for Penny’s safety,” continues Constantine, ignoring Caspian’s outburst. “But now I think that’s a good place to start.”

I sense the feeling of dread coming from Darius though his expression is cold and uncaring.

“Malyshka,” he turns to me. “Would it be too much to ask if…could you…stay away from Russia? I’ll send you anywhere…”

“No, I’m going where you and my friends are going,” I interrupt him. My heart is set and I let him know this through our shared bond. If they’re going into the fire, then I’m going up in flames with them.

“Great! Now we’re just going to make sure no one else knows that you two are mated to each other,” says Caspian, looking at us with an amused smile. I look at him suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

For once Darius drops his stony expression as he drags his hand through his fair silky hair and lets out a frustrated groan.

“What do you mean?” I ask him. “Why do we have to make sure no one else knows that I’m mated to him?”

“You know the threat of going in as Darius’s mate. There’s going to be a big target on your back.

We can’t let that happen,” explains Lazarus.

“So now you’re mated to me,” says Caspian looking smug. His eyes flash to Darius wickedly.

Darius emits a low irritated growl while his arm tightens around me. “Pretend. Only pretend,” he says. “She’s mated to me.”

Obviously, the men had discussed this matter among themselves before they talk to us, girls.

“That’s an awful idea,” I protest. “I don’t know how this is going to work. The crown prince taking a mate is a big deal. All the attention will be on us. On me! Wouldn’t that put a bigger target on my back?”

“Yes, but they won’t be acting on it right away. Like you said, the attention will be on you.

Nobody will dare to make an attempt on your life unless they want an all-out war. An assassination of the future queen is going to bring the wrath of the palace and the army,” explains Caspian.

“What about Queen Sophia? She’s going to be livid! She has her heart set on Lady Celeste for you,” I ask him. I really don’t see how this is going to work.

“Since when do I listen to my mother?” he scoffs.

“They know we’re friends, Caspian. Nobody’s going to believe that we’re mates,” I announce. “I mean, how are we going to convince everybody that we’re mates?”

“Easy, Beany. Sure they know we’re friends, but we tell them that over time, we’ve…uh, developed feelings for each other,” he says. ” We just fell in love and decided that we should mark each other even though you’re not my erasthai.”

“Yeah, like they can’t see that we’re more eager to kill one another than to mate each other.

Nobody’s gonna believe us,” I say, scowling.

“They will. We just have to pretend to be lovey-dovey and all touchy-feely just like what you’re doing with Darius right now,” Caspian replies gleefully. He’s enjoying this too much to even hide his feelings. If he were to rub his hands together, he’d look like a villain in a crappy low budget movie.

“No touching,” scowls Darius, totally annoyed. I can feel his irritation, jealousy, possessiveness, and frustration through our bond.

“How could anybody believe that we’re mates if we’re not touching?” reasons Caspian.

Darius buries his nose in my neck and lets out a low tortured groan that only I can hear. His hand seeking his mark over my shirt. He lays his palm flat over the mark as if reassuring himself and reminding me that I belong to him.

“This is going to be hell,” he whispers. I have to agree with him.

“This is going to be so much fun.” Caspian flashes me a wide taunting smile and I look at him with a scowl.

“How are we going to make this look believable if you two act like this? Can you two refrain from fighting for 5 minutes, at least?” asks Serena as she tries to smack Caspian’s side of the head with a rolled up document that she snatched from the coffee table.

“No way!” says Caspian as he ducks away just in time. “That’s how Beany Bean and I show our love and affection for each other.”

“We’re doomed,” says Genesis.

Caspian shakes his head. “You’re such a pessimist, Red.”

This is going to be a problem. I hope this isn’t going to end up badly for us.

The celebration is going to be in just over a week’s time. We need to fly to Russia soon. Before that, there are things that need to be taken care of. One of those things is Bossman, the guy who sent his goons to kill me.

Darius’s men managed to track down and detained Bossman. As it turns out, Bossman’s full name is Iron Bossman. Huh! His mom must have some balls to name her son Iron.

We girls excuse ourselves while Darius, Lazarus, and Constantine continue to discuss Bossman and smooth out other plans before we leave for Russia.

Caspian leaves the room with us girls. He announces that he has a class this evening. He just changed his classes around for this semester. It’s easy to do when you have the money and people under your thumb to do whatever you want. We suspect that he’s stalking and annoying his erasthai. Just the thought of that is hilarious to us.

“Should we all change classes and give his erasthai our moral support?” asks Genesis mischievously.

“Nah,” I disagree. “I think he’s quite capable of making things harder for himself just by being his usual annoying, big-headed, bratty self.”

Both Serena and Genesis laugh and agree with me.

“I’d like to meet her, though,” says Serena.

“I think you two are being nosy,” I tell them while making a mental note to track her down soon.

Hey, anybody who manages to make the bratty prince go all crazy deserves my admiration and therefore my alliance and support.

I power up my laptop and skype my friends from my werewolf pack, Reese and River for a few minutes. I figure I might not be able to talk to them for a while when I get to Russia. I get to say hi to their little girl, Piper too. She’s growing up so fast. I don’t want her to forget aunt Penny.

She’s supposed to like me better than aunt Genesis. It’s a little competition that we’ve got going.

Genesis and I compete to be the coolest aunt. We compete buying Piper the coolest gifts.

Sometimes I swear that little brat is so smart, she’s playing both of us to get what she wants.

She’s tiny and dangerous, but she’s too adorable to say ‘no’ to.

I’ve been keeping Reese and River up to date about what’s been going on with us, so they’re not entirely surprised when I tell them about Darius and me marking each other.

Darius enters the room just as I’m turning off the laptop. “Here, take these,” he says, handing me two tiny pills and a glass of water. “I noticed you were rubbing your stomach during the meeting.”

He waits till I swallow the two pills and down the rest of the water before taking the glass from my hand and places it on the table.

It’s sweet that he’s showing concern for me, but it’s infuriating that he’s keeping his feelings hidden from me most of the time. I can feel our bond, yet when it comes to sharing feelings,

there’s like a concrete wall around him. So now, in return, I closed my feeling off from him. It’s almost like a game now trying to figure each other out without sharing our feelings.

He’s always watching me too. When he seems to be looking elsewhere or his attention seems to be on someone else, he’s always aware of where I am or what I’m doing. Even during all those years that he claimed he didn’t want me, he’s watching me. It can be unnerving sometimes to have somebody paying that close attention to you.

He’s watching me now. He sits on the bed silently watching me putting my things away.

I take my time putting my desk in order. I don’t know why I’m feeling so nervous around him all of a sudden. I’m always so confident and brazen with other men. I could eat them up like snacks and spit them out so easily, but with him, I feel like I was the snack. Maybe because we’ve marked each other and now he’s half lying on my bed, waiting for me, and he’s looking so hot. I glance up at him then quickly lower my eyes to look at the papers that I’m gathering…one by one. After these papers, there’s nothing else to do. Oh, Penny. Stupid Penny, you can go organize your closet…by colors!

“Do you think, you’ll be done clearing up your table before tomorrow morning?” His voice sounds amused and curious.

“Yeah, before tomorrow morning. Definitely,” I reply seriously, nodding my head a few times.

“Then I can organize my closet.”

“Oh, really?” he says. He’s smiling now, clearly amused. “What’s the plan after the closet?”

“Uh..” I never thought that far ahead, but that gives me an idea. “Bathroom. Definitely the bathroom.”

“Wow, you’re a busy woman,” he says. Yup, that’s me. “And here I thought the cleaners come in every day.”

“Psshhh…the cleaners. They don’t know what they’re doing…”

“Persephone?”

“Yeah?” I risk another peek at him from beneath my eyelashes.

“Come here,” he says.

Eeekk…my heart races and my stomach feels funny. I remember the things that he said he’d like to do to me once my stomach heals. Is it time yet?

“Are you scared of me?”

“Scared of you?” I straighten my back. “Of course, not!” I huff haughtily.

“Then come here,” he says challengingly. His lips curl up into a sexy lopsided smile. His glacier blue eyes glinted wickedly.

I look at him warily, trying hard to feel his emotion through our bond, but he’s totally closed off.

I glance at my closed closet door. My closet is very neat….but they’re not color coded. On the other hand, he is now raising an eyebrow. His eyes are now openly daring me to show him that I wasn’t at all afraid him.

Damn it! I, Persephone Aspen Ruiz would rather crawl through poop covered sewer than being called a coward!

I tilt my chin up…and gulp, then march over to the bed. I sit stiffly at the farthest corner of my own bed.

Eeeekkk!!! In a flurry of movement and a blink of an eye, I find myself lying in the middle of the bed with him on top of me. His strong powerful body is pinning me to the bed while my hands are trapped above my head by one of his hands. His face hovers only inches from mine.

“Now are you scared of me, Malyshka?” His eyes are watching me intently.

I shake my head and gulp nervously. Nope. His wonderful scent, combined with the warmth and the weight of his body on top of mine is making me feel a lot of things. Scared is not one of them. I think I can hear my own heartbeats thundering in my ears.

He’s still watching me. His lips slowly curve up into a feral, knowing smile, showing his straight white teeth and slightly long canines.

He dips his head lower and I can feel his warm breath against my skin as he breathes in deeply, taking in my scent.

His nose and lips graze my jaw and my stomach clenches. I close my eyes as pleasurable sparks break all over my body shooting straight to my core.

I feel his lips touching my neck with soft featherlight kisses. I almost moan out in protest. I want more. His lips travel to the side of my jaw, then across my cheek still skimming my skin lightly.

He drops a little soft kiss at the corner of my lips. I turn my head to capture his lips with mine, but he pulls back with a playful predatory smile. He’s toying with me. Damn it!

I give him a scowl, but he chuckles and leans down to give my chin a little playful bite and soothes it with a soft kiss. I want more and he’s not giving it to me. That pisses me off somehow.

I struggle to get my hands out of his stronghold, and my body out from underneath him but he only tightens his hold and his body goes still. “Stop moving, Malyshka,” he says warningly. His voice is husky. Then I feel it. His hard length pressing against my thigh.

I grin as I look up at him. He closes his eyes but surprises me by letting out a little laugh before he presses his lips to the shell of my ear.

“I only wanted to show you that you don’t have to be scared of me. I won’t force you to do anything…not until you’re ready,” he whispers in my ear. “I have an amazing, ironclad self-control,” he adds cockily.

Ironclad self-control? Screw that! I want to wipe that cocky smile off his face. I want to chuck that ironclad self-control of his into the shark-infested ocean.

“Wow, that’s a trait to be proud of,” I tell him in a serious tone as I wiggle even more underneath him. I make sure to rub and brush myself harder against his solid length.

I hear the catch in his breath and try hard to contain my smile as his smile wanes from his lips.

I wriggle myself again and this time he pushes himself up so that our lower bodies aren’t pressed together anymore. His grip on my hands loosens. I used this opportunity to free my hands and flip us around.

He’s now lying on his back and I’m straddling him, pinning his hands to the bed with both of mine. I grin down at him and he grins back. His eyes glazed with needs and hunger. There is also the look of amusement and curiosity on his face. All in all, I have one hot gorgeous lycan underneath me and his self-control is not wanted.

I know he’s letting me do this. He could easily flip us back if he wants to.

I lean down and whisper in his ear, “I so admire this ironclad self-control that you have.” I emphasize the word ironclad as I grind down on the hardness of his length underneath me.

I hear the rumble of laughter from his chest followed by a groan and I suppress the giggle from my lips. I know I’m so inexperienced in this seduction thingy, but I’m having fun….and my mate is hot. So why not?

I nuzzle the side of his face and my hands slip underneath his shirt to explore the ridges of his glorious abs. I drop small kisses along the line of his cut jaw and down his neck. The heady smell of him filled my senses and the feel of his silky warm skin underneath my lips is addictive.

I flick my tongue out and taste the salty and delicious flavor of his skin on my tongue.

Mmm….so good. I can hear him moaning underneath me. It sends chills up my spine.

I push my self up. Watching him staring up at me intently. His chest is rising up and down as if he’s just finished running a marathon. His eyes hooded and smoldering. His nostrils flare and his jaw clenched. I reach down and yank my tank top off over my head.

For a few seconds, he just lies there. His nostrils flare and his jaw clenched. Suddenly I’m being flipped back onto the bed

“I said I have an ironclad self-control, I didn’t say the ironclad is indestructible, Malyshka,” he growls in my ear.

“Good,” I whisper back just before his lips cover mine in a fierce hungry kiss. Our lips part only when I try to pull his shirt off. He grabs the end of it and tugs the shirt off in a swift easy movement. His body is perfect. I let my fingers explore the hard contours of his pecks, his amazing abs and lower while he’s watching me with his fists clenched at his sides. Ironclad self-control.

When my hand reaches the trail of hair that disappears down his jeans, he grabs my fingers.

“Don’t go further if you’re not going to finish this.”

I don’t answer him, instead, I free my hand and unbutton his jeans, then pull the zipper down. He stands up to remove his jeans, and as soon as he climbs up the bed again, my fingers close around his impressive hardness over his black boxers.

“Persephone,” he moans as he covers my scorching body with his and his warm lips searching mine.

The pleasure I feel from his bare skin touching mine is unbearable. The sparks of heat are now burst of explosions consuming us both. I can’t think.

His seeking lips cover mine, swallowing my soft moan. His long fingers cradling my head, holding it in place as his lips continue their assault on mine. His tongue darts out to explore my mouth and glide against my tongue. His other hand pulls my hand that’s caressing his hardness up above my head.

His mouth moves down to kiss my cheek, my jaw, my neck…everywhere. It feels like he’s worshipping me while I’m just a mass of feelings, writhing underneath him in pleasure.

“Malyshka. So beautiful…” he murmurs against my skin as he releases the clasp of my lacy white bra. His hands are exploring my body, touching, caressing, kneading… His mouth closes over the peak of my breast and I sob in pleasure. My hands disappear into his hair, tugging his head closer to my body.

“Darius…” I moan out. Pleading. Crying.

I vaguely aware of his hands easing my shorts down before his mouth follows his hand’s path downwards. Trailing fiery kisses and licks.

When I feel his mouth closes over my core I nearly combust. Oh, goddess. “Darius….”

I shudder and scream out his name.

I think it must have taken me a while to recover. When I open my eyes again, Darius is staring down at me with a mixture of hunger and awe and smugness on his face.

He pulls his boxer off and my eyes wander downwards. He’s beautiful. Everywhere.

“Malyshka,” he says as he crawls over me again. His warm lips meet mine and his sexy magnificent body covers mine. Just like that, I’m ready for him again. Once again, I’m a mindless mass of sensation. I’m only aware of his mouth, hands, and body touching mine. My hands, mouth, and body touching his.

The little pain I feel when he finally enters me, makes me open my eyes to stare into his black soulless eyes. In between lycan and man. His eyes are cold, yet the ecstasy on his face is unmistakable.

He moves slowly at first, gripping the edge of the mattress as he does so. The pain and pleasure.

I wrap my legs around him, urging him to move faster.

He lets out the sexiest groan just before I scream out his name the second time. This time is more intense than the first. I think we truly burst into flames. I think we both ignite and turn to ashes.

“Is it always like that?” I ask him lazily as I turn my head to look at him. His flawless skin is glistening with sweat. His fair disheveled hair looks a bit darker as it sticks to his skin.

“It’s never like that. Never like that with anyone else. That’s the first time for me,” he says. “You are amazing.“The possessive look in his eyes as he stares at me takes my breath away. A tiny smug smile is playing on his lips.

“Tell me,” I say. “When was the last time you had a proper good night sleep?”

My body is sore in places I never knew exist but I’m feeling relaxed. My heartbeat is slowing down close to its normal rhythm.

“The night I had you in my arms,” he answers. That was two nights ago. He must be tired. He needs his sleep.

“Come here,” I tell him as I pull his head down closer to my chest. His arms immediately slide around my body to pull me closer until we’re both wrapped tightly around each other. I reach out to bury my fingers in his thick silky pale hair.

“You’re so bossy,” he mumbles.

“Sleep.”

“Don’t leave me,” he murmurs. His arms tighten around me possessively and protectively. “I love it when you do that. I love it when you play with my hair.” His voice grows faint.

His breathing evens out after a while, but I keep my fingers in his soft silky hair, combing slowly through it, my fingertips gently grazing his scalp.