Seduction For Dummies
Constantine picks me up for school this morning. The kiss he gives me as soon as I get in the car leaves us both breathless.
Autumn prefers to walk to school with her friends. I suspect that she's actually still feeling shy and intimidated by Constantine.
When I step out of the car with Constantine, there are no wolf whistles or cat calls. They know not to mess up with lycans, the royal ones especially. Constantine wraps his arm around me as soon as we're out of the car. We still get stares and people whispering as we walk by, but I try not to let that bother me.
I'm feeling apprehensive about being around Milan again. She was getting on my nerve last night. I don't know how long I can pretend to be civil around her if she continued to behave like a spoiled brat.
All the lycans are already there when we arrive. It's still early, but the sun is already shining, promising a beautiful warm day. They are all sitting on the picnic bench outside.
Constantine instantly steers me towards where they are gathering.
Milan looks up, watching us from where she is sitting. Her straight, shiny raven black hair is in a stylish, sleek low ponytail. Her makeup is kept to a bare minimum. Well, she is flawlessly gorgeous, she really doesn't need any makeup.
She gets up as soon as we get closer. Her designer ivory lace, midi dress is sexy yet classy. She looks like she's about to walk down the runway rather than go to school.
“Hi.” She smiles, approaching us. She comes up to my height in her two inches heels. “Listen, Genesis, I'm sorry about last night. It came as a shock to me, and I reacted badly. I hope you can forgive me,” says Milan. Her big baby blue eyes look honest and sincere. “I'd like us to be friends.”
“Sure, I'd like that too,” I reply, giving her a tentative smile.
“Awesome!” She exclaims, linking her arm through mine.
“Hi,” I greet everybody.
“Good morning, Genesis.” Serena returns, who looks serene and calm. Her expression giving nothing away. Lazarus beside her, nods his head with a small smile. He has that same intensity in his eyes as Constantine. I notice that his electric blue eyes turn soft whenever he looks at Serena. They are such a contrast, yet so right for each other.
Caspian is lying on his back on the picnic table in front of us with his hands behind his head. His vivid green eyes look cold and his gorgeous face looks bored. He lifts an eyebrow, giving me a certain look that I don't quite understand.
“Now tell me all about yourself,” urges Milan.
“There's nothing much to tell, really,” I answer, shrugging my shoulders.
“Oh come on. I'd like to get to know you better.” She coaxes as she pulls me to sit next to her. “How long have you known that you're Constantine's erasthai? Did you have a mate before? Was he heartbroken?”
“Milan,” snaps Constantine who stiffens at the mention of my ex-mate. He seats himself next to Milan as I'm seated at the end of the bench on the other side of her.
“Oh, I'm so sorry. That was insensitive of me,” she apologizes quickly. Her expressive eyes look regretful. “Sometimes I don't think before I say something.”
“There's nothing to be sorry about. It's not a big secret or anything, everybody here knows about it.” I shrug my shoulders again. “He's not heartbroken at all. He rejected me. So...no big deal.”
“Rejected you? I'm so sorry. Oh, Genesis, it must be awful for you.” She covers my hand with hers. Her eyes widen in horror.
“Like I said, it's no big deal.”
Caspian shoots me another look from where he's lying down, and this time I lift my eyebrow up in question.
I get the chance to talk to Penny during English Lit. The teacher is late, and Penny is full of stories.
According to Penny, everybody talks about the royal lycans and how my grandfather was the alpha of Cannis Gunnolf Pack, one of the strongest pack in North America. Penny says, there are lots of stories floating around about me and my family and how we're not in Cannis Gunnolf Pack anymore.
One story is that my father left his mate, his pack and he's giving up his title as an alpha to be with my mother. Some people were saying that I was promised to the Alpha of Red Convel Pack to be his mate since I was a baby. My parents broke that promise, that's why we're here. Someone else is saying that I made a pack with the lycans to pretend to be mated to one of them to teach Logan a lesson.
Sheesh. Some people are stupid.
Penny and I giggle over most of the stories.
Logan and Zeke enter the classroom while Penny and I are still giggling over some of the more outrageous stories. The teacher enters right after him and Zeke.
Logan doesn't even look at me. He sits stiffly facing the front of the classroom the whole time. This is almost like the time before we knew we were mates and he wasn't even aware of my existence. Well, except that this time, I know that he's super aware that I'm right here behind him and there's a tension here now.
When the class ends, he gathers his stuff and walks out without a single glance my way either. I think I should be thankful about that.
It's frustrating how Constantine and I don't have any classes together. All the lycans have classes together. We just get to meet briefly in the hallway between classes. Every time we see each other in the hallway, he would bury his nose and lips against my neck and breathes in deeply. It's like my scent calms him.
After the fourth period, he grabs me by the waist, throws me over his shoulder, and carries me out. Well, I guess it's okay to skip classes if you're the king's nephew.
“Listen, sunshine,” he says as he takes my hand in his across the console of the car. “Caspian, Lazarus and I are leaving for Russia tomorrow morning.” He sighs. “I just want to spend today alone with you.”
“How long are you going for?” I can't hide the disappointment in my voice.
“Just for two or three days...a week at the most. We've been summoned by King Alexandros just this morning. I knew this day would come. We've been away, abandoning our duties long enough.”
“You would have to go back there for good pretty soon, don't you?”
He seems reluctant to answer my question this time. His beautiful gray eyes are looking at me speculatively and apprehensively. “Eventually, yes,” he finally answers.
I turn my head to look out the window. There are a lot of things I still don't know about him. I assumed that I'll have to be wherever he'll be. Go wherever he goes. He never asked me to do that. We never really discussed the future.
“Where are we going?” I finally ask. The road we're on is familiar.
“You promised me you would pose for me today....”
“You want to do it now?” When I said today, I assumed it would be after school.
“Yeah, but if you changed your mind..”
“No, I'll do it,” I quickly cut in. My heart starts hammering in my chest. I'll be posing naked in front of Constantine soon, and I was planning to seduce him!
Cuddly bunnies and crazy slippers!
***
“So, do you want me to...uh, strip naked for you now?” I ask, restlessly playing with the hem of my shirt.
Constantine looks equally tense. The atmosphere between us changed in the car the moment he suggested that I pose for him now rather than later.
Now, I'm standing in his room, feeling like I'm about to die. I swear, my heart is trying to escape out of my rib cage and the whole zoo just escaped in my tummy.
He blows a few locks of his dark hair that hang over his forehead away.
I suddenly feel like giggling over how nervous we both are. We both look like a couple of little kids about to do something we're not supposed to.
Actually, seeing how nervous he is makes me feel a little bold. Just a little.
“Okay,” I say, bringing up my hands and start undoing the buttons of my denim top.
His silver gray eyes suddenly shift to watch my hands work on the buttons. His Adam's apple moves as he swallows hard.
“You know what? If you want, you could put on one of my shirts to start...it's up to you,” he suggests hoarsely.
He disappears into his walk-in closet and appears with a white shirt that looks similar to the one I had on after the shower the first time I was here.
“I'll be waiting for you in the studio,” he says, his hand massaging his neck awkwardly before he walks out the door.
I'm grateful that he's giving me options just to make me feel comfortable, but now I have a decision to make.
“Seduce him,” I whisper to myself as I take my bra off. Shirt or no shirt? I'm so nervous! I walk out, then turn around.
Wowza!!! I can't do this! I chicken out.
Nope, you can do this! Okay, the second option just to start. I sigh and put his white shirt on. The feeling of the fabric of his shirt against my bare skin gives me the tingles. I breathe in the wonderful smell of his scent and detergent. “Okay, I can do this. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”
I happen to glance at myself in the mirror. Funny bunnies! The white shirt doesn't hide much. When did the shirt become so thin and transparent?
Genesis, you are a grown confident woman. You so can do this! Yeah! With that, I march into his studio.
Well...okay, I don't exactly march in there. I sorta shuffle my feet there. I told you I was such a coward. I still am.
I am so doing this!!! Seduce him...
When I walk into the studio, he's hunching over a table, arranging his paint, pencil jars, conté, erasers, and tortillons around. The flexing muscles of his broad shoulders and arms draw my eyes. He doesn't even look up from what he's doing.
There's something about a big strong man totally focused on doing something simple and delicate that makes me feel hot all over. Okay, don't jump him yet. Seduce him, seduce him.
There's a deep red velvet antique French Chaise lounge, that wasn't here before, placed by the window.
“Do you want me to sit down on the sofa? Or do you want me to do several quick gesture poses first?”
“You can just lie down on the sofa.” He gestures offhandedly towards the sofa without even looking directly at me.
I'm getting a bit irritated that he's not looking at me when I'm feeling like I'm about to burst from being so nervous. Okay, lie down on the sofa.
Slowly, I lower myself on the red sofa into lying position. “Like this?” I ask.
“Yeah, that's good.” He's still ignoring me.
I get up again and stack several pillows behind my back. I undo several top buttons all the way down past my cleavage as well. Then, I lie back down, arching my back to push my chest and my hips out. I relax my arms above my head. Well, this is my seductive position. If this doesn't work, I don't know what else I'd do. Now, I wish I had read a book Seduction For Dummies or something like that before I came.
“How about this?” I ask again.
“That's great,” comes his reply, still not looking up.
Oh goddess, I give up! Maybe I should just take everything off. I bite my bottom lip and contemplate taking the shirt off when he finally straightens up.
When he finally looks at me, the expression on his face is unreadable.
He moves in closer and I try to calm my heartbeat. I stare at him, mesmerized. His intense silver gray eyes look so focused. His sensual pink lips look stiff. He moves my hair to one side and his fingers brush my neck. The sparks ignite and spread over me at the touch of his hand on my skin, I almost moaned aloud. His warm breath tickles my skin. He looks so unaffected. Maybe I should just jump him.
Next, he moves to my feet. His eyes skimming over my body. His warm hands take one of my legs and bend it to his liking. Goddess, shivers run down my spine at his touch and closeness. I think his hands stay on my leg longer than necessary. I think his fingers brush my skin in a soft burning caress before he lets go. Or maybe it's just my heated imagination.
It's been five minutes since I'm lying here on a deep red velvet antique French Chaise lounge. I play the Jeopardy music in my head. This shirt is a bad idea. Maybe I should just really jump him.
I watch Constantine in fascination. How gorgeous he is. My fingers itch to smooth back a few locks of dark hair that fall over his thick eyebrows.
His smoldering eyes moving up and down my body. I can feel the heat of his gaze burning my skin, and then he shifts his eyes back onto the sketchpad in front of him. His hand is moving fast. The pencil snaps between his fingers. He quickly snatches another pencil from the jar of pencils beside him and returns his gaze to me.
I start imagining things I could do to seduce him as I stare at his muscled arms, and shoulders, and back; my cheeks get redder with every image that I have in my head, my breath gets uneven. Then, I notice that for a while now, his hand isn't moving, and his eyes haven't shifted back to the sketchpad in front of him. My heart almost stops at the look of hunger in his eyes. My body feels like it's on fire from his intense gaze. I take a deep breath and involuntarily lick my dry lips. His nostrils flare and his eyes darken.
He lets out a groan that sounds tortured. He pushes the jars of pencils and brushes onto the floor. Pencils and brushes rolling everywhere.
I look up to see Constantine standing stiffly by the window. He's facing away from me, his head is bowed and both his hands are deep in his hair.
Oh, no. Did I push him too far?
“If you're not ready for me to take you yet, you'd better get out of here, Genesis. Go. Now,” he growls.
“What if I don't want to go? Constantine—”
And before I can even finish, Constantine is already on top of me.
“Don't tease me, sweetheart,” he growls between clenched teeth, breathing hard. His hands on either side of me are gripping the sofa tightly as if trying to stop himself from touching me. His eyes are intense, dark and hungry.
“Constantine...” I breathe. My heart is racing. I reach my hand up to touch his cheek, he closes his eyes and his jaw clenches. The expression on his face is like a man tortured, and I hear the wood cracks loudly in his grip. I think the sofa is broken.
Suddenly, his hands are on me. His mouth slams onto mine. Oh, the explosions! The crackling fire, breaking all over my skin. His tongue already finds entry into my mouth. This kiss is all tongue, dueling with each other; hungry and desperate. I barely notice when he lifts me up, with my legs around his waist, and carries me back to his room.
I'm being lowered onto the bed. When he straightens up, his eyes are half concealed by long, thick, sooty eyelashes. His face is intense and unreadable as he stares at me from head to toe. His eyes are raking my body.
He pulls off his white t-shirt and my eyes are drawn to his muscled arms, his glorious shoulders and chest, down to his perfect abs that lead down to the deep v and a little trail of hair that disappears down his low hanging jeans. He is gorgeous. Perfection.
“You are perfect,” he breathes just before he climbs onto the bed over me and fervently crushes my lips with his. Shudders run through my body.
I marvel at the feeling of his bare skin. My hands move up to his back and shoulders, feeling his rippling muscles.
I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him closer still. His mouth is devouring mine like a starving man. Fuzzy whatever...I'm drunk on his taste.
I roll my hips against his.
“Oh, sweetheart...” he moans against my mouth.
My tongue is sliding against his. His mouth moves to the side of my neck, giving me wet open mouth kisses. One hand is on my side, supporting the weight of his upper body, while his lower body is grinding against mine. His other hand moves up underneath my shirt. His exploring hand is trailing fire over my already heated skin.
I feel him stiffen above me and my passion clouded brain registers the persistence knocking at the door.
He groans. “Ignore it,” he murmurs and trails his mouth fervently down my throat and across my collarbone.
The knocking gets louder.
Arrgghhh!!! No, no, no no. This is not happening!
I lay back and sigh, running my fingers through my hair in frustration.
Constantine buries his face on my chest, groaning loudly. The knocking gets even louder and a few seconds later he raises his head, scowling at the door as if it's his enemy. A muscle ticking at his jaw.
“I swear it, if it's Caspian playing tricks on us, I'm going to murder him,” he growls fiercely.
I'd happily help bury the body.
“Who is it?” he growls at the door.
No answer, but the knocking continues.
He swears and moodily pushes himself off me. He pulls the sheet over me before he walks over, unlocks the door and yanks it open.
Milan is standing on the other side, staring at him, wide eyed. Then her eyes move to look at me still lying on the bed.
“I'm sorry. I didn't interrupt anything did I?” She sounds apologetic, but there's a gleam in her eyes that doesn't make it sound believable to my ears. Or maybe that's just my sex crazed brain thinking.
“Yes, you did. We're busy. Now go away,” says Constantine gruffly.
“Oh come on you, Mr. Grumpy. I just can't wait to bond with Genesis.” She forcefully pushes the door open wider just as Constantine is about to close it on her face.
“Come shopping with me. Then we'll go to the spa. We'll be so much fun together!” she invites me enthusiastically. There's a note of desperation in her voice.
What? Is she kidding me? NO! I don't want to go shopping. I don't want to go to the spa. Right now, I just want to kill somebody while howling out my frustration.
Constantine is looking livid. His eyes are turning black.
“What's going on?” asks Caspian at the door just as I was about to go and calm Constantine down.
I lay back down and pull the sheets tighter around me since I remember I'm not wearing much.
I hear Constantine growls before he disappears. Billowing curtains is the only indication of where he's gone off to.