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 blushed 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.
And then she left the living room, making her way back into the little hiding of an alcove she’d chosen as her room – temporarily, Darren had assured her. There were some things she was better off not seeing, she decided.
But oh, had she missed the wild look in Darren’s eyes.