House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(97)

“Are you still worried about me being in your world?”

He brushed a hand across my cheek, caressing it gently. “I still worry that you’re going to get hurt from being in my world, but it’s clear that you were always meant to be here. I won’t fight fate. I will take my gifts.”

I smirked. “So I’m a gift now?”

He flipped me over, so now he was the one pressing into me. Smooth rock lined my spine, and I held my breath, waiting for him to make his move.

“Always tempting me,” he murmured, running his hands up and down my legs.

Holy shit.





21





One Month Later





The bell rang and I hauled my books up, almost smacking myself in the face. I was so ready to get out of my last class.

“What’s the rush, sprout?”

I glared at Jero, shaking my head. “Sprout? Really? I think you’ve officially run out of nicknames.”

He waited for me to finish stacking my textbooks. He, of course, had no books to retrieve. The Daelighters were still rocking their bookless genius status. Meanwhile, I was studying my ass off because I had missed so much school and I was not keen on falling behind. No way was I repeating my senior year.

Thank God for Lexen and his superior intellect. I didn’t even care anymore that he was smarter and more athletic than me, because I reaped the benefits of those skills secondhand.

Jero took the heavy pile of books from me, slinging an arm across my shoulders and pulling me into him. Despite the fact that all of the Darkens were quite handsy with me, and had been for the past month at school, multiple gasps and hooded looks still shot in our direction.

“Girlfriend! The gossips love you,” Ben trilled as he walked by us.

I just shook my head at him, glad that I’d managed to explain away my absence to Ben and Cara. Both of them accepted a lame story about an impromptu road trip which ended up with me in hospital. I had the scars to prove it, so they’d fawned over me, and I’d been grateful for their friendship.

Ben waved, heading toward the drama room. It was coming into the winter season of plays, which was apparently a big deal. Or so he liked to remind us. I knew Ben hid his pain in school activities. He was still having a lot of trouble at home, but he seemed to be able to handle it. Mostly.

I wanted to smack his parents in the mouth, but Lexen had me on a strict no smacking ban. Apparently I needed to stay out of trouble.

“Are you excited about tonight?” Jero asked, a shit-eating grin stretching his mouth.

Trying my best not to blush, I shrugged. “You know, we’re just watching a movie and having dinner…”

Despite the fact Lexen and I had never been closer, we’d hardly had any alone time since returning from Overworld. Sara and Michael suddenly developed some very real rules, and I was to return home at exactly 5 P.M daily. Since I’d almost lost them, and they in turn thought for days I was dead, I had been indulging their overprotectiveness. We were bonding over the new knowledge of the supernatural we all possessed.

Michael and Sara might have always known there was an “alien” species on Earth, but they never expected it to be what it was. Me and my family’s ties to it, more than anything, astonished them.

Jero interrupted my thoughts with a laugh. “Lexen has the entire house to himself while the rest of us return to Overworld … and you’re just going to watch a movie?”

I shrugged his arm off me, narrowing my eyes on him. “I’m not discussing my sex life with you.” Or lack thereof. A fact that would hopefully be rectified tonight.

Jero hooted with laughter. “Lexen is going to have his hands full with you.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Literally.”

I was just about to break my smacking rule when tall, dark, and deadly entered the hall we were in. I took off as fast as my lazy legs could go. Lexen caught me with ease, lifting me up so that our mouths could meet.

“You know, you’re barely even puffing,” he said when we pulled apart.

I snort-laughed. “Yes, because an evil sadist has been making me go jogging with him.”

Setting me on my feet, he brushed some of my wavy hair back. “You’ve been three times, and I had to promise you ice cream before you’d even get dressed.”

I folded my arms over my chest, tilting my head to the side as I gave a rueful shrug. “It’s never going to be my thing. You should just give up, accept that I have strengths in other areas.”

“Yeah, she did knit you that wicked scarf,” Jero added as he caught up to us.

I wanted to glare at the sarcastic asshole, but he kind of had a point. I was so distracted when I tried to knit around Lexen that I kept missing stitches and loops. My last creation was both holey and lopsided.

But he’d worn it. Inside, at least.

“Jero…” Lexen warned his brother. Apparently he didn’t have a smacking rule, so Jero heeded that warning and held both hands up in surrender, veering to the right, heading toward the moving sidewalk that would take him to the parking lot.

“Have fun tonight, kids,” he called as he jumped on. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

And I was blushing again.

Lexen took pity on me, not calling attention to my pink cheeks. He just held his hand out and I placed mine in it, our fingers linking together.