Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.

Chapter 401: Outburst.

Leilani.

Naturally, my first reaction would’ve been to push him off of me. To snap at him and curse him out for being so prude and pushy, so why the fuck did I, instead of doing all of those, welcome his embrace?

Why did I kiss him back when he kissed me with so much possessiveness?

I arched my back, leaning into him as he laced his fingers into my hair, and pulling slightly, such that my head tipped back only a little, he hissed against my lips; "Do you also not feel this?"

And I should respond. Heck, this was the part where I should say something cutting to him. It was the part where I should tell him off. But for some reason, my tongue was tied. My body thrummed with emotions I could barely contain and my pussy— the most stupid part of my body— clenched and unclenched as if waiting for something I knew not.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to dispel the very many thoughts and emotions running through my mind as I seethed; "No."

"You pathological liar!" He snarled, more like moaned against my skin.

His voice held a tinge of mockery and something else... something that sounded like sarcasm and mischief wrapped in honey, as he spoke.

When his fingers trailed up my exposed arm for the nth time and went to rest at the base of my neck, my breath hitched, and my blood rushed to my face as I hissed;

"Stop."

But he didn’t. He wouldn’t.

"If it doesn’t affect you then you wouldn’t care. You wouldn’t even tell me to stop," he hissed back into my face, his warm— hot— breath fanning across my skin as he did.

Something weird and hot settled at the base of my stomach, pushing against my pelvic floor, mid suppressing it, I let my eyes meet his and snarled; "It doesn’t. I am simply just disgusted at the idea of having your hands on my body."

I felt the shift in his body before I saw it, and when I looked into his stormy eyes and found nothing but despair in them, I continued; "I may tolerate you now, but it doesn’t mean that I want you. Hell, I do not care about your stupid erotic dreams or the things they do to you afterwards—"

"But you care about this..." he snapped, interrupting me, and goddess, I nearly lost my footing when his calloused hands brushed against the surface of my dress, at my pebbled nipples.

"You may deny it all you want but I know that you feel this. I know that your body responds to my touch..."

"That’s a lie."

"I feel it when you take in sharp breaths... and see it when your face heats up whenever any of us are close. Leilani, you are as attracted to my brothers and I as we are attracted to you. You feel the surge of energy between us because why not? We are mates! No matter how many times you try to convince yourself otherwise."

At the sound of his voice, my stomach dipped. A frown made its way to my face as I tried to step away from him, but Caelum being Caelum stopped me from moving away by holding my arm.

Sparks flew where our skins touched, and do you know what was worse?

The fact that I let out a moan even before I could stop myself. The fact that it was so loud, and now, way past the stage where I could take it back.

When he heard the sound, his eyebrows cocked at me and I frowned even more. "Let go," I hissed, "I need to return to bed."

His eyes found mine in that silent minute before he slowly let go of me and took a step back as if giving me more than enough space to do my thing. freewebnovёl.ƈom

I quickly sidestepped him, half expecting him to hold me back but he didn’t. And then I sighed. "Do not do this another time."

"Do what?" He sounded sarcastic yet playful.

"This." I hissed, pointing between us.

His eyes flashed with mischief as he glanced at the space hanging between us like it was vile, and then he shook his head, smirked at me and hissed; "You cannot even bring yourself to say the words."

"Stop."

"You are so flustered, you cannot even bring yourself to look me in the eyes."

"That’s absurd."

"No it isn’t!" He snapped, his voice hoarse. "Do you know what is absurd?" He sneered, whilst lowering his head until we were sharing the same breath. "What is absurd is you thinking that there’s another way out of this. What is absurd is the fact that you think you can share with someone else what you share with us. What is absurd is you trying to downplay what we share and what is absurd is the fact that you think I can see you everyday and not fall in love with you."

"Caelum!" My face was burning. It was on literal fire.

"I was in love with you when I didn’t know shit about you! I was in love with you when all I wanted was to see you suffer. I was in love with you when you hung onto the arms of Frostclaw like a prized possession and I loved you even when you hated me."

"I still hate you."

"—And for some reason, you think that we can live under the same roof and I’ll still see you as nothing but a friend. A friend who bears my mark?"

My breath hitched. I hissed; "Goodnight."

I had half expected him not to accept that, so when he simply took a step back, I was stunned. He nodded. "Yes, goodnight. You can run all you want, but know this; know that I will not— never — stop pursuing you. And I pray, hell, I pray to the goddess, Leilani, that you do not have a peaceful sleep just as I cannot, and that you are plagued with erotic dreams far more worse than the ones that I have been plagued with, especially these past few days."

I turned to give him the stink eye after he said those words and then I walked off, ignoring him, and ignoring the one million and one jolts of electricity running up my spine as I went.

I felt his eyes boring literal holes into the back of my head as I walked away. I felt the way they followed every movement I made like a tracker; But I didn’t stop to acknowledge him. I didn’t even act like I felt anything despite the way my heart pounded against my chest and the way my body thrummed wildly until I was sure that I was simply levitating.

When I arrived at the top of the stairs, expecting to slip into my room and retire to a deep slumber, I suddenly stopped;

Why?

Because standing there in the shadows were Zevran and Kael, and judging from the looks on their faces, I knew that they had witnessed the entire thing with Caelum.

I blushed. Hard. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

And then pushed past them to run into my room.

—

Zevran.

As I watched Leilani slip into her room and slam the door shut in our faces, I felt betrayed.

I was betrayed not because I had expected a totally different reaction from her, but because I had wanted to be the first person to say those words that Caelum had said to her.

I wanted to be the one confessing my feelings to her and the one who she would be unable to look at at breakfast tomorrow— that’s if she even comes down for breakfast at all.

My eyes narrowed as I turned to look at Caelum who for the first time in a long time, seemed deflated. His dark eyes met mine in that dim lighting, and then he whispered;

"I went too hard on her."

"No, you didn’t."

That was a lie but would I be the one to say that to him?

Would I be the one to hurt and break him even more than he already was?

Of course not.

I went down the stairs slowly, my mind so far from my body, I could hardly feel it. And when I arrived close to where he stood, I patted him gently on the shoulder, looked him dead in the eye and drawled;

"You have done what you can."

"But she didn’t respond nicely. I feel like I have pushed her away."

"No, you haven’t." I argued sternly. I do not know why I felt so sure but I did. And that sureness was what made me say; "You may have gone hard on her but now, she knows what you want. She would be forced to think about it... about you. And trust me, you haven’t pushed her away. If anything, you’ve brought her even closer to you."

To him not me.

Not Kael or anyone else.

And hell, that made me jealous.