Chapter 13
Azriel’s POV
She looked perfect……just perfect. There was no other word for it. Lifting my weight off herself, I climbed off of her, making her whimper in response.
The sight that lay in front of me……her sprawled out on my bed.
She seemed to still be in a haze and didn’t notice me standing in front of the bed and just gawking down at her. Her eyes were half-closed, her swollen red lips curled up in the most adorable pout, her beautiful hair cascaded down her shoulders in waves.
My favorite feature of her was definitely her wild, disheveled state, especially her disorderly black dress which had bunched up at her waists, exposing her lean, slim legs, giving way to toned thighs which seemed quite kissable.
“Azriel ?” Claire called out to me, her voice breathy. When she saw me sitting down at one of the end corners of the bed, as far away from her alluring body as possible, her eyes crinkled up in confusion at me. She rose, supporting herself with one of her elbows as she pulled herself up into a sitting position and c****d her head at me thoughtfully as I looked at her pointedly. One of her straps slipped off of one of her shoulders but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Um….” She awkwardly started, making me realize what I was doing. I’d just practically attacked her and kissed her senseless. Then left her in the midst of undressing her. What the hell must she be thinking now?
At first, I hesitated. In my defense, I wasn’t the nicest person in the world so it was kind of hard for me to make someone feel better or undo something wrong.
Avoiding eye contact with me, she just sat there looking very uncomfortable.
Moving toward her on the bed, her eyes widened when I reached out to her. Tucking her hair behind her ear, I pulled her loose strap up her shoulder. Her face reddened when she noticed that it’d been hanging off her shoulder all this time. She shivered when I traced the skin of her shoulder, my fingers skimming over her pale skin, using the strap as an excuse.
She immediately shuffled away from me when I was done, still refusing to look me in the eye.
“What are you…..” She yelped when I took a hold of her hand. Her eyes were full of rage…..I could see it. I couldn’t really blame her for how she felt. But I could do one thing……k**s it better. Literally.
Tilting her chin up, I crashed my mouth onto hers, enveloping those plump lips of hers in a chaste k**s. There was no underlying s****l innuendo in it, it was just a simple, chaste k**s. And boy was she surprised!
Pulling back, I could clearly see how utterly confused she seemed.
“We land in an hour. Meet me in the passenger aisle when you’re ready.” Giving her a small smile, I stepped off the bed and left, closing the door behind me.
I really need a goddamn drink!
My phone buzzed before I could even think of heading to the plane’s somewhat decent bar.
“What ?” I snapped into the phone.
“Aww, don’t you snap at me brother.” Drake, my younger brother’s annoying voice came in distorted through the speaker.
“What the hell do you want ?” I gritted out, my jaw tightening. You see, my brother wasn’t exactly good news. He was real trouble for me. Something definitely had to be up if he was calling me.
“Is that any way to talk to your baby brother, Azriel ?” He sweetly said, but I knew better. His intentions could never be good…….especially toward me. Because…….’surprise, surprise’…….he hated me. For my extracurricular hobbies and my special, amorous activities.
But I could never hate him……firstly because he was my brother and the only family I had left. And secondly, he was a good human being….unlike me, however mischievous and reckless he maybe he could never truly harm anyone. But when it came to me…… I couldn’t really be sure of that.
But there was one thing I knew for sure, he hated me……and for good reason.
Hell! I would’ve actually judged him if he didn’t hate me.
“Hey, you there ?” Drake grunted, huffing. Tightening my hand around the phone, I answered, “Yea, what were you saying ?”
“Mr. Tancredi called me today.” His grim voice came in through my phone’s evidently broken speaker.
“As in President Tancredi ?” I asked, listening intently for his response.
“Yea. It doesn’t look good.” He sighed…..that was not a good sign. Drake was almost never scared of anything, nothing could ever overwhelm him but this time, it almost sounded like he’d given up…….like he was just tired.
“What did he say ?” I held my head in my hand as I clasped the phone to my ear, collapsing into a seat nearby.
“He said that if you didn’t pick up when he called again……” His voice cut off.
I waited for him to speak up again.
“You know his stupid ‘speech’. The one he gives to traitors, the one speech he gives when he wants to come off as dangerous as he is. The speech he gives to people he’s about to kill.” Drake’s voice was hard, emotionless. Our parents had really f****d us up, to the point that my own brother wanted me to die. And the worst part of it was…..even I didn’t care if I died. Just one less monster I guess.
“Please don’t make me be the bigger brother again. You know I hate you.” Drake said, his tone indecipherable.
“I know,” I replied, shutting my phone when I heard him end the call. It was like a kind of goodbye…..our goodbye. Those could possibly have been the last words I said to him.
f**k!
This was bad. This was really really bad. If Tancredi knew…….then it was over for me. My head would burst any f*****g second now, Tancredi, that scum son of a b***h. Well, f**k if I care.
“Azriel ?!” A faint sound hummed in the background. In my delirium, I’d lost track of time and space and hadn’t even noticed that the plane had landed.
Claire stood at the door with Ross by her side, both of them waiting for me.
I mustered up a smile for a very confused-looking Claire as we both made our way out of the plane.
Claire gaped at the number of cars surrounding the area where the plane had landed. She was embarrassed when I chuckled at her shock, she blushed brighter than a strawberry on a summer day. Damn! I’m getting cheesy.
“What is it ?” I asked her, irritated that she’d refused to speak to me even now. What the hell did I even do?
We’d been driving for the past half hour, a few minutes more until we arrived at Maison Souquet, one of the most embellished hotels in Paris.
“Nothing.” She grumbled, moving away from me.
A Mercedes car really shouldn’t have been this big. It gave a lot of space for a woman to run away from you.
“Would you just say what your problem is ?” I shot back. Evidently, I wasn’t the most patient and sweet person in the world but in my defense, women really were a work of art.
“I don’t have a problem.” Claire blankly said, remaining poker-faced. Her stiff body screamed the opposite of what she said. She obviously had a problem.