Rising Sun (Fate's Intent Book 9) (3 page)

Chapter 5

Ruby

I knew how tired he was from the trip since he liked holding Dirk the most through it and I waited only about an hour before I knew he was out cold. Darius has never been easily woken by movement or sounds except for the unusual occasion that Dirk gets up in the middle of the night and I knew it would have been safe.

I slowly moved away out of his arms and got out of bed. I was on my own mission.

The palace seemed to be in complete silence and I made sure I stayed quiet as I moved through it. I took the stairs and slowly made my way down to the third floor. It seemed even quieter except for some light movement in the bathhouse. I smiled to myself and waited up against the wall by the door.

Just a minute passed before the door opened and Meg stepped out dressed in a white robe. I stayed exactly where I was and Meg didn’t even notice I was there and wouldn’t have had I not said anything. “Hello, Meg.”

She was jumped and quickly turned around. I could see her fear. “Ruby. You scared me.”

“Oh, really?” I kept my voice casual while I stood up completely and started taking slow steps towards her. “That’s good. I should.”

It only took a second for Meg to realize that I knew about her and Darius and she tried apologizing sympathetically. “Ruby, I’m sorry about—”

“I’m sure you are.” I cut in, keeping my calm and collected exterior. “You rather enjoyed trying to split up my family.”

“I didn’t—”

“I hope it was good for you because that’s all it was. So, if you ever go near him again or even think for a second that you could, believe me when I say, I’ll be right there and you’ll regret it—dearly.”

“I—I wasn’t the only one involved.”

I laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. He was punished fair enough just being with you. The truth of the matter is, you were just a filler to him and not a very good one at that. You couldn’t have satisfied him close to what I can and you should think of that when you go through the rest of your life, never having another satisfying experience because you’ll never get close to him again.”

There was a pause and the sound of a baby cry close by broke the silence with another crying afterward.

“Ah—those are my—I better—”

“Yeah, you better and better hope I won’t be seeing you.”

I left it at that and turned right towards the stairs. I didn’t look back but heard Meg’s door close and her shaken voice trying to comfort her babies. I just smiled and kept going back upstairs to my room on the fifth floor.

I was startled to a brighter light and Darius was sitting on the end of the bed, rocking Dirk gently in his arms to keep him calm. “Where have you been? He woke me up and you were gone.”

I couldn’t tell him. That would have only made him angry.

“Sorry. It was nothing. I just needed some water.”

“And that water wasn’t good enough?” I glanced over at the table where our dinner plates were and there was a glass of water sitting by it.

“I needed it to be fresher.” I took Dirk from his arms and walked to the head of the bed to sit comfortably on it so I could feed him enough so he’d go back to sleep.

“Why do you have to lie? I know where you went.”

“Is this you asking me about it?”

“Yes. What did you do?”

I laughed. “I didn’t
do
anything. My eyes never even changed. Promise.”

“I know they don’t need to be that way for you to kill, Ruby.”

I sighed and looked over while Dirk was feeding. “I didn’t kill your girlfriend, okay.”

“She’s
not
my girlfriend.” Darius said, returning the sigh. “But killing her would still be bad.”

“Well, I didn’t do that. We just had a little chat. That’s all and both walked away completely unharmed.”

“Why’d you do it at all?”

“Just had to get some things out in the open. This won’t be the last time we see her if her little
mistake
will be in our lives.”

Darius sighed again as a sure sign that he was exhausted. “All right. Can we just forget about it? It was all completely nothing and I don’t want you to be like this every time she does happen to come around.”

“It won’t be easy to just forget, Darius. I know you keep saying it but she’s always going to mean something to you.”

“Ruby, she doesn’t mean anything.”

“Then why did you make her see that? I mean you were going to give him up for her.”

My eyes were down on Dirk and Darius leaned in, gently stroking his hair. “I don’t want to think about that. I’m not sure that I really ever would have done it. You know how much I love him. Shit, I’d be doing that right now if I could.”

I laughed to hear his sarcastic tone. “If you could then we’d have a serious problem.”

Darius returned the laugh and kissed my head. “We sure would. Now, can we forget about this? I don’t want what happened to be the base of all of our conversations. I want to be us again.”

“We are us, Darius.”

“Are we? Because it doesn’t always seem like it.”

“We will be as long as you understand this isn’t just going to go away. I have a right to hate her and no one is going to take that away from me.”

“All right.” He sighed again, giving me another kiss. “I get it. Think he’s ready for bed yet?”

I looked down at Dirk again and started to pull him away. “Yeah. He should be fine now.”

“Okay, let me see him.” Darius took Dirk in his hands and brought him close to his body. “Burp then bed, buddy. Mama and Daddy need their sleep too.”

I smiled as I watched Darius gently burping our son and I dabbed a blanket up around his mouth. “There. All better?”

Dirk let out a loud burp and Darius tried not to shake when he laughed. “I think that means yes.”

“Does he need to be changed?”

“No. I took care of that when he got me up. He should be fine.”

“Okay.” I watched Darius place him down on his back and I leaned down, kissing his head. “Goodnight, Dirk. Sleep a little longer, would you?”

“He will. Come on. He’s fine and I’m tired.”

“Sorry I wasn’t up here when he got up. I could have let you sleep.”

“It’s all right. I don’t mind getting up with him. Besides, we both know that you wouldn’t have changed him.”

I suppose he was right. It was the one thing I always hated about being a mother but Darius was good about taking up the job in my place.

“I know but we can go ahead and sleep now.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“I love you. Goodnight.”

I wasn’t going to leave the room again. This is where I wanted to be. She would be gone in the morning for her trip into Hintus and I was glad of it. If it only came sooner.

Chapter 6

Jaylyn

Adele and Zayden got the chance to sleep in before they had to leave on their trip into Hintus and I got up around my normal time; early. I thought to get breakfast started for everyone since I’ll have to be the one to do it when Adele was away and got started in the kitchen just as I was ready.

“Think you’ll be able to get used to it?” Troy was waiting with me with Bryce in his arms like he didn’t have anywhere else to be.

“It’ll be fine. I’m usually in here with Adele so doing it alone shouldn’t be so hard. I just have to watch what I eat.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Well, you don’t have to be. You can take Bryce out there and wait for others to wake up. Is he awake?”

“A little bit. He’s trying to keep those eyes open. They’re really starting to get bright like yours.”

“We knew that would happen.”

“Yeah, but it’s just nicer to see. The girls are going to drool over you!”

I laughed. “Well, of course they are. With looks like his father, he’s going to be a little stud. Let’s just hope he’s not completely like you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, the list of women you’ve been with that’s taller than you are. I don’t want him to take advantage of women like that.”

“I had respect—to some extent. You’re thinking of how Darius used to do things.”

“Okay, so you may not have been as selective as he was but it was still pretty similar.”

“Oh, and you were completely innocent?”

I sighed and turned around, leaning against the counter. “Okay, look. I know I wasn’t. Okay? But it’s different. You might be surprised but I’ve only been with like four guys my entire life.”

“You’re admitting to this?”

“What do you mean? Of course I am.”

“Kole told me about this before.”

“Did he? When?”

“It was that night we went to drop off Ellie. You went to make him tea because he wasn’t feeling well and we talked.”

“What exactly did he tell you?”

“That you’ve only been with four guys your whole life. The kid you lost your virginity to, him, Ryon that one time and then me.”

I huffed and turned away to prepare some of the food. “Did he tell you why?”

“I never needed a reason. You chose it and I’m fine with that.”

“It was never that I chose it. It was Trever.”

“Trever?”

“He’s always had this thing about guys being with me and I could never understand why.”

“It’s your bloodline.”

“I know that now but I didn’t then and even still, it was foolish. Like he had to pick them for me so I wasn’t with anyone that didn’t have a respectable family history.”

“Like Kole?”

I laughed. “That may have been a little different and be ready to laugh when I tell you.”

“Okay.”

“Trever gave him written permission to be with me. Like a contract because they were friends after my first night with him.”

Troy laughed a little louder. “Really? I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take amusement to you being treated like an object but that is a little funny.”

“Told you you’d laugh. It was kind of Trever’s way of making sure that I was watched out for more than just by him. I wasn’t really laughing about it then but I am now. He said we would someday. I just didn’t believe him.”

My mood went downhill with all the talk of Trever. We haven’t heard from him in a while and I just missed him, I guess.

“It’s all right, Jaylyn. You don’t need to talk about it anymore. I know you miss him.”

“Never thought I’d do that either.”

“Well, things change when you know of why he’s done everything he’s done. You see him differently.”

“Yeah, I guess so. How much longer do you think he’ll be?”

“A few months? I’m not completely sure but what he’s doing is important. It’s going to take some time.”

“You’re probably right. I’m just going to stop thinking about it so I stop worrying about something happening to him.”

Troy leaned in and kissed the back of my head. “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine and he’ll find us. I’m going out there now. You all right in here?”

“Yeah. Few more minutes and it’ll be done. I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. When it is, we’ll have to get Adele and Zayden up to have some. They should get up at a reasonable time anyway if they want to leave.”

“Good idea.” I turned and kissed him then gave my son a light kiss on the head. “You better be good for daddy, Bryce.”

“He will be. No problems so far.”

I watched him leave completely before I turned back and tried getting breakfast finished for everyone.

Chapter 7

Ruby

I woke to the aroma of cooking food and realized Dirk hasn’t woken me up. That meant he was still sleeping and I looked over at Darius next to me, remembering our deal. I moved closer to him and kissed his cheek lightly, moving down to his neck.

Darius began to wake up and brought his arm up around me. “Morning already?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“And he hasn’t woken us up?”

“Nope.”

“Mmm, sounds good to me.” Darius pulled me on top of him with his strong arms around me to keep me there. “I’ve been dreaming about this.”

“I bet you have but not here.” I pulled back suddenly and started to get off the bed all together.

This made Darius huff with the unpleasant surprise and start to sit himself up. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I looked back with a smile and tied my robe around my body. “Didn’t I say it’d be in some high risk place? If you can hurry and catch me, we’ll have time before Dirk gets up.”

I headed quickly right out the door and knew Darius didn’t hesitate to follow. I could hear his loud trumping steps behind me and I laughed loudly as I hurried down the stairs. He was catching up but I still tried to be quick like it was some amusing game and I finally reached the first floor.

I saw the eyes of Troy and Meg but I pretended not to notice and hurried towards the kitchen. Darius was right behind me and caught me before I could go inside.

I turned towards him and he stopped himself long enough to kiss me. “I win.”

“Then claim your prize.”

Darius picked me right up in his arms and carried me into the kitchen.

It was exciting. We haven’t gotten to do anything like this while we spent all those months in the Senian palace just mainly out of respect for the people that owned it. It was different here and I didn’t care where I was as long as I was with him and he was pleasuring me the way only he could.