Chapter Ten
I woke to the smell of fresh coffee.
With my eyes still closed I moaned and stretched across the pillows.
“You have no idea how much you affect me when you do that,” Demetri said.
My eyes flashed open.
He looked like a truck ran over him.
He hadn’t showered or done anything. Purple and blue bruises decorated the side of his eye and his cheekbone.
I hadn’t realized Alec hit him so hard. Immediately my eyes went to the floor. “He’s downstairs making breakfast. He said he’d give me some time to talk to you but that if I make you cry I have to drown myself in the ocean.”
I nodded. “I agree to those terms.”
“Ouch.” Demetri chuckled and looked away. “I don’t even know what to say, Nat. Sorry just seems lame. I’m an ass sounds a little better, but I just don’t know what to say.”
He plopped down onto the bed and ran his hands through his messy blonde hair. “I really like you. I’ve never liked a girl as much as I like you. I meant everything I said last night. I want to be with you.”
“And every other girl at Seaside,” I added, suddenly feeling the hurt and betrayal of last night wash over me.
“No!” He grasped my hands and kissed them. “You don’t understand. I only want you. I know I seem like a screw up, and that’s because I am. I can’t believe I’m saying this. I think you’re the forever girl. The one you bring home to your parents, the one you spend Christmas with, the one you have children with. You’re that girl, Nat.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that.”
Demetri sighed. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, Nat. What I did was childish and stupid. I got drunk at a party and made out with a complete stranger just because she was in front of me. I don’t even remember who it was. I only know she had blonde hair. I really did think she was you, but when I noticed she wasn’t, I was too drunk too care.”
“Well, at least you’re honest.”
“Honesty sucks.” He exhaled and looked away. “Nat, I want to be with you. Let me earn your trust again. Let me be the guy I’ve always wanted to be. I want to be that guy for you.”
Having a guy say that was like crack for a girl. “I can’t save you, Demetri.”
“I don’t want you to. I just want you by my side as inspiration when I save myself.”
Crap.
I felt my guard crumbling as his blue eyes glazed over with unshed tears. “Please, Nat.”
Demetri reached out and cupped my chin. His touch was warm, gentle, not at all like last night. Desire flared in his eyes, so different from Alec.
I would never have Alec.
But Demetri. He needed me, and part of me craved that feeling. To be needed, wanted. I’d never experienced anything like it before. My parents loved me, but they functioned apart from me.
“Help me be better. I need you in my life, Nat. You’re like my sunshine, my air. I can’t explain it, I just know I’m lost without you.” He kissed my cheek.
“Don’t make me regret this, Demetri.”
A smile spread across his face. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Do you want breakfast?” He pushed away from the bed.
“I’m starving.”
Demetri chuckled and pushed the covers back, lifting me into his arms. “I bet you are. Though a little bird told me you ate quite a bit of Swedish fish last night.”
“I’m going to kill Alec!” I yelled.
Demetri threw his head back and laughed. “I should have warned you how he plays Go Fish.”
“He’s an animal!” I yelled as Demetri carried me down the stairs. I rolled my eyes towards the ceiling. Really, it wasn’t as if I was on my death bed or something, but I had to admit, it was kind of nice to be in his arms.
Though my treacherous body couldn’t help but remind me that it was Alec’s arms that had rescued me last night. I gulped.
“Heard that!” Alec fired back from the kitchen.
I smiled, and then my heart dropped to my knees. What was I doing? I looked at Demetri, his blinding smile was for me, only me. But what about Alec? Was I imagining a connection with us?
Demetri placed me on my feet. I walked timidly into the kitchen. Alec was cooking eggs and bacon. Orange juice and coffee were already laid out on the counter.
“Morning, sleepy head. Did you know you snore?” Alec said, not looking a way from the skillet.
“I do not!”
“Do to,” the boys said in unison.
“You were drunk!” I punched Demetri.
“Drunk, sweetheart, not deaf.”
I glared.
“She’s crazy when she’s hungry,” Demetri said under his breath as he quickly grabbed a plate and began piling it with food.
I willed Alec to turn around. But he didn’t.
Finally, after a few minutes in which I’m sure I lost brain cells trying to use telepathy to get the man to look at me, he turned.
Everything seemed normal.
He gave a small smile and went to the fridge. “I’m gonna go for a run. I’ll see you guys later.”
And just like that he was gone.
“Is he okay?” I nudged Demetri who was eating like he hadn’t seen food in days.
“Who? Alec? Of course, he’s fine. Why wouldn’t he be okay?”
“I don’t know.” I nibbled my lower lip. “Did you guys talk this morning?”
“Yeah.” Demetri stopped shoveling food into his mouth and took a drink of orange juice. “He told me I was an ass, and that I was going to lose the best girl in the world if I didn’t get up to the room and grovel. Naturally, I knew all that before he mentioned it, but still.”
Breakfast sat like a stone in my belly. So Alec had encouraged me and Demetri? Clearly I had read every signal wrong. All the protective gestures and weird sensually charged moments. It was all in my head. Alec didn’t want me. Demetri did.
Foolishly, I thought if I lingered a bit that Alec would return from his run. An hour later he still wasn’t back.
“I should go,” I said to Demetri as he finished up the last of the breakfast dishes.
“Stay.” He placed the wet dish on the counter and walked around to pull me into his arms. His kiss was gentle. I liked this side of him so much better than last night. I could almost believe he was the good guy, the white knight. The guy he said he wanted to be.
“I can’t.” I shook my head even as he kissed my cheek and my nose.
“Why?”
“Because!” I pushed away a grin spreading across my face at his confusion. He really was used to getting everything he wanted. “I have a ton of homework and some of us have to work for a living.”
“I work.”
I tilted my head to the side. “According to you, you’re taking a much needed break right now.”
“True, but I still work.”
“Fine, you work, but that doesn’t change anything. I still have to go to my part-time job, and I have to fit in a run sometime today and do homework.” I huffed and crossed my arms. The thought of everything I needed to accomplish that day actually stressed me out a bit. My eyes flickered to the clock. It was already ten. I had to be at the taffy store in two hours.
“Fine,” Demetri grumbled. “Where do you work?”
“Seaside Taffy.”
Demetri smirked. “Do you wear cute little outfits and give out free samples?”
I rolled my eyes. “This conversation is going downhill fast.”
“Always.” He chuckled. “Sorry, no more sexual innuendos. Okay, go get ready for work, do your run, and we can hang out later.”
I nodded. “Aw, you’re learning so fast.”
“Do I get rewarded for good behavior?”
“And then he defaults.”
“Crap.” Demetri crossed his arms and pouted. He looked so innocent and sexy that I gave in. I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed him firmly across the mouth.
Immediately he parted his lips, his mouth tasted like oranges. Shockingly he kept his hands at his sides.
He pulled back. “You taste good.”
“So do you.”
We stared at each other for a while. His eyes glanced at my mouth. With a sigh I stepped back. “I’ll text you, ‘kay?”
He nodded as I gave him a wave and ran out the door.
Weird how much things could change in twenty-four hours.
I looked in vain down the path. Alec was nowhere to be found. He probably took another route.
****
I cursed Alec for making such a good breakfast. My run was not going as planned. I kept getting side-aches. The food was like a giant boulder in my stomach.
I got to mile three and turned around. The stretch ahead of me might as well have been Everest for how ready my body felt to run it.
I grabbed my iPod and switched to a different mix.
The list that said Crush.
It brought a smile to my face when the techno beat of AD2 started playing in my ears. Before, when I listened to their music I could never tell which brother was singing. Now, it was impossible not to tell. Alec had the deeper voice of the two, he usually sang the melody — he carried the song.
Demetri’s voice was slightly higher. It sounded almost too perfect, kind of like the guy from Rascal Flatts. He usually did the bridges and verses.
But when they sang together, their harmony was perfect. Their music was the kind that any age liked. Their concerts were filled with girls between the ages of eight and eighty.
The fourth mile back went fast. The fifth was even faster, and I was already on my sixth AD2 song when I stumbled.
I looked down. Ugh, stupid shoelaces. I really needed to double knot them, but I was in such a hurry to get my run in before work that I forgot.
“Nat, you should really invest in lessons on how not to trip,” Alec’s voice called from behind me.
I tugged my earphones out and turned around.
Sweat poured down his body. He had taken off his shirt at some point, and it was clenched in his right hand, leaving his ridiculous six-pack bare. It didn’t help that his sweat seemed to glisten on his chest in the sun.
“What, did you just run a marathon or something?” I joked.
“Nah.”
I nodded.
“A half marathon.”
“I feel very inadequate,” I mumbled, kicking a rock from my shoe.
“As you should.” Alec knelt down and tied my shoe very tight, as if I was in kindergarten and had a habit of tripping over shoelaces. Well, I guess the tripping part was fairly accurate.
“So, things are good?” Alec asked, not meeting my eyes but looking at the beach instead.
“I guess.” I shrugged. “Demetri said you talked to him.”
“He did?” Alec turned to me, he looked surprised.
“Yeah.” This was the part where he’s supposed to get the hint and expand on the topic. But of course, he was a guy so he just shrugged.
“So…” I gulped. “I have to work today, but I think we’re hanging out tonight if you want to join us.”
“Did you just invite me out on your date?”