👸ROSES for RACHEL 🍇
#Episode_41
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Two days pas-sed too quic-kly in our pri-vate little getaway.
It was so easy to pretend all of the bad stuff didn’t happen, or that we were both just normal people in love with each other, while we were out here. The only wrinkle was when Calvin would excuse himself to go outside for a couple of minutes so that he could keep his thirst in control. But aside from that, no one bothered us, and we had no obligations. It was perfect. When he’d first told me we had three days here, I thought that sounded like a long time to be away, but once we got pas-sed the tension, it flew by. Every hour felt more like a minute, and I wanted our pretend perfection to last an eternity, but as I rolled over in be-d, I looked at his slee-ping face with sadness because we would be leaving soon.
I eased out of be-d, not wanting to wake him just yet, and walked over to the little kitchen and started preparing us a nice breakfast just like I had the other two days here, give or take the ‘nice’ p@rt. At first Calvin had servants bringing us food, but I pointed out the fact that we have a working kitchen and that I’d like to learn to cook, so he had them bring me groceries and a couple of cookbooks instead. The first attempt was a disaster. I thought the 5 star baked chicken and quail sounded easy, but I had over cooked them both and the potatoes I made with it were so runny that they were practically soup. Calvin didn’t complain, he smiled and ate like it was the best thing he’d ever had.
I smiled thinking of him literally l@pping up the potatoes.
“You’re adorable.” His voice startled me and I nearly dropped an egg on the floor.
“God, Cal!” I laughed, steadying myself. “I’m going to get you a bell to wear so that you can’t creep on me anymore.” I joked, pouring my bowl of eggs into the skillet.
Calvin sat down on one of the stools at the counter and just smiled. “I wouldn’t wear it.” He informed me. “I enjoy watching you jump too much, and besides, collars aren’t really my thing.” He win-ked and I rolled my eyes. “What’s for breakfast?” He asked, tilting his head to eye my eggs that I was alre-ady letting get burnt to the skillet.
“Dang!” I shouted, pu-lling the skillet away from the heat. “You’ve got to st©p being so distracting! I’ll never learn with you around.” I laughed, then my eyes greedily roamed his b©dy. He wasn’t wearing a shi-t, and his hair was a brown mess on his head, yet he still looked beyond perfection.
In a flash he was gone, then suddenly standing behind me, his hands on my h!ps and his mouth at my n£¢k. “You see, I can’t do anything about distracting you.” He whispered. “I can’t help that you are just powerless to control yourself around me.” I could hear the smile in his voice and I wh!pped around to face him, looking into his pla-yful eyes.
“You think really highly of yourself, don’t you?” I asked.
He grinned down at me. “Oh, this isn’t about me, this is about you and your complete inability to keep your eyes away from me.” He chuckled. “Honestly, love, you do realize I’m not just a piece of meat, right?”
I dropped my jaw, trying and failing not to smile. “Oh, so you aren’t affected by me at all then?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and hisl-ips twitched as he slowly shook his head.
“I am completely in control of myself when I’m around you.” He sli-pped a quic-k smile. “I don’t ever find myself distracted.” He said fli-pp@n-tly. “I guess I’m just a lot stronger is all.”
I took a step back. “Is that so?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.” He nodded his head, smiling wickedly.
I watched his face as I gr@bb£d the hem of my shi-t. “Ok, then.” I told him as I slowly pu-ll-ed it up and over my head, dropping it on the ground. “I guess you’d have no trouble with ma-king our breakfast then, right?” His eyes were wi-de and you could see the concentration on his face. “I’ll just stand right here.” I said as I bent down to slide off my shorts too, and he had to tilt his eyes up to the ceiling. “Go ahead.” I prompted him. “Get to cooking, your highness. Be careful, though, that stove is super s-en-sitive.”
I said with a smile as I leaned back against the counter, reveling in the way he was trying so ha-rd not to look at my b©dy.
He turned away, dumping the burnt eggs from the skillet and he skillfully cracked four new ones into a bowl and beat them before pouring them into the skillet and putting it back over the heat. I was annoyed at how good of a job he was doing, so I decided to up the difficulty by walking up behind him, and hvgging up to him, my skin pressed against his. “Now that is just unfair.” He gro-an ed, his breathing hitching.
I k!$$£d him between the shoulder blades. “Who said I’d pl@yfair?” I asked breathily. “This doesn’t bother you, right?” I smiled against his back. “You’re so much stronger than me, I bet it doesn’t.” I answered for him.
I jumped a little as he tossed the skillet into the sink with a loud clanging. “scre-w breakfast.” He said loudly, gr-abbing me up quic-kly and k!ss!ngme ha-rd . “You win.” He p@n-ted before he threw me down on the be-d.
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Hours later, we stood in the doorway of our little cabin and we took one last long look at it. I sighed, really wanting to stay longer. “We can come back.” Calvin as-sured me, leaning down to k!ssthe t©p of my head. “We can’t disappear forever, though, as much as I would love nothing more.” He smiled sadly.
I really do believe getting everything off of his che-st had helped him some, but I could still catch glimpses of that sadness still inside of him. The most upsetting p@rt of it for me was that the times I saw it in him were times when I caught him looking at me. I hated that something about me dredged up bad things for him, but I knew he loved me, and that’s all that matters to me anymore. We both sighed together, then closed the door behind us, following the little lights on the path to walk back to the little city. Calvin looked down at me nervously as we walked throu-gh the city and I wasn’t really sure why, but he was definitely acting strange. He st©pped when we were by the fountain, staring over at it and chewing his l!pagain. “What’s the matter?” I whispered, looking up at his guarded expression.
He shook his head, avoiding my eyes. “Do you still think about leaving?” He whispered back, and I noticed his hand in his pocket was holding onto something that looked like the tie I’d made him, then it cli-cked for me. The blindfold wasn’t so that I’d be surprised when he took me to the cabin, it was so that I wouldn’t know the way out of Castrum de Petra. My heart stung a little that he obviously didn’t trust me, and that he was stalling from going back because he still didn’t want me to know the way.
“Of course not.” I told him. “But even if I did,” I added. “It wouldn’t be right for you to keep me captive, Calvin.”
“I know.” He nodded. “I don’t want to do that, I just don’t want for you to leave either.” He said softly, tucking the tie back down into his pocket. “I don’t want to keep anything from you.” He said seriously, turning to face me, holding my face in his hands. “No secrets.” He said firmly.
“No secrets.” I agreed.
He had such a torn expression on his face. His eyes were intense, but his brows were pu-ll-ed together. “Are you happy here, Rachel?”
I kept my eyes firmly on his. “I don’t love this place, Cal, but this is where you are, and I love you .” I professed. “I’m happy with you.”
He looked a little more at ease, but still a little conflicted. “You would tell me if you wanted to leave, right?”
My heart was heavy, but I nodded. “You know me.” I smiled lightly. “I would tell you, but that isn’t going to happen.” He nodded, and his eyes filled with moisture as he su-cked his bo-ttoml!pinto his mouth. “What’s this about?” I asked him, bringing my hand up to rest on his cheek.
“I’ve got to tell yo-.”
“There you two are!” Pedro’s happy voice cut him off and he took a step away from me, gathering himself. Pedro pu-ll-ed me into a hvg, then tugged me towards a small building in a row of nicer tall ones, while Calvin tagged along behind us. “How was it? Magical?” Pedro mused, smiling happily.
I nodded my head. “We had a great time.” I smiled as we walked into the little building. Inside the door there was nothing but what looked like a rundown waiting room. The lights were all out but we went throu-gh a door behind the messy desk and it opened up into a brightly lit room with gold tiled ceilings, walls, and floors, with a single mirrored elevator on the other side of the room. I was a little in shock but I tried to pl@yit cool. “How were things here?” I asked Pedro.
We got onto the elevator and Pedro pressed the only bu-tton with his long tan f!nger, then tapped me on the nose with a smile.
“Everything went smoothly.” He nodded. “No one knew you two were even gone, other than the girls of course, so everyone was on their best behavior. Zero incidents.”
“Great.” Calvin and I both said together and Pedro chuckled at the two of us. We got off of the elevator and went down a long dark hallway that led to what looked like a dead end, but Pedro placed both of his hands against the wall and waited a moment, then a little panel appeared in the stone.
Pedro looked over at me and pu-ll-ed me into his che-st, hvgging me ti-ghtly, as Calvin stepped forward to put in a code of some kind. “I can’t believe I actually missed you.” Pedro laughed, then let me go once the stone wall split open.
“Gee, thanks.” I muttered, my heart stung again as I realized the hvg was just a way to keep me from seeing the pas-scode. Neither one of them trusts me.
I turned back to watch the walls come back together and I realized it was right next to the regular elevator that I’ve been using since the day I got here. Once the wall closed you couldn’t tell there was anything there anymore. I rolled my eyes as we boarded the other elevator. The exit I had wanted for so long had been right there the whole time.
Calvin and Pedro chatted lightly as we rode the elevator up to level 6. The doors slid open and I started to get off but then I realized that Lexton was standing there, her eyes wi-de, looking pas-sed me. I turned my head to see Calvin staring at her, his eyes wi-de too, but also jet black. I g@sped as I saw him pu-ll hisl-ips up over his teeth and a strange sound escape hisl-ips, while Lexton sighed softly, still staring at him all doe eyed. “What the hell, Calvin?” I snapped at him and he yanked his eyes away from her and dropped them to mine, the color coming back to them instantly.
“Rachel, I-.” He started to say but I shoved by Lexton and stomped into my room, Calvin following closely.
He gr@bb£d my wrist and I snatched it back. “What the hell was that, Calvin?” I yelled angrily, my heart pounding, but my stomach sinking. He took another step towards me and I backed away again. “Stay the hell away from me.” I warned him and his expression bec@m£ even more wounded.
“I can explain, Rachel!” He insisted. “I told you that I’d have to explain something about her to you, I just hadn’t really wanted to do it because I knew you’d react this way.”
I tried not to let the rage in me boil over at his words. “I suggest you start explaining then.” I snapped, crossing my arms over my che-st.
Calvin looked down at the floor like a puppy that just got in trouble, then he looked back up, un-der his dark eyelashes.
“I…Lexton and I…”
“You what?” I screamed, the tears free flying now, trying to guess what he’d say and only coming up with things that would shatter my heart. “You love her? You sle-pt with her? You what?”
Calvin gr@bb£d me f0rç£fully. “No!” He said firmly, forcing me to look at him and not letting me go no matter how I thrashed against him. “I only love you, Rachel.” He said seriously.
“Then what?” I cried and he looked at my face and I felt like he might cry too.
“We blood bonded, Rachel.” He whispered. “Lexton and I are blood bonded.”
He might as well have kicked me in the gut rather than tell me that.
I didn’t know what to think anymore. I only vaguely remember Fern mentioning something about blood bonding, but that feels like it was lifetimes ago. My tears still fell down my h0t cheeks, but I felt numb.
“Rachel, plea-se say something.” Calvin said softly, and I could feel him looking ha-rd at my face, but I couldn’t formulate words, or feelings, or anything really. I just stood there like a statue with a broken heart. “Baby?” He pleaded painfully and I backed away, turning my back on him while I went to sit in the chair beside the vanity. He followed me, kneeling down in front of me, his black bu-tton down wrinkling where he pu-ll-ed on the bo-ttomof it in frustration. He put his hand on my ba-re knee but I shifted out from un-der his t©uçh, pu-lling my Sk-irt further down over my legs. “plea-se talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say?” I finally asked. “I don’t even know what this means.” I added, my voice coming out as an even monotone. “Aside from me, she is the girl you spent the most amount of time with, you ran after her that time when she found us k!ssing, you wrote her letters while you were away…” I let the accusation hang heavy in the air between us.
“Nothing is going on between us, Rachel.” He promised, raising his head up, trying to make me meet his eyes, but I focused my blank stare on his mouth instead, unable to ba-re the weight of his stares, knowing they’d make me forget everything. “I will tell you everything, just give me a chance.”
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Story_Continues
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