Aligning Stars (Fate's Intent Book 1) (24 page)

“Not yet.” Zayden muttered.

I wanted to laugh but I knew Adele wouldn’t have liked that and I mainly kept my watch on Zayden. He couldn’t turn his eyes away now that Adele had taken off even more and I was just waiting for him to act. She needed it more than anyone else in the room and that even included me.

Adele easily ignored the stares though and raised her hand towards the ceiling to open a hole above her. The rain drizzled through and she formed a moving wall of water, shoulder high around her. She took off her skirt next, placing it out of the way then moved her hand again and the rain water started to pick up and fall down on her.

She wiped water back off her face and looked towards us. “Anyone else want to shower before I turn it off?”

Something was seriously wrong. Adele would have never asked that and I looked at Jaylyn. She was just as curious and asked what I wanted to. “Are you really asking anyone or was that directed towards us?”

“Anyone.”

I was still unconvinced that’s what she meant. “You must be joking, right?”

“Do you see me laughing? It’s not going to rain forever. So, is that a no?”

“Really? Like in there—with you?”

Zayden obviously stuttered and Adele laughed. “If you’re uncomfortable with that, I’m not going to make you.”

Zayden still seemed unsure about it and looked to me like he needed a real answer. I didn’t know what to say. I just shrugged. This didn’t seem like Adele but maybe she was more relaxed than I thought.

“Well, I will.” Jaylyn stood up ready to go.

What was I to do but join her? The thought of being clean again was a turn-on alone. “Me too.”

We walked through the water to get on the other side and didn’t take a glance back before we started removing our clothes.

I stuck my hand in the water coming down on Adele and sighed in relief. “Good. It’s warm.”

“That’s just how it feels because it’s so cold outside right now.”

“Yeah, not like last time.” Jaylyn said. “That was freezing.”

I closed my eyes and stepped under my own stream of water. Another groan of pleasure eased through my lips and I took down my hair. “Don’t remind me. You’ll ruin it.”

I let the water drench me and run down my body. It was so invigorating that I may have seemed like I liked it too much with my ongoing noises of stating so.

“Ruby.” Adele stopped me. “Please stop.”

I laughed. “What?! It’s nice!”

“Just stop.”

I sealed my lips, not wanting her mood to go in the wrong direction and she ignored me by helping Jaylyn take out her hair from its high bun atop her head.

I looked beyond the water and saw three pairs of gorgeous eyes on us. “Are you guys coming in?”

They remained to sit silently.

“What’s the matter? Not comfortable around each other?”

Their eyes traced to each other and Muscles smiled with a slight chuckle. “No, it’s not that.”

“Must have never seen a naked woman before.” Adele joked.

“Of course we have.” Zayden said in defense. “It’s just been a really long time and we’d rather protect your safety and stick to our no rape agreement.”

I laughed and set my stare at Muscles, speaking what I was thinking. “It wouldn’t be called rape when we’re willing.”

“Speak for yourself.” Adele muttered.

“Oh, I was.”

He smiled but Zayden held his arm out to him to stay put. I was a little disappointed. “Even still. We’re not ready to risk that. It’s been a long time for us and we are stronger than we look. We could easily kill you by mistake if we weren’t careful. So, please. It’s for your own safety that we don’t.”

“You say that like it’s happened before.” Adele said. “Are we seriously in the presence of three rapists?”

Troy laughed and I was definitely drawn into this conversation. “If you only knew his initial intentions of you.”

“Of me?”

“Oh, no.” Zayden muttered.

“Well, you are the General’s daughter.” Muscles smiled. “He said you’d come and Zayden encouraged it.”

“Really?”

“Mmm hmm. You wouldn’t have been killed. You’d just be sent back.”

“Just like that?”

“Not exactly.” Troy explained. “You’d be sent back pregnant.”

I immediately looked at Adele but she didn’t look back. Her eyes were still fixed fiercely on Zayden. “Is that so?”

“I didn’t specify by who. At the time, he said nothing about others being with you so it surely would have been one of us because we all would have done it.”

“How nice of you.”

“But things changed. When we confirmed there was three of you—”

Adele’s mouth instantly hung open, only making this more fun for me to watch. “You picked?!”

I laughed. “Troy picked, actually. We got assigned to who was left.”

I thought it was funny but it didn’t make Adele look any happier.

“But that changed too when we made our terms.” Zayden tried explaining.

“And the whole ‘letting me go’ thing? When was that going to happen?”

“Well, we weren’t getting anything out of the deal so why would we let you leave?”

“Wow. The charm just floats around you three. Should we just assume this is the real you?”

“Of course not. The point in not joining you is because we don’t want you to get hurt. I’m actually getting paranoid with talking about it right now. Troy even thinks of flinching and we’ll have to pounce.”

“Me! Why single me out?!”

Muscles laughed. “You’re an intimate danger.”

“I’m not going to kill her!”

“Can’t be too sure!”

Muscles was making a joke of whatever this was but Troy was taking it personal.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Zayden. You know that. Worry about him.”

“I’m equally worried about both of you. Fair?”

“No.”

“You’ve killed with sex before?” I was curious, not only for Jaylyn’s sake but I’ve killed that way before and didn’t want to feel so alone.

“It’s complicated.” Troy said. “Long periods of time away cause us to have a certain temperament. Ask Darius. He kills girls on a regular basis.”

I tried not to be surprised because I already knew of his taste for women but he had a different reaction. His eyes darted right over to Troy and it was almost scary like he wanted to set him on fire. “It’s not on a regular basis. It happens
occasionally
.”

“Why?” Adele asked, letting out a quiet laugh with her question. “Get too rough?”

Muscles lost his threatening stare when he turned his head and he just had this proud smile growing on his face. “Nah. They just couldn’t handle me. I could have shown you but Zayden was just teasing me.”

“Awe. What a moronic coincidence. Ruby doesn’t have a gag reflex.”

Jaylyn bursts out laughing and I didn’t want to get myself thinking about it right now but it was too late. Now I wanted to try him out more than ever. “Who’s encouraging it now?”

“Joke.” Adele’s eyes narrowed and she wouldn’t let me go on.

“Please don’t make this any worse on me.” Muscles said. “You wouldn’t want me to lose control.”

My knees almost buckled. I was feeling this sudden tension between my legs and just wanted him to come in here and touch me. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand here while it was being talked about.

“Understand that we just don’t want things to get out of hand.” Zayden said. “Like you accidently getting your neck broken or a cracked spine.” He chuckled.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Muscles said. “It’s not exactly something we’re proud of and father doesn’t exactly see it as that either. He was pretty pissed when he found out.”

Troy laughed. “He was not. That’s such an exaggeration.”

“He was so. He’s usually pretty proud of me but that time it was hard to—”

“Escape that look in his eye? Oh, yeah, father can get the point across when he wants to.”

“It’s kind of like Zayden. It freaks me out sometimes.”

Father? Were they referring to the same one? There’s no way they were related. They are obviously different. If they were then that family was blessed with some damn good looking genes. Zayden obviously and Muscles was beyond attractive with the fire color of his hair and matching eyes but Troy had his own appealing features too. He structurally reminded me of someone I knew.

“They are referring to the King when they say ‘father,’ just so you know.” Zayden said. “They’ve been there long enough that he’s claimed them as his sons.”

“Really? How long has that been?” I seemed to be the most curious.

Zayden looked over at Muscles and I noticed that his relaxation level changed some. He sat tenser with his hands in tight fists but Zayden wasn’t rude and didn’t ignore my question. “Darius was first. He was ten and Troy followed at eleven. We’ve been friends since before then so it was easy for me to get my father to accept them in.”

“What happened to your parents?”

How stupid was I? I just asked without even thinking of the obvious and it really seemed to affect Muscles in a negative way. He bellowed out at me. “That’s the most insanely stupid question I’ve ever heard! They’re dead! What’d you think?!” I was actually scared by the tone he used and I didn’t know what to do. I was used to being the one doing the scaring, not the one being scared and I think he knew or at least felt sorry. His look softened and he took a calming breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. We just don’t like to talk about it.”

I nodded and pushed myself to forget about it. He was much more attractive and kind than terrifying in my eyes. “It’s okay. No one does.”

“Yeah.” Jaylyn said. “War doesn’t care about your age. Believe me.”

Silence came back to the room when her tone changed from the usual happy and everyone changed from it. It was almost like the mood centered around her and her feelings were everyone’s. I didn’t know what else to say. No one liked talking about the past and I’m sure we all had our reasons but even at this point, talking about the future would have been just as unpleasant. That left us with this very moment; the three of us being naked in the shower and the three of them fearing to even be with us, afraid we might get hurt. There was nowhere to go from here and no one said a word.

Chapter 33

Darius

I kept my eye on her after it got quiet. I didn’t mean to frighten her like that but the topic has always been sensitive for me and I never liked to talk about it with anyone. Mentioning it even now fills me with something I can’t explain. I didn’t want to feel that way, especially around her. I didn’t want her to think that that’s how she made me feel. It wasn’t. With her, I felt—different, not so much like me but what I would be like if I were a better person.

My activities with women have always been strictly for me the one time and I’d move on, never seeing them again but I didn’t see Ruby to be one of them. She deserved more. She deserved what I would be willing to become for her. Saying it was simple and thinking it while watching her was simple but doing it, I knew that would be more difficult.

“Adele, did I ever bring my sleep thing? I know we were kind of in a rush to leave.” Those were the first words spoken in several minutes.

“I found this.” Adele moved out of the path of the water and tossed Jaylyn a bundle of pink and green like some kind of clothing.

She slipped it on over her legs and looked around some more. “Okay, then where’s the top? It’s kind of important.”

“I remember packing it for you.” Ruby said, drawing my eyes back towards her. “I had to fix one of the straps on it, remember? It was still in my room and I think I put it in one of your pockets.”

“Which means it’s out there.”

They all looked towards us and must have realized her coat was outside of the water on the bed behind Troy. It sounded like good news to me but she didn’t seem to think so.

“Sorry. Here.” Ruby approached her and reached for her hair but I couldn’t tell what she was doing through the blurred image of the water between us. “There. Now you’re safe. Adele, don’t dry her.”

“Really?” Jaylyn wondered. “This might work for you but not so much for me.”

“Well, your hair won’t get any thicker and it’s not like those things are getting any smaller.”

Jaylyn sighed but I figured out what she did and knew Jaylyn would be walking out of there any second with just strips of her wet hair trying to cover those large round melons sticking out of the front of her chest. I couldn’t wait actually and watched so I wouldn’t miss a thing.

“Just go.” Ruby smiled. “I’m sure they won’t mind. Just don’t turn your back. Well, unless you want that!”

I tried not to laugh and I even tried not to smile but the thought was there now and Jaylyn walked through the water.