Page 98 of Alluring Darkness
“Are you that eager to get your teeth knocked out?” Shelley taunts.
Raina just stands there, her hands in her pockets, and looks back at her with an almost apologetic expression on her face. It makes me frown. Deeply.
“I’m sorry.”
My eyebrows shoot up. As do Shelley’s. And quite a few other people’s too.
Blinking, I stare at Raina. Did she justapologize?
“I’m sorry,” she repeats, and lifts her shoulders in an almost bashful shrug. “I overreacted. I shouldn’t have insulted you like that.”
It takes Shelley another couple of seconds to recover. But once she has, she leans back in her seat with a smug, victorious expression on her face. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
Raina leans forward over the table and holds out her hand. “Truce?”
“Truce?” she scoffs. Then the smirk on her lips turns even more vicious. “Oh, you’re worried now, aren’t you? That I really will slit your throat while you sleep.” She shoots a disgusted glance down at Raina’s hand and then jerks her chin. “Get lost.”
Raina stares back at her in silence for another few seconds. Then she slowly pulls her hand back. Turning around, she starts back towards us without another word.
I flex my hand underneath the table.
To be honest, I’m a bit… disappointed.
I didn’t do anything to push Shelley’s hand away from my arm when Raina walked in because I wanted to see what she would do. How she would react.
If I had seen some guy put his hand on Raina’s arm like that, I would have broken the motherfucker’s wrist and every one of his fingers. Raina is mine. And no one touches her but me.
So I had wanted to see what she would do if the roles were reversed. I had kind of hoped that she would be equally territorial. But instead, she… apologized for overreacting?
Confusion and disappointment still swirl around inside me as Raina reaches us. She drops into the empty chair next to Rico instead of the one that Shelley was sitting in. Without a word, she reaches across the table and grabs my tray.
I watch with raised eyebrows as she slides my plate towards her and then promptly starts eating.
All three of my brothers cast me uncertain glances.
“You okay?” I ask.
Around us, the murmur of people talking and the clinking of utensils against plates start back up again.
“Of course,” Raina replies while she continues eating the rice and chicken stew from my plate. She hasn’t looked me in the eye since she returned. “Though I’m a bit confused as to why you were just sitting here like a useless lump of muscle, doing absolutely nothing.”
“I wanted to see what you would do,” I reply truthfully. “I didn’t want her at our table and I didn’t want her hand on my arm, but I didn’t push her off because I wanted to see how you would react.”
Now, she looks up from the plate. I try to decipher the emotions in her intelligent green eyes, but the unreadable mask on her features makes it impossible to know what she’s thinking.
While holding my gaze, she sets down the fork and leans back in her chair. But all she says is, “Huh.”
“I have to admit,” I continue. “I am a little surprised that you apologized to her.”
She says nothing. Only continues watching me with those unreadable eyes. The very air between us feels charged with electricity.
“Help!” The cry splits the air like a gunshot. “Help! She can’t breathe!”
Chairs scrape and clothes rustle as everyone whips towards the sound of the voice. I turn around as well, and my eyes widen as I find Shelley clutching her throat while her face is quickly turning an alarming shade of red.
“We need to get her to medical!” the girl next to Shelley screams.
Two people immediately rush forward to help her lift Shelley up from her chair.