Page 63 of Infinity Chronicles 1
An unladylike snort erupts from me. “Delicate my rump.” Ares angles his head around, making it look like he’s checking out my butt. “Why was she really here, I know it’s not because she knows about me being in your Infinity. Dante, Milo, and Ollie made it pretty clear tonight I’m nothing but an obligation.”
Ares drops his arms to his sides. “You’re not an obligation Laura.”
“Yeah, and you guys hiding me like some dirty secret is super telling about where I stand with all of you.” I can’t keep the bite from my words.
“Do you think we want to hide you?” Ares snaps back at me.
“Obviously, you do.” Throwing my hands in the air, I turn my back to him. I don’t want to look at him right now. “I’m used to being ignored, that I can handle. But I can’t deal with this up and down crap. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
I feel the heat of Ares’s hands land on my shoulders. “You belong with us.” His words are edged with conviction, but there’s still so much doubt. I have to make him understand that the connection I’m feeling is more than just a familial bond. Even now I want to lean back into him.
“It’s not the same for me.” I lower my head but don’t step away from him.
“What’s not the same?” He presses closer, the heat of him drawing me in.
“You guys, you’re like a family. I’ve heard you call them your bothers. I don’t feel that way, like you’re my brothers.”
Ares uses his hands on my shoulders to spin me around to face him. “What do you feel?” His voice is pitched low, there’s an urgency behind his words as his eyes search my face.
“It feels like more, like I want more from you, but not just you.” I drop my eyes, ready for him to push me away.
Ares’s fingers graze up my neck and he applies pressure under my chin, encouraging me to look back up at him. I let him direct me but close my eyes.
“Laura,” he whispers, his lips almost on mine. Why is he doing this, I just told him how I feel. Ares’s ghosts his lips over my cheek, stopping when his mouth is at my ear. “I never want you to feel like my sister.” His words are spoken with a soft growl as his arms wrap around my back. “When I kissed you earlier, do you remembermekissing you?” I nod, my throat dry. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“You feel the pull too?”
“It’s not just a pull, it’s so much more than that. It’s like finding a part you didn’t know was missing. Every second I’m with you, this is where I want you.” He tightens his embrace, dragging me closer.
“But you said this was bad, that the others would be mad.” I have a second of warning before he lifts me, bringing me up so we’re eye level.
“I might have said something like that, but I didn’t mean it the way you’re taking it. We agreed not to push you too far too fast.”
I push Ares’s shoulders so he’ll let me go. I need a little space, this is all so much to take in. “So, what are you saying, that this part is normal? The way I feel about you, about them? Because it doesn’t feel normal to me. I mean, I barely know you guys, but I feel like I do.”
Ares runs a hand through the front of his hair “Yes, this is what I was trying to talk to you about last night. When I said the Infinity was together, this is what I meant.”
I feel the color drain from my face, having a crush on a couple guys is one thing, but the reality of having a real relationship with all of them is so beyond what I can comprehend, that I can’t even pretend to grasp how it would work.
“Laura, this is why we didn’t tell you.” Ares walks over to the bed and sits on the end, his hands in his lap, the picture of patience.
I, on the other hand, begin to pace from wall to wall, thank goodness his room is so empty. I’d probably be going crazy right now if I had to sit still. “Wait… you’re saying that… all of us. That all of you will be…” I can’t look at him, I can’t even say the words out loud. Ares doesn’t fill in the blanks like I’d hoped he would. He’s waiting for me to spell it out. Finally, I settle on a word that doesn’t seem so intimidating, one that doesn’t mean forever, like they’ve been saying from the beginning. “My… boyfriends?” Even that comes out as a stutter.
When Ares doesn’t respond I look over at him. He meets my eyes, but the slight tilt of his head and the arch of his brow challenges me. I go rigid; I need some time to wrap my head around everything this implies.
He closes his eyes on a slow blink. “Yes, something like that.” I know that’s not really want he wanted to say, that he’s giving me time.
I nod and resume pacing. Thoughts of all four of them fill my head, how could it be possible? Milo doesn’t even particularity like me. But that doesn’t really seem true either, because at the beginning he was almost kinda flirty with me, not as overt as Ollie, but still. And in the car, I swear he was going to kiss me, so could he be upset at me for another reason? His words last night about Ollie hanging on me take on new meaning. I’d assumed that even though they didn’t really admit to being together, that they had more going on between them than friendship. Could I have been wrong, was he jealous of Ollie?
That though spins my mind in another direction. If they have to share me, will I have to share them? Thoughts of Mia coming to Ares’s room earlier enter my mind. I turn to glare at him, not ready to voice how I feel about any of them with someone else.
There’s a quick rapping on the door before it opens, revealing Dante and Milo, with Ollie trailing behind them. Dante’s brows pinch together. “What did you do now?” he says accusingly to his brother after getting one look at me.
Ares stands, meeting his Dante as he enters the room. “Looks like she wants to clobber me, huh?” He gives an elegant shrug of his shoulders before wrapping his arm over Milo and Ollie’s necks. They’re all standing across from me in a unified front. My brain short circuits— how can what Ares said be true? I fidget, was he just having a go with me? I feel a sharp pang of sadness at the thought, no matter how abnormal this is, there’s some part of me that likes the idea of us all being together.
“So, what gives Laura, what did Ares do?” Ollie questions, while looking between the two of us.
My cheeks heat, but I can’t even mutter the words. If he is making fun of me I really will clobber him, and if he wasn’t…?
