The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series) (26 page)

              “Hey,” I offered her a small smile.

              “Hey yourself,” she grunted in her cute little accent. She was irritated.

              Shit.

              “Uh, come to see me off?” I asked, knowing it would get me into more trouble, but honestly I couldn’t help myself.

              “Not quite,” she shook her head just slightly. “I’m a grown up, Avalon.”

              Ah, there it was.

              “I am well aware, Amelia,” I promised, letting myself look her over from head to toe and then back up again. I thought I was being subtle, but by the way her eyes narrowed on me I didn’t think she thought I was.

              “Then I should be allowed to go on this mission. You’re as bad as my brother and my father and even my cousin for goodness sake. I’m not twelve anymore, I don’t need anyone fighting my battles or protecting me from the rest of the world.” Her stance was very casual as she leaned against the doorframe, propping her hip to the side, but by her tone I could tell it was all an act. She was rigid with irritation and self-righteousness. And while all I wanted to do was kiss her until she relaxed and melted into me, I couldn’t help but going on the defense just a little.

              She might not be a little girl, but she still needed protection.
My
protection.

              “Nobody is treating you like you’re twelve,” I said firmly so that there was no misinterpreting my meaning or my authority. “But you do need protection, Amelia. Hell, the entire Kingdom needs protection, but not everyone is as lucky as you to have so many capable people willing to give it to them.”

              “Oh please,” she rolled her eyes. Actually rolled her eyes at me! “Lucky? Hardly. I am sheltered, and fussed at, and hidden away from the world while life happens around me. You, and my father and brother have all conspired against me to make sure life will just pass me by while I don’t get to enjoy any of it.”

              Was she kidding me?

              “Keeping you out of a mission is not locking you up in a tower,” I snapped. “So stop acting like a spoiled princess. Not three weeks ago you were on your way to Africa, and nobody stopped you. You are living life, a very full life, but I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we would all like you to keep living that life. This mission could be a death sentence for anyone of us and I refuse to put you in that kind of danger.”

              She was silent for a long time, staring me down with her piercing rich, full brown eyes. I stood my ground, a position I had learned from being a leader for the last five years and not because I felt as strong as I appeared. Her gaze was unnerving and really intimidating if I was being honest. But I could not admit that she was getting to me.

              Nobody got to me, so it was a little surprising that Amelia had been in my life for such a short time and could already unseat me with one intense glare.

              This woman had power.

              “Fine,” she gave in and I forced myself not to act like an ass in celebration. “I understand your concerns for the mission.”

              “Thank you,” I conceded graciously.

              “But I am still on my way to Peru for a Human Trafficking Summit,” she explained. “And before you can talk me out of it I will just tell you that there is nothing you can do to stop me. You and all of your forces will be there and my parents have already forced a Guard detail on me with Kiran’s help, not to mention I plan to meet up with Analisa and she has her own detail.”

              “That’s very responsible of you,” I sounded like her father now and inwardly kicked myself. She rolled her eyes again.

              “Anyway, I really don’t feel like taking the jet with all of the Titans by myself,” her voice softened and her eyes grew big with her petition. I was in trouble before she even asked what she really came here to ask. “So do you mind if I just tag along with you until we get there?”

              And then she smiled.

              “No, I don’t mind,” I agreed immediately.

              She stepped into the room completely and I took a step toward her without even realizing what I was doing.

              “Really? I mean, I think it will be fun. But I don’t want to be a distraction,” she admitted and her attitude was completely replaced by her flirtatious energy.

              “Amelia, I’ll be distracted by you whether you’re with me or not,” I mumbled coming toe to toe with her.

              She blushed a deep red. I lifted my hand to play with the end of one of her long waves, rubbing it together in between my fingers. She looked down at her hair in my hand and then up in to my eyes underneath her thick lashes. My heart did this kick start thing where I swear it completely stalled for a moment before it started thundering in my chest.

              Something flickered in her eyes, like she was resolved not to be this close to me, but I was wholly set on kissing her. I licked my lips in preparation and heat flooded her gaze, deepening the color of her eyes. I dipped my head down to her, forcing myself to take this slow.

              But before I could taste her she had bounced up on her tip toes and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

              What the hell?
              “I need to gather up a few more things,” she said in a rush already walking away from me. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes.”

              Damn it, what just happened?

              Women.

Chapter Twenty-Four

              Contrary to popular belief, or at least my belief, Amelia did not sit by me on the plane trip over to Lima. She barely even acknowledged me.

              Which was weird.

              She kind of stayed in her brother’s shadow and talked with Titus the whole time. I was not jealous of Titus. I mean, I didn’t need to be jealous of Titus. Amelia and I had this amazing connection, she wasn’t interested in Titus.

              She wasn’t.

              Titus and Sebastian had this weird bromance thing going on, and Titus had probably been around her a lot, spent a lot of time with her because of Sebastian. She was more than likely just worried about him after everything.

              Reassuring myself of this every five minutes did nothing to pacify my rapidly declining mood though and by the time we had suffered through Peruvian customs, gathered our baggage and filed into taxi vans that would take us to our hotel I was beyond irritable.

              “What’s wrong with you?” Jericho asked from the seat behind me.

              We had ordered three separate vans, since we were traveling in such a large group. It wasn’t until baggage claim took two hours and we were settled in all of our different vans that I realized our entourage was way too big. Not to mention packed full of alpha males. I should probably split us up in some way, but right now we only had one lead to follow and so we were stuck together for now.

              I decided to get everyone settled at the hotel before I made a final decision. And frankly I needed to see Amelia off before I could really focus on the mission at hand. Her Guard hadn’t arrived yet and so she would stay close to us until they did. I wasn’t sure when her conference or summit or whatever started, but I wasn’t letting her out of my sight until there were at least four armed Titans surrounding her at all times.

              She was obnoxiously distracting.

              “Huh?” Jericho prodded and I realized I hadn’t answered his question.

              “Nothing,” I growled.

              “Really? You seem kind of testy,” he laughed. “Is there something about the mission I don’t know about?”

              He was taunting me.

              “Nope, same plan as always.”

              “Oh,” Jericho paused to think thoughtfully. “Is everything Ok with Eden?”

              “Yep,” I let the word pop grumpily. Actually Eden was better than ever, but even that thought couldn’t bring me from my dark place.

              “Problems from home?” Xander pressed, joining in Jericho’s merriment.

              “Xander,” I growled in warning.

              “I think I know what his problem is,” Xavier offered studiously from next to me. We were the only four in our van. Gabriel, Silas, and the other Titans occupied another eight passenger van, and Titus and Sebastian had chosen to ride with Roxie and Amelia. We probably could have all fit in two vans, but some of us, like me, needed leg room.

              And right now I
really
needed space from Titus.

              The seventeen hour commercial flight over here had fried my nerves into sparking electrical shorts that were bound to shock anyone that got too close.

              “What is it?” Xander asked in rapt suspense, even going so far as to lean forward with his chin in his hand as if Xavier held the secrets to the universe.

              “Titus,” Xavier announced seriously.

              A feral growl escaped before I could reign in my temper.

              “Oh you mean because Avalon’s so worried about him and what almost happened?” Jericho held a straight face but he was dying to laugh.

              And I was dying to hit something.

              “That’s right,” Xavier announced. “Avalon is
very
concerned with Titus and his recovery.”

              “I hate you all,” I snarled.

              That made the van erupt with laughter.

              “But if you had to choose, I mean like rate us. Who do you hate the most?” Xander asked through gasps of laughter.

              “You,” I grumbled.

              “That hurts my feelings,” Xander sobered a little, clutching at his heart.

              Which only made everyone laugh harder.

              I even had to crack a smile at their ridiculous behavior. And once the corner of my mouth turned up I felt a lightening of my insides. Jealousy, in all its crushing glory, was a relatively foreign emotion for me. And it did not suit me at all.

              There had never been anything to be jealous of before. There had only been one thing in my entire life that warranted enough of an emotional response for me to be jealous of and that was the Kingship. And even then it was more concern for my people than jealousy of what Lucan had and I didn’t. And in the end I had wanted it bad enough that I simply took it.

              Which was what I decided I would do with Amelia.

              I was new to the entire boy-meets-girl thing and honestly had no idea what I was doing. But I knew what I wanted.

              Her.

              I wanted her.

              As the banter around me shifted focus, I stared out at the congested, bumper to bumper Lima traffic. Exhaust piped into the air around me as cars inched their way through the city center. Lima was smoggy and polluted with thick, contaminated air, but even still I felt connected to the city.

              Our magic ran deep in Peru, pulsing and beating with the ancient earth. I felt it in this city, as soon as I walked out of the airport. Sky scrapers and buildings rose all around me testifying to the busy life of the city but I felt the ancient undertones of our magic, the pressing electricity that would grow and spread the further out of the city we traveled.

              The mountains called out to us and with the cry of our unexplainable, mysterious magic I found clarity.

              Amelia.

              It all came back to Amelia.

              Eventually we pulled into the circular drive of the five star hotel, the last vestige of luxury we would partake in before heading out on the field. The vans came to a stop and we unloaded, flowing into the red-tiled lobby with our large group. I couldn’t even imagine what the humans milling around or working behind the desk thought of our multicultural group. Several of our people still wore their sunglasses to hide their unique eye colors. However, there was no disguising Gabriel’s orange flames that flickered wildly behind his aviators. Even I had to do a double take at their intensity now that we were in his home country.

              We wouldn’t be able to get to his home town until tomorrow. From experience I knew he was struggling not to leave our group right now and go check out his parish.

              And I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t have followed orders. He was a better man than me.

              But I also couldn’t risk sending him alone or with only a few men and being attacked.

              He looked over at me from across the Mayan-themed lobby and nodded in silent acknowledgement. His gaze was stoic, set in determined resolve. He would wait on me, for that I was grateful. I respected his obedience, even though he felt somewhat like a mentor to me.

              The girls checked us in, Roxie speaking in her fluent Spanish and then we were off to our row of rooms on the seventeenth floor. We all had a roommate; I believed that was important, you know to maintain camaraderie and all that. It was my own damn order, but as I watched Amelia slip into her shared room with Roxie I suddenly regretted suggesting to Jericho that we share.

              I followed Jericho into our room, and immediately we spread out. Both of us only had a backpack, but somehow our things multiplied as we took over the room and made it ours. Jericho stepped out onto the balcony that overlooked Peru’s capitol. The sun was setting over Lima and the lights from the clustered buildings were shining like beacons across the city that rolled out from under our vantage point.

              I stood there for a moment in indecision. The view was nice and definitely demanded to be appreciated. And I couldn’t damn well appreciate it with Jericho blocking my way.

              “Get out,” I ordered suddenly very decided with what I was going to do.

              Jericho turned from his place on the balcony with a confused look, “What?”