Seth's Cravings: An Endless Series: Book 2 (52 page)

     His tone was hard and biting and Landon shifted next to
me again at hearing it. Once more I held up my hand. Graham looked at Landon
briefly, and without interest, before returning to me.

     I didn’t miss at how he referred to the Barber’s as
his
grandparent’s, not ours. “It seems not.” I replied.

     Graham’s lips thinned at my short response. “You should
have gone back to Russia where you belong because you don’t fucking
belong
here.”

     Landon moved forward anger all over his face, no longer
listening to my hand waving. “You better watch your fucking mouth and tone
asshole.”

     Graham stepped into Landon’s face. “This is my fucking
half-sister and I’ll talk to her anyway I want, fuckwade.”

     Shock almost froze me at his acknowledgment of our
relationship, but then my heart starting thumping wildly at the thought of the
two of them getting in a fight.

     I laid my hand on Landon’s arm. “Landon,
pozhaluysta
.”
His arm was hard and his muscles jerked under my palm. I glanced back at Graham
with a frown. “Graham, if you came over to start a fight you can leave.”

     Graham’s fury came back to me. “This is my damn house;
you’re the one who needs to fucking leave.”

     Landon snorted. “You’re a Kappa Sigma asshole? It
figures. You can’t be Nadia’s half-brother or else you would have some
redeeming qualities to you…” Landon looked him up and down in disgust. “And I’m
not seeing any. The only thing you resemble is a pile of dog shit.”

     Just what I needed; the drunk guy escalating an already
tension filled situation. I was pretty certain Graham wasn’t any more sober
than Landon. It’s not like I didn’t disagree with Landon’s ‘
asshole’
assessment,
but Graham’s home turf was not the place to start something; especially since I
noticed that Graham’s friends were making their way over.

     “Landon, this is not helping.” I muttered trying to
pull him away…to no avail. Why did guys always want to fight when they got
drunk?

     Graham gave Landon a hard shove that had him stumbling
back only slightly. “Listen shithead, you need to take your whore girlfriend
and get the fuck out of here or my buddies and I are going to kick your ass
until you’re the one looking like dog shit.”

     I stiffened in fury…he did not just call me a whore. I
was fine with them calling each other names, but no one was going to call me a
whore, not even my half-brother.

     Landon was making a move toward Graham to probably
retaliate but I thrust out my arm first and gave Graham a return shove. “You
need to watch who you call a whore,
mudak
.”

     Graham only swayed backwards at my push and he sneered
derisively at me. “How about I call your mother the whore instead?”

     I saw red and before I knew it my fist shot out hitting
him in the nose. I heard a satisfying crunch and while it hurt my hand I was
pretty sure it wasn’t broken, which was a good thing because I wasn’t done.

     Nobody called my mother a whore.

     Graham staggered back holding his nose and I followed
swinging my leg between his connecting with his ‘questionable’ manhood.

     Graham dropped without a sound, his hands transferring
from his nose to his balls. I knelt down by his face and yelled. “Nobody calls
my
mat’
a
shlyukha
.” I stood up to deliver another kick to his
midsection but was grabbed around the waist from behind and hauled backwards.

     I heard Landon laugh in my ear. “Damn, Nadia, calm
down. You’ve broken his nose and busted his balls. Let him at least live so he
can suffer through the pain of it all.”

     I struggled in Landon’s arms in crazed fury, my arms and
legs swinging in an effort to cause further damage to Graham. I barely took
note of his friends surrounding us and shouting threats, or that Blake and Evan
had closed in next to me in support.  

     “What the fuck is going on here?”

     Seth’s thunderous voice was the only thing that
penetrated my haze of fury causing my body to immediately sage in Landon’s
hold. Looking up I saw him barreling through the crowd pushing people out of
the way like they were inconsequential in his beeline to get to us. The fury on
his face looked nearly proportional to what I had been feeling.

     Amazingly much of mine faded at seeing him. In fact, all
I wanted to do was press up against him and cry for some reason. I needed his
strong comforting arms around me. I needed to hear his deep calming voice. I
needed his firm lips kissing me.

     Oh
derr’mo
! It had been creeping up on me, but
now I knew it for certain. I loved him. I loved Seth. When he wasn’t near I yearned
for him, ached for him, and when he was near I wanted to just climb inside of
him…or for him to climb inside of me. He had become virtually necessary to the
beat of my heart.

     This epiphany was both exhilarating and terrifying.  

Chapter Thirty

SETH

     I came out of the Frat house to see some kind of
commotion going on in the front yard, and a bad feeling went through me. Nadia
and the guys were supposed to be waiting for me there. Being taller than
everyone else made it possible for me scan ahead and what my eyes arrived on
was Nadia struggling in Landon’s arms.

     That sight alone had me rushing headlong into the
foray, and as I did I noticed Evan and Blake stepping out of the crowd to flank
Landon of both sides. Further examination of the situation revealed that Landon
was holding an unmanageable Nadia back from kicking the crap out of some guy on
the ground while Blake and Evan were protecting her from an irate group of
people circled around the inert male.

     Charging forward I pushed people out of my way, my only
thought to get to Nadia as quickly as possible. No way was anyone going to lay
a hand on her, and if anyone had dared to touch her I would pound the living
daylights out of them. 

     “What the fuck is going on here?” I shouldered my way
through the last wall of people shouting so everyone would turn their angry
focus away from Nadia and towards me.

     She had been spitting out Russian words and struggling
but immediately stopped at hearing my voice. I scanned her swiftly for any type
of injury and was relived to see that she appeared fine. Looking my way her
eyes seemed to call out to me to take her in my arms. That she was displaying
such an emotion so unreservedly told me that whatever this was she was
particularly affected by it. Unfortunately, I had just called everyone’s
attention to me and I didn’t want her near me if someone decided to take a
swing.

     It was near impossible to hold myself back from
enveloping her in my protective embrace though.     

     “Who the hell are you and what do you care?” One of the
males yelled. He and another dude were helping a guy on the ground with a
bloody nose and holding his groin in pain.

     My anger burned at the thought that she might have been
defending herself. “That woman is mine and any and all who bother her will
answer to me.” I stated making certain every guy there got the gist of my
point.

     It wasn’t often I threw my weight around but when I did
people never failed in taking me seriously. Several of the guys took in my appearance
more critically as I related my association with Nadia. My biker costume
probably added to my homicidal vibe.

     I continued with my proclamation. “And if this douche
bag bothered her than what she did to him will seem like happy hour after I get
done with him.” As I was finishing my guarantee Nic and Noah appeared planting
themselves next to Blake and Evan. Our odds were upping and I could see the
other guys registering that fact.

     The inert guy seemed to be getting a little bit of his
coherency back and was mumbling things about pressing charges and the police.
Shit! I needed to get Nadia out of here right now. She did not need police
involvement; it could cause problems with Luka and Issy’s guardianship.

     Nadia must have heard the rambling as well because her
gaze arrowed back to the guy looking angry again.

     “Graham, do you really want to bring in the police and
have your mother and grandparent’s hearing about this. Maybe it would even get
tagged by the newspapers and then our business could be splashed all over the
news tomorrow. Anyway, you pushed Landon first, and I’m just a girl protecting
myself from a man.”

     I smirked proudly at her words even as I wondered how
in the hell she knew this ass, and what ‘business’ she was talking about.

     Graham straightened as best he could while giving Nadia
a murderous scowl. I surged toward him with a murderous look of my own not
liking his expression at all, but Nadia intercepted me by rushing forward and wrapping
her arms around me hanging on tight.

     “I’m trying to get this settled with no police.” She
pleaded up at me.

     As Nadia pressed against me I could feel slight tremors
shuddering through her body. I wasn’t sure if they were from an overload of
adrenaline, or fear, but either way I didn’t like it. Enveloping her closer I
held myself motionless for her sake still staring daggers at the asshole.

     “We’re leaving, I suggest you take her words under
advisement and take your beating like a man. It’s not like you need to
advertise it to the world that you got your ass handed to you by a girl.”

     I jerked my head at the guys for them to follow as I
guided Nadia through a crowd that parted for us willingly. Carrie and Amanda
were just a few yards away and they scuttled into the parade we made leaving
the property.

     Once we were well away from the crowd Landon hooted in
laughter. “I have to say, this night turned out better than I hoped; nothing like
a good ass kicking to top off a night.” He sighed in glee, “Good times.”

     “I can’t believe I missed it.” Evan complained. “Went
looking for some action, and then ended up missing most of it.”

     “Oh, it was awesome. Nadia clocked him in the nose
first and then rounded it off with a kick in the family jewels. Those boots of
hers had to have knocked his nuts up into his throat.” Landon chuckled but
there was a wavering in it that said ‘even though he had enjoyed watching it had
still made him cringe in sympathy’.

     The punch in the nose comment had me lifting Nadia’s
hands for inspection. That fucker had better not have broken her fingers with
his nose or I was going back to bust his kneecaps. I ran my fingers over each
finger gently, wiggling them, and was relieved to see that they appeared fine.
She watched me passively, but fixedly. 

     “What started the fight?” Carrie asked uncertainly.

     Nadia stiffened in my arms at Carrie’s question. I
wanted to know the answer to that question as well. The look in her eyes
tonight, in addition to her knowing the guy, revealed that this wasn’t some arbitrary
incident.  

     “He was a Kappa Sigma asshole and came up to us
spouting shit. He got in my face and gave me a shove, but before I could knock
him on his ass for it Nadia did it for me. It was great. It was like having my
own bodyguard.” Landon voice held a twinge of lamentation enlightening me to
his regret at not having beat up the guy himself.

     Nadia relaxed slightly in my arms at Landon’s account
telling me that whatever he was leaving out she appreciated it. Giving her arm
a soothing rub I decided to redirect the conversation since she appeared to not
want to discuss the why’s…as yet.  

     “Well, it’s over now. Just another in the long list of
fights we’ve had over the years. I have some good news. We won the scavenger
hunt.”

     Everyone whooped in joy, even Nadia, though I could
tell it was forced.

     “So what was the prize?” Amanda asked.

     “Four tickets for a five day Caribbean Cruise.”

     Carrie groaned. “How are we going to figure out who
gets them? Do we have a contest of our own?”

      “Let’s just enjoy the win tonight; we’ll worry about
that later.” I continued to rub at Nadia’s shoulder. She was quiet, for her,
and my chief concern was to get her alone and find out what went down back at
the Frat house.

     We decided to head back to our house to regroup so we piled
back into the trucks. Pulling away from the curb I now saw it was Landon’s turn
to give Nadia an elbow nudge of camaraderie, and just like before it rankled
seeing them sharing a secret. I didn’t like it. All her secrets should be mine
to know.  

     Back at the house everyone clambered out and headed
inside. Extricating Nadia from the group at the door I tugged her off to the
side on the front porch. Pressing her against the house I looked down
scrutinizing her expression. With the aide of the outside porch light I could
see that her eyes were exceedingly solemn.

     “What do you want to do tonight; go out with everyone,
hang here…or go home?” I really hoped it was my second choice.

     She raised her hand and fingered one of the chains on
my vest, and with only a slight pause she answered with a heavy sigh. “Stay
here, if it’s okay with you?”

     Hell yeah, it was okay with me.

     Nadia’s hands slid inside my vest over my t-shirt
covered abdomen, and my muscles clenched in response. Rising up on her toes she
leaned into me kissing my chin, and then trailing those lush lips up and over
my jaw. Seizing her hips I held her where she was so she could continue what
she was doing.

     Nibbling my jaw her hands burrowed under my shirt and
around to my naked back. They stroked up and then down into the waistband of my
jeans, digging into my flesh drawing me closer. Following her directives I took
hold of her ass, lifted her, and pressed her against the house so we were
completely aligned. Then lifting one hand I held her head still as I captured
her mouth and devoured every single thing she had to give me. I wasn’t gentle
either. Thrusting my hips into the cradle of her thighs I tried to relieve the severe
ache I was feeling…but it just wasn’t enough.