Seth's Cravings: An Endless Series: Book 2 (8 page)

     “Loafer’s are out of style.” I commented commandeering
the tool box from her. She scowled and opened her mouth to argue I’m sure, but
I was already turning away. She gave a huge sigh behind me and I knew she’d
decided, ‘why bother?’

     She stepped up beside me as we made our way back to the
house and I looked down at her critically. “So, you really beat the shit out of
that asshole?”

     “Do you think I’m some pansy ass girl?” She said with a
smirk, but than she sobered. “Every female should know how to defend herself,
and it doesn’t hurt to carry a weapon, either.”

     I halted at the entrance to the house in shock. “You
carry a gun?” Thinking about her carrying around a gun made my anxiety for her
spike drastically. Had she been attacked before this that she felt the need to
carry one?

     “No, but I’ve been thinking about it.” Nadia moved past
me into the house. Her hand reached into the back pocket of her jeans and that
had my gaze zeroing in on the landscape she’d exposed as her shirt hem rose.
Blood rushed swiftly south at the small, and quick, glimpse of flesh, and the
round firmness of her ass.

     “I carry this.”

     My eyes snapped up at the sound of clicking. Nadia held
a butterfly knife in her hand. I was a bit stunned at the sight of it, but I
was flabbergasted at the way she was twirling and flipping it around. It looked
like a knife dance in her hand.

     She stopped after several seconds holding it aloft with
the knife exposed wearing a wicked grin. “Hello Landon.”

     My gaze tracked hers to see Landon standing in the
archway between the living room and foyer staring at her in incredulity. “Nadezhda.”
He returned cautiously.

     I grinned at his wary tone. It wasn’t often, if ever, he
showed cautious respect toward a female. Nadia looked at me her gaze flickering
down to my mouth again with that surprised expression. She shook her head and
flipped her knife closed returning it to her pocket.

     “Haven’t seen you around lately.” She smirked. “Give
up?”

     Landon’s eyes narrowed and his blond brow arched.
“Regrouping.” He amended.

     “I’ve missed you.” She said turning toward the basement.
My muscles went rigid in displeasure at her declaration. “Or rather your
money.” She strode through the basement door. My tension eased, but only
slightly at her revision.

     Landon shook his head in amazement. “She’s an onion.
Those are scary. Good luck with that.”

     I frowned.

     “You can fight it all you want, but you want her…bad.”
He smirked.

     “Did you have any clue on what went down with her and
that asshole?” I didn’t understand how he could have just brushed it off and
not kicked the guy’s ass himself. There was no way I was letting that dick just
walk away from what he’d done, or tried to do to Nadia. Hell, she probably
wasn’t the first or the last no matter how much she’d left an impression. What
if he retaliated?

     Landon shook his head his expression darkening. “No,
man. I thought maybe he might have said something she didn’t appreciate or
possibly made a move on her, but not that. I heard what she said out there,
about you walking in on it, and don’t beat yourself up too much about it. It
was an honest mistake. I’ve walked in on dozens of people having sex…” He
laughed darkly and his eyes hardened as if remembering something distasteful.
“It’s almost automatic to shut the door so you don’t interrupt them.”

     “That’s not why I walked away.” I admitted darkly.

     He stared at me and then the corner of his mouth
indented. “Well…” He sighed. “You don’t have to be jealous about it anymore.
She didn’t want to be with him.”

     “She’s just so damn flirty and blatant in her sexuality.”
I growled.

     Landon frowned this time. “You’re not thinking she
brought that attack on herself because of that, do you?”

     “Hell no!” I exclaimed. I was furious that both she and
Landon thought that. Had I been behaving like that much of an asshole?

     His face cleared. “I had to make sure. You’ve been acting
off around her since the start. Have you ever wondered why she acts the way she
does?”

     I scowled. “What are you talking about? Some girls just
can’t live without the attention.”

     “Like I said, dude, she’s an onion…with layers. Peel it
back and find out what makes her smell?” Landon chuckled at his lame joke.

     I frowned at him again, but he had a point. I’d been
making a lot of half-assed assumptions about Nadia because of her effect on me
and because of preconceived ideas, but when we’d talked that last time I’d
received some conflicting information on what I thought I knew about her. I’d allowed
her past my guard and finally had a real conversation with her, and I couldn’t
deny that I’d enjoyed it.

     That is until she’d switched her attention from me to
everyone else.

     Damn! It finally hit me that I’d been behaving like a
jealous asshole. I didn’t like the attention she gave to other guys. If I was
being entirely truthful with myself I had wanted Nadia from the first moment I
saw her, but because I’d been dating Melissa and couldn’t have her I had focused
my resentment on her so it would make
me
feel better. My antagonism had
just kind of snowballed from there.

     Hell, I might have seen that incident in that bedroom
for what it actually was if I had just pulled my head out of my ass earlier.
Then she would have never had to deal with it on her own, or at all.

     “Hey! Do you want this fixed today or what?” Nadia
yelled from downstairs.

     “Yes! Hurry your ass up. I want to be able to take a
shit in no more than two hours.” Landon yelled back.

     I rolled my eyes at him. He just grinned back.

     “Than tell gargantuan to move his
osel
and bring
me my tool box.”

     Landon snorted and I found myself grinning as well. She
had a mouth on her and wasn’t afraid to use it. I strode away to head
downstairs.

Chapter Five

NADIA

     “
Chert
(damn), took you long enough. Was there a
scenic route that I missed?” I walked over and confiscated my tool box from his
Goliath hands. The guy was huge, and dark; dark hair, dark blue eyes, really
tanned from the summer sun.

     He grinned and I stared once again in bemusement at the
two dimples in his cheeks…two! Those two small dents turned Seth’s rough,
rugged face into adorably handsome. Every time he flashed them I had to shake
myself out of a stupor…which I did right now.

     Setting the tool box down by the ladder I opened it
looking for the supplies I needed to repair the leak. Seth stood silently
watching me setting my nerves on end. I was accustomed to customer’s watching
me work; either because of my age, my gender, or my looks. I couldn’t stop them
and ignored them mostly, unless they bothered me with questions or made passes
at me, but I could handle both those with barely any effort. Sometimes a look
and a flash of my knife in the guise of using it for work had them stepping off
quickly.  

     However, I was having a difficult time ignoring Seth,
and I was also still processing the fact that he wasn’t guilty of purposely walking
away from the attack on me. I’d been so angry and hurt at his actions. I
understood the anger, but the feelings of hurt had only confused and incensed
me further. I barely knew the guy; I shouldn’t have taken his disregard for my
welfare personally. But I had.

     I hadn’t been able to hold back confronting him when
he’d asked about that asshole Dale. I had wanted to scratch my nails down his
face, but I’d settle on just going off on him. I was hoping to get some reaction
of guilt or shame out of him, and well, I’d definitely gotten it. His look of
stunned and agonized guilt could not be faked.

     Part of me had wanted to remain angry. If I’d actually
been raped it would have been easy to hold on to that anger, but I hadn’t been
and I could see how a snapshot of the situation would have looked to someone
else; me not fighting, screaming, or crying, but instead smiling. He’d been so exceedingly
distressed and nearly green at the thought that he’d left me there to be raped,
and seeing that went a long way in forgiving him. I also couldn’t let him fester
in guilt because of an oversight.

     Grabbing the wrench I would need to loosen the coupling
from the piping I straightened and Seth made his first move since coming
downstairs. “Can you do that with your finger in a splint?” He stepped forward
wearing a frown of concern on his face.

     “I have for the last week.” I answered climbing the ladder.
Seth moved immediately to hold it and I noted the slight twitch of sick guilt
that crossed his face at my comment. “Seth, you need to get over it. It wasn’t
your fault.” I said looking down at him. “The guy might not have even intended
to even rape me. Sure, he tackled me to the bed and said some threatening
things, but it could have been all talk.” It had felt pretty damn real though.

     He stared up at me in tight lipped silence, blue eyes sparking,
and I could tell my words didn’t make a bit of difference to him. My emotions
were conflicted at seeing that. I was partially pleased that he still felt
guilt even though I recognized that he wasn’t culpable…it was telling me he
cared…But I didn’t want him to carry that around with him.

     Like I had outside I touched his forearm briefly, and
again felt that tingle of delight from the momentary contact. “Please…don’t drag
something like that around with you.” Seth’s facial muscles pinched into an
expression of, ‘
I don’t know if I can do that
’, so I gave him a half smile.
“If you don’t let it go than that’s just going to make me feel guilty about you
feeling guilty when the only one who should feel guilty is
mu’dak
Dale
who I doubt is feeling any guilt at all.”

     A reluctant grin pulled at his mouth as he shook his head.
“That’s a difficult argument to refute.”

     “That’s the only type of argument I give.” I replied.

     He snorted as I reached over my head and went to work
loosening the bad coupling. The splint was cumbersome but not impossible to
work with.

     “What does
mu’dak
mean?”

     Grimacing a little as I forced the coupling loose I
answered Seth’s question. “Asshole.”  

     “You said a couple other Russian words outside; were
they swear words as well?”

     I tried to remember what I’d said, but I’d been pretty
angry at the time and words had spewed forth indiscriminately. “Most likely.” I
replied giving him a saucy grin.

     His brow rose and his mouth curled in tribute. “I
deserved them. I’ve noticed that your accent is a little all over the place.
When you’re playing poker it’s very noticeable, but right now it has lightened
up a bit; however, when you get angry it thickens significantly. Why is that?”
He asked staring up at me curiously.

     I returned my attention to the coupling. “I already
told you it comes and goes, but when I’m emotional it really takes over.” I
answered as best I could. No one outside my family really needed to know the
part I played.

     “You said you’d been in the states for a few years?” He
queried.

     That was a common question a lot of people asked me. “About
five.” I answered truthfully. The coupling finally came loose and I examined
both subpar pipe ends to make sure they weren’t damaged from time or my removal
of the coupling.

     “Just how old are you? At first I thought you were
around my age, but right now you look about seventeen.”

     I stepped down the ladder and grinned at him. He was
watching me intently and it made my grin freeze and also set my heart to
thumping irregularly. “I’m twenty.” I answered, and then found myself chuckling
at his look of astonishment.

     “Seriously! So you’re in an apprenticing program.”

     “I finished not too long ago.”

     His shock increased. “How the hell did you do that, it’s
a four year program?”

     “I started when I was sixteen. Thankfully, I live in a
state where you can start apprenticing when you’re sixteen instead of
eighteen.”  

     Seth’s eyes narrowed contemplatively. “Why thankfully?”

     I realized my poor choice of words too late. “Someone
mentioned apprenticeship programs where you could work to earn a degree and
that they even paid for schooling. It seemed the best way to go.”  

     He continued to watch me thoughtfully. “You’re parent’s
couldn’t help you?”

     My heart clenched in pain. I didn’t mind answering some
of his questions but I did not want to talk about my parent’s. “They died.” Bending
down I tossed the old coupling into the tool box and grabbed the new one along
with a roll of Teflon thread tape.

     “I’m sorry.” He offered genuinely.

     “
Spasibo
.” I replied softly. Knowing he didn’t
know what that meant I translated. “Thank you.”

     He remained silent for a few seconds before speaking
again. “So you’re a journeyman plumber, proficient poker player, and hard core
vodka drinker at twenty?”

     I appreciated that he dropped the parent topic but shook
my head at his inventory. “Which one surprises you more?” I stood and headed
back up the ladder without looking at him.  

     “I’m incredibly impressed by the first two, but twenty’s
pretty young to be drinking hard core, and you are under twenty-one.” He observed
with a sardonic brow lift.