Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,222

all keen to look after me after my time spent trapped in Lionel’s fun company. And I kinda didn’t hate that because drinks had been fetched on my behalf a whole hell of a lot as well as tasty food and snuggly blankets.

Caleb had bought me a pair of fluffy slippers and Seth was still on the feeding kick, bringing me candy all the time. Of course, Geraldine had me swimming in bagels every morning and Max was basically my emotional crutch, ending up sleeping in my bed with me half the time to help with my nightmares.

Darcy was my other half so just her being with me was all I needed, but of course she’d been pampering me nonstop too and we stole as much time together here as we could get away with.

And Darius…well, Darius was just there whenever I needed him. I couldn’t be alone with him obviously and we couldn’t get close physically for any real length of time, but he found other ways to be close to me.

Like the way he always set a fire blazing in my room before I even thought about heading to bed. Or the way there was a perfectly brewed coffee with my name on it waiting for me every damn morning without fail, even if he slept at the palace with Orion. He’d even bought me my own mug – not that he had given it to me to unwrap or anything like a normal person. My coffee had just started appearing in it every morning without him saying a word. It was baby pink with a golden R printed on it, a crown casually hanging from the top corner of the letter and a pair of wings spread wide around it. Not me at all - totally girly, princessy, OTT on the cuteness and with the complete wrong initial printed on it like he’d been trying to make sure I freaking hated it…and yet if anyone else dared to drink from it I kinda felt like burning their face off in case they broke it, so maybe I loved it. Not that I’d be telling him that.

In fact, he was so in tune with my caffeine needs that I hadn’t actually made myself a coffee once in all the time I’d spent here. So now I was standing looking at the over engineered piece of garbage they called a coffee machine, wondering what the fuck I was supposed to do to it to get my caffeine fix. Where were the instant granules? Hell, where were the mugs kept? And the sugar? I hadn’t slept all night and I was going to start getting the twitches if I didn’t feed my habit soon.

My skin prickled with awareness and I stiffened as I felt a large body moving up close behind me.

"I can help you out if you're not sure how to use it," Darius said, leaning around me and fiddling with some of the buttons and shit on the machine as his chest pressed to my back.

"Erm, thanks," I said, trying to concentrate on what he was doing so that I'd remember next time while being utterly overwhelmed by his mere presence instead.

He was saying something about beans and moving a funny looking handle thing from one part of the machine to another, but all I could think about was the heat of his body pressing to mine and the way his stubble was grazing my temple as he leaned over me while he spoke.

"Got it?" Darius asked as he finished putting the frothy milk into the coffee. So much for the instant shit I used to buy back in the mortal realm. I had been wondering why it tasted so much better here and I guessed I had my answer, but I still had no idea what he’d just done so I shook my head. Nope, I was distracted by how damn good your body feels against mine and wanting to lick your tattoos. Damn, it had been a long time since I’d gotten laid.

"Maybe you make it and I'll hand them out?" I suggested, drawing a laugh from him.

"You want me to show you again?" he offered, pressing closer so that my ass drove against his crotch and I bit my lip to hold back a gasp.

"Make mine a triple shot, I'm dog tired over here," Seth called and I looked over at him just in time to see Max punch him in the bicep. "What? Don't