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SACRIFICE
Chapter 10
Sahara Lilium
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"Well?"
Serena turned around from where she stood by the window, contemplating the scene outside, to see Darien striding towards her. She gave a sigh of relief as she noticed the robe belted tightly over his flat stomach. She didn't know what she had expected, maybe him naked trying to swamp her with his dynamic sex appeal? No matter how silly it sounded, it would have worked. She was attracted to this man who was her husband and there was no use trying to work out the scientific reasoning to it. There was also no stopping this attraction and that's why she was about to do what she was about to do.
Darien stopped in front of her, staying a few feet away from her, not touching her, not taking his eyes off her face. Serena took a deep breath and lifted her chin. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.
"I want to- I want..." Darien lifted a brow as Serena's voice faltered her. Licking her dry lips nervously, she tried again. If he wanted to hear her say it, then she'd give it to him all. "I want us to have sex. I want to consummate this marriage. I want a marital bed to lie on."
Darien nodded, his dark eyes trained unwaveringly on hers. "What you are trying to say is this. You want us to make love."
Serena hesitated then nodded. Darien took a step forward. "You want us to make this marriage real."
She nodded again and Darien took another step towards her. "You want us to have a relationship."
She stared at him. Then nodded and he took that last step forward, the step that brought him up sharply against her.
He bent his head and his breath wafted against her forehead. "So do I."
Gently lifting her chin with his left hand, he brought his right hand up to her cheek and cupped it, letting his thumb caress the full line of her bottom lip. Serena sighed as sensation gripped her lower stomach and she closed her eyes.
This was it.
Serena smiled as she checked herself in the mirror. Soon. Very soon she would see Luna again. Her friends. And little Diana.
It had been three weeks since her wedding day, and she felt so changed, so different. She didn't know what it was. Maybe the Greek atmosphere or the completely worry free days. Or maybe it was Darien. Darien Refatalki. Her husband. Her lover. The man who, night after night, day after day, took her body and drowned in it, making sure to take her along with him.
But now it was back to reality. The honeymoon was over. Real life was beginning. She had to face up to that. And forget everything that had happened here. Forget what she had shared with Darien. Forget how they had made love whenever one look, one touch had heated their bloods and raised their temperatures. Forget it all.
Serena made a rueful face at herself in the mirror. She had as much chance of forgetting it all as the chance that- that... well, let's just say that she would never forget these three week. Never.
She jumped when two arms slid across her stomach from behind her. A little shock of familiar electric current went through her and she immediately knew who it was. Lifting her gaze up, her eyes encountered his dark ones in the mirror and she watched a smile stretch the hard line of his lips.
"Looking forward to going back?"
He sure looked happy. In fact, he was looking so pleased, so smug with himself that Serena just got this feeling that something was up.
"Ummm. And you?"
"Oh yes. Getting back to real life. Though I suppose I will miss the three weeks we've spent here."
Pausing and looking at her expectantly, Darien waited for Serena to answer back. She didn't. Her mind was all in a confused jumble. Darien wanted to go back. He wanted to leave everything behind and go back to his family and his friends. Of course they had to leave sometime, but he didn't have to appear so eager about it. Though she thought that she knew why he wanted to get back. Lita Larina.
Her heart gave a curious jump at the thought of the other woman's name. Darien said that he would miss what had happened these three weeks, but he wasn't too upset because he knew that he wouldn't be missing anything. These three weeks had probably meant nothing to him. He was used to these kind of things. Oh god what had she done?
"Serena?" Darien's voice held a hint of concern as he looked at the expression on Serena's face. Loosening his arms from around her, he grabbed Serena as she tried to get away from him and turned her around to face him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now let me go please because I have to make sure that everything is packed."
She tried to get away from him again but he held her tighter. A watchful look had entered his eyes. "You should have let the maid do that. That's what she's here for."
"Well, since you decreed it to be so, these are my clothes aren't they?"
He hesitated before replying slowly. "Yes. Of course-"
"Well, I don't want a stranger handling them okay? You might be used to it but I'm not."
Darien stared at her silently. He lifted a hand and brushed it against her cheek. "What's wrong Serena?"
She remained silent- she couldn't, she just couldn't bear it if he found out the real reason behind her mood change. Hell, she couldn't bear it herself so she was strictly keeping her mind off the reason. Instead of meeting Darien's eyes she stared off into the distance behind Darien's shoulder.
"Are you worried about what's going to happen once we get back? Where we'll stay, what we'll do?"
Cupping Serena's chin in his hand, he lifted it up and kept it there until her eyes met his. She stared at him while he looked back at her. But this time, it wasn't a stranger's hated face she saw. It was a face whose every contour she was familiar with, whose every texture she was well aware of. Not a face she loved but definitely one she lusted after. It would never be a loved face. She wouldn't let it be.
"I'm not worried okay Darien? I have nothing to be worried about. The answer to these questions is simple. I'm amazed you haven't reached the conclusion yet."
"Really?"
The tone of his voice changed back to the arrogant one he hadn't used during the whole of the three weeks after their wedding night. It made Serena not want to continue this conversation further but she was tired of living in cloud cuckoo land. She was tired of ignoring the truth behind their honeymoon. That Darien was just consummating the marriage the first night and during all the other nights and days to follow, he was taking advantage of a willing body. And she had been willing. More than she had ever been in her entire life.
"Yes. We'll be living in the same house because of Diana but everything else will just continue as if we had never gotton married."
"Really?" This time his voice wasn't just his usual arrogant one but steely as well. "How do you plan to get on with your normal life when you will not be living in your normal city, not visiting your normal workplace, not being with your normal friends?" "Excuse me?" Serena frowned at Darien and tilted her head to one side.
"You heard me the first time. We'll be moving here, to Greece in one week during which you will sort out anything you need to."
"Moving here? Here?"
Darien impatiently shook his head. "No. Not here to Kórinthos. But to Athens, where my main offices are and where I usually spend most of my time."
Serena opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Darien regarded her reaction with ironic amusement. "Really Serena. I had thought you'd be happy at this news. After all, you were the one who told me last night that you loved Greece."
Serena flashed him an angry look even as her cheeks filled with embarrassed colour. She remembered saying that but she hadn't been in her right frame of mind at the time. They'd just come from a small party that had been given in their honour and every-one had been so nice to Serena and she'd had such a good time, that she'd been in a really good mood. So as soon as they had got back, well, a look had passed between them and that had been enough to set the fire ignite again. "Greece isn't the problem. What you're saying is. I don't want to leave every-" Serena was interrupted by the ring of the phone. She inhaled air and let it out in a huff. Glaring angrily at Darien's back as he strode over to the telephone set, she then turned to glower furiously out of the window.
Tuning Darien's voice out of her head, she struggled not to let tears escape her eyes. She didn't know what they were for. Whether they were in anger, or in weariness about the direction her life was heading towards. Why did it all happen to her? Of course there were millions of other people in the world who were more unlucky than her but that wasn't the point. The point was the fact that she had to have been born on a day which was just unlucky. After all, when she was four, her Nan died. Then at seven, her grandfather died. When she was ten, her grandmother died and a year later, her other grandfather died. At thirteen, her father left the world and when she was but fifteen, she was made an orphan when her mother gave way to cancer. And at eighteen, Alan... god, she didn't want to think about that. And Mina and Andrew, she didn't want to cast her mind on that topic either. She just couldn't.
Turning back towards Darien as she felt the emotional burden slip more heavily onto her shoulders, she sighed and ran her hand over her weary head. Staring at the man who, it seemed, had interrupted her unlucky life to cause even more bad luck, she noted the strain holding him tight; he was all tensed up and his hands were clenched.
"Where is she now?" His voice came out in a harsh bark and Serena stared at him, puzzled.
Wild thoughts ran through her head. Who was he talking about? Was it Lita? What had Lita done to make Darien sound so angry? Serena frowned irritably at these thoughts. God, for some reason she really didn't like Lita.
"Hospital? How long for?"
Her mind snapped back into reality and she looked questioningly at Darien's face as she heard the worry in his voice.
"Okay. We're on our way back."
Slamming the phone down, he stared at it for a while before turning and striding over towards where one of their suitcases was. Serena stayed standing.
"Get a move on Serena."
She was just opening her mouth to ask why, when he left a comment hanging in the air, a comment which made her heart stop and her blood run cold.
"Diana is in hospital and it seems that she's in critical condition."
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Today, Kórinthos is called Corinth. I thought it would be more... sexy if a Greek like Darien still used the old names concerning his country.
Sahara Lilium