Chapter 64

Jealousy:

Holly's POV:

I turned over to find Artemis lying next to me. "What are you doing here?" I mumbled, my eyes still heavy from sleep.

"I wanted to talk to you, and thought that it would be rude to wake you."

Rude? Because lying on my bed while I was asleep wasn't rude? How could a genius be so… dumb? Ugh Arty… "About what?"

"Lili was flirting with me at the mall, and you were jealous."

I blushed scarlet. Had he really seen through me so easily? Was I really that simple? Apparently so. "Jealous? I was not jealous of the likes of Lili Frond." A lie, but he doesn't need to know that.

"You were. Holly, I could see the anger in your eyes. I could hear you practically growling at your friend. All of which points to envy."

Okay, maybe he's telling he truth about those things, but they weren't really from jealousy. I don't get jealous. They were simply from contempt for the 'typical' female role that she was attempting to portray. It made us all look bad. "I was not jealous," I repeated with more force behind my voice this time.

"You were."

I sat imagining Lili's hand on his chest. Her head replacing her hand… and I felt a fire roaring in my chest. He was my friend, and if she ever did that again, I would make her sorry.

Wow. Maybe he was right after all. I was jealous. "Fine. I was jealous. Go on and tell me about how irrational I was being."

"You were being irrational, but it was one of the most adorable things that I have ever seen."

I looked up into his mismatched eyes. He was telling me the truth. At least I thought he was being honest. So, he thought that I was adorable when I was about to jump on my friend? I must have heard that wrong. "What?"

"I've often read that jealously can serve to stimulate the object of their envy and until today, I did not truly believe that." The object? Meaning him? He was stimulated by that? Really?

"And now?" I asked, trying to calm the fluttering that was in my stomach and quickly moving upwards toward my heart.. He couldn't mean what he was saying. He was just trying to gauge my reaction. That was all this was.

"And now I see that it is the absolute truth. It took quite a bit of fighting on my part to not sweep you up right then and kiss that frown off of your lips," he admitted. That just happened. He really just said that.

I folded my arms, carefully avoiding making eye contact, so that his passion would not invade me, and force me to do something that would come back to bite me later. "Why don't you just go find Lili? From the way that she was bouncing, I'm sure she'd be glad to see you."

His gaze was like a pair of lasers trained on me. "You do realize how superficial your jealousy is, don't you?" he paused. "Lili Frond is quite beautiful in her own way, but she's nothing in comparison to you. She may be pretty, but she doesn't hold my heart. Only you do."

I looked up into his eyes. "What did you say?" I'm insane. I'm hearing things. I have got to be crazy.

He smiled, showing me his perfect teeth. "You have my heart, Holly Short."

"And why would you tell me this now?"

"Until today, I didn't think you had any sort of feelings for me. I was prepared to lock my own down so as not to hurt you, but after our little time together today, I was finally convinced that perhaps you did. That perhaps I have a chance."

"I don't have feelings for you," I protested. It was bad enough when everyone else said it, but to hear this from him was going to push me right off the edge of my sanity. And when I lost my mind, who knows what I may do? Who knows what I may say?

"You do, but you're afraid of what truly caring about me may entail."

"Will you just go away?" By this point, I was one hundred percent sure that I was asleep. There was no way that this was happening. No, it was just a very realistic dream.

"Fine, I will." He sat up and gently kissed my forehead. Then, he kissed my lips, teasing just trying to get a response. I tried my best to refuse him, but I found that I couldn't. He was just too talented. His lips tugged and teased mine and so did his sweet, musky tasting tongue. I moaned, arching into his lips, allowing myself to enjoy the warmth and comfort of the stronger male.

Finally he pulled away, leaving me to pant and feel somewhat unfulfilled. "I will, but remember that I won't let this…us die. You are my best friend, and I really do care about you."

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled as he left. "Like I haven't heard that before…"

A/n:

Whoo-hoo! That's another chapter down! Yay! You'll be happy to know that while I've been away I've actually been busy. So busy that I actually finished writing this story. Thank you. Your love is very much appreciated. ;)

So, I hope you guys really wait to see this finished. It's going to be long, but worth it. At least I think so…. The next chapter should be coming up soon... hopefully. Check out my other stories. They're pretty good, I think.

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Einstinette