‘Is it two tickets or three?’ the lady asked, ‘and whereabouts in Greece do you want to go?’
Matt and Derek stared each other down. We would be there all day if they carried on. Glancing around, I saw my father waiting by the information desk. He spoke to Antony but his gaze was on me. His hands were clenched by his side, his forehead creased. I hated to see my father worry.
‘He has to come, Matt. We need to do this for my father. He only wants my safety.’ I interrupted their stare out.
Taking Derek’s passport, I banged it back down on top of ours. There was no point in fighting. My family would never let me go without someone there to protect me. I supposed that was a good thing, considering how hurt I had been when they had shown no interest. I should have known that I would not be able to leave without some sort of fight. However, I thought the struggle would be with Nick. Not my family.
‘The first available flight, please,’ Matt said, glaring at Derek.
Looking back to my father, I nodded at him gently. His forehead eased, the lines smoothing out. His fists unclenched. Antony also watched us. He smiled when I grinned at him. He was Pisces’ twin flame soulmate, he would know how happy I was. My new life would allow me to complete the first part of my mission. Maybe once Matt and I had united, we could come back to help the others.
‘Okay. There’s a flight leaving for Crete in an hour. You will have to hurry.’
The false smile on the attendant’s face made me laugh. How must it feel to have to pretend every day?
‘That’s fine. We’ll have three one-way tickets, please.’ Derek took over. He pulled a credit card from his wallet.
Matt reached forward and snatched it out of his hand. I was about to do the same. Why should our bodyguard pay for our tickets? Derek shook his head and turned around. My father approached with Antony in tow.
‘You really think that I won’t at least pay for your flight tickets?’ he said.
My throat tried to close. He did support me. Running away from reality, abandoning my family. Father’s supportive smile made it all worth it.
‘Thank you so much, I…’
My skin started to prickle. We were not alone. Someone watched us. Hugging my father quickly, I snatched the tickets out of the woman’s hand as soon as she offered them to Matt.
‘We need to get out of here straightaway.’ Taking Matt’s hand, I dragged him away from the others.
Glancing behind, I clocked a man wearing black clothes hovering by the information desk. Nick’s man. My archenemy somehow knew that we were there. How was that even possible? Father faded into the distance. He retreated quickly, Antony at his heels.
‘Where’s Derek?’ Matt asked.
Passport control came into view. I didn’t wait around to see where our bodyguard had got to. I didn’t care either way. If Nick managed to get to us before we could leave, we would be in trouble. Big trouble.
People queued, waiting for their turn to get out of the country. Matt wanted to push past but I stopped him. There was nothing like slowing yourself down by panicking. The airport officials would become suspicious if we didn’t act normally. Nick was limited in a place like the airport. There were too many witnesses.
‘Did you miss me?’
Derek’s shout made me jump. The man at passport control glanced over. Matt chuckled to himself, revelling in my discomfort.
‘I really hope they hurry up,’ Derek said, ‘Nick’s man is over there.’
I searched for the man that Derek spoke about. My fingers tightened around my passport and the ticket that would take me away from England. Matt’s arm came over my shoulders. The squeeze he gave me made me feel better. Surely they wouldn’t attempt anything?
Derek glanced down at his phone. The expression that passed over his face made my stomach clench. I hadn’t even stopped to think that maybe he was leaving someone behind.
‘Do you have a girlfriend, Derek?’
The line moved slowly. My gaze kept looking for the man that could jeopardise our escape. The flash of a black jumper made me grab Derek’s arm. Matt let go of me as he too spotted his former colleague. The man moved closer, getting in line behind us. How the hell would he get through passport control?
‘Not right now. Why? Do you know someone?’
‘That’s not funny,’ I said.
The people in front of us put their stuff into a tray. It was our turn next. Wiping my palms on my jeans, I stared longingly at the intimidating passport controllers. The man checking our bags didn’t even look up at us.
‘Don’t worry, any minute now.’ Derek rubbed the bottom of his back.
My eyes widened when I remembered that he had been carrying a gun. He must have disappeared earlier to get rid of it. That’s what I hoped, anyway.
Once the people in front of us had cleared away, a man gestured for us to go to him. My breath left my lungs as I stepped through the detector. Luckily, it didn’t beep. The same could not be said when Derek walked through. He winked at me when the man searched him. Matt came through with no problem. I was tempted to leave Derek to it. It would serve him right.
Picking up my bag, I followed Matt away from passport control. We waited for Derek on the side-lines. The real reason I waited was to see if the man in black came through after us.
‘Don’t worry, baby, he won’t attempt it,’ Matt said, tucking his passport and ticket away.
Derek finished being checked over. Grabbing the bag that Antony had given him, he fell into step beside us as we moved away. We didn’t go completely out of sight. We had to see what the man would do.
‘We didn’t think about this.’
I really hadn’t given our predicament enough thought. How would I live without my siblings? I hadn’t gone more than a few days without talking to them, without seeing them. I believed that I could live without them. But now I doubted myself.
‘No, you really didn’t think it through,’ Derek said.
I stepped away from them when the man in black seemed to vanish. I smiled to myself when I caught sight of his retreating back disappearing away from passport control. Nick’s man would not be coming after us.
‘Don’t think about it. As soon as we’re settled, Derek can come back home.’ Matt slid his arm around my waist and guided me away. He was right. As soon as we were settled maybe my siblings would come to see me. Maybe not. Either way, I had made my choice. It was time to start again. It was time to be with my twin flame soulmate.
Chapter Six
The sun warmed my skin. It was a lot hotter in Greece than it was in England. That was one huge bonus.
‘I’ve just got off the phone to your father.’ Derek waved for a taxi. ‘He’s booked us into a hotel.’
Father to the rescue. Always the same. It was as if we couldn’t take care of ourselves. That would probably never change.
‘Thank you. I can see why my father trusts you.’
Not saying anything, Derek shuffled us into the taxi. He would be our guardian for now. That’s exactly what my father had planned. We wouldn’t need him for long, though, we would be fine on our own.
It didn’t take long to get to the hotel. Matt kept his hand on my thigh the whole way there. I couldn’t look at him. All of a sudden it had become unreal. Or maybe too real.
The landscape was nothing like home. It was a drier place. Although, it didn’t seem as different as I had expected it to. In my mind, whenever I thought of foreign places, I pictured them to be completely different. I smiled as I watched out of the window. Earth was just earth. I had no idea why I thought otherwise.
‘Have you got a plan yet?’ Derek glanced over his shoulder at us.
I couldn’t look Matt in the eye. Freedom wasn’t something I was used to. We had spent so long fighting. Not only with ourselves but with others too. Aries had never believed me. He didn’t trust that I knew my own sense of judgement.
‘We live,’ I said, squeezing Matt’s knee.
Our gaze finall
y locked. His blue eyes reflected the sun as it poured into the car window. I had never imagined that we would be in our current position. I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Words didn’t need to be spoken. My skin heated as his hand came up to my cheek.
‘That’s enough romance for today,’ Derek said.
Matt smiled at me, letting his hand drop to his lap. Derek was right. We had plenty of time.
The taxi pulled up outside the hotel. Only the best, of course. It was my father who had booked it.
‘I hope he didn’t put it under our name.’ Matt helped me out of the car.
Our lack of baggage made the doorman raise his eyebrows. I paused, reluctant to walk into what would be my temporary home. I had nothing. No clothes, no shoes, nothing.
‘Father is the most intelligent man in the world,’ I said. ‘He would book it under a different name.’
‘I can’t do this.’ Matt had also stopped walking. His sentence made me look back at him. Derek had wandered into the hotel, presumably to sort things out. My stomach started to clench. I placed my hand over it. I would not be sick. I would not be sick.
‘Can’t do what?’ I stepped towards him but he backed away.
I studied him. His face was rounder than Derek’s. His hair slightly darker. The blue of his eyes were dim as he watched me. He was the same height as my new bodyguard. But somehow he seemed smaller. Especially as he stood before me.
Matt scratched his clean shaven jaw. ‘This.’ He gestured between us.
I closed my eyes, praying that I had misheard him. Tuning into my heart, I took a deep breath. He would not unnerve me. I would not allow myself to be rattled.
‘It’s a bit late,’ I said. My plan wasn’t working. My chest burned.
Derek came to the door of the hotel, waving for us to join him. Shrugging, I turned away and followed him inside. I needed space. Time to clear my head and my heart.
‘Your father has booked us three rooms. One each.’ The smirk on Derek’s face did nothing to relieve the pressure squeezing my chest. At least we hadn’t flown too far from England. I could escape home if I had to.
Derek didn’t question me when Matt stayed outside. Handing me a key, he smiled as we made our way up the stairs and into the corridor.
He pointed at his own room. ‘I’ll be in here. Matt will be on the other side of me.’
Swiping the card over the lock, I said no more as I went into my new sanctuary. When the door closed behind me, I collapsed on the bed. Tears wouldn’t come. A calm numbing sensation filtered through my body. What had Matt meant? Was he rejecting me already?
I wanted to ignore the knocking on the door. However, when Matt started calling my name, I had to answer.
‘What do you want?’ I huffed as I went back to the bed and sat on the edge.
He dumped his bag by the bathroom door. His foot went to move forward but quickly pulled back. He had no idea what he wanted. Reality was finally setting in.
‘My marriage…’
I was surprised that I hadn’t been sick. My stomach had been dancing since we had left London. In fact, I had been feeling sick ever since Gemini had opened his mouth.
The image of my brothers and sisters filtered into my mind. Tears sprang to my eyes. Matt came to me, kneeling on the floor. He was mistaken if he believed that I was upset about his marriage.
‘Are you regretting it?’
He didn’t touch me. Leaning away, I skirted back on the bed. I needed space. After all this time, he was doubting. Everything we had been through wasn’t enough to confirm what I had always believed.
Matt sat back on his heels, rubbing his temples with his fingers. ‘Cancer, I’m not quite…’
I leant my head back against the wall. The tears that had come to my eyes fell from the corner, running down my cheeks. All I could think about was my siblings. The people I had grown up with. The people that had been there for me. At the first sign of my freedom, of my own problems being solved, I had run. I had left them to their own fate.
‘You’re not ready, are you?’ I wiped my face. Not looking at him.
His exhale of breath mirrored my own. We had run away together. It was meant to be romantic, adorable, mind blowing. Instead, it was heart wrenching.
Matt stood. Glancing around the room, he avoided making eye contact. His shoulders were slumped. The hooded jumper he wore was well made.
When he had escaped from Nick, he had managed to keep his decent clothes.
‘It’s not that. You think after everything we’ve been through, I don’t want you?’
The resignation in his posture changed. His shoulders came up. His eyes cleared. His gaze finally met mine. It ran over the length of my body. I tingled all over when he looked at my lips. We had never kissed before. Even though the others assumed that we had.
‘I don’t understand. Why did you say you can’t do this?’ I said.
Matt lowered himself onto the end of the bed. I didn’t move. He had to come to me. He had to show me that he wanted me. I had given up my whole life to be with him.
‘This life can be daunting. I’ve watched both sides. You forget that I was with Nick a lot longer than I’ve known you. I was brainwashed. Everything he taught me to believe, everything I based my life on, has been challenged. You…You changed me.’
I looked at the plain white bed cover. I had never thought of it that way. In my mind, we had found each other. Surely, that was enough.
‘Why didn’t you tell me that you were married in the first place?’
Matt’s smile was bitter. His eyebrows lowered at the same time as his mouth lifted. Did he resent me?
Shaking his head, Matt closed his eyes before opening his mouth. He didn’t speak straight away.
‘I had no idea what was going to happen to me. Your brothers weren’t exactly nice. I presumed that I would never see my wife again. And there you were, being kind to me for no reason.’
Biting the corner of my lip, I shuffled down the bed. He watched me. His whole body frozen. Maybe if I reached out to him, the weirdness between us would melt away. My fingers reached forward.
His hand rested on his thigh. Halfway there, I paused. I couldn’t give him my all. Not without him at least meeting me part of the way.
I was about to pull back but he stopped me. His fingers wrapped around mine, tugging me gently towards him. As I moved, I tried to remember a time that we had been as close. The guilt I would feel at the thought of his wife was no longer there. It was different now.
‘There’s something that I need-’
I put my finger over his mouth. There was no way I was going to let him ruin the moment. His lips folded in on themselves. I ignored it. Leaning forward, I brought my face to his. His mouth opened as he breathed deeply. The sound of air rushing into his lungs made me smile. He watched me closely. Waiting for me to make my move.
‘It’s strange,’ I whispered, reaching up and running a finger down his cheek.
His eyebrows lowered. My crossed legs pressed against his thigh as he sat sideways. He didn’t reach out to me. Although he held my hand, he didn’t give me more.
‘What’s strange?’ He pulled back slightly, which made me sit up.
It wasn’t enough. It was supposed to be natural. We had waited for the perfect moment but it didn’t feel right.
Tearing my gaze away from him, I stared up at the ceiling. The smooth white paint reminded me of my new life. A blank canvas for me to create something special. A new world where I could be who I wanted to be. Not someone that was destined to fight with men that didn’t believe in love.
‘It feels like we’re strangers. Now that we’re here, I’m not sure what we should do.’
He nodded as his tongue traced his lips. The urge to move forward and capture his mouth with mine was almost too much. I stopped myself, though. He had to want me as much as I wanted him.
‘Let’s take a nap,’ he said, getting up from the bed.
Avoiding eye contact, I picke
d up my phone and turned it on. So far, I had avoided it, knowing that my family would be trying to get in contact. I didn’t look up as Matt left. Part of me thought that he might take a nap with me. I ran my tongue over my teeth, resisting the urge to let my emotions overtake.
The first text I read was from Pisces. She wasn’t one to judge or get involved with others business. However, she also didn’t take kindly to her almost brother-in-law being whisked away from her. She was right. I hadn’t even thought of Derek and his life back in London. To be fair, I didn’t even want him to be there.
Pressing the button, I rang her. ‘I’m sorry!’ I cried when she answered.
The heavy sigh vibrated down the phone to me. I could hear the others in the background. They were always in the background. Forever able to be relied upon.
‘I wish you hadn’t been so spontaneous. It’s not like you.’
Someone spoke to Pisces. She ignored them, which made me feel better.
‘I know. I wasn’t thinking. It’s not…’ I didn’t know what to say. How could I tell her that Matt and I were completely awkward before we’d even had our first kiss?
The banging on my door drew my attention away from the conversation with my sister.
It sounded like my other siblings were getting ready for dinner on the other end of the line. My favourite time of day. The only time we got together, all twelve of us.
‘Remember to surrender. This is the hardest part. You thought being apart was difficult, now you’re in for a surprise.’ Pisces spoke over the noise in the home I already missed.
‘I thought that we would harmonise,’ I said, picking at the varnish on my nails. Blue flecks started to pile on the bed cover.
Someone knocked on my door again. Covering the microphone on the phone, I called for them to come in.
‘I can’t come in, muppet, the door’s locked,’ Derek shouted from the hallway.
I shook my head. Having a man around that called me a muppet was going to take some getting used to.
‘That sounds like Derek,’ Pisces said. ‘You’re lucky to have him there, you know that, don’t you?’
Cancer: Book 5 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) Page 4
