The Inferno's Indulgence

Chapt 18

Celeste

The squeal from the surprise in her voice nearly startles me. It makes me whip my head around to see her face. "It states here that you have an Intelligence Quotient of 148" she announces. Her brown eyes are still glued to the screen of my apple laptop, that is splaying so perfectly across her left arm. Her right hand switches from digging into her bowl of sliced watermelon and touching the touchpad. Her eyes squint. She's gone from laxed to full on detective mode ever since she's laid eyes on Xyle. It makes me a bit nervous to see her this way, she's pressing him.

She's been searching him without his permission ever since he arrived here ten minutes ago. I know for a fact it alarmed her to see him just walk through the door unannounced, in which she has every right to be, but no matter what I say to her, she is adamant on stalking him herself. I would have warned the two of them if I remembered either one would show up today. It's been an entire week since Xyle kissed me. His kiss must've been deadly, because I never forget who's coming to my home.

She pulls her fingers away from the touchpad and takes a slice of watermelon. She plops it into her mouth and moves those fingers to chafe against the napkin she has, ridding all of the juice from the fruit she's eating. She raises her eyes from the laptop's screen and looks over at him, expecting an answer?

"149. That must be a typo" he answers with an even tone. I am nothing less than appalled with the way he answered. He is so confident in himself, and not afraid of her. Even I am right this second. Who knows what stuff she'll pull up. She's been on a steady search for ten minutes straight. She should know his favorite color, favorite food, and shoe size right about now. He slouches himself further into the couch, spreading his legs and remaining as dominant as I've ever seen him. I have to pull my eyes away. No one needs to see me gawking or fanning over it.

To add to what he's doing, he throws his arm onto the back of the couch, letting it drape across. He throws me a look. I can feel him burning into my skin, but I don't look. Is he aware of what he's doing to me? He mustn't be. He shouldn't even have a clue about what I've thought of him doing to me ever since that night. I've managed to push past all of the negative things about that night and focus on how it felt when his lips pressed against mine. It was like I entered a fantasy world where sweet cherry lip balm was all I could taste. And it felt damned good.

Her lips part at the way he's corrected her without him having to bat a single eyelash or think about what his response would be. Her eyes go from squinting to scowling, and I didn't even know if something of the sort were possible. Scowling? With her eyes? Xyle does it sometimes, too. It must not be hard to do. You just have to have the heavy emotion, and will to do it.

From here, I can see her tongue. It makes way so the tip of it can be pressed at the right of her cheek, grazing the skin inside of her mouth gently. She is in awe, and unaware of what to do.

I'd be deceitful of lying if I were to say that she doesn't hide the emotions well, though. She blinks once out of the entire time before pulling her eyes away from him and back to the laptop screen. She seems to be searching for more information. It's so scary. What will she pull up next? How was she able to see his IQ score? It's a wonder. And if he were looking at her he'd be able to see the glare in her eyes and tell that she's on a hunt. That's if he were actually paying attention to her. It half took me by surprise that he answered her because he hasn't said a thing to her since he's gotten here. I think he doesn't like her.

She closes down on her teeth and allows her tongue to be held hostage by them. She pulls back and rests her back onto the soft cushion of the chair she's sitting on, obviously opposite of Xyle who would probably act as if she was acid if she touched him in any way. He walked past her and took a seat without acknowledging her existence. He is very good at doing it, too.