Knock Down, Drag Out / Book One

Chapter Three

Darcy felt like she was going to start pulling her hair out, or scratching Maddox's eyes out, if she didn't get out of his God forsaken apartment soon. Being cooped up four days straight was not her version of fun, at all.

She looked over to where Maddox stood at the stove, in just his jeans because God wanted to torture her, and let out a groan before banging her head on the table.

"Breakfast is almost done," Maddox said over his shoulder. Darcy lifted her head up and resisted the urge to flip him off. "I don't give a shit about the pancakes, I want out of here. I want to see my sister. I'm about thirty seconds away from crawling out on the fire escape and jumping for freedom."

Maddox slid the last pancake onto the plate and brought it over to the table, forking the biggest two up and putting them on his own plate. "Your sister will be here with Damion in about five minutes, so if you could refrain from jumping to your death for a little while longer I'd greatly appreciate it."

Darcy made a face at his back when he turned to grab the syrup off the counter and stabbed the closest pancake to her to put it in her plate.

She knew this was hard for him too, he had only left the apartment once to get her some more clothes and toiletries that she had forgotten in her rush to get out of her own house. Lylah had texted her last night telling her about the fact that Maddox and Damion were putting their training on hold for the time being and she felt a little guilty. Not enough to stop pouting, but she did feel bad that Maddox wasn't able to stick to his own schedule.

"Damion and I had planned on taking the two of you out for the day anyway. No offence, but when you don't get to see each other it's not a fun thing. Damion said that Lylah has been driving him crazy with her pacing and when he asked her about it she said it was because she was worried that you weren't comfortable here."

Maddox poured the maple syrup on his pancakes and passed the bottle to Darcy before grabbing a jug of orange juice out of the fridge and filling up both of their glasses with it. She poured a small amount of the syrup onto her own pancakes and stuffed a bite of it in her mouth so she wouldn't accidentally let him know that she was kind of glad her sister was making Damion's life as hard as she had been Maddox's.

He had barely sat down in his seat when a knock sounded on the door, three beats and pause followed by four more raps. "Come in," Maddox yelled, cutting his pancakes up and winking at Darcy when she glanced up at him. She felt her face heat up and twisted around in her seat to look for Lylah so she would stop staring at Maddox's chest. She had enough issues, she didn't need to be imagining pouring the syrup on his abs and licking it off.

"Darcy Lynn Howard! Finish breakfast, put that fake thing in your nose, and get dressed in the next fifteen minutes or I'm enjoying freedom without you!" Darcy grinned at her sister when she walked into the kitchen with Damion trailing behind her and shoved the rest of the pancake in her mouth, making Lylah laugh with her bulging cheeks. She swallowed it down and drank the rest of her orange juice in a long gulp before jumping up and grabbing Lylah's hand.

"I hope the two of you planned a great day out for us, we really need something normal to keep our minds off of this whole mess." Darcy drug her sister out of the kitchen behind her and fanned her face with her hand once they were inside of her borrowed bedroom.

"He's going to kill me. He just runs around shirtless and acts like it's no big deal!" Lylah rolled her eyes at her sister and made her way over to the closet so she could go through the clothes Darcy had.

"Probably because he's not used to having women in his apartment. Damion said he hasn't had a serious relationship in over a year and made a bet with Elijah on how long he would be able to do this whole 'domestic' thing before losing his mind."