Divine (17 page)

“
Hmm, where else
could they be?”

He rubbed his faint
five o'clock shadow and pondered their location. “They're
probably in my room; I'll go check.” He walked to the other end
of his house, to an area that was not at all to be considered a
hallway, and into his bedroom.

Should I follow him?

I really wanted to see
his room, but I didn't want to be too forward. I decided on staying
put where I was.

After hearing him
scrounge around a bit, he finally came around the corner of his
bedroom door, holding the tickets high in the air with a big smile.
“Found 'em!” he beamed.

“
Oh good. I was
worried we would miss out on our date . . .” The words trailed
off into the silence of his immaculate house. “Not our date,”
I tried to recover, “I meant the concert.”

Jonah
smiled softly and looked down at the tickets. “It
is
a date,” he corrected me.
He looked back up, still holding the same smile, and smoothly moved
toward me. My heart raced as I stood frozen where I was and waited
for him to reach my quivering body. He stopped a few inches away and
stood in front of me, looking into my eyes as if he were trying to
read my mind. “Here's your ticket,” he offered quietly
while handing it over to me.

I took the stub of
paper from between his fingers and put it in my sweatshirt pocket,
careful not to break my eyes away from his.

“
You ready?”
he asked me, his deep voice filled with more seriousness than I
expected.

Oh yes, I'm ready .
. .

I swallowed the lump in
my throat and nodded. “Yes.”

“
Okay, let's go.”
He walked past me to the door and opened it up for us to leave, his
voice back to the normal tone that I was used to.

My eyes rolled at his
tomfoolery and I turned around and followed him out. I didn't know
how much more of his odd flirtation I could take without it actually
leading somewhere. He was driving me insane.

* * *

The concert hall was in
a busy part of the city so we had to park inside of a parking garage
and walk there. When he found a spot to park I opened the door and
slid off of the seat to the cold cemented ground and proceeded to
send my mom a text to let her know that we had made it there.

Jonah came around to my
side and patiently waited. “You're wearing flip flops?”
he asked, apparently noticing my exposed feet.

“
Yeah, so?”

“
You
do
know that we're going to a concert, right?”

“
Yeah I know.
Whats the big deal?”

“
It's not a big
deal. But,” he cautioned, crossing his arms in front of him,
“people are going to be stepping all over your feet all night.
It's gonna hurt.”

“
I'll manage,”
I smirked, flattered that he was so concerned about my feet.

“
Whatever you
say, Ash.”

I shook my head and
looked down at my phone. “Do you think its okay if I leave my
phone and my purse in your truck?”

“
Yeah,” he
said with a casual nod. “Just push everything under the front
seat so no one will see it.”

I reached up and stuck
my phone inside of my purse and then slid it underneath the seat,
making sure that every part of it was out of view. Once that was done
I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked down at my sweatshirt,
taking a moment to weigh the options of wearing it. It was freezing
outside so I didn't really want to take it off, but I knew that once
we were in the crowd it would feel like we were inside of a furnace,
and I didn't want to carry it around with me the whole night.

Nah, I don't think
I'll wear it.

Feeling confident in my
decision, I slowly unzipped the silver zipper like I was unveiling a
Christmas present. Jonah stood in front of me with his arms still
crossed, quietly watching as I slid the sweatshirt away from my
shoulders, his eyes traveling along the low neckline of my v-neck
shirt and resting briefly on my chest.

“
It's pretty cold
outside,” he said nervously as he dropped his head to the
ground and kicked his spotless black shoes against the cement floor.

Happy with my blossomed
body for doing it's job on him, I tossed my sweatshirt on the seat
and shut the door. “Like I said, I'll manage. And you're not
wearing one either.”

“
I'm a guy, I can
handle the cold,” he spoke down to his arms.

“
That's easy for
Strong Jonah to say.”

He shook his head with
a chuckle. “Are you ready to go?”

“
Yeah, let's do
this.”

He turned around and
made his way toward the elevator that would take us to the ground
level. I hurried alongside him and looked over at his face, only to
see that he was looking away from me, as if he was trying to avoid my
eyes.

We got in the elevator
and he hit the button to take us down. It was even colder in the
little space than it was in the airy garage, and for a moment I
regretted my decision to not wear my coat. Trying to make myself
warmer, I shivered quietly and crossed my goosebump-covered arms
under my breasts, making my cleavage appear even fuller than before.

“
You cold?”
he asked, staring straight ahead at the metal elevator doors.

“
Yeah.”

“
Me too. I didn't
want to wear a sweatshirt in there either; it's going to get really
hot.”

The elevator landed
with a squeaky bang to the floor and we got off, making a right
around the corner toward the concert hall. Up the road we could see
the long line of people that stood in front waiting to get inside. As
soon as I saw them I remembered that my ticket was in the pocket of
my sweatshirt.

“
Dangit!” I
ranted, stopping in place on the sidewalk.

“
What?”
Jonah shot back.

“
I forgot the
ticket in my sweatshirt pocket. I have to go back.”

Jonah looked up and
down at the street around us. “It's okay. Stay here, I'll run
up and get it.” Before I could answer he jetted off back to the
elevator and went up to his truck.

I stood by myself next
to a large brick building and waited patiently for him to return. It
was freezing outside, so much so that I could see my breath leave my
lips and swirl into the air in front of me.

I should have told
him to bring my sweatshirt back.

The sound of husky
laughter took my attention away from the cold and I looked down the
street to see that it was coming from a group of four men. When they
got closer to me I backed up against the wall to let them pass,
immediately regretting that I was wearing a mildly provocative
outfit.

One of the men who was
lean and muscular, and who looked to be in his late twenties, stopped
in front of me. “Hi,” he spoke handsomely with a look of
devilish flirtation in his eyes. “You all by yourself?”

I fidgeted against the
wall and re-crossed my arms, this time covering up the view of my
chest. “No.”

He
smiled and looked up the street and then back at me. “It looks
to me like you
are
by
yourself. Why don't you come party with us,” he offered,
looking over at his group of friends with a self-assured smile.

My
throat tightened.
Jonah, where the heck are you?
I looked in the direction of the elevator, hoping that he would step
out and help me. “Um, no thank you,” I quivered.

He laughed wickedly
with his friends and took a step forward, planting himself directly
in front of me. “I really think you should come with me.”
His voice graveled the statement as if I didn't have a choice.

I pushed harder into
the wall, scraping the back of my shoulders against the rough brick.
“I said no.”

The sound of Jonah's
heavy footsteps relieved me. “She's not going anywhere,”
his voice bellowed toward us from down the street. The other three
men moved back as Jonah came face to face with my aggressor, standing
his ground and staring him down without even a flinch. “She's
with me,” he growled protectively.

The
man crossed his arms and stood cockily in front of him, matching him
in height. “Well, maybe she
wants
to
come with me.”

“
I don't,”
I cut in, still pressed tightly against the wall.

Jonah stepped into him,
making the man take a step back. “You heard her.”

Oh god, Jonah looks
so angry . . .

I was so afraid of
seeing him sock the guy in his smug face that I lowered my head to
the ground and looked at my cold flip-flop adorned feet, hoping that
I would avoid the violent image.

And of course, the guy
didn't back down. “And what are you going to do if I don't
leave her alone?” he barked.

“
I don't think
you want to find out . . .”

The air went silent,
leaving Jonah's final words hanging in the air. A moment later I
could hear the group of men gasp together at something they had seen.
“Oh crap,” one of them panicked, “he's a Divine!”

My head shot up to see
the man who had challenged Jonah stumbling backwards and bumping into
his group of friends. They all scattered around each other and took
off down the road in a frenzy, looking back at us over their
shoulders as they ran away.

I watched as all four
of them disappeared around the corner. “Why on earth would they
think you are a Divine, because you stood up to him?”

Jonah was silent.

I looked over at him
and saw that his fists were clenched and his head was down. “Jonah?”
I called out softly.

His solid chest rose
heavily with every breath that he took. “Just give me a minute
to calm down, please,” he told me through his clenched teeth.

With my arms crossed I
bent over and peered at him closely. When I saw that his eyes were
tightly shut, I stood up and moved directly in front of him, gently
resting my hands on his cheeks and raising his head up so I could see
his face. He kept his eyes closed as he worked hard at slowing his
rapid breaths.

My eyebrows furrowed
with worry. “Are you okay?”

I could feel him relax
in my palms as he took one last deep breath and brought his hands up,
resting them gently on my wrists. A moment later his lids slowly
opened to reveal what he had been hiding from me: a pair of dancing
red eyes. The crystal blue irises that I had become so familiar with
had been replaced by flickering specks of red that glowed like fire
and sparkled like diamonds.

His fiery eyes were
fixed on mine as he waited for me to say something. I looked vacantly
at him, still holding his masculine face in the palms of my soft
hands. “Jonah, they're beautiful,” I managed
breathlessly.

A look of relief washed
over him and I watched in amazement as the red glowing embers slowly
transformed into flecks of glittery yellow. “I'm so happy
you're not mad,” he spoke gently, pulling my hands down and
holding them between our bodies.

“
Why would I be
mad?”

“
Because I didn't
tell you that I was a Divine.”

“
That's okay that
you didn't tell me; I understand.” Of course I understood, he
was hiding the same thing that I was hiding from
him
. We were
the same type of people, we were the Divines who wanted to stay
hidden. It was amazing though, that we both shared the same secret.

I smiled warmly at him
and watched as the flecks of gold in his eyes danced around. “What
does it mean when your eyes are yellow?”

He turned his head to
the side and looked at something far off in the distance. “It
means that I'm happy,” he admitted shyly.

“
You're happy?
That's a good thing.”

He looked back at me,
his sparkling eyes filled with a soft passion. “My eyes have a
way of showing what I'm feeling. I've hid it really well from the
world, but I'm having a hard time controlling it when I'm around
you.”

His confession made me
smile. “Well you don't have to try to control it when you're
with me. And I will keep your secret; you don't have to worry about
that.”