100 ways of seduction

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SEARRA

  Darren is still angry. He sent Ruby away, and Matthais followed her.

   Diego looks at me with sympathy, "Bear with him for us," He says and walks away, closing the door behind him.

  "Darren," I call, but he doesn't reply.
He is pacing the room.

"Darren,"
"Cole," at that, he pauses and looks at me.

   For a beat, there's a gleam in his eyes, then it's gone.
 
   "You could have texted me,"

  "I was with Ruby, I was safe,"

   "Oh," he says teasingly. "A chat with her, and suddenly you felt safe. I think I need to ask her to teach me her tricks. " he is kidding, but I can't help but feel there's something attached to it.

      I want to argue with him, but I stop. Right now, he is being unreasonable.

    "Unreasonable?" He asks.

  Did I say that out loud.

   He walks to me, "Those guys could have killed you, and I wouldn't have been there to stop it." he is towering over me now.

     He looks at he and sighs, lowering his head closer to mine, "You have to be careful. We need you alive. "

    Right, so that the Locamen transactions will go on.

   I push him back and walk to a chair.

"So, what now?"

  He stares at me for a long time and then sighs again, "Your face is very expressive, you know."

    "No, it's not."

"And you are bad at lying. I'm going out for a while, try practising to keep your face in control. When I return, we will test it. " With that, he leaves the room.

   After a minute, it hits me that he is actually serious. Does he really expect me to sit and try to control my face.

    I take out my phone and play candy crush.

    The door opens, but I ignore it.

"Really?" Darren asks, his breath making the hair on my neck rise. He is so close. I need to push himself away,...but I don't.

     He reaches out a hand and matches a set of four jellybeans.

    "Tasty," the app says.

   I try to control my breathing.

  "Did you do your assignment?" he asks, still playing. He has made no move to step away.

     I swallow. What I'm I doing, I'm supposed to hate his guts.

   I swirl the chair so that I'll face him. I need to assert control.

The moment I turn, I know it was a bad call. Now he is inches from my face.

    He looks down at my lips and then looks back up, studying me, "You didn't," he says, sighs, and walks back to stand against the table.

    I cough, "How do you know that?"

   "Guess. I left you here an hour ago, and you didn't even listen. "

An hour? Has it been that long.

   "Listen, I can control my face, so i -"

"Flustered, annoyed, and curious," he cuts me off, "You mostly have that look when you are about to feed a lie with a lie."

      I pause.

   "I mean, how is this even important. What has facial expressions got to do with this?" The moment the words come out of my mouth, I realise how dump they are. Of course, they are important.