*Chapter 7*

The time I woke up, it was already noon. The first thing I noticed was also that Zaron was missing. When did he leave the bed? Ugh and I've really imagined it to be like in all the romance movies when you spend the night at your crush's place for the first time. But I guess Zaron wasn't like that.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes as I pushed the blanket of my body before I stood up to head to the bathroom and get a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I looked fine just that my hair was a bit messy. But what stood out the most were all the hickeys that went from my neck down to all over my torso. I huffed and slowly let my fingers brush over them.

However. When I was back in Zaron's room I suddenly noticed some voices, coming from the living room. Therefore, I quickly searched for a shirt in his closet to quickly pull on and there was I again, playing with the thought of removing the shorts since the shirt was long enough to cover everything. Besides they were almost sliding down anyways.

At the end, I decided to pull them off before heading down, where the voice got louder. Is Zaron calling someone? I wondered. But when I arrived, standing in front of the door, I figured that the others were here. I sighed as I just went in and made myself comfortable beside Zaron while I felt the strong gazes on me.

"What the hell? What is he doing here?" I heard as I looked to the direction the voice was coming from.

Zaron didn't bother to answer his question when his eyes switched over to me. "I really thought that you would sleep through the meeting like the last time, but I guess I was wrong," he sighed.

"What a precious way to be greeted," I rolled my eyes and turned to throw my legs over his.

"Zaron, care to explain?" The girl sitting in the corner said. He sighed and looked over to me.

"Well I guess you could call him my boyfriend now," he mumbled. I stuck my tongue out and greeted his mates with a brief peace sign.

"You've got to be kidding me," the same guy as before cursed. He kind of reminded me of Myles.

"You know, I don't care about your love life but when your buddy is going to keep sticking to you the whole time then we can't do the meetings at your place anymore," another one criticized. But Zaron didn't respond.

So instead, I did. "Then why don't you let me be a member?" I suggested. "I'm curious what you guys are talking about anyway."

"Definitely not!" Zaron refused my offer without a second thought. "It's too dangerous. There is no way I'm going to let you interfer in our business." I pouted. That wasn't fair. "You shouldn't have gotten involved with me anyway." That's when I gave him a conk on his head which caused him to groan in pain.

"I'm not a kid, okay?" I huffed and crossed my arms. "It's my responsibility what'll happen to me and you will just protect me if anything were to happen, just like you protect your members, ain't I right?" Again he didn't answer. "You are just afraid that I'll be a burden to you. I could be of help, too."

"Yeah right." I abruptly turned to the side when the response didn't come from Zaron. "Why don't you let him join? He's not bad and as long as he keeps his mouth shut, there shouldn't be a problem."

"Memphis! You're not helping at all," the blonde guy that seemed to be too disturbed because of me scowled. Which cockroach crept up his ass and died? No really, where was his problem with me?

"You should relax, Collin. It would do us even better if we had another member. But only if it doesn't change our share." Share? What did he mean by that? I frowned.

"Wait what, you too?" The guy, Collin, nagged. I sighed when I slowly sat up and made my way towards him. His eyes slowly followed me when I took a seat next to him as I whispered something in his ear which should better be kept silence to everyone else.

His eyes widened as his face slowly turned pale. I grinned and returned to my previous sitting space when all eyes fell on him. "What is it? What did he say?" Memphis asked and also spoke out the question that was hovering above their heads.

"Er n-n-nothing," he shook his head. "Never mind. He can j-join if he wants, too." He finally agreed. I grinned at his answer when I heard a laugh from the girl.

"That twink is funny. I'm also fine with it, so let him in," she snorted.

"Loki?" Zaron looked at the guy that still haven't seem to say a word. And even after Zaron called for him, he just nodded and waved it away. "Well, then it's settled. And I can as well just introduce them to you, right?" I grinned.

"So, let's start with Memphis. If you have a question and you can't talk to me at the moment then you can just ask him everything you want. But in my opinion, he's just way too friendly," he introduced while Memphis just shook his head. "Then there is Loki, he's a good fighter with sharp instincts but he doesn't talk that much." He gave me a short wave as a greeting. "And this is Jane, an absolute master when it comes to guns and also our marks woman."

"Greetings," she raised hair hands at me. I really liked her hair. Her white raster braids were an amazing contrast to her dark skin. Maybe I should try out some raster hair styles, too.

"Pixie on the other hand is our computer genie. Digging for information and hacking is his specialty. And last but not least our grumpy one there is Collin. You need something, he'll have it. He mostly organize the stuff we need for a case or in general. So you see we may not be a big group but we can point in quality," Zaron finished.

"And what about you? Where are you good traits besides having the potentials in being the leader?" I wanted to know. He seems strong but not as strong as Memphis and Loki, so I wondered.

"I'm simply good with knives," he shrugged. So I didn't have to rescue him from the knife yesterday? He could have stopped it by himself. I smiled at the thought.

"Okay then I want to be useful, too. And I already know what I will be. I'm going to be the strategist," I confessed.

"What you?" If I was right then his name was Pixie. "Do you really think that you are fitted enough for that? It requires high anticipations. Dumb people shouldn't just speak up."

Those were harsh words coming from his mouth, I noticed. "Don't worry, it'll be fine," I winked.

"Are you sure?" Zaron cocked his brow at me.

I giggled at his misjudged look. "Don't underestimate me," I whispered in his ear and nibbled on his earlobe.

"Did you actually sleep together?" Collin wondered. I stood up and head to get myself a sweet goody which we got from the convenience store yesterday and returned. The question seemed to have been already answered once I returned when their eyes fell on me.

I frowned. Did Zaron say anything weird, I wanted to know. But when I looked at him he seemed to be curious as well. "What is it?" I tilted my head at them.

"Are you still a virgin?" Jane dropped suddenly as the frown returned in my face. Why did they want to know? "Are you or are you not?"

"Where is that question coming from? Are you kidding me?" I rolled my eyes at them.

"Ugh dude, I can't believe you are going out with a kid. What a bad taste you have. I really expected more from you," Collin shook his head in disappointment. I chuckled at his statement and didn't say anything to that, neither did Zaron.

"Oh right, we still didn't catch up your name," Memphis noticed as everyone agreed. All eyes were on me again.

But before I could open my mouth, Zaron came first. "He's not gonna tell guys. I have already tried but he won't tell."

And with that Jane's laugh filled the room again. "No way! You are goin' out with someone you don't even no the name of? How low did you sink," she screamed and wiped the tears off her face. "Why won't you tell? Are you some kind of criminal?"

"Probably," I shrugged when I chewed the cherry flavoured sweet and swallowed, meaning it completely serious. Like, let's be honest all the stuff I had been doing were totally not legally allowed. "Still... I don't label myself as one." I don't kill people so I'm no criminal, even if I could. My Dad is though, but he's a good man so I don't mind.

"You know, everyone here, is ready to go behind bars because there is no assurance that we won't get caught one day. This is no kindergarten play, this is reality," Zaron said as his hand wandered on mine. I looked down at it and giggled. "What? Why are laughing?" His serious gaze changed to a confused one.

"Hehe, I like you a lot," I giggled and added pressure to his hand. "Take good care of me," I smiled and looked up. What a decent guy, he is.

"You moron," he ruffled my hair and huffed. "Of course, I will." That caused a tingly blossoming feeling in me which made me smile. "But, you should go and finally put something on. Who told you, you could just take my stuff?"

"But it's comfortable and besides, I didn't want to wear the same outfit I had on yesterday. It gets boring after wearing it once," I complained.

"After you dragged me around for hours I'm pretty sure that you bought enough of things yesterday. Just go and put on one of those," I rolled my eyes. I sighed and got up to head out to my car but before I was even close to the door, Zaron was up and grabbed my collar to drag me back. "Are you crazy? What do you think the neighbours will react when they see you like this."

"First you tell me to go put on the stuff which are by the way in my car and now you tell me not to go out? What the hell do you want?" I pouted and scowled at the same time.

Zaron massaged his forehead with a troubled expression after he took a deep breath. "You, come with me for a second!" He wrapped his hand around my wrisk and pulled me away from the others towards the kitchen where he closed the door behind us.

He was eyeing me with an angry look while I just crossed my hands and looked away. "You should finally get your shit together. Behave at least a little. You can do whatever you feel like when we're alone, really. But you can't run around like this when the others are around," he pointed at the shirt.

"But it was your fault to begin with. You never told me that they would come in the first place. How should I have known," I justified myself.

"I told you, I thought you would just sleep through. It wasn't going to be a long meeting anyway," he explained.

"But still," I bit on my lips. "I really hoped that I could spend my first morning with you alone. It's not nice to wake up in the morning and the first thing you notice is that the bed is empty, especially after yesterday," I said a bit hurt.

He sighed and gave up when his hand gently stroke my face. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I never thought about how you would feel." I looked up to him at that, seeing the regret in his eyes.

I slowly wrapped my arms around him and aimed for a kiss which he accepted instantly. His hand moved to my face to deepen the kiss a bit more, feeling him nibbling on my bottom lip as he very gently tugged on my piercing before letting go.

"Now go and change," he said and placed a kiss on my forehead.

"Only if you make something to eat for me," I skewed my face at my empty stomach. "I'm so hungry."

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