What's wrong with me?

AITHAN

Those words rang in my head as I snapped my gaze up at him, wondering if he'd gone berserk in the few minutes we spent apart because that seemed to be the case. “What the hell did you mean by that? Work together? With you?” I scoffed, folding my arms. Surely, he was just joking about it. There was no way he would actually want us to work together. For what exactly?

As I stared into his hazel eyes, I waited for him to laugh, to tell me he was joking, to make lewd remarks like he always did each time we were alone, but he didn't.

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair, his gaze hot as they ran over me, lingering a bit on my crotch before they returned to my face. “I believe the one targeting us isn't someone small, else they wouldn't have hired such an effective assassin. Who knew what would have happened if I weren't with you?”

“I would have dodged it.” My voice was clipped, letting him know I didn't appreciate his talking about the attack and making it seem like without him, I would have gotten hit. Well, that was his fault. Had he not pissed me off, I wouldn't have been so absent-minded.

“I know.” Grinning, he closed the distance between us. I knew he wanted me to back down, to take steps backwards, but I didn't. I stood my ground, staring at him squarely in the face to show I wasn't afraid of him. “Which is why I demand us to work together to find the assassin. I believe he will attempt you again. We need to be —”

“Why do you care?” Folding my arms, I glared at him. His words made little sense at all. Why would he care about me? It wasn't like we were friends or anything like that.

“You seem to have forgotten my words.” He closed the distance between us so we were standing so close to each other, that our noses almost brushed. We were practically of the same height, just an inch or so difference. “The person is targeting us. I believe the assassin will return,” he said in a grave voice, his gaze going to my lips as his voice went down an octave. “What? Don't tell me you are so much of a pussy, you fear working with me?”

“Why should I be?”

I stepped away from him. His proximity was making me feel hot, and I didn't like that feeling, not for a minute. He always made me feel uncomfortable, and I tried to avoid him as much as I could.

Smiling, he cocked his head to the side, watching me with an amused grin on his face. I couldn't tell what he was thinking as he watched me. All I knew was it couldn't be something good if he was looking at me like that.

“What do you say? We come together to fight those who tried to hurt you?” He brought his hand out for a shake, lifting a brow as he challenged me to ignore him.

I so badly wanted to step back, to ask him to go fuck himself, but I knew that was what he wanted, so he could tease me further and claim I was scared of him when I wasn't.

“I believe we need to discuss this with our fathers,” I said instead, so I wouldn't outrightly reject him. At least making it sound like I care about his father's input wouldn't make everything seem so bad.

“Huh? Don't tell me you are a daddy's boy?” He teased, walking into my space. “I don't mind though, you can call me daddy while I fuck — fuck you!” He growled, clutching his hand to his stomach as he looked at me. “Why the fucking hell did you do that?”

“Mind the way you speak to me, asshole!” Gritting out in annoyance, I turned on my heel and began the walk back to the house without checking on him.

If there was one thing I had learned about spending time with Alexander, it was how easy it was for him to rile me up. All he needed was to open his mouth.

“Wait up!” He raced after me and blocked my path. “You haven't given me a response, Lyker.”

“Aithan.”

“But I like Lyker more.” Smirking, he ran his fingers through his golden hair, looking at me with an amused, shut-eating grin. “It's not like the name is anything special. Anyone can use it, right?”

“But not you.”

This time, I tried to keep my tone as civil as I could, knowing I would only punch him more if I let him continue.

“Listen here, I don't want to work with you. Hell, I want nothing to fucking do with you!” I huffed. “Can you quit making it seem like we are close? We fucking aren't.”

Smirking, he lifted his shoulders in a shrug. It was either he had selective hearing or just wanted to get on my nerves. Either one, he succeeded in making me so mad, that I knew I wouldn't last long before delivering a punch to his face.

“I'm serious.” He sobered up real quick, looking down before his gaze returned to my face. “I want us to work together to find the man who attempted to assassinate you. We can't let him go —”

“I can do that without you,” I interrupted, folding my arms. “You don't have to get involved with something that doesn't concern you. Obviously, the person who did this was targeting me, not you.”

“What if that's not true?” Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I'm not asking for much. I only want to find out who did this and teach them a lesson. I believe we will work effectively together.”

“Huh?”

“I mean it, Lyker. This time I'm not joking. I just want to fight them with you.”