A Labyrinth of Forbidden Desire

VOLUME 1 - Chapter 3

“If you’re looking for me… I’m right here…” I hear his voice rumble against my neck, instantly bringing a smile to my face as I begin to turn around to face the culprit.

“Well hello…” I greet him, meeting his light green eyes and charming, boyish smile. Of course, it would be none other than Soren Bennett, the man who stole my heart almost a year ago. Soren has platinum blonde hair and very fair skin, being of Dutch and Siberian descent but being raised as an American. He and I are polar opposites, not just in appearance but in personality as well. In some aspects. He’s more of a jock, very popular loved by everyone in uni and plays for our Football team, hell, he even managed to become the team captain in freshmen year. He’s a bit of an asshole and sometimes he can be a little mean to people… In fact, that’s what I kind of thought of him when we first. But he grew on me you know. He’s got a bit of a temper… and he can be a bit rude to people. But it’s only cause people misunderstand him… I fell for him cause he was there for me when we were going through a rough time. We were there for each other cause it wasn’t just me at the time…

“Hey baby…” He greets me, staring down at me lovingly just as his hands grip my waist possessively and he leans now to kiss me, a little too enthusiastically, biting down on my bottom lip and even slyly slipping his tongue into my mouth.

“Mmmn, Soren…” I giggle into our kiss, placing my hands on his chest to push him off me slightly. Okay, someone’s a little too eager this morning.

“Uh gross… some of us are eating over here.” I hear Oliver say behind me and it instantly makes me blush as I finally break away from Soren’s lips. I think PDA is cute and all but there’s a certain level of respect I’d like to have around other people, even my housemates. I don’t exactly want them to watch me sucking face with anyone…

Soren eventually pulls away from me willingly and looks behind us, an evil smile forming on his lips.

“Maybe if you had a girlfriend, you would know what it’s like. You know, a man has needs…” He snaps at Oliver and I glance back at Oli to find him raising a middle finger to Soren before shaking his head and carrying on with his breakfast. I notice Gabi laugh softly under her breath, right before she hides her face behind a coffee mug, just as she sips from it. I then watch as Oliver glances at her quickly, noticing her laugh and I can immediately tell he definitely feels embarrassed after what Soren just said to him. It makes me turn to face him and my smile falters just as I tap him on the chest softly.

“Hey, lay off…” I say to him quietly, feeling as though I need to jump to the defence of my best friend.

He and Oliver don’t exactly see eye to eye, in fact, Oliver has straight up told me that Soren actually gets on his nerves. They remain cordial and civil for my sake and everyone’s, but I feel like one day they’re going to explode on each other and there’s no way to prevent that...

“You know I’m just messing around, besides, it’s true… I do have needs…” He tries to change the topic instead, going for another kiss but I give him a serious look and purposely dodge his incoming look, making him stare back at me as if I’ve just betrayed him.

“You didn’t come see me this morning, again… where were you…?” I pout, remembering that today, he didn’t come down to wake me up… as he usually would every Monday and Wednesday, so we could go to campus together… Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time he actually did…

“Sorry babe, I went out for an early run…” He answers me but it doesn’t really give me much reassurance, especially when it’s become something he’s doing repeatedly. I look away from him and sigh, not being able to help how upset he’s making me feel. Lately, something’s been off about him, and I can quite put my figure on it. He’s been slightly distant, but every time he’s around me, he’s all over me, and his s*x drive is too much to keep up with. It’s odd behaviour, but I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about and he has a perfectly good explanation for it…

“But I’m here nowwww…” He says to me, his hands now carefully cupping my face to make sure I’m looking at him, as I bring my gaze back to him, I find him looking at me with pleading eyes, a small smile playing on his lips as he looks at me.

“You forgive me, princess…?” He asks and I let out a deep breath. I really hate that I have a soft spot for him, it forces me into a smile, making his grow in response.

“Okay… okay…” I say defeatedly and he begins grinning at me before he reaches down and kisses me again, this time kissing me in a much lighter manner and pulling away quickly to look at me, letting go of me and walking past me and over to Marcus.

“Lemme just eat first then we’ll be out of here,” I tell him, watching as he steals a piece of bacon off of Marc’s plate, making Marc raise an eyebrow at him before he lightly punches Soren’s arm and shakes his head, just as Soren laughs and chucks the bacon into his mouth.

“No time, don’t you have a quiz? This your plate?” He asks quickly pointing at the only untouched plate of food on the countertop.

“Yeah but-…” I try to answer but he instead grabs the plate and begins walking in my direction.

“We’ll eat on the way come on…” He says to me, completely ignoring my complaints as he makes his way over to the front door.

“What, and if I mess up your car… or my clothes? Also, we? That’s my food.” I call out to him before rushing to grab the carton of apple juice as well as my backpack, throwing it over my shoulder and following after the crazed man.

“I’ll drive slowly… and we’ll share babe, like we always do…” He answers me and I sigh heavily and try to catch up with him but he’s already walking past the living room and walking to the front door.

“Babe…” I complain. I’ve never been able to keep up with his impulsiveness.

“That’s when happens when you decide to date a caveman…” Oliver lets out and I chuckle slightly and shake my head, glancing back at Oliver to find him looking at me in particular.

“Jealous?” Soren answers him, turning around and walking backwards just as he picks up the fork from the place and gets another piece of bacon. He better not finish that, it’s my favourite part.

“Suck a d*ck…” Oliver sings and I pause just as we reach the front door, waiting for Soren to open it but it seems he’s too busy formulating a reply for Oliver.

“I’d rather suck some titties… hey Aria…” Soren diverts the attention to me and I narrow my eyes at him. Does he just refuse to listen when I tell him not to do sh*t?

“Babe…” I warn him, becoming slightly annoyed with him not seeing that I’m not taking it as a joke at all.

“Stopping, stopping…” He answers me just as he turns his attention to the door and finally opens it, not bothering to say goodbye to the people inside. At least I have manners.

“See you guys later!” I shout to them right before I walk through the door.

“Good luck with your quiz!” Gabi tells me, giving me an encouraging smile just as Marc salutes me and returns to his food. Oliver decides to remain silent as he looks back at me, giving him an exhausted expression before she sighs and shakes his head, turning back to his food. Once I see the disappointment in his eyes, it makes my smile falter just as I finally walk through the door and follow after Soren, watching as he makes his way over to his pitch-black convertible.

I love Soren, but I can’t keep making excuses for him… and I think it’s time he and I spoke about something serious.