A Burning Flame by Daniella Kunz (book recommendations txt) 📕

***

By the time we arrive in New York we head directly to Daveon's place. We pull up to a nice apartment building on a busy street. I follow Daveon, heading inside as the doorman opens the door for us. “Mr. Saunders.” The older man tilts his head in acknowledgment of Daveon. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Yes, there are a few bags in the car please have them brought up.” He nods again before heading out to enlist some help. Unlike Nico’s place, the lobby is full of life. There are a handful of people milling about the foyer as they go about their evening.

Stepping into the elevator, Daveon catches me watching them all. “There are others who reside in the building, unlike Nico’s place, he owns the entire thing.”

My head whips to him in astonishment. “He owns the whole building? What does he do with it all?”

“It is mostly empty; aside from his penthouse, a security room, and a gym there really isn't anything there right now.”

“Why would he need an entire building? That seems a bit excessive.”

He chuckles lights. “It’s more for security reasons than vainness if that’s what you're thinking. If there is no reason for anyone else to be inside the building it's a lot easier to maintain security. He has offered me a floor to use as housing, but I never took him up on the offer.”

“Why not? Why live here surrounded by people when you could live there?”

“It’s not bad here.” His shoulders lift as he shrugs brushing off his response. “I never felt the need to enclose myself in a low risk area, I had no reason to.” As we make it to his loft, the elevator opens up.

Stepping inside I look around, not bothering to hide my curiosity over where he lives. As I look around, I’m not sure what to think. My nose pinches in confusion. It’s bare, empty, and bleak. There are only a few items of furniture and nothing on the walls. I don’t know what I had expected, but this wasn’t it.

As I turn around, he watches me with an oddly placed grin on his lips.

“Go on, spit it out.” He leans back against the wall folding his arms.

“Um, it’s nice, I mean it has potential. Have you ever thought of decorating?” I say looking around again at it. I’m not lying, it is nice. With some decorating and a homely touch, it has the potential to look nice.

His boisterous laughter rings out behind me, turning me to him. “I’m sorry, is something funny?” I fold my arms, fixing him with a glare. And here I was trying to be polite about his place.

He shakes his head at me. “This isn’t where we will be living. I am in the process of having everything moved. Come tomorrow it should be finished.”

“It’s not?”

“No.”

“Why are you moving?”

“We are moving because I can’t have you here alone all day with how many people are constantly moving in and out of the building. Too much of a risk.”

“Okaayy. So where are we going?”

“You’ll see tomorrow. Like I said, it should be done tomorrow, probably around midafternoon.” I feel my lips pucker at his secrecy.

I don’t like surprises. As he pushes off the wall and goes to pass me he stops, bending down and places a soft kiss over my creased nose.

“You should relax more, being uptight all the time is going to give you wrinkles.”

“Oh fuck off, Hercules.” I reach out shoving his body away from me as he steps back laughing. He makes his way to his small balcony as he lights a smoke, blowing it out into the night.

***

As I get dressed the next morning, Daveon informs me he has to take care of things with Nico and I will be going to spend the day with Liliana. Though I’m not opposed to spending the day with her, the fact he is doing it as a way to babysit me is annoying. “You know I’m capable of staying home by myself. I did it for over six months back in Los Angeles.” I grab some clothes out of my bag on the floor, not bothering to hide myself as I slip out of my shorts I was in last night. A satisfaction fills me as he watches me from the bed.

His lazy ass is still lying down when he made me get up, saying I would take too long to get ready. He shifts, propping himself up to his elbows.

“Yeah, and you also have a tendency to open the door without seeing who it is, and though you now know how to throw a punch, thanks to me. I can’t say I am too confident in your defense skills. Since I don’t have any guards assigned to watch you, you're going to spend the day with Liliana so I don’t have to worry. I can only imagine what kind of trouble you would get yourself into roaming free around the city.”

I groan at his overprotectiveness. “My defense skills are just fine.”

“Oh yeah? I beg to differ.” Jumping up and out of bed he stands. “How about this, if you can defend yourself against me. You can stay home here by yourself. Deal?”

I force my face to remain unfazed when I want to smirk instead. He may have shown me how to punch, but he doesn’t know I was teaching myself all sorts of moves and self-defense before he showed up. “Okay, deal.” As soon as the words leave my lips, his posture changes. He goes from relaxed and at ease to something dangerous and lethal in an instant. I see his muscles flex and coil as he rolls his shoulders, watching me with calculating eyes.

I’m startled by his sudden change. I take a deep breath to focus as I watch his torso, waiting for him to make a move. Without warning he leaps toward me, and I almost don’t move fast enough. I drop to the floor before rolling over