The Lone Dove #1 ✔️

29. Jealousy Is In The Air...

Another crack in my chair sounds behind me.

"Ah...Thank you, Jared." I say, awkwardly, I try not to wince when he slouches his head a little. I work through his algorithms, fixing the little mistakes that cause large errors in the system.

He partly watches what I do, and partly just looks up at my profile. Though, he's shook out of his daze when a rumbling chest changes his direction of attention.

"What made you think she'd be different?" Diana asks with a laugh, crossing her arms in silent laughter as Maximus positions his glare right at her, suddenly hating the fact every single one of them was making a laugh at his recognised possessive tendencies. Considering we've only just started dating, I understand-to an extent-regarding why he wants to show a certain type of possessiveness, but if he's growling at other males now, I will have to put my foot down.

"I didn't know she'd be so beautiful." He says breathlessly, my eyes widen as Maximus shoots out of his chair, hands banging against the table.

"That's it, twat!" He growls out as I roll my eyes, grabbing his arm and shoving him back in his chair.

I study Maximus, "What, you don't agree?" I ask Maximus with a small, cheeky smile. I secretly loved his possessiveness, so long as I could control it.

He furrows his eyes at me, "Honey, that's not what I meant! It's completely inappropriate for him to-" He cuts himself off as he curses Jared in his head, his eyes killing him slowly.

I quickly finished and refresh the page as I wait, before it slowly shows the gradual re-productions.

Jared gasps, "Shit, it looks so surreal. How did you-" he painfully stops himself as he gulps under Maximus' harsh death glare.

"Thank you so so much, Poppy. You're...you're incredible. As a thank you, I-I was-um-I was wondering if-if I could possibly take you to-" he's cut off from his stuttering when Maximus points a finger at him,

"Finish that sentence, you little shit, and I'll make an example of you. Run off while I still grant you your legs!" He seethes at him, Jared nods profusely, forgetting his question, thanking me once more as he speeds past me, grabbing his laptop and fast walking through the entrance doors.

I fold my arms, lean back and scrutinise Maximus' form, "Don't start, honey."

"What? You were basically pissing on your territory, Maximus!" I point out harshly as Maximus chokes on his juice. Ivan almost falls off his chair while Diana inhaled harshly, her lips trying far too hard to contain her giggles.

"What's next? Ram me up on your shoulder, bang on your chest and haul my behind up a large building. Telling the world just who you own, baby?" He coughs wildly at the nickname, I was being sarcastic and not in a funny way, as everyone else on our table lose whatever hold they had on their sanity.

"That's utterly ridiculous..." Maximus furrows his eyebrows, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"Your caveman nature lays it all out in front of me, Maximus. Next thing you know, you'll be making hickeys on my neck everyday just to tell all available males that this girl right here is most certainly not a free flowing fish in the pond, you bloody overgrown gorilla!" He winces at my tone, and at the names while the rest of our group call the attention of just about every student in the cafeteria, their laughter grows louder as their muscles relax too far to cause them to almost fall off their chairs.

"I think I'm going to cry!" Carter breathes out while the other girls sniffle in their laughter.

"Can you really blame me?" Maximus calls out, softening his expression and placing his arms and hands in front of me.