Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
KAI
I’ve always been reserved when it comes to seduction.
It’s not something that comes naturally to me.
Years of Catholic school will do that to a girl.
But there’s something so incredibly sexy and comfortable about my relationship with Bass that I find myself doing a lot of things that I wouldn’t normally do.
Something is bothering him, and my bright idea was to fix it with sex, but now, as the words I just said hang between us, I watch something shift behind his eyes.
I’m afraid it’s fear or worse…guilt. The kind of expression I've only seen on people who are about to confess something that will change everything.
He opens his mouth, and I swear time slows down.
"Kai, there's something I need to tell you about.”
A crash from downstairs cuts him off. Then shouting. Then a woman's voice, high and furious. It’s giving me puck bunny vibes.
"Where is he? I know he's here!"
Bass's face goes white. Actually white, like all the blood has drained from his body and pooled somewhere around his expensive Jordan high tops.
"Fuck," he breathes.
I know that voice. I've heard it whispering in Bass's ear at parties, seen her draped across furniture here at the Ice House like her name is on the mortgage. It’s got to be that bitch Gia.
"Bass!" Her voice is getting closer, accompanied by heavy footsteps on the stairs. "Bass Morelli, you coward, come face me!"
He's already moving toward the door, but it's too late. It flies open, and there she is, Gia in all her vengeful glory, mascara running down her cheeks, and her phone clutched in one hand like a weapon. And behind her are half of Bass’s teammates, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else on the planet because they know Bass is going to be furious that they allowed her upstairs like this.
"Oh." Gia's tear-streaked face transforms into something ugly when she sees me sitting on Bass's bed. “Let me guess, since I know his moves like the back of my hand. Did he tell you were pretty and then try to eat you out?”
All I hear is a chorus of “damns” from the Ice Mafia.
I’m officially mortified.
“Gia, this is not the time or place for this shit,” Bass tells her through gritted teeth. He looks at one of his teammates. “Walk her home,” he tells him.
"Walk me home? Oh, hell no." She laughs, and it's the kind of laugh that makes my stomach turn. "No, I think your little girlfriend deserves to know exactly who she's been fucking."
A lump that was forming in my stomach travels to the base of my throat. This was one of my fears about getting entangled with him in the first place. I think I’m at the center of some sort of love triangle that I didn’t sign up for.
"Did he tell you about us?" She looks directly at me now, and I feel like a mouse caught on a sticky trap. "Did he tell you that while he was working on his 'brand rehabilitation' with you, he was still fucking me in that bed?" She points to where I’m sitting.
My chest tightens, and I look at his face for confirmation or denial. "What?"
“That’s not true,” he says fiercely, then glares at her. “You know that shit isn’t true.”
"Oh, sweetie." Her voice drips with fake sympathy toward me, totally ignoring Bass.
"You didn't actually think you were special, did you? He probably made a bet with his buddies over here on how long it would take for him to get you to spread your legs, right assholes?” she says to the spectators with a raised voice.
Bass steps closer to her, and I can feel the menace rolling off of him. If Gia were a guy, he’d already punched her in the face. That, I know for sure.
“That's enough,” he tells her in a deadly calm voice I’ve never heard before. “You have been a guest in my motherfucking house at my pleasure, and now your access has been revoked. Get out and never come back.”
“You can’t revoke my access, you liar!” Gia holds up her phone, and even from where I'm sitting, I can see text messages.
Screenshots. Things I don't want to see but can't look away from.
“Look, Kai, I’ve got receipts! We hooked up the night before your first one-on-one with her," Gia continues, her eyes locked on mine.
"He came to my dorm after midnight, said he needed to 'relax' before dealing with,” she makes air quotes, "the uptight brand bitch. "
The very specific words hit like physical blows.
"That's not fucking true!” Bass explodes, kicking his foot against his bedroom wall.
"Oh, and the night after your cute little presentation where you used his Instagram as an example of what not to do? I was in this bed, listening to him complaining about how you embarrassed him. We had some really good hate sex that night."
I can't breathe. I'm trying to do the math in my head, the timeline, the dates, and it's all blurring together into one horrible realization.
I am a fucking idiot.
"And let's be clear,” Gia says, spit basically flying out of her bitchy little mouth, "all those times when you thought you were so sneaky, slipping off to his room.
I knew about every single one. The whole house knew.
Everyone was laughing at you, Kai. You are nothing but the new girl in the house who got played by the dumbest Playboy on campus. "
"Shut the fuck up, Gia!" Bass roars. “And get out before I throw you out!”
Suddenly, Neo appears out of nowhere and pushes his way into the room, grabbing Gia by the upper arm. “Let’s go, Gia.” Then he tells the rest of them,” and you all need to go find something better to do.”
“She can stay,” I say because I'm already standing, gathering my things with hands that won't stop shaking.
"Kai, wait—" Bass reaches for me.
Everyone is gone now. It’s just him and me. And I can almost hear the sound of my own heartbeat thumping through my chest…from rage.
"Don't." My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "Don't you fucking touch me."
“So you’re not going to give me the chance to explain?”
"Explain what?" I finally look at him, and the guilt written all over his face tells me everything I need to know. "Were you sleeping with her while you were sleeping with me? Yes or no."
The silence is damning.
"It wasn't like that.”
"Yes. Or. No."
His jaw clenches. "Before us, yes. But once I knew this was real, no.”
"When was the last time?"
Another beat of silence.
I’m ashamed that I’m even asking this when I already know the truth in my gut.
"When, Bass?"
"The week after the seminar. Before our first kiss. I swear, Kai, after that, there was no one but you.”
“So, she lied just now.”
“She’s a drama queen and a shit starter. Yes, she lied.”
“So everything you said to me, all those pretty words about wanting me to see the real you?" I laugh, and it comes out hollow…and broken. "Was that before or after you told Gia I was an uptight bitch?"
"I never said that.”
"Oh, you definitely said that. And I’m pretty sure you also said she needed to get fucked properly, and that you were just the man to do it. Was that the plan all along? Did you make a bet with your teammates on whether I’d fuck you?”
The words feel like acid burning my mouth as I say them. I don’t want to believe them, but a part of me already does.
"That's a lie!"
“For once, tell the truth, cabrón!”
“She. Was. Lying. What the fuck have we been doing together for weeks if you can’t believe a single word I’m saying? ”
He’s kind of right, but the hell if I know what's true anymore.
And how dare he get indignant with me! I don't know anything except that I need to get out of this room, this house, this nightmare I walked into with my eyes wide open because I was stupid enough to believe that I was different.
Special. That he actually saw me. What a damn joke.
"Kai, I’m not in the habit of begging for anything, but I’m asking you to please give me the benefit of the doubt and hear me out.”
I push past him and down the steps, past the wall of hockey players who are all suddenly very interested in the hardwood floors.
Neo or Shane or one of those fuckers says something to me, but I don't hear it.
I can't hear anything over the roaring in my ears and the voice in my head that sounds exactly like my dad.
Education first, Kai. Boys will only derail you.
I should have listened.
The Nevada night hits me like a wall when I burst through the front door. Hot. Suffocating. Nothing like the crisp Philadelphia air I grew up in. I walk fast, then faster, until I'm practically running toward my building.
My phone buzzes. It’s Bass.
I silence it.
It goes off again and again.
I turn it off.
By the time I reach my door, I'm shaking so hard I can barely get the key in the lock. Sue must hear me fumbling because she opens it before I can, takes one look at my face, and pulls me inside.
"Oh my God, Kai, what happened? Are you hurt?”
I open my mouth to tell her the whole story, but all that comes out is a sob. The kind of ugly, messy cry I haven't allowed myself since my mother's funeral.
Sue doesn't ask any more questions. She just holds me while I fall apart, stroking my hair and whispering that it's going to be okay, even though we both know she has no idea what "it" even is.
But I know.
It's my heart. Shattered into a million pieces on the floor of Bass Morelli's bedroom. And my dignity. Destroyed in front of the entire VCU hockey team.
And the worst part? I have no one to blame but myself.
Because he told me exactly who he was from the very beginning.
I just didn't want to believe him.