33. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“You’ll have to speak up. I’m wearing a towel.” I grin back at Kai as he licks his lips.
With one finger he presses it to my bare chest and wipes up one of the water trails that’s dripped from my hair. Taking his wrist, I bring his finger to my mouth and suck off the water, just so he can see how nice the view is he usually gives me.
Shuddering, he pulls his finger from my mouth and sucks it, too. “God, you’re hard to resist.”
“Then don’t.” I shrug and step back to let him enter my room.
“Shit.” His confidence stumbles as his eyes rake over my bare skin before widening at how little the towel is doing to hide the outline of my dick. “First things first.” He rips his gaze away, sits on the edge of my bed, and grips the duvet.
“Okay, then. I’ll bite.” I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the desk. “You seem much perkier than you did ten minutes ago… How did the talk with your mum go?”
“Fucking great.”
“Are you going back?”
“Fuck no!” He snorts like I just asked him if he thought Hitler was a cool guy. “I told that bitch exactly what I’ve always wanted to and got rid of her number.”
“Wow,” I exhale, quite taken aback. “I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I don’t know if it was that.”
“Honestly, you pretty thing. I feel so much better.” Kai stands and makes his way towards me. Straddling my outstretched legs, he leans down and kisses me. “You’ve made me realize I don’t need her. I mean…” He holds my face in his hands and his lips move against mine as he talks. “I’ve never needed her, though I was still holding onto something and I’m not sure what. But now I know I’d rather have the family I have here.”
Taking one of Kai’s hands, I raise it, kiss its palm, and hold it to my chest.
Me and my parents are not close, but I’d never cut ties. Yet I can see in the solid intensity of Kai’s stare that he’s happy. Sincerely content. And I feel so privileged to have helped him do that. Even if he had all the strength he needed the whole time.
“I’ve fallen for you pretty fucking hard, Jess…” My heart skips a beat and I hold my breath because the pulsing sound in my ears is almost drowning out Kai’s words. “You, Cleo, Esther, Alma. Hell, even Saxon and Romeo have helped me see I don’t always need my guard up around men that… well… look like the three of you do.”
“You know you’re one of those guys, too?” I brush my nose against his.
“I’m not a jock.”
“Neither are we. And I told you, they’re soft underneath it all even if they shit me to tears half the time.”
“I know you did. I just needed time… and proof.”
“Just don’t tell me the cocky Kai is gonna disappear, though. He’s kinda the one I fell for.”
“He’s still me, Pretty Boy. I haven’t changed myself, just my perspective… Here, I have something for you.” Reaching into his pocket, Kai takes something out but holds it tightly wrapped up in his fist. “I don’t wanna keep anything else from you. So I want you to have this.” He rotates his hand and I hold my palm open beneath it. “I know I feel great now, but this shit will probably trigger me again tonight.”
It’s a key.
The key to his room!
Doing my best to hide the utter elation surging through me, I place the key on the desk beside me. Standing, I hold his cheeks, and kiss him deeply.
Kai’s strong hands link in the small of my back as mine roam across his neck and shoulders.
“Thank you,” I whisper, knowing there are things about myself he deserves to know, but in comparison, they just seem so insignificant. “Do ya wanna watch a movie?”
“You ready for dinner?” I stretch my arms over my head and squirm about on my bed. “I’m starving, but I don’t wanna move.”
“Such a princess.” Kai bops me on the nose before climbing on top of me, pushing up onto all fours, and kissing my chin, neck, and down my chest. “Fuck, you smell good.” He draws in deeply through his nose.
“It’s eu de Vistas,” I joke, referring to the provided body wash.
“Am I that much of a narcissist?”
“Why? Cause you smell the same when you aren’t doused in Paco Rabanne?”
With a sly twitch of his lips, Kai creeps backward between my legs and lays down on his stomach so his head is resting on my chest. And the three day’s growth that dusts his jaw, tickles my skin. “We are pretty similar,” he muses, switching to rest his other cheek against me as his fingertips run over my ribs. “I like that you don’t have much hair.”
“Me too.” I agree, focusing on his fingers as they move and the broken bone tattoos that cover them. I don’t want to be sad, but it’s hard not to be, now that I know the story behind them. “I think it makes it easier.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He circles his index finger several times before continuing. “Do you miss them?”
“Who?” I prop myself up on my elbows, though both our attentions remain on his roaming finger.
“Girls.”
“Kind of,” I answer truthfully, because what’s the point of lying? “I mean, I don’t miss the randomness of the hook-ups. I’ve been over that for a while.”
“Same.”
“Really?”
“What? Don’t you think I’m capable of monogamy?”
“Well… Maybe. Everyone who’s ever mentioned you has said you don’t do relationships.”
“I don’t—well, that’s to say, I didn’t. But people can change… People can make you want to change.”
“Am I the longest?” Shit! What am I saying?
“You’re pretty long.” Kai turns his head to look up at me with an effortlessly lewd spark in his eyes. “You’re longer than me.”
My balls tighten and my dick twitches beneath his chest. He felt it. It was the reaction he wanted, after all. But now my dedication to this conversation is being dragged towards thoughts of how long and thick his dick is, and that the difference in sizes is marginal at best.
“You know what I mean. The longest with one person.”
“That’s Cleo, much to Alma’s irritation. Well…”
Kai’s voice trails off from a whisper to complete silence. It’s odd, almost like there’s a cloud hanging over us.
“It’s Millie, actually. My best friend from high school. It… It…”
His voice quivers as each new word is spoken into existence.
“It was her boyfriend who did it… Him and his friends… At the park…”
I feel a single tear hit my skin.
“She dumped him for me in front of the entire school. But I could never love her the way she needed me to… I couldn’t love anybody. And fuck, how could anybody ever love me?”
“Kai—”
“We hooked up for two years, but it was never just her. It was all our other friends too… So… Yeah… Cleo…” Then, like he didn’t just crack a little more of himself open for me, he perks up. “You’re really cute when you’re trying to be suggestive.”
Linking my hands behind his back, I roll us until our positions are inverted and I’m hovering above him. “And you’re really cute when you’re trying to tell me you’re in love with my dick.”
“I guess that means we’re a perfect match,” he smiles up at me.
I’m not perfect.
I’m very, very far from it.
“I guess we are,” I agree because he needs to hear it, and I want to believe it’s true just as much as I want to let him know I’m ready to tell Saxon and Romeo about us.
My lips part.
My phone buzzes.
I chicken out.
“These would look so good wrapped around the head of my cock,” he says, outlining my mouth with the tip of his index finger.
“I feel the same way about yours.” My head dips and I meet his kiss—his finger trapped momentarily. Then, his stomach rumbles so loud I bet they heard it two rooms over.
“Fucking hell. Quiet down there.” I speak to his stomach. “Why don’t we put this on hold till after we eat?”
“Fine,” he huffs in faux displeasure. “But have you decided what you want, or am I gonna have to just wing it?”
“You’re gonna deliver me food?” I blink down at him with puppy dog eyes.
Kai’s hand presses flat against my face as he pushes me off him. “I’m going before I change my mind.”
Chuckling, I slump onto my side and fetch my phone. “Wait,” I call out.
Kai’s head pops around from the corner of the bathroom. “Yep?”
“Raincheck on dinner too. Romeo needs me.” I hold up my phone screen to him as I scoot off the bed.
“And I don’t?”
“He needs me to save him from himself.”
“Again? What can’t he decide on his own this time?”
After pulling on a hoodie I grabbed off the floor, I run my hand through Kai’s washed-out indigo hair and support the back of his head. “His and my relationship has been fourteen years in the making. And I really should be spending more time with him.”
“Fine,” Kai smiles, but I can tell it’s a heavy one. “Take your time… I like how loyal the three of you are to each other.”
Guiding him towards me, I meet Kai halfway with a kiss. “That’s because we’re family.”