Chapter 17
Triana~
A week later, and I still felt like I was going out of my mind. Even though Sonia had helped me with my resumé, finding a good job wasn’t as easy as one would hope, and so I was still jobless at the moment, something that burned in the back of my mind constantly.
There was also the fact that the situation with my parents was just getting worse.
When Tomasco had finally called me the next morning, I’d told him about our parents firing me, and I’d never heard my brother so pissed off before.
He had immediately come over to my house, and it had taken me over an hour to talk him down and convince him not to quit his job in solidarity with me.
It’d been sweet, but him throwing his future away wouldn’t have helped anyone.
So, as of right now, I was still disowned, but according to the neighborhood gossips and Sonia, my parents were now also blaming me for Tomasco being angry with them.
They were taking absolutely no accountability for their part in this mess, and it was getting harder and harder not to cave, if only for my brother’s sake.
I also hadn’t spoken to Romelio, but that was a problem for another day.
Sonia was also being an absolute rockstar, doing her best to be there for me every time that I was close to falling apart. She was carrying the weight of all my emotional chaos, not judging me for any of my numerous meltdowns.
Plus, if me being jobless and hated by my parents wasn’t enough, Kairo was also there every night, reminding me of what couldn’t be.
While I hadn’t gone back to the creek, he texted me every night, and I texted back, and though they weren’t full-blown conversations, they were enough to let me know that he was thinking of me, and I let him know that I was also thinking of him.
The biggest problem with those texts was that I looked forward to them like my entire future hinged on them, and that was the only reason that I was waiting by the cherry blossom tree now.
I had texted Kairo to meet me, needing to put an end to what was happening between us.
Not only was there no future for us, but I had so many other things that needed my attention right now.
When I heard the telltale sounds of footsteps in the foliage, I turned to see Kairo appear next to the oak tree, and this would be so much easier if he wasn’t so damn good-looking.
While that sounded shallow as hell, it was still the truth.
Humans were attracted to pretty things, and Kairo Booker was definitely pretty.
“Hey, baby,” he greeted, though his face looked wary.
“What are we doing here, Kairo?” I asked, getting straight to the point. “I mean...even if you weren’t who you are, this will never work.”
“You don’t know that,” he argued. “Laws change all the time.”
“Not these,” I replied surely. “You know it, and I know it.”
“So, what? You just want us to pretend like the other doesn’t exist?” he asked through clenched teeth, hitting the track running. “Can you do that, Triana? Because I can’t. Our kiss has been burning in the back of my mind all week, and all I want is more. More of you.”
“Until when?” I asked, anger and frustration lacing every word. “Until we get sick of each other? Until someone more suitable comes along? Until your parents force you to finally step up? How long do we meet at this tree until it’s officially no longer healthy for either of us?”
“Look, I can talk to my father and-”
“And what?” I practically yelled. “And ask for special treatment? To benefit from your station in life? To set us back to a time when money and privilege made all the rules?”
Not caring that we could both end up in prison, Kairo stormed his way over to me, and I was already so far in over my head that I didn’t have the sense to run away.
Not only was Kairo taking the biggest risk of his life, but aiding and abetting was a real thing now, and I’d be thrown in jail right along with him if we got caught.
Taking my face in his hands, Kairo’s prism-colored gaze speared me like the power of a hypnotist, and I could feel my body begin to tremble from his touch, wanting him to take away every stressful thought from the past couple of weeks.
“Do not tell me that you’re fine with never seeing me again, Triana,” he said. “I won’t believe it.”
“I never said that I’d be fine with it,” I argued. “I’m just saying that...that you’re making me want things that can’t be, and I...I’ve got enough problems.”
“I was raised to believe that anything worth having was worth fighting for,” he said, stepping closer to me. “Do you really want to give up after only one kiss, baby?”
I didn’t.
More than anything, I wanted to experience Kairo.
I wanted to experience something that was meant to be, not something that’d been dictated by a society that was still screwed up.
Because people weren’t perfect, there was never going to be a perfect solution for everyone, and so it was all just an illusion that people bought into to make themselves feel better.
Looking up into his eyes, I answered him honestly. “No.”
The instant relief on his face made my knees weak, even if that made me stupid.
While some people might assume that Kairo only wanted to get laid, no sex was worth getting thrown in prison for, so I had to believe that this was more.
Especially, when you considered how this could possibly destroy his father’s political career.
“Then quit pushing me away,” he said before his lips found mine again, and against everything that I’d been raised to believe, I slid my arms up his chest to anchor around his neck, then kissed him back.
Kairo let out a deep moan as my back hit the tree behind me, the rough bark scraping against my clothes.
However, all I cared about was how this man was kissing me, and how he was kissing me because he felt for me what I felt for him.
Kairo wasn’t a calculated decision made by my parents, society, or the law, and I felt it as his tongue swept into my mouth, a kiss that’d been designed by fate, not expectations.
When I felt Kairo’s hands reach for my thighs, I didn’t fight him as he lifted me off the ground, my legs automatically wrapping around his waist. I held on tighter as he deepened the kiss, and I wanted to weep with how right and real he felt around me.
I hadn’t ever experienced lust like this before, and it was making me ache in the deepest parts of me.
Nevertheless, I knew that this couldn’t last, and so I wanted to make the most of our stolen time together.
No matter how much Kairo might believe that we could overcome the obstacles in our way, we couldn’t.
Had his family not been a political one, then maybe.
However, his father being Alvin Booker was the biggest obstacle out there.
“I want you,” I confessed as I broke away from his lips. “I want this with you.”
“You’ve got me,” he replied na?vely. “You’ve got me in a way that has taken over every thought in my head, Triana.”
Tears pushed behind my eyes at how earnest he sounded, and while I knew exactly what I was asking for, I also knew that we didn’t have much time.
As much as I wanted to explore every inch of him and make this night last forever, I was still very aware that we could get caught at any moment, and that was enough to kill any romance that we might want to share with one another.
“I want you,” I repeated. “I want you now.”
His hazel gaze flared, but since he was proving to be a standup guy, he asked, “Are you sure, Triana? I don’t want to push you or...fuck, baby, we’re out in the damn woods.”
“I don’t care,” I replied, wrapping myself around him tighter. “I don’t care where we are.”
“Triana-”
“Don’t you want me?” I asked, wondering if I had this all wrong.
Kairo let out a dark laugh. “Do you honestly believe that I would risk going to prison if I didn’t want you? C’mon, baby.”
“Then give me this,” I practically begged, needing something tangible from him, and since I couldn’t have all of him, I wanted all the pieces that I could get.
“You’re killing me,” he groaned. “I want you, but...but you deserve more than what’s going on out here, Triana.”
“I don’t care,” I repeated. “Yeah, in a perfect world, I’d agree that there’s a better way to go about this, but we don’t live in a perfect world, Kairo. We live in this one, and I’m learning rather quickly how fucked-up this world is.”
“The world is not-”
“Okay, fine,” I said, pushing at his chest, my legs dropping, needing to face that we weren’t on the same page. “It’s fine...I...I get it.”
Though he’d been courteous enough to let me go, he didn’t let me leave. Standing in front of me, his hands on my hips, he said, “No...you don’t get to leave like this.”
I looked into his eyes, everything that I was feeling making me angry and desperate at the same time. “Then give me a reason to stay.”