Chapter 52
KAI
The soft sound of rain patters down the car window.
I stir, rubbing a hand over my face before my eyes blink open.
Gray skies surround the back road. The sun’s faded glow flickers behind the swarming clouds, leaving behind a gloom that makes the world look darker. The grass and the prickly trees look almost black as they drip with the first November rain.
Something suddenly shifts beside me. I glance down. Diana cuddles into me, her cheek squished into my arm. Her flower crown droops down her loose curls, which slump over her nose.
I smile and softly brush her hair back. My heart aches at how fucking beautiful she is, it aches at the fact that this sleepy girl is the same one who chucked a heel into Simon’s balls just hours ago.
My phone vibrates with a text. My jaw tenses at Rowan’s message in the Griffins group chat.
ROWAN
I don’t care how hungover you are. Practice starts at 7 a.m. sharp on Monday morning.
Reality comes crashing in like the cold breeze rattling the windshield wipers.
I gently kiss Diana’s forehead, closing my eyes as I hug her close.
I don’t want to leave. I just want to stay in this car, under this dreary gray rain where she’s the only thing that glows.
“Hm?” Diana’s brows knit together. She burrows her face into my chest before her eyes slowly pry open. “Kai?”
“I’m here.” My nose brushes against hers as I whisper, “The sun's up.”
She blinks slowly, still dazed with sleep. Then she pushes herself up and quietly takes in the rain, and the low hum of the cars hurtling down the highway nearby.
“I wish we could disappear into a place like this,” Diana murmurs.
I look out at the rain and the silence surrounding us with a longing that’s almost painful. “Me, too.”
Diana frowns. Her hand rubs soothing circles across my heart. “How are you doing?”
I lean into her gentle, grounding touch, before my hand comes down over hers.
“Tired. I feel like everything is rushing ahead so fast and…I can barely keep up.” I turn towards her. “What about you?”
“Same as you.”
Diana looks so tired and worn out; I want to stop time just for her. But all I can do is kiss her hand until she relaxes.
After the shitty night we had, all I want is to have a quiet day with Diana. That’s why the second we get back to the apartment, we get cleaned up and collapse on my bed.
No drama, no Vipers trying to ruin everything. Only me, her…
And Mellonbaum’s study notes.
“Robert Jay Lifton coined the concept of symbolic immortality,” Diana reads out. She balances the textbook on my pillow and asks the question, “Can you define the concept and explain how—”
“Wallace, get that fifty-cent tinsel out. Of. My. Face!”
Diana giggles.
In the living room, the boys decorate the tiny Christmas tree while Justin Bieber croons about love and mistletoe on TV.
“Tinsel was cheaper at Dollarama, Luke!”
“I’m not decorating Wilbert with peasant tinsel!”
“Listen—”
“No, you fucking listen!”
Diana bursts out laughing.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to hold onto the last shred of patience I have. “I’m so sorry about them.”
“Aww,” Diana coos, “they’re not that bad.”
The shrimp crackers and dried cuttlefish we snack on give us a small will to live as we run through the notes for Mellonbaum’s final in December.
Well, we try to run over our notes.
Diana kisses me, so torturously slow it makes me groan. Want beats inside of me like a second pulse as I shove our books aside. Diana straddles my hips, her fingers getting lost in my hair.
Salt and the sea color my mind.
She smiles into the kiss. “You taste like dried cuttlefish.”
“That’s on you,” I whisper. “You shouldn’t have let me get the jumbo pack at the store the other day.”
“You—”
My kisses swallow up her words. Diana laughs, making me smile against her lips. The music and the yelling disappear. All I sense is my heart beating loud and fast, and Diana softly grinding into me. My cock gets hard. I desperately grip her hips.
A low desperate moan drags out of my throat.
“Princess, waif—” My words come out muffled. “Wait, wait.”
Diana backs away, panting a little. “What’s wrong?”
“Can we…” I swallow hard. My hands tremble a little as I force the words out, “Can we talk about last night?”
Before Diana can answer, a notification fires off from her phone.
I glance at the screen and that’s when I see it.
STELLA
The texts are deleted and fully wiped out on all sides. You have full reign to expose Jonathan and Gregory’s asses now.
DIANA
My fingers shake as I reread the text over and over.
That’s it. These papers go out and the undeserved blame might have a chance of coming to an end.
Kai’s hands fall away from me. His lips quirk up, yet I can’t read the look on his face.
“So, I guess you can clear your name and get back to the HMG.”
For so long, I’ve been fighting to claw my way back into bàba’s favor and have things return to normal. But this dread fills my gut, like the feeling just before electric shock pricks your hand.
It’ll pass. It has to. I have no other option but to show these papers or remain a pariah in the news world forever.
“I’m sorry, Kai.” I rise from the bed to quickly gather my things. “Is there any chance we can talk about what happened last night after I get this mess sorted out?”
“Yeah,” Kai assures. “That’s fine, princess. Next week is reading week, anyway. We have time to talk about it.”
When he pushes onto his feet, his arms wrap around me and my hands rest against his chest. I shut my eyes as Kai kisses my forehead.
Guilt ravages me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Don’t be. Jonathan and Gregory deserve to get what’s coming to them.” Kai lifts my chin up, his thumb brushing my lip. He doesn’t hold back the ruthlessness in his words, “Go and give them hell, princess.”