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Kai spun around, a dangerous spark in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. A darkness that froze me in place. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, his hands tightening into fists. “Nothing. Just, you should stay at the hotel as much as you can.”
I wanted to ask why, but I was still stuck on his expression. The darkness had faded, but I couldn’t shake the way his lip turned up at the side, the way his body tensed, or his muscles pulsed. Each small detail didn’t sit right. It wasn’t nothing. Something was wrong.
Kai tugged me closer into him, the stress fading as he wrapped his arms around me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he kissed the top of my head.
With those words, I melted into him. The stress left my body as the weight, strength, and warmth in the hug surrounded me.
“I have something to ask you,” I said, the words a mouse squeak.
“Shoot,” he said, moving to the kitchen cabinets. He grabbed some chips and some questionable guac from the fridge.
I twisted my fingers nervously, unsure I wanted to ruin our day.It wouldn’t ruin it.
“So, you have been hanging at the hotel a lot? Like the restaurant and the bar…" I started, unsure how to explain it. The amount of therapy I would need to unpack the entiredynamic with my parents would be more than the five-minute ask required of me.
Kai turned, lifting a brow. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“No, no, it’s not that. Just, so, you know how my dad caught us? Well…" Heat rose to my cheeks as I thought about that day.
Kai smirked, proud of himself, no doubt replaying my moans in his head.
“Well, they want to meet you,” I said.
The smirk fell, the corner of his lips turning down as the color drained from his face.
“I know that meeting the parents might not be your thing, but I was really hoping you could,” I said, talking too quickly. My skin crawled as I tried my hardest to organize my thoughts as quickly as I could. “The Annual Banquet might not be that fun, I know. But I’ll be there, and I was hopping?—”
“Annual Banquet?” Kai interrupted.
“Yeah, they’verequestedyour presence, or whatever jargon you want to use. It’s this whole big ordeal, lots of older people, lots of rich people?—”
“No,” Kai answered.
I blinked, thinking I misunderstood. My jaw dropped open—slack and confused. “No?”
“That’s what I said, no.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, the chips neglected next to him.
“I don’t understand.”
“What is so hard to understand, Audry?” he said, his voice shaking. “I don’t want to go to this banquet, or whatever.”
“But I thought—” I clamped my mouth shut. What did I think? What did I expect?
Kai stalked closer to me, backing me up against the wall between the fridge and the door. My breath caught in my throat, fear and attraction mixed. He placed his hand near my head, trapping me against him and the wall.
“I’m not the man you take home to your family, Audry.” He leaned forward, his lips to my ear. “I’m the type of man to break into your house at night andkillyour entire family without blinking an eye.”
My body shivered, his dangerous aura alluring but also off-putting. It wasn’t Kai; it wasn’t who I had come to know. He pulled away, staring at me. His dark eyes drilled holes into me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I saw it again.
I saw the danger he hid behind that gaze. I saw the darkness taking up a spot where his soul should be. It was on his face back in that bar, in his tone as he whispered the wordliarinto my ear. But that couldn’t be him?
“I don’t believe that.” I shook my head, ignoring what was in front of me. I had seen Kai almost breaking down. I had seen him with tears in his eyes over a girl he couldn’t save. He’d saved me—a stranger—from a man raping me and set on killing me. “I refuse to believe it.”
Kai inhaled deeply. “Refuse to believe it all you want, it doesn’t change who I am.”
I held my chin up in defiance. “I know who you are. You may not see it, but you are kind and caring.”
Silver flashed at the edge of my vision before a knife was pressed against my throat. “You don’t know me, Audry. You know who I show you, you know what I want you to see.”
