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I pulled back to peer down into her upturned and dazed expression. Her dark eyes stared back, so wide and trusting.
So trusting.
I knew I would kill anyone who betrayed that trust, who hurt her. I would annihilate and demolish their whole fucking world. I would kill everything they loved for her in the most barbaric and gruesome method possible.
“Fuck, Kami,” I growled, pulling her in for another brutal assault of lips. “What are you doing to me?”
Her answer was the twist of her arms around my neck, her fingers in my hair. She kissed me with a heat and passion that was more addictive than heroin.
“I smell burning!”
The crack of Lavena’s approaching strides tore us apart. I hurried back to the stove just as the first hiss of boiling water bubbled over the rim of the pot and struck the element with an angry hiss. I snatched up the spoon and gave a stir when Lavena appeared in the doorway, expression a thunderous cloud of annoyance. Behind her, Kas and Sasha peeked in, eyebrows raised.
“You had one job!” my sister snapped.
“Two, actually,” I argued, mentally willing the bloody rice not to spill over more as the frothing continued.
Huffing, Lavena stormed over and snatched the pot and spoon from me. Both were dragged off the flame and set aside. The element was snapped off.
“Flip!” she barked, motioning to the chicken.
I did obediently, wincing only slightly at the blackened edges.
Lavena stared with wide eyed horror, the kind one gave someone who has committed the worst crime imaginable.
“That one is yours!” Without waiting for me to protest, she snatched the tongs from me and turned to wave Kas over.
Just like that, I’d been demoted, shunned to a corner of the island, away from the stove, but only mere feet from Kami.
She slanted me a fleeting side eye, the corner of her mouth quirked on one side. I gave her a shrug as I reached one arm across the space and snatched one of her tomato chunks.
“Hey!” she protested, scooping up the rest and dumping them into the bowl at her elbow, away from me. “I worked hard cutting those to a very specific size.”
“I was just making sure you did it correctly.”
Her eyebrows lifted and the point of the knife was levelled in my direction. “I’ll have you know I’m very good at following orders.”
She seemed to realize the implications behind her words and immediately mashed her lips shut. Her cheeks blazed a crimson that made my dick swell. Her gaze dropped to the board, but not before darting them in Lavena’s direction.
No one was listening to us. Lavena had her back to us and was barking instructions at an increasingly annoyed Kas while Sasha had made herself scarce most likely back to the patio. It was just me and her in our little world.
I couldn’t stop looking at her, watching her, studying the way she snuck a peek at me through her lashes, and wanting nothing more than to test that proclamation extensively. It killed me not to be able to ask her follow up questions to her bold declaration. I was dying to know just how good she was at following orders, but there were too many eyes and ears and when I asked, I knew I would want a demonstration.
“What are you reading?”
The question caught her by surprise, but it was the only thing I could think to do to keep from dragging her up onto the counter and fucking her senseless.
“I brought a few different ones,” she said at last. “I couldn’t decide which I would be in the mood for. The one I took to the island today is a World War II book about an eighteen-year-old female spy in Germany. It’s very detailed and beautiful. The girl’s family is taken, and she has to join the enemy to find them.”
She plowed on, listing off her favorite parts and characters. I listened, fascinated as always by the animation in her voice, the way her eyes lit up when she got to an exceptionally good part. I loved her love of books. I loved that she had no preferred genre and would read whatever was put in front of her. I loved that she could go on for hours on a single book. I loved that she could pick up on things everyone else seemed to miss. She astounded me.
“It’s wonderful,” she finished at last. “You should read it.”
Kami was the only person on earth I would accept reading recommendations from. Before my time inside, we would swap books twice a week and have endless conversions about the ones we liked or didn’t. We had an entire debate about the love affair between Lord Byron and Caroline Lamb. It had gotten so heated, Mom had to break it up, but it had been inspiring and intelligent and well thought out. That kind of passion in knowledge was so rare and she was one of the few people I could sit with for hours and talk to without feeling my eyes cross.
“Did you read anything good while you were away?”
Enthralled by her enthusiasm, I didn’t understand the question straight away.
