Falling Up

34. Elevator Talk

Riley sucked in a deep breath, gazing into Kain's blue eyes, noticing the five o'clock shadow of stubble coming through across his jaw. His features mesmerised her from the perfectly groomed eyebrows to the faint scar he had running across his cheek that you wouldn't even notice unless you were sitting this close to him.

And that's when she realised how close she was. "Umm, sorry," she mumbled, turning her head away from him to gain space between them as she exhaled a deep, shaky breath. Not that her attempt to gain space worked, being in such a claustrophobic space together.

Kain's hand rested upon hers, on top of her knees which were crunched to her chest, but he didn't take his hand off. He merely ran his fingers across her arms, tracing across the scars on her arm.

"Did you want to talk about it?" asked Kain as his gaze lingered on her arm.

Riley's eyes watched as Kain continued to run his fingers back and forth across her scars, sending tingles throughout her body. She wasn't hating the contact between them, even though he was running his fingers across her dark past. Instead, she felt calm and warm.

"Can I ask you something instead?" said Riley.

Kain turned his gaze back to her, this time looking into her eyes, and nodded.

Her fingers reached up and ran across the same trail of scars across her arm that wasn't covered in a giant tattoo as her other arm was. She lightly brushed against Kain's fingers in the process.

"My scars seem to bother you, and I was wondering why. Nobody else seems to care about them, except you."

Kain removed his hand from Riley's arm, breaking the contact and crossed his arms over his chest, lost in thought for a moment, as Riley wondered if she had crossed some sort of line or not.

"I'm sorry," said Kain, surprising Riley yet again as she continued to listen to what he had to say. "Your scars remind me of someone."

He placed his foot flat on the floor, propping his knee up on an angle as he draped his arm over his leg and let out a long sigh. The last thing she wanted to do was pry. God knows she would have hated someone prying into her business, but she couldn't help but want to know more, especially since it seemed to affect him deeply.

"Can you tell me about them?" she prompted.

Kain stared at the opposite wall for a long moment, long enough that Riley was sure she overstepped her boundaries. But eventually he took in a deep breath as words escaped mouth, his deep voice echoing in the small confinement of the elevator.

"Her name was Emily," he began slowly. "She was my girlfriend a couple of years back. My ex-girlfriend now," he said with gritted teeth. "She had scars on her arms, just like you. Well, yours, no offence, are a lot worse."

Riley rubbed her hand along her arm, feeling the embarrassment that they occasionally brought. At times, she couldn't believe that she would do that to herself. At other times, it was a different story.

"It's actually how we met. She used to wear long-sleeved shirts or jumpers all the time, until I accidentally saw them one day. I was curious, and I wanted to help. My brother always said I had a thing for a damsel in distress."

"I'm far from a damsel in distress," said Riley, feeling the need to defend her actions, despite the fact that he wasn't even directly referring to her.

"Trust me, you're nothing like her," smiled Kain as he continued with his story. "After I found out, we became close. I wanted to know more about her and help her. I fell hard for her. She was everything I wanted and I would do anything for her. She eventually told me her brother was the one hurting her, and that they weren't self inflicted. So naturally, I did the only thing that made sense. I went over to her brother's house and beat the living shit out of him. I ended up putting him in a coma."

Riley gasped. Kain was definitely strong, but she wasn't sure would have liked to see him in such a fit of rage. It didn't fit his personality at all. He was always so nice to everyone. Everyone except her, of course.

"Anyway, her parents found out and eventually the truth came to the surface. Emily had a bit of a history of mental illness and it wasn't her brother who hurt her. She inflicted those cuts on herself to get my attention. She planned everything, knowing I would pay her more attention if she played the damsel in distress."

Kain paused as everything sank in. No wonder he hated looking at her cuts. It was a reminder of his past. Anyone would hate to be reminded of such a past, especially when Riley didn't exactly hide her cuts from anyone anymore.

"I went to see her brother every day in the hospital after that. Luckily, he woke up two weeks later, but the damage was done. Evan has some permanent nerve injury to his shoulder which affects him daily. There were no charges laid, though. Tyrus cleaned up my mess and paid a handsome sum of money to make it disappear. I haven't seen Evan or his family since."

"What about Emily?" asked Riley, curious but unbelievably gob-smacked at this story.

"I believe she's still in Twin Rivers Psychiatric Hospital in Tennessee. I moved up here to Montana with Tyrus shortly afterwards. Our parents are still in Tennessee, but they don't know about Emily. It was all swept under the rug."

"I'm sorry," said Riley, earning a curious glance from Kain. "I can cover up these scars if they make you feel uncomfortable," she said, reaching for the jacket she had in her bag.

Reaching out his hand, Kain grabbed hold of hers before she placed her hand on the bag. "You have nothing to be sorry for. This is on me and you don't have to cover up for my past mistakes. I'm sorry for being so hard on you."

"Where's Kain and what did you do with him?" asked Riley jokingly.

Kain smiled, letting out a half laugh in the process. "But seriously, I am sorry for the way I've been treating you."

"Don't worry about it," shrugged Riley. She was used to far more harsh treatments than a couple of words and death glares going around.

Kain reached his hand out, taking her by surprise when he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears. "Nobody here knows about my past. I would appreciate it if you kept it between us."

She nodded, her heartbeat increasing as his fingers lingered down her cheek and across her neck. His gaze fixed on her eyes as she swallowed the lump stuck in her throat. The tension between them had always been there, underlying their every movement, but here in this small confined space it seemed magnified. There was nobody around, but even if there was, she was sure she wouldn't have seen anyone but the man in front of her. Her feelings were bubbling to the surface, and she subconsciously leaned in closer to his touch.

His fingers gently glided across the surface of her collarbone, drawing back up across her jaw. It was like he was locked in a trance as his gaze followed his fingers until they skimmed across her lips. She parted her mouth with a small gasp as he moved closer, their lips only mere millimetres from each other.

They were so engrossed with each other that they didn't notice the whirling sounds of the elevator coming back to life until the doors opened, letting in a flood of light from the hallway into the elevator.

They jumped back from each other and stared up at the sight in front of them. An elevator worker who was standing next to the panel with his electrical equipment out.

And standing next to him, with his arms across his chest, was one very pissed off looking Jason.