Burned » Kai Parker

18

In the morning, things felt different.

That always seemed to be the case. You could never get away with the same thoughts that you could in the safety of the night, under the accusing glare of the bright sun and its promise to shed light on the consequences you thought you could avoid.

Unlike yesterday, I was taking my time getting ready. Maybe a little too much. Which was stupid. Kai and I would be sealed in his car together soon enough, and the conversation that we needed to have would be unavoidable. All I was doing was prolonging the inevitable.

Still, I lingered underneath the hot shower, dried my hair until it was in its neat waves, dressed in a knitted maroon sweater and black denim skirt, packed up my bag, until there was utterly nothing left to do but think.

I kissed Kai. No way around it now. Admittedly, I thought about asking Amelia if I could hitch a ride back with her, but shook myself back to sense. Refusing the hour-long car ride with Kai just because I didn't know how to address what happened was cowardly behavior. I wasn't a coward. I could face him, just like I've faced Derek at alliance meetings, despite our sexual history.

But this wasn't like that at all. I'd gone much farther with Derek but somehow, making out with Kai elicited more from me than the Ivy witch ever had. It made the dangerous part of my brain wonder what it would be like if I did go that far with Kai, if I'd guided his fingers past the button of my jeans last night and let it escalate.

I had to stop fueling those imaginative scenarios, or I'd never get myself down the damn stairs to join the other witches.

Lia walked into the room, smiling when she saw me standing with my bag over my shoulder. "Oh, great, you're ready. Caleb sent me up to check on you." Her face turned slightly sheepish. "We kinda finished breakfast, but there's some coffee left."

"We can head down now. Sorry I took a while."

"Don't worry about it." She studied me curiously. "Hey, how'd it go last night?"

"What?" I answered, a bit too quickly.

"Your talk with Kai? Did you smooth things over?" She pondered for a second. "He was making small talk downstairs, so that seemed like an improvement. Caleb totally tried to grill him about his behavior last night though."

"Oh, yeah, that. We're good now," I said, averting my eyes to yank the zipper on my duffel bag.

She beamed. "That's awesome. And hey, it's not like he could ignore the way you scared those vampires into submission. If anything, he owes you one."

I'd say he showed his gratitude pretty well, I thought inadvertently. With his tongue, and his hands, and his mouth–

The witch looked rather concerned, so the sharp turn of my thoughts must've shown on my face. "Are you sure nothing else happened? Did he give you a hard time?"

"We, um, just had a lot to get off our chests." Not a lie, all things considered. "But we came to an understanding eventually."

Lia smiled in approval. I returned it, knowing damn well that she innocently thought that this mutual understanding consisted of verbal compromise and shaking hands, not fused mouths and Kai's tongue on the curve of my breasts.

We went downstairs together, and all the while Lia chatted about Caleb outdoing himself once more with today's breakfast. I did my best to listen, but my current preoccupation was making my face as neutral as possible. Because a certain warlock was in our vicinity now, my magic could practically feel his, pulsing lazily a few feet away.