Page 132 of Under the Bed

Eventually, he will.

For the time being, this is enough. This is more than enough.

“You became my entire world, Shi.” He scowls, as if that upsets him.

Like he can’t stand the distance, he tightens his grip around me.

I can’t take not feeling his heartbeat either.

“Why me?” I trace my hand up and down his chest, calming myself by pressing my chest to his. Tilting my head up to take in his handsome face. “What’s so special about me?”

The corner of his mouth ticks to the side. He can tell I’m not fishing for compliments. I’m genuinely curious about him. About the magic that drew him to me.

Worry niggles at me too. If it just happened, it could just as easily disappear.

“We were meant to be.” His fingers tuck my hair behind my ear. “That’s why I broke into your home that first night. I couldn’t and won’t stay away. I’ll burn the world for you, little sister. You’re mine. Forever.”

I’m choked up. I’m floating. My emotions swell, lifting me higher. “That’s that?”

“That’s that.” His smirk is gone. “I wasn’t attracted to you for years, though. While you were a kid. That’s the only thing that changed. The way I saw you.”

“I know. It was the same for me. I was around fifteen or sixteen when I started thinking about you in a different way. But not because you did anything to bring that up. You were the one who protected me against everyone else out there.” I remember what it was like to have predators look at me. Touchme. Debase me. During the months that Kaleb lived with us, it was never like that. “Who got you my photos?”

“Where are your manners, rich girl?” His tone is teasing. His pull on my hair isless so. The roots burn, my eyes tear up. He pulls me and leans into me, and my heart skips a beat when our foreheads press. I’m in love with this moment as much as I’m in love with him. “I started asking you a question. You’re going to be a good girl and let me finish.”

“O-okay.” I have no idea what question, but I nod anyway. “You climbed into my bedroom and?”

He stares at me. Building tension. And I let him.

“Other than humping my mask?—”

“Kaleb!”

“Hey, no use denying it. I told you it was hot. Might ask you for a repeat one day.”

This is the most humiliated I’ve ever felt. There’s a burning in my neck. My cheeks. My ears.

“In case I wasn’t clear, let me repeat myself. It was. Fucking. Hot.” He kisses my nose. It does nothing to cool my skin. Then again, I don’t want to hide anymore, so I guess there’s that. “Why were you in the closet? You do that often?”

“It’s an old habit. I picked up on it after they’d taken you from me. When Dad would scare me.” Sugarcoating equals lying, and I refuse to lie to him. “When he fed me those lies about you. When he’d beat me up. When he wouldn’t let me write to you those first couple of years. I’d hide. I shouldn’t have. He wanted to break me. He wanted”—I won’t cry anymore, won’t shed a goddamn tear over that monster—“me to believe that I was alone in the world. He did everything toensure that I’d never go to the press or anyone in an attempt to get you out. That’s why I hid. I won’t anymore. Nothing scares me other than you getting caught. Nothing.”

His curious stare is all I get. He should be shouting at me. Turning his back on me for not fighting Dad harder. Blaming me for hiding, for being weak and awful to him.

He should call me out on my shitty behavior. He could accuse me of being weak, for not trying hard enough.

All I get is crickets.

“I’m sorry.” My heart weighs a million pounds. “When the news broke, the guard and driver you killed, his words came back to haunt me. That you murdered people who didn’t deserve it. I thought I’d be next.”

A low, ominous growl reverberates in his chest. “That bastard.”

“Remember when I asked you to kill me?” I hurry up before I lose my nerve. It takes a lot to admit that I betrayed him. How I didn’t believe that he had a good reason to kill his guard. The driver.

He had the best reason. He was making good on his promise.

He was coming for me.

Kaleb nods, tugging on my hair. Raising my lips to be so close to his.

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