She narrows her eyes at me. “Remind me never to help you move again.”
We give each other shit for the rest of the ride and we’re both cackling by the time we all but fall out of the elevator and then out onto the street, dumping the boxes hard enough I’m grateful there’s nothing breakable inside.
Kiara looks down distastefully at the dust on her hands. Her dress is somehow still immaculate and yet I’m covered in it, but of course, she’s too busy brushing herself off to notice just how much I look like an actual pigsty.
“Looks like I got here just in time.” Something inside me stirs at the voice behind me. I can tell from Kiara’s expression she’s as shocked as I am as she tracks my gaze to the man standing on the curb outside my apartment.
“What areyoudoing here?” The confusion in my tone hangs on till the very last word.
Lennox Gray shrugs, his broad shoulders rolling and in that way that makes it hard not to stare. “It’s moving day,” he says. Something happens between that time and now, but I only realize that I’m staring, probably with my mouth hanging open when Lennox’s voice cuts through the air again. “Cat got your tongue, buttercup?”
Buttercup? Seriously.
“My moving day, not yours,” I manage.
“That’s all semantics, but whatever. Whether you’re expecting me or not, it definitely looks like you two could use some help.” My gaze is on him again. And again, it takes me a good minute to process his words. It’s impossible to search his eyes to get a better read on him, but something tells me they’d be full of amusement.
I’m about to tell him thanks, but no, when Kiara interrupts.
“That’d be great!” She sounds so enthusiastic that it almost makes my skin crawl. Kiara is a lot of things. Kiara can be many things. Feisty. Independent. But never…whatever this is.
I send her a look, telling her in no uncertain terms she’s a complete traitor. She doesn’t care, her eyes are on Lennox and I can’t blame her. It’s one thing to see the man on the screen or on billboards, but in the flesh he’s a whole different ballgame.
“You must be Kiara,” Lennox reaches past me to shake her hand, extending a courtesy he never offered me on the first day. “Declan told me you drive a hard bargain,” he adds, smiling.
I wonder if he sees the moment my best friend melts under that smile.
“If you want the best, like Izzy here, you’ve gotta be prepared for the price tag,” she fires back, making him chuckle.
“Okay, I get it now,” Kiara mutters to me under her breath and I hope like hell Lennox hasn’t heard her. Suddenly she seems much more amenable to the whole idea of me moving into Gray’s place. Who knew that all it would take was a few minutes in Lennox’s orbit?
“Here, let me take that,” Lennox reaches forward for my suitcase.
“It’s fine, you really don’t have to.” I try to pull it away from him and only succeed in hitting myself in the shin with it. “Mother-freakin’…Ouch!”
“See…I’m offering a hand, you really should take it. No way you’re gonna carry all those boxes when we’re here to help?”Lennox leans back against his Escalade, arms crossed in that faux casual way of his, which doesn’t make him look any less dangerous.
“We?” I ask, dumbly.
Lennox nods his head toward a truck parked a little ways down. A truck which looks suspiciously like the one he loaned me and which I thought was safe in the parking garage of my building. Kai hops out, dressed in his usual uniform of a t-shirt and board shorts, looking completely incongruous in the middle of New York City.
“Is there some hot guy convention in town today that I didn’t know about?” Kiara whispers in my ear. I would laugh if I weren’t still annoyed at being ambushed by Lennox.
“Iz-meister!” Kai envelops me in a hug like we’re old friends. It didn’t take me long to figure out that he’s the touchy feely type. I’m not complaining. After all, my friends know that I’m quite the hugger, too. “So, cool you’re moving in, I’m getting hella bored just hanging out with this dude.” Kai jerks his thumb at Lennox who just looks on with that impassive expression of his, but it feels like his eyes are zeroed in on me behind his designer aviators.
“Kai, you want to make yourself useful and grab a box instead of groping Isabella?” Lennox’s tone is light but there’s a sharpness to it that I don’t miss.
Kai on the other hand seems oblivious.
“Sure, Nox. You just stand there looking pretty while I do all the heavy lifting.”
Kai grabs the box closest to Kiara and stands up slowly, not making any secret of the appreciation in his gaze.
“You gonna introduce me to your friend, Iz?” he asks, as if Kiara weren’t right there in front of him and I can tell how much that pisses her off.
Kiara cocks her head and gives him one of her signature withering stares. “Her friend can introduce herself.”
Kai steps towards Kiara like a planet being drawn to the sun and the two of them start to get acquainted. From the sound of it, it mostly involves exchanging playful insults, which leaves me with Mr. Tall Dark and Intense.