Page 61 of Kai
“No, of course not,” I lied. “I just have a lot of work to do and—”
“No worries, Sorceress. Don’t talk to me if you don’t want to. But I want to apologize to you for… whatever I did that hurt your feelings—”
“I have no feelings,” I said. “You didn’t hurt me, so—”
“Yes, you have feelings. We all do, and I need to apologize for hurting yours. I promised you we didn’t have to talk about it, but will you please accept my apology?”
“Fine.” I looked away. “We just have to get along untilyour mission is done.”
“If that’s what you want…” He lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “We’ll focus on the mission, but I want to spoil you a little if you’ll let me.”
“There it is.” I poked my finger toward him.
“What?”
“The trick,” I said. “The ulterior motive.”
“No trick,” he assured me. “But yes to the ulterior motive.”
His honesty always disarmed me.
“But we don’t gotta tangle with any of that now,” he continued. “I honestly think you deserve a little spoiling.”
“I’m un-pamperable,” I declared, shielding my heart with my arrogance.
He frowned. “Is that even a word?”
My throat tightened. After my mom died, my brother and sisters had tried to pamper me. Hell, even Dash had tried, but I wouldn’t have it, wouldn’t accept it from anybody.Itook care of myself. That’s when Affie made up the word and declared me “un-pamperable.”
“It’s a word invented formydictionary.” My fingers traced the edge of the tray on my lap, and I swallowed a gulp to ease the sting from my voice. “As far as your desire to spoil me goes, I don’t even know how to respond when you say things like that.”
“How about you accept it as my truth and eat some more?” Kai stole the mug from the tray, and keeping his caramel gaze on me, took a small sip. “Yeah.” He returned it to the tray. “I’m good.”
“Goodandcocky.”
“And cocky,” he agreed, stealing a slice of my banana bread.
“Hey!”
“Sorry.” He wolfed it down. “Think of me as quality control. Eat some more.”
I got distracted watching him eat. The sight was mesmerizing. His sleek jaw moved with resolve, and his throat rippled as he swallowed. I really wanted to run my lips over the side of his muscular neck and along the line of his clean-shaven jaw. Instead, I stuffed myself silly and drained my mug. Before I knew it, every morsel on the tray was gone.
“May I?” Kai said.
I drew back. “May you what?”
He motioned to my face. “You’ve got cream on your nose.”
“Oh.” I grabbed a napkin and cleaned my face.
“There’s a little left.” He swiped his finger over the end of my nose, then licked the cream off the tip of his index. “All gone.”
Tongue. Lips. Cream. Kai. The heat exploded from my core, prickled my nipples, and pooled in my clit. Oh, God. How I wanted to kiss him.
You will not give in to lust.I fisted my hands around the tray until my knuckles whitened.He isn’t interested anyway.
“Time to get ready,” he announced, bouncing off the bed all too cheerfully.
