Page 66 of Kai
The timer on his watch went off.
“Ten minutes,” he announced, looking mighty relieved. “You won the dare.”
“I may be able to float a little longer,” I assured him, sensing we’d touched on something important, something that made me rethink my anger. “Do you mind if I try?”
“I don’t mind.”
“For a guy who always knows what to say, your short answers are telling,” I murmured. “Whatever this is, it’s hard for you.”
“As hard as it is for you to talk about your fear of the ocean.”
“Point Kai.” I took in the sadness in his gaze and the apology in his crooked smile. “You know what? I don’t mean to shock you with my sudden display of sensitivity, but I understand how you feel.”
He drew back a little. “You do?”
“Destroyed inside. Stuck. Regretful. Dead at times.”
His throat rippled with a swallow.
“Do you know why I understand?”
He shook his head.
“Because I feel the same.”
His chest rose with a big inhale. “You’re so brave, sharingthat with me.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe I’m just really horny.”
“What?” His startled chuckles rained over me, dispelling the gloom that had settled over him. “Your sense of humor gets me every time, Sorceress.”
“Well, I have other attributes besides being bitchy.”
“I don’t like it when you put yourself down.”
I managed a small shrug in the water. “Self-deprecating humor is a hoot.”
“It’s a form of expression, I suppose,” he said. “And it’s better than not talking any day. I get that we’re both coming at each other with baggage, but how about taking some time to get to know each other before you decide you hate me?”
“I might consider that option.”And I don’t hate you, I didn’t add.
The exchange smothered the old anger, and the sight of his blazing aura made me believe that what he’d said was true. Perhaps his rejection of me was a “he problem” and not another “me problem” after all. He’d defied all my categories. Maybe he was a much more complex organism under the microscope. There was a lot to figure out.
But right now, feeling free and light as I floated in the sea, kissed by the water, and by Kai’s warm gaze, I didn’t want to run an experiment on him. For once, I didn’t want to overthink this. Perhaps I just had to get the lust between us to burn out and see if anything remained in the ashes. Maybe I just wanted to begin an experiment with me and Kai in it.
“I agree about the getting to know each other part,” I said. “And I have a question for you.”
His eyes gleamed with curiosity. “Shoot.”
“You think and act like a very evolved human being,” I said. “You’re very controlled. Very disciplined. Very Zen, most of the time. But… how primitive can you get?”
Chapter Twenty-two
Cece
“I can be primitive.” His feral stare pebbled my skin. “Oh, yeah. You do that to me.”
My lady bits responded to him with a ferocity that almost sank me, but somehow, I stayed afloat.
