Page 95 of Hyperspeed
When he’d made me fall apart under his expert hands, he hadn’t expected me to reciprocate.
It was my choice to throw myself at his dick, and I’d fucking liked it too.
“I was scared.” The words were so quiet I worried he hadn’t heard me, and I didn’t want to say them more than once.
“Why?” he asked, like it was that simple to explain.
Didn’t stop me from blurting, “I saw your tattoo.”
“You’ve got marks all over your skin, and a little artificial ink scared you off?”
“Don’t take the piss, Mercer.” My hackles rose as I slipped into defence mode.
If I got angry first, it wouldn’t hurt as much when he inevitably started mocking me.
“I’m not, Revvy,” he replied, voice soft and steady. And because I was a total simp for him now, it soothed me. “I’m just trying to understand.”
“I know. I just . . . I . . .ugh.”
If this whole “being open” thing was going to become a habit, I’d need to practice in front of a mirror. Maybe get lessons from Zylo.
“Take a breath, rookie,” he ordered, and I did. “Now tell me what’s going through that brilliant mind of yours.”
“I got close enough to see your tattoo, Kai. A piece of you that nobody would know was there, not unless you wanted them to. And you . . . wanted me to. At least I think you did.”
“I did,” Kai replied. “I wanted you to be close to me.”
Before I could reply, a rogue meteor whizzed past my front wing. The force tilted my vehicle to the side, throwing me off balance.
“Fuck,” I hissed, turning my wheel the opposite way, attempting to right myself.
“You okay?”
“All good. I just—motherfucker!”
The incident gave the person behind me—a rookie from the Vanguard team—the perfect opening to overtake.
“Rev!”
“Someone overtook me,” I grumbled, trying to catch up. “It’s fine.”
“I thought something had happened!”
“You worried about me, hotshot?” I asked, attempting to ease the tension.
“Of course I was worried about you, dickhead. I care about you, for fuck’s sake.”
“You . . .” The word caught in my throat, shaky and small. My chest felt tight. “You c-care about me?”
“Yes, Rev, I care about you,” Kai snapped. “Stop deflecting and tell me why you ran away.”
“You’re the one who brought up your feelings!” I shot back, not at alldeflecting.
“Rev, I swear on the fucking stars—”
“I’m scared I was nothing more than a body to warm your bed, okay?!” I shouted. “I woke up, saw that damn tattoo, and wondered what the hell was happening to us. Because somewhere along the way, you stopped just annoying the hell out of me—which, for the record, you still do. I just want to kill you a little less than I used to.
“You were supposed to be nothing more than the cocky bastard who lived to piss me off. But being with you, waking up with my head on your chest and having you hold me like it meant something terrified me, Kai. Because to me, it did mean something. No, it meanteverything, and I didn’t want to be the fool if you didn’t feel the same.
