Page 7 of Until We Burn
Oh dear God.Panic thrums through me. I could barely think straight when I was analyzing Kai for less than a minute. The thought of doing it all over again in close quarters. . .
I can’t. He’s a distraction that’s surprisingly, irritatingly hard to overcome and I can’t let him find out just how long I’ve felt this way about him.
All around me, the class begins packing up their things.
Kai swings his backpack onto his shoulder. “If you want to finish the write-up about me today, I’m free after my class at eleven.”
I hurriedly shove my laptop into my bag. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll need my input, though.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Diana—” Kai steps in front of me, making my head snap up. Concern softens his face. “Hey, did I…did I do something wrong?”
“No.” I gulp.
“If it’s the whole ‘do me’ thing, I swear it was bad wording on my part.” Kai frowns. “I wasn’t implying that I wanted you to?—”
“Like I said,I’m fine.”
He slightly flinches at my tone. Guilt douses all the panic I feel inside. I sigh, reaching my hand out. “It was nice meeting you, Kai.”
He looks so confused, yet his hand wraps softly around mine. Warmth fills my skin again, trailing up to my cheeks.
“Same here.”
I rip my hand away and rush out the door. No matter how far I distance myself from room 102, I can still feel Kai’s touch all over me.
CHAPTER 3
KAINOA “KAI” MASON-MAIAU
When I stepinto the gym, I know I’m being watched.
The reasons are always the same. When they start to stare and how long they do it for gives it away every time. When it’s lust, their stares linger the moment I take off my hoodie. When it’s suspicion, their stares probe at my every move the moment I start working out. As disturbing as it always feels, it barely fazes me today.
What gets under my skin is the way Diana treated me in class on Monday.
“It was so weird, man.” I crank the cable handle back with a grunt. “Usually, people badmouth me or try to get in my pants. But Diana? I don’t get it. One moment she’s nice to me, and then the next, she’s treating me like I have a disease.”
“Why are you so surprised?” Heavy breaths saw in and out of Rowan’s lips as he lifts dumbbell weights. “You know guys like us are nothing to girls like her.”
I cock my head, letting go of the cable handle. “Remind me why the fuck we’re friends again?”
Rowan smirks. Sweat beads across the hockey captain’s lips. “Because I let your cheap ass use my Amazon Prime account?”
“He’s right, Kai.” Luke rises from the weightlifting bench andswings his arm around my shoulders. “We can’t provoke our only source of survival. We gotta tread carefully in his presence. Avoid all eye contact. Make no sudden movements.”
Rowan drops the dumbbells with a glare. “Keep talking like that, and my next workout will have you barreling into that wall.”
Luke laughs, smirking smugly. “See what I mean?”
Even though they both play defense, Luke and Rowan are opposites in every way. Luke King is the guy you bring home to your parents. He disarms every person in his vicinity with his dimpled smile, tousled, blond ‘90s haircut, and lake-blue eyes that crinkle together whenever he laughs. That’s why it’s so much scarier when he’s pissed off. Luke is tall and ripped enough to do something about it. His knuckles are still scraped up from all the fights he got into last season.
Rowan Kaneshiro, on the other hand, is the shadow to Luke’s light. Slightly taller, yet just as built, Rowan’s black hair sweeps back in thick curls that make him look like a prince. He has the calm, steady wisdom of one. But the comparison ends there because Rowan takes no shit from anyone. Not with his sarcastic, smirking mouth that rarely holds back. It’s what makes him the type of captain people are too intimidated to challenge and speak back to.
I shove Luke away, making him laugh.
