Page 177 of The First Taste
Kaia turns to me, her mouth tugging down. Her cheeks are already stained with color. “It’s small. But it gets really good light during the day,” she says.
I tilt my head. “I didn’t realize that you were struggling financially.”
She shoots me a hard look as she goes over to the hanging rack of clothes. “I didn’t work at Club X because I liked the camaraderie, Calum.”
My lips twitch. “No, I suppose not.” I pause, thinking. “Where is your family?”
Her shoulders visibly tense up. She quickly sorts through several dresses, pulling one off its hanger. It takes her a long time to answer my question. “My parents live in Hartford.”
I cock a brow. “And why doesn’t your family pay for a nicer apartment?”
Kaia turns, her expression baleful. “Not everybody has everything that you have.”
I raise my brows at the heat in her tone. “I didn’t realize your family was disadvantaged.”
She toes off her shoes, her expression pinched, and heads to the bathroom. “They aren’t. I grew up with money. It’s just… my story is more complicated than that.”
She shuts the heavy bathroom door hard, effectively ending the conversation. But her evasiveness doesn’t settle anything in my book.
No, it only makes me more curious about Kaia’s background.
Walking around her apartment, I notice that she has a number of votive candles, most burned down to the bottom. She also has a box of old pointe shoes in the corner, most pulled apart and scavenged for bits and pieces.
The next thing I see is a small side table with a tray of what appears to be costume jewelry. A cluster of oversized pearls, a diadem with several stones missing. A long chain of intricate silver bangles with several missing links.
“What’s with all the broken jewelry?” I call.
“It’s not broken! It can still be salvaged. It just needs a little love and attention…” She answers, her voice muffled by the bathroom door.
I pull out my phone, texting my assistant to pull a background check on Kaia and her family. From the look of this apartment, I don’t actually know what to think.
There is a mural made of photos that are carefully pinned up by the window. I walk toward it, trying to find some answers.
In the next second though, she steps out of her bathroom again and my mind goes blank. She wears a clingy light blue cocktail dress that shows off her cleavage. She has pulled her wet hair down and it curls gently about her shoulders.
I bite my lip appreciably. Kaia tosses her hair and steps into a pair of dark heels. Then she adds a grey winter coat.
At that moment, I wish I had a diamond necklace to put around her neck and frame her décolletage. Making a note to keep some more jewelry on hand, I exhale deeply.
She turns to me. “Do I need to bring anything?”
My lips curl up. “No. Just yourself. You look utterly intoxicating, Kaia.”
She blushes, a little smile playing about her lips. “Thanks, Calum.”
I offer her my arm. “Come on. Let’s go to the gala and act like we are sophisticated socialites rather than depraved sexual deviants.”
She walks over and slides her hand into the crook of my arm. Her hazel eyes glint with a mischievous look. “You take the lead, Calum.”
I lean down and kiss her on the lips, hard and passionate. She pushes up onto her tiptoes, kissing me back for just a moment.
It’s indefinitely satisfying, the feeling of being wanted by someone as beautiful as Kaia.
Then I urge her toward her apartment steps, thinking of how good that dress will look on my bedroom floor later.
Kaia
Isuck in a breath as I clutch Calum’s arm, my gaze swiveling around the ballroom. A jazz quartet plays in the corner. All the white linen-bedecked tables are pushed to the sides of the room. Inside that, women in extravagant gowns and men in tuxes mill about in the dimly lit ballroom.
