Compromising Kessen (18 page)

She punched him in the arm. “Then what was with all the talk about a loveless marriage and you being worried and stuff?”

He shrugged. “I wanted a reaction; instead you stared into space as if to give everything great thought. Seriously, you could do without thinking for a while, especially where Christian is concerned.”

Nick kissed her on the forehead while simultaneously slapping her shoulder. “See you later, kiddo!”

The door closed behind him, and Kessen was alone with her thoughts yet again. Nick was trying to lure her into saying she loved Christian, but why? What was the big deal? They were already getting married; they had the paparazzi and her father’s product launch to thank for that. Instead of mulling it over more, she took Nick’s advice and cleared her head of all thoughts.

She changed into her bedclothes and drifted off to sleep, and her last conscious thought was that Nick hadn’t locked her door.

****

A knocking penetrated Kessen’s dream, which upset her mainly because it was filled with Christian’s perfect face—fallen angel that he was. She mumbled a Spanish swear word before padding to the door.

Just as she reached for the knob, it opened, revealing Christian in only his pajama pants. It was like a gift from the sleep gods. She blinked a few times, just in case she was still dreaming.

“What time is it?” she finally asked, when he did nothing but continue to stare.

He shook his head. “Um, I don’t know. Is it weird that I had to see you?”

She wanted to scream no then wrap her body sinfully around his, but instead she managed to shrug nonchalantly as if it was a normal occurrence for devastatingly handsome men to visit her bedroom in the wee hours of the night.

“We didn’t have enough time. No. We don’t have enough time, I mean…” He turned around towards the large fireplace and began building a fire.

“What I mean is…” He cursed. “Sorry, I just can’t seem to articulate what I want to say in a way that sounds remotely smooth and calculated.”

Kessen giggled and put her hand over her mouth when he shot her a menacing glare. “You were saying.”

Christian’s eyes turned black as he walked slowly to where she stood, pinning her between his body and the wall. Her only option would be to pretend to faint and hope she didn’t get a concussion in the process. She decided to stand.

“I want us to be friends,” he said against her face.

She suddenly felt ill. “So you don’t…” It was hard to finish a sentence containing the most devastating blow she had ever received from the opposite sex.

“No, no, no!” he yelled, then kissed her furiously on the mouth and spoke against her lips. “It’s not like that. I want—dear Kessen, you have no idea how much I want more than that. But I want more of you; I want to know you like Nick knows you. To be your friend and more. I want all of it. I don’t think I would ever be happy with just one part of you.”

It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her in her entire life. It was easy to throw compliments at women; it was quite another thing to want her soul as well.

And then his lips were urgently pressed against hers. Here we go again, she thought, as she wrapped herself as tightly around his body as she could.

“Kessen—” he mumbled against her hair and jaw.

She felt somehow braver in the nightlight and let her tongue trail down his chin; he shuddered in response, opening her mouth to his tongue yet again. Their mouths danced as if they’d never kissed another soul but each other.

Their bodies matched a perfect rhythm of give and take until both of them were breathless.

“Ahem.” A voice penetrated their passionate haze.

Kessen, suddenly mortified, clung to Christian for support, thinking his body would hopefully shadow her own. Actually, she just wanted to throw him under the bus so she could save herself.

“What have we here?” It was Nick’s voice. She would bet her life on it. On second thought, maybe just Nick’s life.

Christian swore under his breath so only Kessen could hear. “I, uh—”

“He sleep-walks!” Kessen blurted.

Christian’s eyes widened. “Um, yes, and I tend to—”

“You tend to attack innocent women in your sleep?” Nick finished.

Kessen fake laughed and punched Christian playfully in the arm. “Ha! You know what they say.”

Nick looked at her. “Oh, this should be good.”

She didn’t have time to respond before the door burst open again. “Lies! All of it lies!” It was Duncan, and he was dressed in all black. Actually, Nick was in all black too. What were they planning on doing? Compromising them more?

“What’s a lie?” Christian asked innocently as he ground his teeth together.

“I will swear on my family inheritance, which is substantial, by the way,” Duncan winked at Kessen meaningfully, “that Christian does not, nor has he ever, sleep-walked.”

Christian swore.

Nick laughed.

Kessen gulped.

“Furthermore,” Duncan said, stepping forward, “I find it odd he would be in this young lady’s room at such a late hour. Do you really have such a hard time keeping your hands to yourself, young man?”

“Duncan, we’re the same age. We—”

“Not a peep out of you!” Nick said, pointing his finger at Christian. “And you, young lady!” Nick turned towards Kessen. “For shame! You’re just lucky your father wasn’t here.”

Both Duncan and Nick closed their eyes and shook their heads.

“It was just kissing!” Kessen said, then wished she wouldn’t have, considering they were all adults, and it was a boldfaced lie.

“He’s naked!” Nick yelled.

Duncan held up a robe in mock disdain. “Cover yourself this instant!”

Christian took the robe. “I’m wearing pants.”

Nick started clapping. “Good for you! Just keep them on, will you?”

Duncan laughed.

Christian growled, and Kessen turned redder, if it was possible.

“We were testing you two,” Nick informed them.

“And you failed,” Duncan agreed, crossing his arms.

“I’ll stand watch here,” Nick whispered to Duncan. “But you need to go to the horny high schooler’s room, so he doesn’t escape again.”

“Yes, brilliant,” Duncan agreed.

“High schooler?” Kessen asked dumbly.

“Oh, we were referring to him.” Nick threw a disapproving glance Christian’s way.

“Now we are all settled, shall we sleep?” Duncan asked.

Christian smirked and winked at Kessen just as the boys began another lively discussion on door locks. She blushed and smiled back, squeezing his hand.

“Tomorrow,” she said quietly. He nodded his head and left, but not before punching Duncan hard in the shoulder.

Nick shook his head, but it was easy to see he was in good humor. The little rat set them up on purpose. No matter, she would get her revenge on him someday. He saluted her and turned on his heel to leave the room. She heard the lock turn and laughed until she managed to fall into a deep sleep.

****

Christian however, was not sleeping. Who could sleep after a day or even a night like that? If this was what he had to look forward to for the rest of his life, he couldn’t sign up fast enough. His body was burning as if on fire, and his mind was reeling with every single possibility of what could have happened with Kessen had Nick and Duncan not shown up with guns firing, literally.

How they managed to find the paintball guns Christian himself had so dutifully put under lock and key, he would never know.

He believed he loved her, but a girl like that would panic if he said anything. She would most likely hop on the first plane back to Colorado if he confessed his love after only a few days of knowing her. But he knew—he knew he was falling hard. After all, he had dated a lot of women, and none of those times had felt anything like this.

Though he was guilty of many things, he had never been one to panic.

Naturally, there was a first time for everything.

Chapter Twenty-One

The sun woke him up rather than his alarm. Christian groaned out loud as he quickly got ready then stepped out into the hall.

As per their earlier arrangement, Nick was lying across the floor in front of Christian’s door. And Duncan, bless his twisted little heart, was sleeping with his paintball gun across the threshold of Kessen’s door. Both of them snoring in unison as if they had been spent many years as an old married couple.

Christian’s sluggish mind began mentally calculating how long it was before his coming nuptials. Five days didn’t seem far away, and the ever-present panic began welling up inside his chest before he had time to stop it.

Marriage was inevitable, love was—oh no. It always came back to love, didn’t it? His chest suddenly constricted. He felt as if Kessen had shot him three times in the front rather than the back. Whatever this feeling was, he needed to keep it to himself, or she would be on the first flight back to Colorado. He was just panicking, that was all.

He carefully stepped over the sleeping guards, opened Kessen’s door, and peeked in.

“Kessen,” he whispered “Kessen, are you in here?”

No response.

He looked toward the made bed then glanced at the bathroom door just as she was coming out, with only a towel on.

He panicked, not because of the towel, but because he didn’t want her to think poorly of him for sneaking in her room twice within the past twelve hours.

“What are you doing here?” she squealed. “Nick’s a light sleeper. If you don’t watch out, you’ll have more paintball welts than you can count.”

“Your concern for me is endearing,” he drawled. His mouth suddenly went dry as he noticed the sunlight reflecting off of her shiny skin.

He slowly turned his head to fully face the water nymph, clad in nothing but a giant towel and a scowl. Both of which looked more brilliant on her than anything he had ever seen in his life.

“Uh,” he started to say, eloquently. “I was just looking for you.”

Kessen grunted. “I figured you weren’t lost.”

He bit his lip, silently praying the pain would take away the already increasing desire to see her out of the towel and onto her bed.

His thoughts were not his own.

She lifted a questioning eyebrow in his direction as if to say, “Are you going to speak or just sit there and stare at me like an animal in heat?”

“I wanted to apologize and say I’m glad we came to an agreement last night.” He suddenly felt twelve years old, which was further proven by the fact he broke eye contact and suddenly found grand interest in the way his shoe rubbed against the carpet.

His averted eyes didn’t slow the ramming of his heart within his chest. Could she at least put on a robe or something?

Christian swallowed convulsively when he noticed the shadow on the floor creep toward him. She was moving closer; he began to smell the lemon soap she had so expertly applied to her body. He closed his eyes for a brief second before holding his breath.

“I need to get dressed.” Her lips were inches from his.

Now she was just being cruel. He was obviously stronger than her; all he needed to do was take her by surprise and—

“Stop,” she said, half smiling. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Oh dear girl, you have no idea what I’m thinking. If you did, you’d lock yourself in that bathroom and pray for my black soul.” He broke into a wide grin, obviously throwing her off balance.

“Well, I—” She cleared her throat. “Nevertheless, I need to get dressed, and you shouldn’t be in here. All I need to do is scream, and Nick and Duncan will implant paintballs into your already damaged back. We wouldn’t want an accident now, would we?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged.

She cleared her throat again and opened her mouth.

Christian slapped his hand across it and whispered into her ear, “Scream, and I’m pulling your towel off right now; I don’t care who sees.”

Her eyes molded into tiny slits.

“Good girl. Now get dressed. We have a big day ahead of us.” He strolled out of the room, leaving a bit more confident than when he arrived.

He had the upper hand; he just needed to keep it that way.

Christian left Kessen’s room and carefully maneuvered himself so his foot would smack the top of Duncan’s head. It worked splendidly. Duncan cursed as Christian removed the boot, and before anyone knew what was going on, Christian had shot the gun in the direction of Nick’s chest. He only meant to graze him, but unfortunately his thoughts had been elsewhere, same as his aim.

It ended up knocking Nick in the arm, sending a stream of expletives into the air that Christian silently hoped nobody else could hear.

“What’d you do that for?” Nick yelled.

Christian laughed. “Duncan, I can’t believe you would shoot a sleeping man!”

Duncan just stared between the two, flabbergasted as to what just happened. He was still rubbing his head when Nick lifted his paintball gun.

“Not in the house!”

Duncan’s speech was cut off by a howling of gigantic proportions. Nick’s shot was spot-on. And Christian figured by the looks of it Duncan would be walking funny for about a week; hopefully the bruising to his kneecap wouldn’t be substantial. But then again, both of them had interrupted his sweet interlude with Kessen the night before.

And one of them had had the audacity to call him a raw-boned high schooler, as if they hadn’t ever had an impure thought in their lives.

He chuckled and skipped down the stairs before either of them could figure out what just took place. His laughing was put to a bitter end, though, when he plopped into his chair and his spine made contact with the back.

A scream of pain that was anything but masculine escaped his lips just as Kessen graced the table with her presence.

“Constipated?” she asked sweetly as she took a cup of coffee.

He felt hot tears welling up in his throat as he paused to catch a breath. Who knew paintball bruises could be so painful?

“No, just thinking about kissing you.”

“Aw, how sweet. You’re so desperate for my touch you scream. I’m honored.” She winked as Christian thought about several different ways to cause her physical harm without being found guilty in a court of law.