Revealing Kia (5 page)

She waved the hand holding the rag dismissively.
“Fine. Just some loser who thinks they’re funny.” Nessie said nothing else for a moment as she picked up a dirty plate off the counter. I hoped she wouldn’t throw that one into the sink. I wasn’t sure it could handle such violence without shattering. “I think it’s one of Gary’s teammates. They’ve all become assholes since they found out Gary and I … you know, did it.”

I couldn’t tell what part of that confession stunned me more.

“You guys did it and he told his friends?” I didn’t know whether to smack her for doing it with such a creep or smack him for being such a douche about it.

“He didn’t tell them. Apparently one of them walked in on us.
”

“
Apparently
?”

She shrugged. “
It was last weekend when he had that party at his house.”

“You mean the one you invited me to?”

“And you refused?” she countered sardonically. “Yeah, that one. He’d been hinting at us hooking up for ages. I always knew we would eventually anyway. I mean, we’ve been dating for like four weeks and he already told me he loved me. So I finally said yes. We went up to his room and did the deed. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t like he was my first so it wasn’t such a big deal.”

“And he
said someone saw?”

Nessie nodded. “
One of his friends made some stupid comment and I got pissed because I thought Gary had gone and told everyone, but he said one of them walked in by accident on their way to the bathroom.”

I never really thought Nessie was stupid, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to shake her. “So this guy
has probably been to Gary’s house a million times, right? Yet he forgot where the bathroom was?”

“They were drunk!”
Nessie stopped drying and looked at me. “What are you saying anyway? That Gary told them?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just saying Gary’s a guy. Maybe he did.”

She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Gary loves me. He would never do that.”

I put my hands up.
“Okay. Sorry. You’re probably right.”

Neither of us spoke of it again
. The boys finished straightening up the sitting area and flopped down to pore over some magazine Kenny pulled from his backpack.

“Maybe you guys could come help scrub down the table,” Nessie shot at them before they could even open the
thing. I opened my mouth to tell her it was part of our job, but she had already stormed over to the sofa to loom over the two. “You’re supposed to be helping us clean,” she accused.

“
And we did. We cleaned in here,” Adam replied evenly from over his shoulder. “The table is your job. Nice try though.”

“So you’re just going to sit there
doing nothing while we do all the work?” she exclaimed shrilly, making my teeth grit as the sound reached that disturbing decibel reserved for dog whistles.

“No! Of course not.”
Adam took the magazine from Kenny and flipped it open. “We’re going to look for a new board.”

Nessie’s phone chirped again
, saving Adam from getting his head torn off. She tore it out and checked it. I could hear her growl even from that distance as she stuffed it back into her pocket and rounded on her brother.

“Don’t be
such a jerk!” she snapped, ripping off her apron and bolting from the room.

“Nessie!” I called after her,
but she was gone and I was left to scrub a tower of dishes alone.

Shaking my head, I turned back to the sink
, systematically washing, rinsing and drying, knowing full well I would be there until suppertime. I had half a mind to track Nessie down and demand she come back and help me, but then she’d only complain about Adam and Kenny not doing anything and I wasn’t in the mood for it.

“Here.” Adam
tossed me the dishrag Nessie had tossed aside and maneuvered in front of the sink. I watched in stunned speechlessness as he rolled up his sleeves and plunged his hands into the soapy water.

“You
… you don’t have to do that,” I said, my voice wavering only slightly.

Adam’s blue eyes lifted and fixed on me, stealing any notion I may have had of speaking again.

“I want to,” he murmured.

There was something unusually daunting about being there with him,
about standing by his side and doing something so normal. I had never in my left felt feminine or delicate, but being next to Adam’s radiating strength, I felt tiny. He was so big. Everything about him seemed so powerful and precise. I couldn’t stop stealing glances at him from the corner of my eye, tracing his profile as he did something as mundane as washing dishes.

He passed me a plate
and our fingers brushed. The unexpected bolt of electricity that shot between our touch nearly made me lose my grip. He didn’t seem to notice.

This was as alone as I’d been with him since our time together at
his house. True there was our date to the carnival, where he had been completely mine and it had been magical in a way I was afraid I would never experience again. But it hadn’t been like this. He hadn’t known who I was and there had been a certain level of safety there.

I swallowed down the wedge lodged in my throat. I kept my gaze down as I took each dish from him and wiped them dry. Neither of us spoke, yet our silence seemed to scream with all
of our unused words. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to see his eyes. I wanted to see the hunger and affection that always seemed to be glowing there. I wanted to feel like I was the only one to him again.

Stop it!
The little voice in my head was right. I needed to keep focused or I would never make it through the next six days. I had to keep strong. I had to—

“
I miss you.”

The butter knife
slipped from my fingers and hit the hardwood at my feet with a deafening clang. My heart tripped even as I willed it, begged it even, not to.

Without glancing at me, Adam bent down and picked it up. He dropped it into the sink to be rewashed as though nothing was different, as though I was still bothering to breathe.

“It might sound crazy, but…” He washed the knife and slipped it into the second sink to be rinsed. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t stop thinking about how you smell and the way you feel in my arms when I kiss you.”

Each word slammed into me like the warm waves of a sunbaked ocean. I felt the collision straight to my curled toes. It pooled in the pit of my stomach, making it hurt with the need to throw myself at him.
Yet at the same time, my chest hurt like he’d punched me.

“
Stop.” The whispered plea shook. There wasn’t enough spit in my mouth to unglue my tongue.

He continued to wash dishes and drop them into the rinsing water
.

“
I never thought it was possible to fall for someone so hard, so fast.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “But I can’t get you out of my head,
nena
.”

“
Adam … please.”

“
I never stopped wanting you … needing you. I know there’s a difference. A child wants. It’s something selfish and unnecessary. But I
need
you, Kia. It’s a physical ache like losing a limb.”

I felt nothing but numbness in my fingers, in my toes,
and in my mind. I had no idea how words were formulated so I stood there like an idiot as he washed dishes and made me fall in love with him.

“There’s something you need to know about me, Kia.” His eyes, blue and bottomless
finally moved to me, gleaming bright with intensity. “I was never taught how to lose.”

With
nothing to say, I accepted the plate he passed me and the next. We worked in silence, washing and drying while his words played in a loop through my mind. He helped me locate the cupboards and drawers most of the items went into without either of us saying a word.

“Top shelf,” he said when I finished wiping down the porcelain bowl Mrs. Chaves had used for the eggs.

I followed his pointing finger to the cupboard next to the fridge. I went over and yanked it open. My head tipped back so I could see the gap between a vase and another dish at the very top. I reached for it with the bowl, hoping to slide it into place without nudging the other two. But I couldn’t reach it. I was six feet tall and if I was having trouble, I couldn’t imagine how Nessie got about with her tiny height.

I briefly wondered if there was a stool I could use and was about to ask when I felt him come up behind me. His chest brushed my back once before settling into place, fitting perfectly against me. He
rested one hand on the counter and placed the other lightly on my waist. My t-shirt had ridden up over the waistband of my jeans and his fingers slid into the gap, skimming exposed skin. I gasped. Every nerve ending in my body screamed as though they’d been set on fire. The bowl slipped. Adam caught it, but not with the hand whose fingers were burning small circles onto my skin.

“Careful
.” Warm and rich, the single word was a husky purr in my ear.

Something sharp and heady spiked in the pit of my stomach.
My knees dissolved and I just managed to grab the second shelf on the cupboard to steady myself.

“Adam…” His name slipped from my lips before I could even think to stop it. It pulsed around us, a pleading whisper for something I knew was a bad idea.

The bowl was set aside as his fingers tightened on me. I felt the heat of him sizzle between us as he molded himself into my back. His breathing was heavy in my ear. His heart cracked with erratic excitement against my shoulder blade. My own heart galloped wildly, matching his. I felt him lean closer. His lips brushed the curve of my jawline and, like a magnet, my face turned to him, my lips parted and seeking his. His breath knotted with mine.

“
Kia…” Desperation colored my name. The fingers curled around my waist trembled. “I want—”

“Hey, come look at this!”
Kenny’s excited exclamation shattered the moment like a hammer through glass.

I quickly jerked away from Adam, mentally kicking myself for being so weak. What if Nessie had come back? What if she’d seen?
I slumped against the fridge door, letting the coolness of it seep through my clothes and ease the burn he’d left behind. I didn’t look at him, but I could feel him watching me.

“That can’t happen again
. Promise me.”

He started away from me
. “I won’t make that promise.”

Adam

The violent hurl of Vanessa’s fashion magazine was like the explosion of bird wings taking flight … then striking a concrete wall. The thing slammed into the coffee table and skid across it to disappear over the lip. It landed with a pathetic thump on the other side.

“I’m so bored!”
she wailed dramatically, flopped back against the sofa and folded her arms like a petulant child. “I want to do something.”

Carefully, I shut my own magazine and set it aside on the end table by my elbow. I hadn’t been reading it anyway.
My attention had kept wandering over to the quiet figure perched on the sofa next to my sister, legs curled under her, chin resting on the heel of her hand. I kept getting distracted by the persistent nibbling she was doing on her bottom lip, filling the thing with blood so it was swollen and pink in a way that was doing delicious things to my insides. I knew the look, the furrowed state of her brows and the dark uncertainty in her eyes. She was overthinking something, and I was smart enough to know it was about what had almost happened between us in the kitchen and about her promise to Van and whatever else was rolling around up in her head. I felt like the worst sort to be part of the reason she seemed so lost, but I largely blamed Van. I also blamed my parents. They were the reason she was such a spoiled brat who refused to share or take responsibility for anything. Kia could have already been mine. We could have been together, if it hadn’t been for my sister. Then she wondered why people didn’t like her. I was her brother and I had a hard time liking her sometimes. She had no idea how lucky she was, not just to have Kia, but because she was free of all the expectations. Yet she was as miserable as ever.

In the armchair, flipped upside down, long legs dangling over the back, head dangling nearly
to the floor, Kenny said, “I could dance for quarters if you like.” He drew his eyes away from the phone screen hovering inches from his nose and peered over at Van. He smirked. “It’s extra if I’m naked.”

I made a face even before
Van curled her lips. “Ew.”

Kenny
snickered, going back to his game of
Angry Birds
. “You say that now, but that’s because you haven’t seen all this in the flesh.”

Making a sound of disgust, Van turned her
focus away to check her phone. Her brows creased as she looked something over. Then, with a sneer, she flipped it off and turned to Kia.

She frowned. “Hey!” She nudged Kia with an elbow.

Kia, who had been staring unseeingly out the window for the last hour and a half, jumped. The open book balanced on her knee tumbled to the floor with a muffled thud. She blinked those big, brown eyes of hers.

“What?”

“What are you looking at?” Van craned her neck to peer out the window over Kia’s shoulder. “What’s out there?”

Nothing,
I wanted to tell her. We were completely isolated and surrounded by trees and snow. The closest house was two miles away. But Kia beat me to it.

“I was reading.”
She snatched up her book as though to prove it.

Van narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t turned a page in over an hour.”

A flush crept into Kia’s cheeks. “I’m a slow reader.”

“Liar!” Van leapt to her feet. “You’re as bored as I am. Admit it!”

“No, I—”

Van ignored her, moving like a bullet around the room towards the phone. “I’m calling Mom and Dad.
How much shopping can two people do?”

“Considering that Christmas is only days away and you gave them six pages of crap you wanted
… I’d say a while,” I remarked casually, drumming my fingers on the armrest.

Van growled, stomping her foot. “I don’t want to just sit here for the next
week!”

“We could
go skiing,” Kenny said, flipping himself around, eyes still glued to the screen. “Dill just messaged me. The gang’s on their way to shred some powder on
Blackcomb
.” He glanced up and around at the rest of us. “Any takers?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t—” Whatever Kia was about to say was drowned out by Van’s
elated screech.

“In!” she shouted, doing a little jump.

“No!” I said with a little more snap than I’d meant. “We should do something else.”

Three pairs of eyes were trained on me now, watching me with a confusion and annoyance, in Van’s case.

“And why would we do that?” she challenged. “You love skiing.”

True, but…

“It’s not a good idea,” I answered. “We could go into the village—”

“What gives, dude?”
Kenny interjected, making me want to reach over and kick him.

“Yeah, Adam,” Van chimed in. “What’s your problem?”

“I just don’t think—”

“Oh I know!”
Kenny smirked in a very feline sort of way. “You’re worried Taylor—”

Van stiffened. Her hands flew to her hips. “What about Taylor?”

I threw my hands up. So much for trying to be a protective big brother. “She’s there,” I said as though it should have been obvious. “I mean, she’s part of the
gang
. I just thought—”

“That I
was some weak coward afraid of that two-faced bitch, is that it?”

“No!”

But Van was no longer listening to me. She flipped a curl of hair off her shoulder and poked her chin up a notch. “I’m not afraid of her. There is nothing she can do to me anymore. I want to go skiing.” She whipped around on the heel of her sock-clad feet and flounced in the direction of the stairs. “I’m going to get dressed.”

She was gone before anyone could stop her.
Her feet pounded on the stairs as she ran up them.

“Who’s Taylor?” Kia asked, glancing from me to
Kenny.

Kenny
opened his mouth to respond when Van shouted from the top of the stairs. “Come on, Kia!”

Kia
groaned. “Can I just get a root canal instead?” But she rose and shuffled off.

“Sorry, man,”
Kenny muttered when we were alone. “I completely forgot…”

I waved his apology away. “Whatever.
I tried. It’s up to her if she wants to go.”

Kenny
just nodded slowly for a moment before speaking again. “So Kia’s nice. Not Vanessa’s usual pick in friends.”

“
She doesn’t want another Taylor,” I mumbled. “I think she’s trying to change.”

Kenny
snorted. “I didn’t think your sister was capable.”

I got to my feet. “
She’s had a rough year, but she’s tough.”

Kenny
unfolded his tall frame from the chair and tucked his phone into his pocket. “I like her. Kia, that is. She has a … personality, I find kind of sexy.” He looked up and caught the warning glower I cast him. He grinned. “Don’t worry. I know she’s yours. But I’d be careful.”

I
folded my arms and cocked my head to the side. “Why’s that?”

Kenny
moved towards the stairs, his long legs eating the distance with little effort. “Girls like Kia want your heart and no guy deserves that kind of death.”

I waited until he’d made his way
up the stairs before muttering, “Too late.”

Taylor and the group met us at
The Roundhouse Lodge
on one of Whistler’s highest mountains. The lodge had always been one of my favorites. The log-style structure sitting regal against the snow-capped mountains always felt warm and welcoming, and the trip down the side of
Whistler’s Peak
… epic!

The group was waiting for us at the front doors of the lodge when we clambered our way off the gondola with our
skis (snowboard in my case), poles and bulky suits. Taylor stood at the helm, entertaining the group with a story about some lazy waitress. The others seemed to be eating it up, laughing and making snide remarks. They stopped when Taylor turned and caught sight of us. She beamed and flicked a blonde curl off her shoulder.

“Adam!” She
sashayed over and kissed me before I could stop her. Her lips were sweet, like flavored ChapStick—cherries, I think. It made me want to scrub my mouth. She drew back, biting her bottom lip. Her smile was all seduction as her arm snaked through mine. She pressed her chest into my upper arm. “Where did you go last night? I was hoping we could head up to my room and finish what we started on the couch. I know you were feeling it, too.”

We clearly had very different memories of the previous night, because, while I was feeling something, it hadn’t been her.

“
I told you it wasn’t happening again.” I tried to dislodge my arm from her clutches, but the girl was like a Venus flytrap and my arm was a fly.

“
I think you should let me try and convince you.” Her finger pressed into my lips before I could even think to correct her. “Don’t say anything right now, but when we’re done here, we should go back to the hotel and take a shower together.” She grinned darkly. “I plan on getting very dirty.”

Would that mistake never stop haunting me?

“Taylor, I—”

She was no longer listening.
Her blue eyes found something over my shoulder and she squinted.

I turned to see what had caught her attention and grimaced. Van
looked about two seconds from tearing the head off a kitten with her teeth. Kenny had wandered off to talk to some of the other guys and Kia … Kia was staring at her boots. It didn’t take a degree in rocket science to guess that they’d heard at least the last part of Taylor’s suggestion.

I cursed
inwardly and yanked my arm free, almost smacking Taylor in the face in the process. She didn’t seem to notice.

“
Oh my God!” she exclaimed loudly, drawing every eye within earshot in our direction. “Vanessa?”

Vanessa
glared, and I questioned the wisdom of allowing her a long, sharp stick.

“
It is you!” Taylor hooted a laugh. “I haven’t seen you in four months! Not since—”

“Yeah, it’s been a while,”
Van interrupted tightly.

As far as I knew, Van hadn’t seen Taylor since her expulsion from Vina, a not so shiny moment for Van and the crumbling foundation
between her and our parents. But I was sure her getting the boot had nothing to do with her friendship falling apart with Taylor. That had all been me. I was the reason they weren’t friends. I was the reason Van looked like she was headed into war and not a fun ski trip. It was due to that single mistake a year ago that my sister couldn’t stand me and truthfully, I couldn’t blame her. What I’d done had been inexcusable.

With a sound one made when a kitten did something especially adorable, Taylor clomped forward in her massive ski boots and jerked Van into a tight embrace.

“You’re so brave to show your face again,” she said, drawing away. “That’s what I always loved about you, Vanessa. You never cared what anyone thought.”

Van
jerked away and offered her a smile that practically crackled with ice. “Why should I? Most people are simple minded and shallow.”

Taylor gave her a shake. “Exactly.
So brave.” Taylor’s gaze passed over Van and settled on Kia. Interest lit up behind her eyes. “And who’s this?”

“I’m Kia.” She jerked a thumb towards Van. “Nessie’s friend from Margaretson.”

Taylor’s blue eyes went round. “How adorable!” She looked at Van, still slack-jawed and bug-eyed. “And you brought her with you? That’s so
nice
.” There was nothing
nice
about the way she said nice. It was condescending and rude and, had she been a guy, I probably would have hit her.

“Well she couldn’t
leave me at home,” Kia said evenly. “I chew on the furniture.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the
uncertain frown on Taylor’s face as she cocked her head to the side and studied Kia. It was almost comical, like she couldn’t quite figure out if Kia was joking or not. When no one said anything for several minutes, Taylor decided it was a joke and offered Kia an indulgent little smile one reserved for idiots.