Sweet Peril (23 page)

I wanted to stare Kaidan down, but when he turned to face me I was distracted by the girth of body beneath his face. I eyed the layers of muscle in his arms, chest, and abs. He was ripped! Was he
living
at the gym these days? His already-toned belly now boasted a six-pack. Muscles didn’t usually do it for me, but I had to admit his tall frame wore it well. I swallowed and looked back up where he’d been patiently waiting for me to finish my perusal.

I cleared my throat and crossed my arms.

“Kope and I aren’t some Hollywood couple,” I stated. “We’re friends.
Just
friends.”

Kaidan’s jaw rocked side to side for a minute, chewing his thoughts.

“Do you snog all your friends, then?”

Keep it together
, I warned myself.

“Er . . .” Blake tugged on his earlobe. “I’m just gonna run in and grab a shower while you two talk.” He took off.

Kaidan and I held our blazing eye contact. He was beyond pissed, which made me angry in my own defense.

Without the comfort of Blake’s presence as a buffer, the
silence stretched taut between us. What could I say to make this right? I’d kissed the one guy he’d always been paranoid about. The one guy who elicited his jealousy.

“I never meant for it to happen, Kai. We were—”

“I’d rather not hear the details, thanks.” Kaidan walked to the open area of the thatched bungalow. He took a beer out of the cooler and twisted off the cap, drinking. Pushing aside thoughts about how great a cold beer would be right then, I marched over to him.

“Kaidan.” I may as well have been a ghost as I followed him around the deck, because he turned away as if I weren’t there. “Listen to me.” I touched his forearm, but he pulled it away and gave me a stare down that clearly said
Don’t touch me again
. My stomach dropped.

In that moment, I believed for the first time he truly might be lost to me. Gone. Because he’d never looked at me like that before.

“Is this all because of Kope? You’re acting like . . .” We both stopped when he turned to me and cocked his head, waiting for me to finish. “. . . like I cheated on you or something.”

The moment I said it, his face flashed from angry hardness to sad softness, and I realized that’s exactly how he felt. Betrayed. Forgotten. Even though he’d been the one who’d left. Even though he’d told me to move on and told Kope to go for it. He hadn’t meant any of it. But that wasn’t my fault.

He finished his beer and proceeded to flip the bottle in the air and catch it, drops of beer flying as it spun. I wiped my arm. I’d had enough of this.

“You really have no right to be upset with me,” I told him. “I heard what you told him on the phone.”
Kaidan coughed a dry laugh and threw the bottle higher. “Words,” he said.

Sudden anger and a sense of injustice lashed through me.

“Words are powerful, Kai, and so is a
lack
of words. You wouldn’t even talk to me anymore. I didn’t know what to think! And then to hear you tell him that? How was I supposed to feel?”

He kept his eyes and attention on the bottle. “Nothing I said could’ve pushed you into his arms if you didn’t want to be there.”

“Yeah, well, in one really bad, freaked-out moment that’s where I ended up, but it wasn’t planned. It felt wrong.”

Kaidan chuckled, a dark sound. “Perhaps your boy Kope is just out of practice. Although some things should come natural for him.”

“All right.” I slapped my hands against my sides. “You’re being unreasonable. We’ll talk when Blake comes back.”

I walked toward the pool, steaming, and he followed me.

“It was inevitable,” he said from behind me.

Grrr!

I spun on my sandaled heels just as he tossed the bottle high again.

“Inevitable? Like you and that Anna chick you work with?”

Kaidan went very still as the bottle hit his upturned hand, fell, and rolled on the deck with a clink. He whispered, “Shite,” and leaned down to get it.

Against my better judgment I took the opportunity to look at his new body again. He’d always had a more rugged face and confident posture than other guys I knew, but I couldn’t get over how much he’d changed. Gone were any of the lean,
boyish features from my memory. He peered up at the house.

“I know you’re finished in there, Blake. May as well come out.”

I breathed a silent sigh.

Blake strolled onto the deck wearing low-slung skater shorts and flip-flops. Being shirtless must’ve been mandatory in California. I kind of wished they’d get dressed so I could focus properly when I told them about the prophecy. Blake joined us beside the pool.

“So . . .  ,” said Blake, rocking back on his heels. “Lover’s quarrel over?”

“We’re not lovers,” Kaidan and I said together.

“What’s stopping you?” Blake smiled.

“What’s stopping you and Ginger?” Kaidan asked.

“An ocean, man. Fu—” He glanced at me. “Uh . . .
eff you
.”

“
Eff
me?” Kaidan asked, grinning. “No, eff you, mate.”

Blake put a fist over his mouth when he caught what must have been a seething look on my face, and he laughed, punching Kaidan in the arm.

“Told you, man! She’s pissed about the cursing thing! Ginger was right.”

I shook my head. I wouldn’t look at them. I was too humiliated to deny it.

“Girl, all you have to do is say the word, and Mr. Lusty McLust a Lot here will be happy to whisper some dirty nothings in your ear.”

Kaidan half grinned, sexuality rolling off him as wild as the Pacific below us.

I took a shaky breath.

“I don’t appreciate when people are
fake
with me.” I pointed
this statement at Kaidan.

Okay, calling him a fake was overboard, especially if he was just being respectful. But my feelings were bruised and battered. If Kai wasn’t going to forgive me or be willing to talk, I couldn’t hang around and deal with his bad attitude. It hurt too much, and the unfairness frustrated me to no end. “If you guys will sit down and shut up for a minute, I’ll tell you what I came here to say, and then I’m out of here. You two can find someone else to make fun of.”

They both wiped the smiles from their faces. I pulled a padded lawn chair over and sat. They moved a couple of chairs closer, giving me their attention. As I began the story, my irritation was chased away by the wonder of past events and things to come. I started with the prophecy and how I could be used, somehow, to expel the demons from earth, giving their souls a chance to be redeemed and return to heaven. The guys were avid listeners, staring as if I were bathed in light or something. All traces of Kaidan’s earlier hostility had disappeared.

I forged ahead, telling them of the traveling I’d done, careful not to mention Kopano. I focused instead on Zania in Syria and Flynn in Australia. When I finished, Blake and Kaidan blinked at each other, sober and serious. They were in business mode, all previous emotions set aside.

“What do you think your dad’s gonna do?” Blake asked him.

Kaidan shook his head. “I was just wondering the same thing. I can picture your father turning to the light, but I can’t imagine Pharzuph swallowing his pride.”

“So, what are we going to do to make this happen?” Blake asked me.

“I don’t know, honestly,” I told him. “I can’t just knock on their doors one by one. It would never work.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Kaidan agreed. “They always have whisperers coming and going. Plus, unless the souls of the Dukes are dragged away by God himself, what’s to keep them from staying here on earth, possessing someone else, and then coming after you? They’d alert one another. Unless you take them out one by one with the Sword. You’ll need to gather the Dukes all together. Like at a summit.”

“Yeah, but the Neph aren’t usually invited to those unless they want to kill one of us,” Blake said.

Kaidan shrugged. “So, we show up uninvited.”

“We’re just building the list of allies right now,” I told them. “We can’t rush it. I think when it’s time to act, there’ll be some sort of catalyst to let us know.”

We pondered the possibilities. Kaidan zoned out, lost in thought.

Now was an ideal time for me to leave. I would rather go on a positive note while everyone was experiencing a moment of peace and hope. I knew as soon as the subject got back to personal stuff, Kaidan’s guard would go up. This heart couldn’t take much more breaking. A sharp pang of loss sliced through my chest.

I stood, and they both raised their heads as if shaken awake.

“Where are you going?” Blake asked.

“Home. I said what I came to say. It was . . . good to see you guys.”

I didn’t want to say good-bye. I hated leaving things the way they were.
You’re such a coward, Anna
. My legs felt weighted to that spot.

“By the way,” I said to Blake, stalling, “here’s a message from Ginger. The G-rated version, anyway.”

I blew a kiss to him. He pretended to catch it and press it to his lips. “Thanks,” he said. I expected some further funny remark from him, but instead he stood and hugged me.

“Don’t go,” he pleaded before releasing me.

“I really should.” I looked down at the silver hem of my beach shorts.

“If this is about earlier, we were only kidding around,” Blake said.

“I told you she can be stubborn when she wants, didn’t I?” Kaidan asked, stretched out on his chair with his hands behind his head. “You didn’t believe me.”

“I’m not being stubborn!” I put my hands on my hips and scowled down at him, wondering if maybe I
was
being stubborn. He raised an eyebrow when I said, “And you have no room to talk. You’re a mule.”

Blake laughed and pointed at Kai. “She just called you an ass, man.”

“I
am
an ass-man,” Kai stated.

Blake laughed harder and I rolled my eyes.

“Aw, c’mon, just stay,” Blake said.

“I don’t think so.” Okay, I was definitely being stubborn now, but Kai hadn’t exactly been Mr. Nice Guy today. Yes, I’d made a mistake, but so had he, and I wasn’t dealing with any more of his meanness. “Just get up and say ’bye to me, Kai. Please.” He stood and towered over me, getting close in that intimidating way I remembered so well. I sucked in a breath and held it.

“Bossy, aren’t you?” His voice was low. As I raised my gaze
to those perfect blue eyes, I found I couldn’t respond and my cheeks got hot. “Right. You’d best cool off before you go.”

Before I could process those words, he bent down, grabbed me up in his arms, and jumped into the freaking deep end of the pool with me!

We went all the way to the bottom, where I kicked off and swam back up, surfacing with a gasp. Blake’s laughter rang through the air. I swiped water from my eyes. Kaidan was right in front of me and I shoved his chest. My movements in the water were sluggish, laughably ineffective. He grabbed my wrists and he was grinning! I struggled to pull away, still feeling unreasonably emotional. Attempting to wrestle with a big, sexy boy while treading water was not easy.

“Let me go,” I said. Disappointment and frustration about the day rose, coupled with embarrassment, making me angry all over again.

“Not until you agree to stay.” Water stuck to his dark eyelashes.

Why?
I wanted to ask. I flailed a moment longer, my thighs rubbing against his as our feet kicked.

“Stay,” he whispered.

And that soft plea did something to me. Like pinching a lit candle’s wick, what was left of my anger turned into a smoky, sizzling residue.

“Fine,” I said, and he let me go.

I swam to the ladder and climbed out, sensing him close behind me. My heart still banged against my ribs.

“Sweet!” Blake hollered across the pool. “I’ll order Chinese food for lunch.”

He jogged to the house and I trudged over to where I’d left
my bag by the rail. I dug through it for a dry set of clothes, and when I stood up and stepped backward, I bumped right into Kaidan and spun around.

He was dripping wet, and his eyes had gone stormy. Oh, heavens. He stood so close—in kissing distance. His pungent citrusy scent lay in a cloud all around us. My knees nearly buckled under me.

“For the record,” he ground out in a guttural whisper, “I was more myself with you during those three days than I’ve ever been with anyone in my life. It’d be easier if I could be fake with you, but you bring out everything in me, little Ann.
All
of it.”

His sudden fierceness frightened and excited me. He was not in his right mind. I blinked several times before taking a step back and running into the rail. I could do nothing but stare as he went on.

“And however it is that you
think
you still feel about me, I can assure you it’s nothing more than a classic case of someone who wants the one thing she can’t have. If you had me and got it out of your system, you’d realize the good boy’s the one you really want.”

Frustration tore through me. I shut my eyes and counted to five before responding. “Those are
your
insecurities, Kaidan, not facts, and I wish you would stop taking them out on me.”

Slowly he shook his head back and forth, not moving away. Any second now I was going to let loose a psychotic scream. I had to get away from him for a minute. I looked toward the bungalow. I tried to step to the side, but he moved to block my way.

“Excuse me,” I said as patiently as I could. “I need to change my clothes.”

I was about to attempt stepping around him again when I caught his stormy eyes roaming over me, savoring the sight of the damp outfit clinging to my skin. What happened next is what I’ve dubbed the I-don’t-know-what-came-over-me moment.

Still facing him, I grasped the bottom of my shirt and slowly peeled it over my head to reveal the bikini top. I let the shirt drop to the deck with a soaking smack. I’d never seen him so surprised. He seemed to become even more shaken when he caught the punishing look in my eyes. That’s right, Kai. I wasn’t the only one suffering from wanting the one thing I couldn’t have. I unbuttoned my shorts and shimmied them down my bottom and thighs, taking my time until they fell. I stepped out and kicked them aside, still watching him.