Play Room: A Society X Novel

by L. P. Dover

  Twenty-Six

  Alexandria

  “Who’s going to be at the dinner?” Kai asks.

  We’re almost to my parents’ house and I’m dreading it. It’s been months since I’ve seen or talked to my father. “Let’s see, Sandy will be there so I’m excited about that. My parents’ neighbors and friends, and whoever else wants to be there will be there. Growing up, they had dinners at the house all the time, but I always invited my friends.”

  Reaching over, Kai takes my hand. “You have me this time.”

  I just hope and pray my parents love him like I do. It doesn’t matter if they do or not, but it will be nice if they do. We pull up to the light blue, perfect house I grew up in and there are cars lined up and down the street.

  We park down the street and walk hand in hand up to the house. “This is where you grew up?”

  I nod. “It is, and I’m going to apologize in advance for whatever happens in there.”

  His brows furrow. “Is your dad really that bad?”

  My eyes burn. “No. Growing up, we used to do so much together. Then, when I started high school, it’s like I was in prison. I wasn’t allowed to do anything my friends were doing. That’s why I couldn’t wait to go to college.”

  Kai squeezes my hand. “You have an overprotective father. I’m sure his actions were because he loves you. You can damn well bet I’ll be the same way if we ever have a daughter.”

  The thought makes me smile. “You said we.”

  A sly grin spreads across his face. “Who knows.”

  I can just imagine a little girl with dark hair and his bright blue eyes. We walk inside and my mother is talking to Sandy. Her eyes widen when she sees us. Instead of sliding around on her scooter, she limps over to us.

  “You came. I’m so happy.” She pulls me into her arms and I hug her tight. “He’s handsome,” she says, whispering in my ear.

  Giggling, I let her go. There’s a twinkle in her eyes as she looks at Kai. “Mom, this is Kai Robicheau.” I look up at Kai. “Kai, this is my mom, Regina Miller.”

  Kai shakes her hand. “Thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Same, my dear. Hopefully, you and Alexandria will come around more often. I miss seeing my little girl.”

  “That depends all on Dad,” I grumble low so only my mother can hear.

  She sighs. “He’s excited to see you.”

  “Where is he?” I ask.

  “Not sure,” she replies, glancing around the room. “Maybe in the kitchen.”

  “I’ll find him in a little bit.”

  My mother cups my cheek and smiles. “Be nice. You’ll be surprised how much he’s changed.” Then she grins up at Kai. “I’m going to check on the food. We should be good to eat very soon.”

  She walks off and Kai chuckles. “You look just like her.”

  “So I’ve been told.” Taking his hand, I pull him through the living room.

  “Kai, over here buddy,” someone calls out.

  Kai stops and glances over his shoulder and then back to me. “It’s Stan. I can’t stand the bastard.”

  Stan walks over, his beady eyes on me like he’s checking me out.

  “I can see why,” I whisper for only him to hear.

  “Who’s your date?” Stan asks.

  Kai’s jaw clenches, but he smiles. “Stan, this is my girlfriend, Alex.”

  Stan holds out his hand. “You are very beautiful, Alex. How’d you get mixed up with this guy?”

  Grinning wide, I shake his hand. “I got lucky.” I look up at Kai and nod toward Sandy who’s in the corner, talking to Dani’s mother, Brenda. “I’ll be right back.”

  Kai nods and I walk away. Sandy waves frantically at me and I hurry over. “Your mother told me you were coming. There’s so much I want to tell you. I was just discussing it with Dani’s mother.”

  Brenda gives me a hug. “You’ll love it. I’ll let you two talk in private.”

  Excitement bubbles in my chest. “What’s going on?”

  She takes in a deep breath. “I finally decided it’s time to retire. I thought about giving the business to you and Dani.”

  “Seriously?” I squeal.

  She bursts out laughing. “Yes, but for a small fee. I know owning your own place is something you’ve wanted for a long time. You and Dani would be amazing partners.”

  “What about Adrienne?”

  “Once the baby comes, she’s decided to stay home. Dani doesn’t know yet. I wanted to tell you first.”

  Flinging my arms around her neck, I squeeze her tight. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say you’ll accept.”

  “Yes,” I gasp, letting her go. “I’d be more than happy to.”

  “Good. I’ll contact my lawyer and get the papers drawn up.”

  “Sounds perfect to me.” My dreams are finally coming true. I want to tell Kai the good news, but I don’t see him anywhere. I start toward the kitchen and my dad walks out, freezing when he gets a good look at me. His gray hair is still short, combed over on the top like he’s always worn it ever since before I was born. I expect to see disappointment on his face, but there’s a smile instead, only it’s sad.

  He opens his arms and closes the distance. “Lexi. It’s so good to see you, darling.”

  I hug him back. “Hey, Dad.”

  Placing his hands on my shoulders, he pulls me back and smiles. “I saw you talking to Sandy. Did she tell you the good news?”

  I nodded happily. “She did. I’m so excited I can barely think straight.”

  “When she told us, I knew you’d be happy. It’s been your dream for a long time.”

  “Yes, it has,” I mention sadly. I’ve never really taken the time to talk to my father about the things I wanted out of life, not since I yelled them at him before I left for college. It was the first time I had the guts to express how I felt.

  His eyes water and it makes mine burn. “I’ve missed you, Lexi. Over the last few months, I kept hoping you’d come see me.”

  “It works both ways, Dad.”

  He nods once and drops his gaze. “I know. I can’t turn back time, but we can go forward. Sometimes it’s hard to face the fact that I’m old and that you’re not a little girl anymore. I wanted to hold onto that for as long as I could.”

  His words break my heart. “It’s okay. I know you were hard and strict because you love me.”

  “I do, sweetheart. More than you’ll ever know.” He smiles again and gasps. “Oh, I have someone for you to meet.”

  “Who is it?” I ask.

  “A man I know. I think he’ll be a good match for you.”

  Putting his arm around me, he leads me toward the kitchen, but I stop. “Dad, no, I can’t. I’m with someone now.”

  His brows furrow. “Oh yeah?”

  At that time, Kai appears in the doorway, mouth gaping as he looks from me to my father. “Yes,” I say nervously, pointing at Kai. “He’s right there.”

  My father peers over at Kai and wide grin spreads across his face. “Well, look what we got here.”

  Kai walks over, seeming unsure. “Did I miss something?”

  My father extends his hand and Kai shakes it. “Obviously, we all did. You didn’t tell me you were dating my daughter.”

  “Wait,” I gasp, staring curiously at them both, “how do you two know each other?”

  Chuckling, my father nods at Kai. “I’ve been working with this young man on the Sweet Briar project. I gave him your number a while back. I’m glad to see you two finally met.” My father kisses me on the head. “I’ll be right back.”

  As soon as he walks off, I cross my arms over my chest. “He gave you my number, huh?”

  Laughing, Kai shakes his head. “Who would’ve thought it’d be you.”

  I wrap my arms around his neck. “Why didn’t you call?”

  He holds me tight. “I think Stan took it from me. It doesn’t matter now, we’re together. The coi
ncidence is uncanny.”

  “Some would say it’s fate, but I don’t know if I believe in that stuff.”

  His lips connect with mine and I melt into him. “Either way, you’re mine now.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  The dinner went great and my parents absolutely love Kai, so do the women from the church. My parents made us promise to visit them every other Sunday afternoon after my father’s done with his church sermons. It’s late by the time we arrive back at Kai’s apartment. My eyes are heavy and all I want to do is sleep.

  Kai opens the door and he follows me into the bedroom. Laying down on the bed, I breathe in the smell of him on the sheets. “Has the excitement worn you out?” he asks with a laugh.

  Grinning from ear to ear, I hold his pillow to my chest. “You have no idea. Everything’s falling into place just the way I want it.”

  He lies down beside me. “I know. You and Dani have a lot of talking to do when you go back to work.”

  “I can’t believe I’m going to be part owner of Let’s Get Baked. I don’t have to start from scratch.”

  “No, you don’t. I’m here if you need help.”

  I place my hand on top of his. “I know you are. You have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

  He kisses my hand. “I understand now why you and your father didn’t get along when you were growing up. He’s a preacher who wanted his daughter to keep her innocence.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “I feel so guilty for avoiding him. I just didn’t want to hear him preach to me about what I’m doing wrong in this world.”

  “Did he do that tonight?”

  A tear falls down the side of my face. “No, that’s what makes my heart ache. By avoiding him, I’ve hurt him. The sadness in his eyes is something I don’t ever want to see again.”

  “You won’t have to,” he murmurs. “I think we made him happy tonight. Not to mention, your parents conned us into visiting them every other weekend.”

  I burst out laughing. “Yes, they did.”

  Kai grabs my waist and slides me into his body. “I’m starting to get used to this.”

  Snuggling into his arms, I breathe him in. “Me too.” I close my eyes and I can feel my mind drifting away.

  “I love you, Alex.”

  I smile. “And I love you.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Kai

  Today is the day that I officially ask Alex to move in with me. We’re going furniture shopping under the guise that I need a new dining room table. The one I have now is small, and completely covered with the plans for Let’s Get Baked. It would be nice to say that my girl is a business owner, but Dani didn’t have her share of the deposit, which held up the closing. I was tempted to buy Sandy out and hand the business over to Alex, but I knew that Alex had worked hard to save the money and I wanted her to feel successful.

  Still, that hasn’t stopped Alex and Dani from drawing up new plans for the kitchen. I hovered until my opinion was asked. Sometimes they took it, other times I would get up in the middle of the night and make the subtle changes I knew their contractor would make regardless.

  Since she took me home to meet her parents, she’s stayed at my apartment each night. It would make sense for us to move to her house, but it’s small with only one-bedroom, and it can fit in my place. I love that she’s here, but definitely want to her to make this her home until we can buy a house together.

  Buying a house and putting down roots isn’t something I’ve ever thought about. Even when I was living in Malibu, renting was the only option for me. Buying means commitment, and until now I wasn’t interested in getting that far in life.

  Alex and I walk hand in hand through the furniture store. I have seen a few tables I like, but I’m waiting for Alex to have that ah ha moment, and then I’ll ask her. I’m nervous and I’m surprised she hasn’t noticed that I’m fidgeting or that my palm is sweating. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. It’s not like I’m asking her to marry me.

  We test out each option. By test, Alex sits down, she measures, and stands back to look at every angle while I put all my weight on the wood to make sure it can withstand the pressure … you know for when we christen it. I have my priorities.

  “What do you think about this one?” she asks. Her face is pinched as she peers at the table. “It can seat four until you have company and it will expand to eight.”

  “We,” I say, correcting her.

  “Huh?”

  “You said, ‘when I have company’ and I corrected you. It’s when ‘we’ have company.”

  Alex brushes me off. “It’s your place, Kai.”

  I move toward her. “Why don’t we make it our place?”

  Narrowing her eyes, she tilts her head.

  “Alexandria Miller, I know we haven’t been dating long, but I would like to know if you’d like to move in with me?”

  “Kai—”

  “Say yes,” yells the lady behind Alex. I nod, giving her a silent thank you.

  “Think about it, babe. You haven’t spent a single night at your place since you took me home to meet your parents. You’re paying rent and utilities for a place you’re not using, plus you’re about to open your own business. You’re going to be busy and the last thing I want is to put pressure on you after you’ve had a long day, but you know it’s going to happen. You know I’m going to ask you to come over or I’ll be at your place and you’ll feel like you need to entertain me. If we’re living in one place, we’re home and together. We won’t feel pressured when we have to work late. You won’t stress about your house and the bills that come with it.”

  “You’ll charge me rent, right? I’ll be allowed to pay my half?”

  “Of course, babe. Fifty-fifty all the way, except for this table. I’ll buy that because it’s needed, unless you want to take the spare bedroom and make it an office for the both of us. We can ditch the table and buy a few desks and bookshelves.”

  “What about when your parents come to visit?”

  “They won’t. My mom doesn’t fly and I she definitely won’t drive this far. Right now, it’s storage. I’ll gladly share the room with you.”

  Alex ponders my proposal, and by the expression on her face she’s going to say yes. When she nods rapidly, I pull her into my arms and kiss her. The people lingering around start clapping, which honestly is a bit embarrassing. I set her back down and kiss her again.

  “Let’s go look at other furniture.”

  “Wait,” she says, halting me. “The table … I sort of really like it.”

  Grinning widely, I search for a sales person. “We’ll take this, but we’ll be adding some more.”

  Alex and I rush to the other section and start looking at desks and the configuration we could make. The shitty part is that I don’t have the dimension of the room so it’ll be rather hard for us to buy anything tonight, but we can get a good idea of what we want and come back another night.

  We head back toward the sales desk with a good idea of what we want, and that is when I have that moment, the one you never want to have in front of the woman you’re in love with.

  I try to hide my face, but eye contact was already made. When Jenica realizes it’s me, her eyes light up. Seriously? This woman knows my most sordid details and she’s excited to see me. And fuck my life, she’s coming toward us. How the hell am I going to explain to Alex that I was paying for sex?

  “Hi, Kai!”

  “Jenica,” I say curtly. I’m definitely not interested in introducing her to Alex.

  “You know, I heard about this happening, but haven’t witnessed it until now.”

  “What is that exactly?” I ask. I can feel Alex’s eyes on me, but there is no way in hell that I’ll look at her.

  “You guys! I mean, how did figure it out? Did you break the rules?”

  Closing my eyes, I swallow hard. I’m having a hard time processing what Jenica is saying. I don’t want to assume, but it sounds like Alex was my partner at the club,
and that just can’t be.

  “Um … where do you work?” the soft voice of Alex asks.

  “Society X. I was Kai’s escort. Jared’s yours, right?”

  My head starts to spin as I step away from Alex. I can’t even comprehend what I’m hearing right now.

  “Oh shit, I didn’t know that you didn’t know … wow, what a coincidence that you would hook up outside of the club.”

  I want to puke. If I’m assuming right, I took Alex’s virginity in the dark room. I don’t even care about the other shit we did because what took place in the dark room is bigger than all that.

  I finally have the courage to look at Alex, who is pale. I don’t know if I should reach out to her or what. The high from today is gone. It no longer exists.

  “Are you ready to pay for the table?”

  I shake my head and turn toward the exit, leaving Alex in the showroom. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that she used the club to lose her virginity.

  The more I think about it, the angrier I become. When Alex steps out, she doesn’t look at me. I don’t know where we go from here, but right now I can’t be with her. Pulling my keys out of my pocket, I toss them at her. “You can take my car. I need some time to think.”

  “Kai?” she says, her voice low and hollow.

  I stop, but keep my back to her. “Don’t, Alex. What you did …” I can’t finish my sentence without insulting her and that’s not what I want to do. Something possessed her to use the club, and while I shouldn’t judge because I was there too, the fact remains she gave a complete stranger something that she should’ve held sacred to her. That is what kills me.

  I haven’t a clue as to where I’m going. I’m just walking. It’s getting dark and I’m hungry, but I can’t fathom eating anything right now. I finally happen along the train station. I pay my fee and wait for the next one to arrive. There are couples all around me, each one making more jealous because up until a few hours ago, I had that.

  And now I don’t know what I have besides a broken heart and a very confused brain. I know I need to talk to her, but I don’t know what to say. I need to know why she did that and how many other men she was with …