UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3)

by Kiss, Tabatha

  I fall silent and bite my tongue to keep myself from saying something equally as stupid. She turns away from me and walks over to the other side of the roof. I almost expect her to pull the door to the stairs open and leave my ass up here. I honestly wouldn’t blame her at all. Instead, she strides to the edge of the building and sits down to dangle her feet off the ledge.

  That’s my Piper. Always living dangerously.

  I inch over to her and slowly sit down beside her. We watch the streets below us, gandering at the people passing by. Their voices echo up from the ground, but their words are lost in the wind by the time they reach us.

  “I’m sorry,” I finally say. “You’re right. I focus on the past a little too much.” I look at her, hoping that she’ll say something, but she stays silent with wandering eyes. Her raven hair falls down in front of her face. I want to reach out and push it behind her ear, just like I’ve done a thousand times before, but I hold myself back. I know better than to invade Piper’s space after I’ve pissed her off.

  “It’s just…” she mutters quietly. “There was a lot of good back then… but also a whole lot of bad.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “I remember.”

  “I don’t like thinking about who I was back then. I’m not that girl anymore and I don’t want to be her again.” She glances at me. “So, you understand why reliving the past makes me feel a little uncomfortable.”

  I put my hand on her knee. “Pipes…”

  “You’ve always been Kai Casablancas,” she continues. “You’ve always been yourself. You know what you want, who you are, and you’ve never compromised.”

  I nod along with her words. “I guess that’s true.”

  “Four years ago, you wanted Piper Lynch.”

  “I still do.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes.” I shift closer to her, pivoting myself to face her. “I wanted the girl I knew back then and I want the girl sitting in front of me now. And you’re right. You’re not the same Piper Lynch that walked across the stage at Belle Academy graduation and I don’t want you to be. That girl was boring.” A laugh escapes her lips. “She was an ugly girl — well, on the inside. You’ve always been gorgeous.”

  She bites her lip and her little blues finally peek up at me. “Okay…” she smirks. “Get the lines out.”

  “These aren’t lines, Pipes. I’m being honest.” I hold out my hand and wait for her to take it. She quickly entwines our fingers. “I can’t guarantee that I’m always going to be the same Kai Casablancas you grew up with, nor can you promise that you’ll always be the Piper Lynch you are now — but so what? We’ll grow and change and we’ll do it together.”

  “Sounds… ordinary,” she mutters.

  I sit back, faking a stunned face. “Oh, wow…” I say. “You’re right. Maybe we should quit while we’re ahead—”

  She reaches out and smacks my shoulder. “Dick,” she laughs.

  I laugh and wrap my arms around her to pull her in closer to me. “I brought us back to Europe to try and recapture the wonder years,” I say, “but now, I’m thinking that maybe I should toss out the itinerary.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” she warns. “My father will go berserk.”

  I plant a kiss on her alabaster cheek. “Let him.”

  She smiles and her eyes search my face. “Kai…” she whispers.

  “Yes, Piper?”

  Her smile fades down her cheeks. “Never mind,” she says. She leans towards me and kisses me softly. I return her kiss with caution, careful not to tip forward and topple off the tall roof.

  Piper fucking Lynch.

  Of course I still adore you.

  Of course you still annoy the crap out of me.

  Of course you’re still beautiful, even more so than you were before (and if your mother is any indication, you’ll age very, very well).

  Of course I still fight the urge to strangle you when we don’t see eye-to-eye.

  But we’re perfect exactly like this. It’s you and me against the world. We don’t need marriage or babies or any of that crap my mother hopes and dreams for. I’d rather it just be us, free and alive to do whatever we want.

  I kiss her again and I know she feels the same way.

  Chapter 9

  Piper

  You know what would be fucking great? If I could go a single hour without hearing the name Kai Casablancas.

  It’s bad enough I have to stare at him across the dinner table at home now. I can’t handle hearing from his fucking fan club every time I have to visit my locker at school.

  “Oh, my god,” Delilah Monroe chirps from the locker next to mine. “You will never guess who I hooked up with last weekend.”

  I take a subtle peak around to see she’s talking to Annie Prescott.

  “Who?” Annie asks with wide eyes.

  Delilah leans in. “Kai Casablancas.” I’m sure she thought she was whispering, but her voice carries far enough to easily hit my ear.

  I roll my eyes and grab my Anatomy textbook.

  “Oh, shut up!” Annie shouts. “I’m so jealous.”

  “And you should be,” she smirks. “He was amazing.”

  “Barbara has a date with him next week,” Annie says.

  I move slowly, listening carefully. I’ve heard countless whispers of Kai’s various conquests in the last few months, each one from a different girl in my class. Before Delilah, there was Judy. And Rachel. And even Mandy.

  My god.

  He’s actually trying to do it.

  I overheard him make a stupid bet with his friend, Shawn, last summer, just before he moved in. His mother was already living with us and they wanted to have his big birthday bash at our house. I was hiding away when I heard them talking all about it.

  “Man, there’s not a single ugly girl in our class, Kai.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve noticed.”

  “Far too good looking, even for you.”

  “Is that so?”

  Shawn chuckled. “Yeah, I bet you couldn’t even get two.”

  “Bullshit,” Kai said. “I could bang every last one of them if I wanted to.”

  “I’d pay good money to see that.”

  I slam my locker closed, too furious to think about it any more. Kai fucking Casablancas. Could you get any more disgusting?

  ***

  I roll over in the bed and Kai’s arm slips around me. “Whoa, where do you think you’re going?”

  I chuckle as his lips find their way to my neck. He scratches his teeth across my skin, tickling at me as I try to pull away. “I need to stretch my legs,” I say.

  He moves his hand down my body. “I can take care of that for you…” I whispers. His fingertips push between my legs, spidering between them, inching towards my exhausted slit.

  “I think you’ve taken care of me enough for one day…” I laugh.

  “Once again, Piper…” He slides in closer. “We disagree.”

  I place the heel of my hand against his forehead and playfully push him away. “Down, boy…”

  He falls limp against the pillows and lets me climb out of the bed. My toes sink into the lush carpet as I stand up and grab the thick hotel robe of a nearby chair.

  Kai winces. “No, don’t cover up,” he smiles. “Leave it off.” I smile down at him and smirk as I slowly push my arms into the sleeves one-by-one. “Evil bitch…” he mutters.

  I shrug. “You’ve called me worse,” I joke. I pull the robe tight and tie it off. My knees and ankles pop as I glide across the room to look outside, stiff from lying in bed for most of the night (and morning). “What time it is?” I ask as I glare out the window. The afternoon sun explodes in my eyes, nearly blinding me.

  “Just after noon,” Kai answers with his phone in his hands.

  “When is our train?”

  “I’m sorry,” he says, pushing his arms behind his head. “You’re only allowed one question between sex sessions.”

  I look back at him and
he winks at me. “I didn’t realize the question to thrust ratio was so low. Maybe if you shared the itinerary, I would have been better prepared.”

  “There is no itinerary anymore.”

  “Then I can change the rules whenever I want.”

  He wrinkles his nose. “There is far too much talking happening right now.”

  “I disagree.” I smile down at him and fight the urge to mount him.

  “Come back to bed, Pipes.”

  “In a minute.” I stretch my arms over my head and listen to my shoulders crack. As I bring them down, the motion rocks my stomach and I nearly tumble over in a dizzy spell. I lean against the wall. My knees rock beneath me.

  “You okay, Pipes?”

  I hear him sit up. “I’m fine,” I say with a casual tone. “Order us some food, will you? I need to refuel.”

  I make a break for the bathroom and close the door before another wave knocks me to my knees. Saliva gathers on my tongue, tempting my insides to become outsides. I pull myself up to the sink and pour water down my throat to try and curb the urge to dry heave. I spit the sour taste from my mouth. A tear falls down my cheek. Strength abandons my muscles. I want to cry out to Kai, but I bite my tongue to keep quiet. I’m not ready to have this conversation with him yet. I’m not ready for his questions yet. I’m not ready to ruin this trip for him, for us. I want to stay in this bliss for as long as possible.

  “Piper?”

  His voice travels through the door. I stand up quickly as I feel the life return to my body. “Yeah?” I ask.

  “How about we go out to eat?” he asks.

  “Sounds good,” I reply. “I’ll be right out.”

  “Your phone is ringing.”

  I take another quick look at myself in the mirror. My eyes look a little red, but hopefully that won’t be obvious in the dim lighting of the room. “Who is it?”

  “It’s Mandy.”

  I pull the door open and walk back to the bed. Kai sits on the edge, naked and grinning. “Going out like that?” I ask with a chuckle.

  “It’s my best suit,” he jokes.

  I grab my phone and answer it quickly. “What’s up, Mandy?” I ask.

  “Can you please explain to me why I woke up in Shawn’s bed?”

  I laugh. “You don’t remember?”

  “No, I don’t remember,” she says. “This isn’t funny.”

  I sigh. “Kai and I wanted the fancy room. You agreed to go sleep off your hangover in Shawn’s room while he went out trolling for English girls all morning.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “You agreed to it, Mandy.” Kai stares up at me with curious eyes.

  “I obviously wasn’t in the best state of mind to agree to that, Piper. What were you thinking?”

  I sit down next to Kai and he leans in closer. “Did something happen?”

  “Well, Shawn wasn’t exactly out trolling for English girls all morning, that’s for sure.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Did you two…?”

  “Ugh, no! Thank god…” she spits. “But he’s apparently been here all day watching me sleep.”

  “I have not!” Shawn shouts, his voice obscured in the background.

  “Shut up, pervert!” she fires back. “Piper, this is not okay.”

  “Calm down, Mandy—”

  “Tell me you didn’t do this on purpose.”

  “Do what on purpose?”

  “Whatever — just get me out of here. Now.”

  I look at Kai. “When is the train?”

  “Three,” he answers.

  “To where?”

  “Paris.”

  My eyes go wide and I can’t stop my smile from spreading. “Really?” He grins back. “Mandy,” I say into the phone. “We have a train to Paris leaving at three. Hang tight until then, okay?”

  “Fine.” She hangs up.

  I toss the phone onto the bed. “It really wasn’t a good idea bringing them along, was it?” I ask.

  “Nope,” Kai says.

  “Oh, well,” I sigh.

  He leans in and wraps his arms around me. “They’ll be fine,” he insists. “Let me worry about them. I don’t want you worrying about anything this week.”

  I laugh. “Easier said than done.”

  “Of course, you’re Piper Lynch,” he jokes. “But seriously.” He plants a kiss on my neck. “Get out of your head.”

  “I’ll try,” I say.

  “But first…” he whispers. “Get out of that robe.”

  I laugh as he pulls me down with him.

  Chapter 10

  Kai

  “It’s not that big of a deal…” Piper mutters.

  Her eyes fall to her plate and she pushes the same lump of mashed potatoes back and forth with her fork. I stare at her across the table as her pale cheeks turn pink. It’s not the reaction I would have expected from Piper Lynch. I thought she’d be jumping up and down. I thought she’d be upstairs, packing her bags already. Dismissive? Quiet? Modest?

  This isn’t the Piper I know.

  “Not that big of a deal?!” Philip shouts. He waves the paper back and forth in his hand. “You’ve been accepted to Harvard University, Piper. This is a very big deal!”

  “I’m so proud of you, honey,” my mother says. “You’ve worked so hard.”

  Philip points a finger at her. “But don’t see this as a license to chill,” he says. “I don’t want to see you slacking off from now until graduation.”

  I scoff quietly and Piper’s little blue eyes flick up to look at me across the table.

  “I won’t,” she mutters. Her eyes drop back to her plate.

  “Well…” I say. “She can probably slack off a little bit. It’s not like they can un-accept her or anything, right? She should take a breather. Enjoy it.”

  Philip looks at me as if he just realized I’m here, even though I’ve been sitting at the table for the last thirty minutes. “That’s not how my daughter was raised, Kai,” he says, his voice sharp as rocks.

  “She wasn’t raised to celebrate her accomplishments?” I laugh.

  Piper blinks at me, but stays silent with tense shoulders.

  “She wasn’t raised to be complacent,” Philip fires back. “The moment we start to feel satisfied with our lives is the moment we stop trying to better ourselves.”

  I roll my eyes. “So, basically, you’re saying that you never want your daughter to be happy?”

  “Kai…” my mother interrupts, forcing a big smile. “Let’s not point fingers.”

  Philip sits back in his chair. “I’m sure your father patted you on the head after every point you scored, Kai, but maybe you would have won more games if he said you needed to train harder next time.”

  I flex my jaw and my eyes fall on Piper again. She quickly tears her eyes away to look at her father. “It’s okay, Dad,” she smiles. “You know me, I wouldn’t slack off even if you told me to.”

  “That’s my girl.” Philip sets his fork down a little too hard. It clatters against the glass plate and the sound echoes for a few moments throughout the silent room.

  I keep my eyes on her and watch as her smile slowly fades off her face.

  ***

  The train quietly rocks back and forth, speeding down the tracks of the underground tunnel towards France. I stare across the car at Piper and smile. She sits in her seat with her arms crossed about her chest. Her head lies against the dark window, her eyes closed by sleep. The occasional orange light passes by in the tunnel, briefly illuminating her alabaster face. Seeing her this way takes me back in time to the last time she and I were on this train. Has it really been four years since I stayed behind with her? It was just the beginning of the best week of my life. I can’t help but feel hopeful that this day is also the beginning of something more.

  “How much longer is this train?” Mandy whines.

  I look away from Piper and clear my throat. “Another hour or so,” I answer.

  Mandy sits farther back in
her seat beside Piper. Her eyes shoot forward to stare at Shawn next to me. She sighs.

  “Chill out, Mandy,” Shawn mutters. “We’re on our way to Paris. You can’t be pissed off in Paris. It’s too awesome.”

  She rolls her eyes and looks at Piper. “Wake up,” she says to her.

  “Let her sleep…” I say, clinging to the moment.

  Mandy ignores me and pokes Piper’s arm with her elbow. “I need conversation,” she says. “Piper, wake up.”

  Piper’s eyes flutter open and she pulls herself off the window. “Are we there already?” she asks with a yawn.

  “No,” I answer. “Mandy’s just needy.”

  “I’m not needy,” she argues. “I’m just bored.”

  “Read a book,” Piper suggests, wiping her tired eyes.

  “I just spent four years reading books,” Mandy says. “I’m not reading another book for a very long time.”

  “Sorry, Pipes,” I tell her. Her eyes are red, almost tortured from lack of sleep. I feel a little responsible for it. We’ve been up together since the early morning and the night before didn’t provide much sleep either. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t passed out by now, too.

  Piper shakes her head. “It’s cool,” she says. She takes a breath and looks around the train car. A smile strikes her face and I know she’s remembering that day four years ago, too. She looks at me and I smile back. “It’s just like old times…” she says.

  “Speaking of old times…” Shawn says. “How about a classic game of ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

  “And here we go…” I say.

  “I’m not feeling up to drinking games tonight, Shawn,” Piper says. “And we already know each other pretty well…”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Mandy adds.

  I stare across the compartment at her before Piper and I exchange a quick glance. I’ve never backed out of a game with Shawn before and doing so might cause some suspicion, but there are too many secrets between us right now. The last thing I want is for them to get out, especially in an enclosed space with no escape route.

  Shawn pushes his arm out and holds a little finger up into the air. “Come on, everybody,” he says. “It’ll be better than staring at walls for the next hour.”