by Wendy Knight
Something warmed my half-chilled soul.
"Somewhere quiet."
We drove to the beach, which was only a few miles away. Navi hated the beach, or was terrified of it or something weird, so Konstanz never went, either. Neither of us spoke the short ride there because even though I wanted, needed, to know what she said in the apartment, I was also afraid. Maybe she wasn't apologizing for flipping out the day before. Maybe she was apologizing because she was kicking me out of her life. If it was that one, I wanted to be able to focus completely on changing her mind, not driving.
I grabbed a blanket out of the back and she brought the bagels. We walked silently through the sand to just above the waves and settled onto the blanket. The beach was abandoned this early in the morning, but the waves crashed viciously against the shore like they'd fought the entire night long. "I'm sorry."
I looked away from the waves, bracing myself. "For?"
"For what I said yesterday. I just—I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm all..." she waved her hands around her head like a crazy person, so adorable it made me ache. "I was the nice one once."
I leaned back on my elbows, careful to give her space. In the long hours of the night, it had finally occurred to me what Konstanz had been saying the entire time. I came on too strong. I fell too fast, too hard and expected them to do the same. Navi was in love with Alec and even his horrible words hadn't stopped that and Konstanz I'd just scared off.
But I could fix that. I'd been unsure at first, but here she was, sitting on a beach with me. I just had to slow down. My whole life, thanks to my father's money and power, I was used to women falling all over themselves to climb into my bed. No one knew who I was here. It was terrifying. And refreshing. I didn't know what I was doing but at least I knew where I stood. "You're still the nice one. I just push your buttons."
She shook her head, spreading her cream cheese across her bagel and staring out at the ocean. "You don't." She tipped her head to the side, considering, and her hair caught the weak light and shimmered like gold. "You did. But not anymore. Something changed."
Yeah. She'd barreled into my heart like a wrecking ball.
"I'm sorry for what I said. That wasn't right."
I shrugged. "I can see why you think that. It's not true, but I can see why you said it."
"It's not true?"
"No. I think with Navi, it was more that I was competing with Alec. I thought I could be better than he was and it consumed me. It had very little to do with Navi herself."
"You two are horrible roommates."
"Yeah. So much worse than Reese and Terrie," I shot back. She hid a grin and brushed sand off her feet. "You guys have never fought over a guy?"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. I mean, not me and of course not Navi, but Reese and Terrie do it all the time. They're so volatile for each other and yet, they balance each other out. Terrie needs Reese's control and Reese needs Terrie's wildness. Can you say that about your house?"
"No. We don't spend enough time together to balance anything. Even before Navi showed up, Alec worked all the time and I had different friends. We just share an apartment."
"Alec and I used to be really close in high school. I was the one who introduced him to Navi. I thought I was the greatest friend in the world. Until I wasn't." Her face fell, pain tightening her eyes.
"Hey." I brushed her hair off her shoulder and waited until she looked up at me. "You saw what you saw. What were you supposed to believe?"
"Navi," she said softly. "I should have believed Navi."
Alec had told me about that night, how he knew Navi was with many different guys, almost every night. How he'd finally dragged Konstanz with him because he was praying someone would tell him he was wrong. And she hadn't been able to. That was when they'd broken up the first time. History had repeated itself recently but this time, Konstanz was firmly on Navi's side.
I didn't know what to think. Navi didn't seem the type to hook up with random guys multiple times a night. But she was gone so much and Alec had been adamant about what he saw. And Navi had refused to defend herself.
Which almost made her seem more innocent in my eyes, but what did I know?
"You're the most loyal friend I've ever met, Konstanz. You can't judge yourself based on what you did in high school. We all made stupid choices as teenagers. What matters is how you act now, and I've never seen a better best friend."
She blushed, tracing patterns in the sand. "I'm trying."
"We're lucky to have you, Konstanz. All of us."
Her eyes widened as she raised her head and dammit, I knew I'd decided to take it slow but it was like my body moved toward her and my brain started to object but failed. Failed miserably. "If I kiss you, are you going to run away again?"
So close. Her lips, soft and full, parted as if to answer, but no words escaped past them. Only a soft sigh that nearly made me weak. So weak. I brushed my forehead across her forehead, against her cheek, my mouth dangerously close to her long, slender neck. "Konstanz—"
If she told me to stop, my entire body might implode, but I would respect that. For her, I would.
I smoothed her hair back with my fingertips, relishing the softness against my fingers. Softer than the waves that lapped at our feet. "Konstanz," I said again, breathing her name. Still, she didn't deny me.
So afraid I'd scare her away again that my hand shook, I tipped her chin up and my mouth met hers. I'd meant to be gentle, but an urgency, an electricity I hadn't expected rode through me and my lips devoured hers. Time froze, the waves slid back, and I kissed her for minutes, hours, I didn't know. I just knew I didn't want to stop.
My tongue parted her lips and I delved into her mouth, heart thundering in my chest. I slid my arm around her and laid her back into the sand, cradling her head in the palm of my hand. Her fingers slid up my arm, tracing patterns against my skin and sending heat flaring through me with every touch.
I was lost.
The waves enveloped my feet, soaked my shoes, tugged at our blanket but I barely noticed. Nothing existed but Konstanz. Her lips, her skin, her touch. It wasn't until her phone buzzed in the sand next to her that I was broken from the spell she'd put me under.
"Oh crap. School! I have class in five minutes!" She sat up, nearly toppled over reaching for her phone, and shut off the alarm. "Can you take me to school?"
I wanted to beg her to skip class, to stay with me and continue what we'd started, but she worked too hard for that. "Of course," I said instead and pulled her to her feet. She landed against my chest and her entire body swayed toward me as she rose on her toes to meet my lips again. My arms tightened around her, holding her there, molding her soft curves to my body.
"I really have to go," she murmured against my mouth with her eyes still closed.
I made some unintelligible noise and held her tighter.
Her phone buzzed, more angry than usual and she sighed, leaning back to eye it in annoyance. "Reese."
Of course it was Reese. The woman ran their apartment with an iron fist.
"Why aren't you on campus yet? I saved you a seat but you've got, like, two minutes to get here."
Konstanz broke away from me and started gathering our things and I helped not because I wanted her to leave, but because I didn't want her to do it alone. "I'm on my way. I might be a bit late."
"Fine. Hurry up."
Konstanz hung up and peeked up at me through her hair. "I don't know what just happened."
"I do. Reese barreled in and destroyed paradise," I tried to joke but it came out weakly.
"Yeah but—but I don't—I'm scared, Bryson."
That I hadn't been expecting and I nearly dropped the blanket I was holding. "Scared?"
"I don't want to get hurt," she whispered. "Boyfriends seem to equal pain."
I almost, almost stupidly pointed out that just because I'd kissed her didn't mean we were together. But I'd made that mistake before with the falling for her thing and it hadn't ended w
ell, so I just took her hand and brought her knuckles to my lips. "Then we'll take it slow while you figure out what you want. You won't have to claim me until you're ready, okay?"
Her mouth twitched and one eyebrow raised. "Claim you?"
"As your boyfriend. I'll wait. I'm patient."
Konstanz laughed. "I didn't know patient was even in your vocabulary."
Chapter 8
Konstanz
I dumped my bag on my bed and eyed Navi dubiously. "Whatcha doin' there?"
Navi sat cross legged on her own bed, two dummy swords and what I could only assume was a dummy axe spread out in front of her. She grinned despite the exhaustion and practically bounced, which seemed to take too much of her very little energy. "Ready for your training?"
Oh, right. My training. Because she said the streets were dangerous and instead of a gun or a stronger Taser to defend myself, my best friend thought swords would do the trick.
More proof that she was, in fact, a monster hunter, although in every TV show, movie or book I've ever read, monster hunters are taller than 5'4".
"Sure..."
She wrinkled her nose at my lack of enthusiasm and I could see why she had guys falling at her feet. Yes, Navi was gorgeous, with those huge brown eyes and thick mermaid hair, but she was adorable, too. Gorgeous caught their attention, but adorable held them there. "It will be fun. You're always saying you need more cardio and —" She froze, eyeing me. "What happened?"
"What? When?" I pulled my hair up because it seemed like long hair would get tangled in my sword and that didn't sound good for my hair health at all.
She pushed herself off the bed and stalked toward me, searching my face. "Something happened. Something changed. Who did you kiss?"
I squeaked. Damn, but her instincts were insane.
"What—what makes you say that?" I stammered, turning my back on her so I could search for an elastic on my dresser.
"Bryson? Did Bryson kiss you?" The pitch of her voice rose with each word. "I knew it! I knew he wasn't such a player!"
"I think him kissing me proves that he is, in fact, a player," I grumbled. When I turned back to her, the aforementioned brown eyes were sparkling.
"No. Only if he ran out and kissed someone else. Which he didn't because he was at his apartment while I was sleeping and he was organizing his CD collection the entire time."
I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"
Navi shrugged, picking up the swords and hefting them in her hand like it was a completely natural thing to do. "I couldn't sleep. Who does that, by the way?"
"Not sleep? Insomniacs."
She rolled her eyes. "Organizes a CD collection for three hours straight."
"Bryson. Remember that first night we were there?"
Navi snickered. He was very particular about his music. Some might say OCD, but I wouldn't go that far. Although he'd just spent three hours on it, so...
"My point is, he's not a player."
"I don't think that necessarily cuts him out of the player category. We need more time."
There was a knock at the door which startled us both. I dropped the elastic I held but Navi caught it—with the tip of her sword.
While I gaped at her, she grinned and skipped off, swords and axe in hand, to answer the door. "Bryson," she said loudly from the other room. "What a nice surprise. We were just talking about you."
My pulse sped up and I hurriedly finished tying my hair up. One kiss and this was how I reacted? I hadn't been able to focus in class. I might as well have stayed on that beach and kissed him for the rest of the day.
I would have enjoyed that.
"Hey, Navi. Is Konstanz here?"
His voice sent delicious shivers up my spine and I cursed myself for being an idiot at the same time I nearly killed myself trying to get out to the living room without tripping over Navi's swords. "Navi!" I sputtered. "We don't leave weapons in the middle of the hallway!"
There's a sentence I never thought I'd say.
She managed to look half-sheepish. "Sorry. I thought it would be weird to answer the door with an axe in my hand."
Bryson met my eyes, a smile playing around his mouth and my whole insides turned to mush.
One kiss.
I mean, it was a long kiss, but still.
"Hey."
"Hi," I responded brilliantly because my head was swimming and little imaginary hearts were floating around my face.
"So. Training?" Navi asked, swinging the door shut behind him. "Bryson, it would be good for you to know, too."
"Training?" Bryson finally dragged that light blue gaze off me and it felt like it left a trail of fire across my skin.
Well. This was just ridiculous.
"Yes." Navi swooped down and scooped up the swords. "Konstanz promised."
I wasn't entirely positive I'd promised, but I'm pretty sure I had agreed. When Bryson turned incredulously toward me, I could only shrug. "It's a dangerous world out there."
"Then get a gun!"
"Guns won't do anything," Navi said solemnly. "It has to be swords."
Bryson shook his head in confusion as he met my eyes again. "What kind of bad guys are we fighting?"
Navi sighed, nudging us out the door. "The bad kind."
"There's a good kind?" Bryson fell back to walk next to me, muttering under his breath. Our hands barely brushed and waves of heat rolled up my arm to my chest.
"Yes," Navi said because she had super human hearing, apparently. "They're the kind you can kill with guns."
Bryson's eyebrows lowered and I laughed. "She's a little intense."
"Clearly," Bryson murmured.
NAVI had a training center. How I had made it twenty-two years without knowing this, I couldn't understand. It was a square brick building about the size of the vet office, and the parking lot was completely empty.
"What is this place? Some sort of gym?" Bryson asked as we climbed out of Navi's jeep. She had insisted on driving and had kept up such an animated conversation, I hadn't even noticed how we got there.
I wondered if Navi did it on purpose.
I was also ridiculously distracted by Bryson. That didn't help.
"This is where my mom trained me and where I will train you." Navi dug keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door.
"They give you your own key? Wow, you must spend a lot of time here," I said slowly. "You can just use it whenever you want?"
Navi nodded, swinging the door open. "Yep. 'Cause I own it."
I nearly fell over. "You own it? And you've never told me?"
Navi seemed to be holding a conversation with no one and glanced distractedly over her shoulder. "Yeah. Well, you know. You never asked."
And then to herself, or her imaginary friend, she said under her breath, "Guard the door."
I blinked, but Navi was already moving away, swinging the swords and humming cheerfully.
Surely, I'd misheard her.
"Ready?" she asked from the mats, slipping off her stilettos. "Let's begin."
What Navi had promised would be fun was a ton of work. I was sweating within the hour and Bryson, although in good shape—evidenced by his muscular chest and strong arms—was also panting.
And that was apparently the warm up.
Navi ran us through drills. She was amazingly patient and a very good teacher, demonstrating each stance, shoving our feet into position and correcting our holds. She explained the reason for each move, all things I would never remember, and tried her best to make it as entertaining as possible, which meant she laughed at us quite a bit until we had no choice but to laugh at ourselves.
But under it all, I could hear an urgency in her words, in her flawless movements. A panic in her eyes. Navi wasn't doing this because she thought it would be an amusing way to spend her time. She was doing it because she was scared.
Scared for us.
After four hours, Bryson finally called uncle, and Navi let us quit. I didn't feel any more comfortable with a sword
in my hand than I had when I started, but at least I knew the correct way to hold one and how not to stab myself in the foot.
Sort of.
Navi tossed us both candy bars. "Your reward for hard work. Wanna do it again tomorrow?" She looked hopefully from me to Bryson.
"Not really..." Bryson groaned, but I couldn't hurt her. Whatever Navi was doing, torturing us for her own amusement wasn't one of them.
So I nodded. "Of course. I have to work, though, so it'll be after that."
Bryson glanced at me out of the corner of his eye like I'd betrayed his greatest ancestors.
Navi grinned and bounced, clapping her hands. "Yay! I'll bring more candy."
Because that would make it better.
"Not sure I'm going to be able to lift my arms to feed myself tonight," Bryson half-groaned as we climbed stiffly into Navi's jeep. Muscles that should never cry were crying. I wasn't going to be able to get out of bed tomorrow, let alone lift the giant St. Bernard that we were supposed to do surgery on.
Navi glanced at the swiftly setting sun and shook her head. "I'm off to work, but you guys should totally go get dinner without me. I'll take you back to our place and you can grab your car." She looked positively gleeful.
I shook my head. "I have a paper due I have to work on. Raincheck?"
Navi's face fell but Bryson nodded. "Definitely."
Navi kept us entertained the whole way back and once again, I forgot to pay attention to where we were until it was too late and Navi's mystery training center was behind us.
She bounced out of the jeep and disappeared into the house, the weapons stashed in the back. I got out more slowly because my muscles were all screaming for mercy. Bryson waited when I shut the door, a small smile playing around his lips. "We survived."
"So far," I quipped. Who knew what tomorrow would bring. The fall air was cold against my skin after I'd been all sweaty and I shivered. "Unexpectedly cold tonight."
I was so clever with the words. Just call me the queen of seductresses. Or something similar.
"Here." He reached into the back seat of his car and grabbed a sweatshirt. It was expensive and amazingly soft.
