I laughed thickly. “Baby, this changes everything.”
“No, Adam.” She shook her head. “It can’t…”
I pressed my lips to her warm cheeks, her chin and eyelids. “How can you expect that when you melt in my arms every time I touch you?”
“You need to stop.” But it was her fingers in my hair, gripping me to her. When I let my lips hover over hers, she kissed me.
“You first,” I growled, but stopped. I pulled back a notch to search her eyes. “We should probably move before I get us arrested for inappropriate behavior in public.”
She still looked torn, but I was relieved when she chuckled. “Probably a good idea.”
I drew her away from the wall and led her a few steps to avoid temptation. “Where to first?” I asked. “It’s just you and me for the next…” I checked my watch. “Two hours and thirty-five minutes.”
Kia narrowed her eyes watchfully. “So, is this your master plan to convince Nessie you and I should be together? Because one would think you had this all planned from the start.”
I offered her a sly grin. “No, my master plan was to get you to myself for a few hours.” I reached for her hand and considered it a success when she didn’t pull away. “I’m going to wait until after the holidays to talk to Van about letting her share you.”
“Why after?” she asked, not nearly quick enough to hide the droop in her shoulders. Maybe it was because I was glad she was as anxious to be with me as I was to be with her, but I was actually pleased to see her disappointment.
My free hand moved up to brush away a snowflake off her cheek. “Because making a deal with my sister is like making a deal with the Godfather.” I grinned. “You have to wait until she’s in a good mood and Christmas is never a good time. Van’s always a little extra cranky around this time of the year, especially with Mom and Dad here.”
“Sounds elaborate,” she murmured.
I shrugged. “It’s not. I just know when to pick my moments and I know my sister. I will talk to her though. I promise.” I tightened my fingers around her. “But, in the meantime…” I took a step back and swung our joined hands. She was spun under my arm and yanked into my chest where I caught and held her to me. She burst out laughing, the sound beautiful in the crisp, cool air and warm against my throat. I chuckled, pressing my lips to her temple. “You owe me a second date.”
Still laughing, she tilted her head back and met my gaze, hers warm and bright. “A second date?”
I nodded, bringing my face closer to hers until our noses brushed.
“I wasn’t aware we had a first.”
“The carnival,” I reminded her, stroking a kiss to the end of her nose.
“You mean with the tickets you bought to take another girl?” she teased.
I raised my head and arched an eyebrow. “You mean to take you,” I corrected. “After all, you’re the one who told me I was an idiot for never having been.” I let my eyes narrow. “Then you accused me of cheating. I was hurt you know.”
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say you cheated. I said you were a turd, which I stand by and you were not hurt.”
“I’ll have you know I was.” I sniffed haughtily. “Especially considering how much I was looking forward to our first date since I drove you home that first night.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “What? No!”
I snorted, finding her reaction unusually funny. “Wasn’t it obvious?”
She stared at me, her mouth opening and closing while she slowly rocked her head from side to side. “I guess I’m not very good at reading signs,” she murmured at last, sounding a bit dazed.
I laughed. “Apparently.” I sobered. “I wanted you from the moment I saw you behind the register at work.”
“You did not.”
I raised a hand. “Scout’s honor.”
“But that was such a disaster!” she cried.
My lips curved. “I know, but it was reasonably better than your accident in the kitchen…” I burst out laughing when she swatted at me. “That was my favorite.”
“God…” She moaned, covering her face with face hands. “I wanted to die.”
“I think that’s what did it for me.”
She peeked at me through her fingers, her cheeks pink. “Me being an uncoordinated klutz turned you on?”
“No, you being so completely you.” I bit my bottom lip and watched her through my lashes. “You’re fun and smart, and I told you how much I like those qualities in a girl. I guess it also helps that I think you’re probably the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen.”
She let her hands drop away and she glowered dryly at me. “Okay now I know you’re just trying to get into my pants.”
Having not been expecting outright denial like that, I blinked. “What?”
She folded her arms. “Your sister is gorgeous. Claudia is Gorgeous. That girl from yesterday … what was her name? The blonde who was a second shy of humping your leg.”
I wisely kept the grin off my face. “Taylor.”
“Right. Taylor is gorgeous. Do you see the pattern here? I don’t fall into that mold.”
“And why would I want the same as everyone else when your uniqueness is so much sexier? I like you. I like everything about you, and to me, that’s the ultimate beautiful.”
She stared at me as though I’d switched to Spanish. Her expression was bewildered and a little annoyed, which only amused me further.
“There’s something wrong with you,” she finally muttered.
I sighed dramatically. “Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me now. No refunds.”
Her expression melted from a sweet smile, to uncertainty before finally settling on an anxious frown.
“What if you can’t convince Nessie?”
I took her hand and brought it to my lips. “I won’t let that happen.”
We took the streets of Whistler Village at a slow, leisurely pace. Our combined footfalls were muffled by the soft crunch of snow beneath our feet and the rush of other foot traffic around us. We bumped as we dodged the rush of shoppers moving around us in waves.
“I can’t believe how busy it is here,” Kia murmured, turning her entire body towards mine to avoid getting jostled by a round woman weighed down by an obscene number of packages.
Using it as the perfect excuse, I slipped my arm around her middle and dragged her into my side. She didn’t seem to notice as she watched the pass of people behind her. Her brown eyes shone beneath the lights strung from shop windows and posts. They glittered in her hair, emphasizing the warm, pink glow in her cheeks. She reminded me of a kid at Christmas, like she couldn’t get enough of staring at everything. She didn’t even notice when I bent my head and brushed the side of her head with my lips.
“Where do you want to go first?” she demanded, her voice high pitched with giddy delight. She made a little bounce on the balls of her feet while biting her bottom lip.
“My bedroom,” I groaned, starving to pry the plump little distraction free and taste it for myself.
Her eyes were big and round against her face, the wonderment and excitement barely restrained as she looked at me. “I don’t think we’d get any shopping done there.”
I exhaled, washing both our faces with a plume of white smoke. “Baby, shopping would be the last thing on our minds. I promise.”
With a smile that lit up her entire face, she wrinkled her nose and gave me a playful shove. “Come on. We have to head back soon.”
Without waiting for me, she spun on the heels of her boots and hurried away. I expelled another frustrated breath before following.
Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect while shopping with Kia. I was so used to Van and my mom, who spent the majority of their time examining every article of clothing in the store that I felt momentarily whiplashed by how quickly Kia was in and out. She seemed to know exactly what she needed to get, grabbed it and left. There was no lingering or loitering. It was a little strange, but at the same time�
�
“I think I love you. Marry me.” I cornered her outside one of a shop, pushing her up against the wall and keeping her there as our breaths mingled and our hearts raced against each other’s.
I hadn’t meant it seriously. At least I didn’t think I did. When I’d spoken the words, I’d done it as a joke, but the moment they were out, hanging between us with her standing maddeningly close … I couldn’t be sure anymore.
“I want swans,” she murmured after a moment.
I blinked, certain I’d heard wrong. “Swans?”
She nodded, running her tongue over her lips. “For the wedding. Black ones with little gold tiaras and gold feathers.”
I grinned. “I’ll make it happen.”
She laughed, shaking her head. Without another word, she slipped passed me and continued on. I stayed there, stunned that I was stunned. I was also hurt that she actually thought I was joking, which was stupid once again because I had been … hadn’t I?
I ground the heel of my hands into my temples as the badgering confusion chiseled at my skull. I was both impressed and annoyed that she could toy with me with such little effort. The girl had some mad skills and I couldn’t say I didn’t love it.
“I’m hungry,” I announced once I’d caught up with her.
“Me—”
One minute we were walking and the next I was lying flat on my back, the air gone from my lungs and my butt aching like I’d broken it. I wheezed as I fought to comprehend why the world had suddenly flipped on me and why my chest hurt.
A low groan alerted me to the figure sprawled over my abdomen, accounting for my inability to catch my breath. I raised my head to find Kia raising hers, her cheeks a violent red as her eyes met mine.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pushing herself up onto all fours. “Are you okay?”
“What the hell happened?” I grumbled, rubbing a tender spot at the back of my head where it had made nice with the ground.
“I … there was ice and … I didn’t see it … I’m really sorry. Are you hurt anywhere?”
It suddenly made perfect sense. Normal Kia was uncoordinated enough. Add ice and you were just asking for a concussion.
“I think I broke my leg,” I whined and watched with suppressed amusement as her eyes went round in horror. Her hands flew to my left knee.
“This one? Can you move it?” She began to rub it, prodding it with her fingertips.
“Higher,” I moaned and had to bite the inside of my cheek when she slid her hand higher up my leg.
“Nothing feels broken!” she cried.
“Just keep going higher,” I instructed.
Her brows furrowed. “Why would…” The grin on my face must have alerted her to my teasing because her jaw slackened in horror. Then she was smacking my chest. “You jerk!”
Like a lunatic on crack, I howled, doubling over in self-defense as she rained her wrath down on me with slaps to my shoulders and chest. My sides ached and tears streaked down my face as I laughed.
“That wasn’t funny!” she protested, but her lip twitched and I caught it before she was on her feet and storming away.
Breathing hard, I wiped my eyes with my hand and shoved up to my feet. I ran after her.
“Come on, Kia. It was a joke!” I said, taking her elbow and pulling her to a stop next to a lamp.
She shook her head. “I thought you were hurt.”
“I was!” I argued. “I had every intention of letting you nurse me back to health.”
She rolled her eyes, the corner of her mouth lifted in a grin. It was how I knew she wasn’t really angry.
“Okay, let me make it up to you. Let me buy you supper,” I said when she folded her arms and waited.
“And you think buying me food will make up for freaking me out?” she countered with a challenging quirk of her eyebrow I was beginning to find embarrassingly sexy.
“I can pretend my leg is really broken if you—”
She smacked my chest. “No more talk of breaking your leg. I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt.”
Something in my chest wrenched at her heartfelt confession. I reached for her, curling my fingers into the sleeves of her jacket. I drew her to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t do it again.”
She shook her head, her lips bowed into a broad smile. “What am I going to do with you?”
I grinned. “I can think of a few things, most of them involve you wearing a nurse’s uniform and holding a sponge.”
“That’s pretty complex.”
I shrugged. “Like I said, I have a very vivid imagination.” I lowered my head and dropped my voice. “You wouldn’t believe the one I have of you in nothing but my tie.”
I hadn’t meant to reveal that, as true as it may have been. That had been my secret fantasy since the masquerade party. I had no idea why I was telling her, and fully expected her to smack me or call me a pervert. I sure as hell wasn’t expecting her to bite her lip and blush. That threw me for a whole new set of loops. My sick, twisted mind began wondering if she was considering it, or if she’d thought about it, too, or…
“You’ll have to tell me more about that later,” she murmured so quietly I almost didn’t hear her over the sound of my mind blowing up. For a moment I nearly convinced myself I’d fantasized her speaking, that it had been in my head because my sweet, shy Kia would never … then she was doing the lip thing again and peering at me through her lashes like she wanted me to…
Shit I needed a cold shower.
“I’m hungry,” she whispered.
“God me too.”
By some Christmas miracle, I managed to make it through the rest of our shopping adventure without a) embarrassing myself, and b) pulling her into a dark corner and tearing off her clothes. My restraint on the latter deserved a medal. Even a eunuch saint couldn’t have done a better job. Unfortunately, the side effects left me feeling a little less than sociable by the time we met up with the others and drove back to the cabin.
But despite the beautiful night I’d had with Kia, the car ride back was thick with tension. Van was in a miserable mood. She hadn’t said one word to Kia since we left the Village. She sat stiff in her seat, staring stubbornly out the window while blatantly ignoring Kia’s concern. I met Kia’s sad, brown eyes as we exited the SUV. I lightly touched her hand as we passed each other walking up to the door.
It was clear even without a rocket science degree that something was bothering Van. It was made even clearer when she kicked off her boots and stomped upstairs without asking a single person what they’d gotten her for Christmas. For someone who had grown up with that question and expected it, I was thrown for a loop as I watched my sister’s retreating back.
Dad sighed beside me as he bent down and righted her boots. He set them on the rack before straightening and reaching for his scarf. “That girl will never learn.”
“Did something happen?” I asked.
Dad looked at me. “You mean aside from that lovely display at the beginning of the evening?” He shook his head, unwinding the scarf from his neck. “I don’t know what to do with her.”
Mom touched his arm lightly, cutting him off. “It’s Christmas. Let’s just get through it and we’ll deal with it when we get home, okay?”
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, my parents do nothing but pray all Christmas like the Baby Jesus will magically come down and talk to them if they do it enough times,” Kenny said. “I think this is better. Is there anything to eat?”
We stared at him, which he didn’t seem to notice as he padded into the kitchen.
“I should go talk to her,” Kia murmured, already halfway to the stairs.
“No.” Mom stopped her. “Just let her sort out whatever issue she has alone. She needs to learn that people won’t always come running when she’s having a tantrum. She’ll be fine.”
“There are more lights over here.” Mom nudged the box with the toe of her sock clad feet.
Si
tting in the middle of the living room, surrounded by a small tower of boxes marked with words like lights, streamers, ornaments, I felt a bit agitated by the task assigned to me.
While the others stood around the tree, organizing tinsel and bulbs, I’d been shunned to the opposite side of the room and forced to detangle all the crap collecting dust in storage since the previous year. I honestly had no idea why we had thirteen strings of lights. It wasn’t as though we were decorating the tree at Rockefeller Center. And how did so many strings of lights get so tangled when I knew for a fact I’d wound them up neatly the year before? It really shouldn’t have surprised me since I was the one who was elected every year to do the worst job, and yet, every year I was surprised.
With a frustrated growl, I shook the coils of wires and bulbs, listening with some sick pleasure as they clinked together.
“Find the ends.”
Surprised by the unexpected intrusion into my own personal hell, I glanced up into Kia’s grinning face. She said nothing as she slipped onto the sofa next to me and curled her legs under her. She took the bundle from me and placed it in her lap.
“I always get stuck doing this, too,” she said, head bent over the task. “I learned long ago that if you find the ends, you can weave your way back.”
I watched as she slipped and prodded the plug end in and around the knots. My hand moved without any knowledge from me and creeped up the side of her bent knee to rest along the side of her thigh. It was risky and stupid, but my hand was out of sight, tucked between her and the sofa. No one could see unless they were right beside us.
Kia raised her head. Our eyes met. I expected her to pull away or tell me to stop. But she turned her attention back to the lights, her motions not as careful as they had been moments ago.
She’d been doing that a lot since our shopping trip through Whistler Village the night before. She didn’t look away when she caught me watching her. She didn’t move away when we touched. It was both exciting and frustrating. On one hand, it was a sign she trusted me to do the right thing and talk to Nessie, but on the other, she was making it impossible to remember I shouldn’t touch, not until I’d done so. And every time her fingers touched mine, it made me all the more anxious to leap up, drag Nessie aside and beg, bribe and threaten her into sharing Kia. I couldn’t stand being so unbearably close, yet forced to restrain myself when I was slowly dying inside from the ache.
Revealing Kia (The Lost Girl Series, Book 2) Page 9
