“Okay,” I breathe. His words do nothing to reassure me, though, because I can’t help but worry about him, and he hasn’t even left. Using a napkin to dab my mouth, I change the subject. “Given the fact that you overheard me and Sam talking, I believe you also heard something about the text Grayson sent me?”
He grunts in response.
Ugh, he’s such a man.
“I didn’t tell you this before, but the night the umbra came through the portal, I received a text from Grayson with the mission to track and kill the fake covetorax demons. I don’t think he sent it, though. I investigated it, but it was all a dead end until Erik found me at Sin, and I thought he had set me up. However, while he tried to kill me in the back alley…I let go of that idea. He wanted to kill me himself, not let demons do it.” My fingers tighten around the plate while the tacos threaten to make a reappearance. “And you already know he was watching me—us. He was going to show Grayson the photos he took of us together.” Panic sinks its sharp claws into me. “What if he already did?”
Kaiden scoots closer to me and untangles my fingers, discarding the plate on the table next to his. He pulls me gently onto his lap to face him. His big hand wraps around my jaw. “This okay?”
“Yeah,” I mumble as his mesmerizing eyes capture mine.
His other hand travels to my chest to place his palm right over my heart. “C’mon, take a deep breath. We’re going to take things in stride, and we’re going to find a solution. Together.”
“Okay,” I say after swallowing a lungful of calming air.
Kaiden takes a moment to mull over what I told him. “As far as I’m aware, Grayson is as straitlaced as they come. But you never know what a person could hide. Did you mention the text to him?”
“Yeah. He looked confused, and then he said he couldn’t have sent me a text because he’d misplaced his phone, only to find it the next morning.” I swallow thickly. “He’s already suspicious of me…and I’ll look even worse in his eyes now that Erik is dead. It won’t be long until he catches on,” I say, sawing my lower lip between my teeth again.
Kaiden’s burning gaze drops to my mouth as if he’s hypnotized. “I need to kiss you. Is that okay?”
Electricity crackles in the air between us. I nod, all my worries about Grayson dissipating like smoke in the wind. Those can wait. His thumb frees my trapped lip before he dips, using the tip of his tongue to trace a fiery path on it. The hand he placed earlier on my chest glides to the curve of my hip as I sneak out my tongue to meet his. The kiss starts slow, but soon enough, we’re devouring each other, and I melt into a pile of goo in his arms.
“Fuck, I could do this for hours,” Kaiden rasps while he grabs my ass to glue my front to his. “Days.” His hands sneak beneath my shirt to rub my taut nipples between his fingers. “Weeks.” A breathy moan slips through my parted lips, which he swallows with undisguised hunger. “Years.” I gyrate my hips over his massive hard-on, seeking friction, and my fingers thread through his silky, coal-black strands to pull at them. “Forever.”
The sound of a phone ringing slices through the air. Kaidenlets out a disgruntled groan from deep within his chest as he inches back, eyes wild and lips puffy and red. “I have to take this, unfortunately.”
“’Kay.” I scowl, then slump to the side to allow him to get up. He stalks to the kitchen, where he left his phone. The choice to walk there instead of doing his Houdini thing has to be for the benefit of collecting himself before he takes the call.
Kaiden brings the phone to his ear. “You here?” He waits for an answer before saying, “I’ll see you down.” Striding back to the couch, he pockets the device. “It was Carter; he’s here to guard the private elevator that goes straight to the penthouse. If there’s anything you need, just text Carter, and he’ll see that you get it. I had my cook make all your favorite meals. They’re in the fridge, but you can also order in if you want something else.”
“Where are you going?”
“I told you, I have to go to Hell and look for Adramelech.”
“Oh, I didn’t think you would leave now. Can Carter drive me to my apartment? I need to get ready for my shift.”
He works his jaw. “You will not hunt demons until you heal properly. You need to rest, Iris. You’ll stay here until I come back, and then we’ll see.”
I snort a derisive laugh and jump to my feet—a move I immediately regret because of the ripple of pain that follows. Gritting my teeth, I push it down. “Keep dreaming that you can tell me what to do. This is my job, Kaiden. And I can’t just disappear after I killed Erik. It’s going to look suspicious as hell, don’t you think?” I fold my arms across my chest.
Kaiden’s eyes narrow. “If you report to Grayson that you were on your shifts and nothing out of the ordinary happened, he’s not going to know.”
“I can’t lie to him,” I seethe.
He barks an incredulous laugh. “Oh yeah? And what do you call what you’ve been doing for over two months now? Whathappens when he notices the scum that was his grandson is missing? You’re going to tell him the truth about that? Do you even know what will happen to you if the Aureal Council catches wind of this? They’re going to torture you until you’re nothing more than an empty shell and then throw you in a cell to rot. How the fuck do you even want to go back to being part of the Order after what that piece of shit did to you?”
“Being a hellseeker is all I know. It gave me a purpose. When I woke up in that hospital without memories and found out what happened, it broke me,” I tell him, ire dripping from my tone.
Kaiden gulps, and something flashes in his eyes. An emotion that looks similar to guilt disappears so quickly I’m certain I must have read it wrong.
“The Order took me in and gave me a life, the chance to avenge my mother’s death. This is not just a job for me. It never was. And I can’t disappear; even if I don’t go out on my shifts tonight and tomorrow night, I’ll still have to show my face at the compound to train this week. If I don’t, it’ll be suspicious.”
“All I’m asking is that you stay here until I return so you can recover from your injuries. Malik should be back by then, too, and he will heal you. Then we can discuss what to do next, and I can join you again on your shifts.”
“We can’t do that anymore. It’s just a matter of time before someone else sees us, and then I’m fucked for good. It was reckless of me to accept it in the first place. So, there’s no point in staying here until you return because you will not shadow me anymore,” I say flippantly.
Kaiden levels me with a stony glare. “You’re not going, Iris.”
