I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. I stare at him directly in the eyes from inside the lake house and lift my chin high with a scowl before shrugging nonchalantly and bending over.
I peel my tights off first. My skirt follows closely after, pooling around my ankles. I maintain his stare, noting his eyes are a bit more hooded than they were a moment ago.
Relishing in the way he’s watching me, I smirk and raise my sweater over my head as delicately as possible. I toss it on the couch, then cross my arms.
His lips part as his eyes drift down my body, taking in every inch. His gaze lingers on some parts of me longer than others. Exposing my body like this would generally make me uncomfortable, but I’m starting to understand that he makes everything easier. I think, maybe, he’s become my happy place.
Fuck. Me.
Forward much?I cover my lips while suppressing a smile.
When it comes to you, I have to be.
I close my eyes and chuckle, but when I open them, he is nowhere to be found.
Kai?
Did he leave? Did the Archangels find us? Oh heavens, what are we—
Suddenly, damp arms grab me from behind, lifting me off my feet. Kai scoops me into his arms and beams at me, droplets of water falling from his drenched hair and dripping onto my skin. His gaze trails the path of the falling drops, lingering on my collarbone for a moment before lifting to my eyes.
“Did you just teleport in here?”
“I had to get to you as fast as possible.”
“Does this mean I don’t have to go swimming in that freezing lake with you after all?” I gasp sarcastically.
He gasps back, grinning fromear to ear. “No.”
Before I can utter a word in response, he takes off, running out the front door while carrying me in his arms. As we edge closer to the lake, he doesn’t slow down, which is a big nope for me.
I’m not one of those people who enjoys jumping into the water right away—I prefer to dip my toes in and slowly embrace it. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he is a jumper.
“Kai. Put me down.” I grit my teeth. “Donotgive in to your intrusive thoughts.Don’t.”
Instead of responding, he just wheezes a faint laugh, pulling me even tighter into his chiseled abs.
“I’mnotkidding,” I say in the firmest tone I can muster, attempting to wiggle my way out of his toned arms. Damnit, why does he have to be so fit?
Look, I know angels aren’t supposed to feel cold, but that water looks frigid, and quite frankly, I wasn’t planning on getting my hair wet again after drying off from the rain. Sue me.
In a matter of seconds, I’m suddenly in the air, falling to my demise, flailing my arms like a madwoman. Of course, he threw me in. I’d expect nothing less of this wild man.
This moment briefly brings me back to another time—one not nearly as pleasant as this one. Crashing under the surface of the black water, I immediately swim upward, desperate to inhale fresh air.
Raising my head above the surface and inhaling a breath of air, I immediately push the memories away. We only scratched the surface when it comes to my mortal life tonight. The less he knows about my life before the afterlife, the better.
Thankfully, the water isn’t actually cold. I’ll admit, never getting cold or hot is a significant perk of being dead. Throughout my mortal life, I always ran cold, so I appreciate the eternal regulated body temperature. I glance around and notice fireflies dimmingin and out of existence—I’ve always loved the way they glow. There’s something so magical about those little creatures. They seem to be growing rarer and rarer with each passing decade, too.
An obnoxious splash of water has me turning my head toward the source.
“Having fun?” He tilts his head, smirking.
“No,” I answer coolly while treading the water and getting lost in the stars, careful not to let my uncaring mask slip.
He gravitates closer to me until our bodies nearly touch.
“I find it ironic—you, watching the stars so intently.” I peel my eyes away from the stars and gaze into his. “The stars should be watching you.”
