“Worried that I’ll get jealous and think about using my claws on my best friend,” I said off-handedly, thinking about the feminine gauntlet Fang had created for me. I wasn’t concerned with Kieran being led astray, more so that I’d get too angry ather for daring to flirt with him. He’d never let someone take him away from me. He chose me over his sister. I trusted the man, but just like him, I had some jealous tendencies.
“Ooh,” he said as he faked a shiver, “you’re sexy when you’re jealous.”
“Maybe I’m just as toxic as you.”
“Me, toxic? Never.”
We had a laugh at that. Lola would definitely call him toxic; hell, I was pretty sure if I decided to drop him like a hot potato, she’d swoop in and rid the city of him. She only left him alone out of respect for me.
She really didn’t like men who hurt girls, although I’d tried time and time again to explain to her he never hurt me. He might’ve kidnapped me and kept me holed up in a room for two years, but he saved my life in doing so—and he helped open my eyes.
“Toxic,” I repeated, “immature—”
“Whoa. Immature? I actually take that personally. I think I’m very funny. You have to have a certain type of humor to understand the level I’m on. I thought you were on my level, but apparently not.” He shook his head in mock disappointment, along with sighing an overly dramatic sigh.
“I know why you always make jokes. It’s your mask, your other mask. If people think you’re a jokester, then they won’t think you’re capable of anything else.” I glanced down at my left hand, at the metal fingers resting on my now-healed nubs. “I get it.”
“If anyone in this world can truly get me, it’s you.”
When we made it to my place just off-campus, Kieran pulled into the short driveway and put the car in park. He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over to me, sweeping his hand along my neck and grabbing hold of my face. Moments later, his mouth found mine. The kiss was unyielding and unrepentant,everything a kiss should be. Laced with hunger, a carnal desire, an urge so strong he stole the breath straight out of my lungs.
Kieran pulled his mouth off mine to murmur, “We both know if I come inside, you’ll be missing your classes tomorrow.” The idea that his hunger for me was so great, so overwhelming, he’d ravish me all night and well into the morning, made me tingly all over.
I kind of wanted to drag him inside and see if he meant it, but the thought of having him with his mask on first stopped me.
“True,” I admitted, slow in undoing my seatbelt and reaching for the car door. He released his hold on me, and I grabbed the bag between my feet and got out. Before I walked to the front door, I bent over and gave him a wide smile. “You better plan that masked chase, Kieran.”
“Trust me, until that night, I won’t be thinking of anything else.”
I couldn’t shake the smile as I shut the door and sauntered toward the house. The lights were on downstairs, telling me Kelly was home. Unlike me, she didn’t often leave to go home. She was living it up here.
Kieran honked before he backed out of the driveway, and I turned around to watch him drive away before I stepped into the house to find Kelly on the couch in the living room, her laptop on her lap. She was working on something while watching some reality TV show.
I dropped my bag and went to sit beside her, sprawling out with a yawn.
“How was home?” she asked, her green eyes glancing in my direction. Her light brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun, its ends sticking every which way. She knew I was seeing not only Kieran, but also two other guys, and she was fully supportive of my polyamorous habits. In fact, she often joked and said she wished she could get her own gaggle of boyfriends.
“Fine,” I said, wishing I could tell her about my night with Lola. Obviously that was the highlight of my weekend. As much as I loved my guys and wished I got to spend more time with them, Lola was slowly opening my eyes to the world of crime. Hell, to the world of serial killing. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I wanted to be a serial killer myself, but the woman was inspiring in the best way, and watching her do her thing wasn’t something I’d forget anytime soon.
I was counting down the days until I’d hang out with her again.
“And how’s the boytoys?”
I laughed. None of them were really boytoys, since none of them were boys. Each of my three boyfriends were men, the very definition of the word. I didn’t correct her, though. “They’re good. I didn’t get to see Mike, though.”
“Aw, you didn’t get the chance to get railed by your three boytoys this weekend?” She thought the only thing we did was have lots of sex. I mean, she wasn’t necessarily wrong, but she wasn’t right, either. We probably had a lot less sex than she assumed we did, if only because of everything going on in our lives.
“Believe it or not, not everything is about sex.”
The look Kelly gave me after that was one of disbelief. “Come on. You don’t believe that. You know as well as I do that it’salwaysabout sex. Without sex, what’s the point of life?”
I thought about arguing with her, but ultimately, in a weird, philosophical way, she was right. Humanity, as a whole, would not be here, where we were, if it wasn’t for sex. Nature had to make something enjoyable to make people have babies.
I got up. “I’m gonna shower.” I scooted around her legs and left her to her homework that was undoubtedly due at midnight and her reality TV. After grabbing my bag, I headed up the stairs of the house, to the second floor, where our bedrooms were.I popped in the bathroom to start the shower—the water took forever to get hot here—and while I waited for it to warm up, I crossed the hall and went to my room.
With the light on, I took my bag to my bed and started to unpack, but something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned toward my nightstand, a small wooden thing that only had a single drawer—a drawer I knew I did not leave open when I left.
I rifled through the drawer and made sure nothing was missing, and nothing was, but it still left a funky taste in my mouth. I wouldn’t put it past Kelly to snoop, but she was also bold enough that if she wanted something from me, she would just ask. Besides, she was smart enough to know to leave things exactly as they were before.
