Raney starts coughing and snaps me out of my happy place. I shoot a mean glare at her. She’s pink in the face, her arm waving up and down. “I’m literally choking over here, bitch, nothing to worry about. It seriously reeks in here; no wonder Unity make the rooms scent-proof. There’s no fucking way I am breathing in your sex smells. That is disgusting,” she snaps before making a beeline out of my room. Tristan drags Simona out, her hand still over Sim’s mouth.
Kai drops his hand on my lower back and guides me out. I make sure he’s got clothes on, and nearly every inch of his honey colour skin is covered. He’s even wearing a baseball cap he pulled from God knows where, but I do a double take. Because I thought he was stunning before, now he’s hovering on the edge of indecent exposure hotness—grey sweats, hoodie, and a baseball cap on—yep, there goes my undies all slicked up.
Raney is pacing, her eyes a little wild whenever she passes. “Raney?”
She stops in front of me, her wisteria scent hitting me like a hammer between the eyes, telling me how stressed she is.
“I was okay. I knew you guys were only a call away,” I offer, half-heartedly even though it’s the truth. We’ve all got our own monitoring system installed in our alarm in case one of us get spooked, sometimes shitty pasts catch up with you unexpectedly.
Her jaw snaps shut and juts out as she glares off into the distance, and she rubs a hand over the scar on her face before she realises and then she shakes herself. “Not everything is about you, Ho. I’m a little fucked off with you though at the same time. Like did you know he was here last night when we were talking?”
“Heidi had no idea,” Kai interrupts.
Raney levels him still with a glare. “Don’t you talk! This is a Scorned Girls issue, and you have no say!”
“Wow, hold up there, hussy.” My hackles rise as fast as my volume increases.
“No, you hold up!” she shrieks, looking panicked. “How the fuck do you think Koz is going to act if he knows how easy it was for him to get in?! Seriously, he is going to ship me back to King’s place quicker than I can order onion rings.”
Kai leans down in the middle of Raney’s rant, his lips at my ear. “Rohi, please tell me you don’t like onion rings. That will ruin the best night of my life.”
I swing a what the fuck look at him, but he laughs, leaning down close to nip playfully at my ear. “Nah, just joking, you could have warts on your feet, and I’d still be looking at you like you’re the most gorgeous person on this planet.”
“Would you stop fucking whispering and start thinking!” Raney explodes.
“In my defence…”
“Actually, we’re still talking Scorned Girls only. Forever and a day, you have no say in what we discuss. So, zip shut your mouth!” She glares hard at Kai.
“My pack, Pack Alastor, won the auction,” he blurts. Stopping any and all discussion.
ChapterSeventeen
HEIDI
With Kai’s admittance comes a volley of questions and answers, ending in my Scorned Girls looking semi-satisfied with Kai’s performance under fire.
I sink into his kiss, and this time it does not feel like a goodbye.
“Call me once you’ve finished,” he says. A small touch of his Alpha command accompanies his softly spoken words, making it so I can’t ignore his statement. But the last few hours have well and truly wiped from my thoughts any notion that he and I are a passing thing.
“I already said I would.” I have to take a step back, the time to leave was a few minutes ago. Once the thought of being less than five minutes early to a meeting would have filled me with anxiety, not now.
After the grilling I got from my Scorned Girls and Kai, yeah, they are all strangely supportive of each other’s motives, and I feel at peace with a plan that is starting to form in my head. And I won’t let my usual fear muddle my emotions into anything but what it is—happiness.
“I’m taking your underwear hostage.” Kai smirks, holding my oversized overnight bag up, waving it to make a point.
“And most of my clothes.”
“I have. But the way I see it, I saved you the time of having to pack a bag. Now, after your meeting you can come back here and chill. See, it’s a win-win, rohi. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning nice and early. Five-thirty, I’ll have breakfast ready for you so all you have to do is wake up and walk down to my car.”
“I can do that,” I say, enjoying the rush of butterflies circling happily around my tummy when I think of driving off into the sunset with him.
Then there’s nothing left to do but watch as Kai and my bag disappear over my balcony. He vanishes like champagne at a party, that quickly too.
Simona walks into my room, her hands behind her back and a tentative look on her face. I think she is one of the most beautiful people in the world, it’s when she’s barefoot, wearing torn leggings and not a lick of makeup that I think you really see what a stunning woman she is. But it’s when she talks that she captivates you the most.
“Ho,” she starts, her voice barely above a whisper. “Even though we all decided it would be better for you to go alone, I’m still worried you’re going by yourself, and they’re going to do something shifty.”
