Seeing her actually leave is...
Unexpected.
"Fine," I say, the word scraping against my throat. "Text me when you get there."
Her eyebrows shoot up. "Did you just?—"
"Don't make me regret it."
She laughs, and for a second, she looks like herself again. The sister I remember from before everything went to shit. "Noted. Don't burn the house down while I'm gone."
She's halfway out the door when I call after her. "Where's Kristen?"
"I don't know. Try her room?"
She's gone before I can respond.
Her room.
I haven't seen Kristen since last night. Since I had her in my lap on that sectional, her mouth soft and hungry against mine.
I've been thinking about it ever since.
That's the problem.
Kristen.
Kissing her was?—
I don't have words for what it was.
I just know I want to do it again.
My feet carry me toward her room before I make the conscious decision to move. The compound is quiet. Lily's probably with Sophia. The staff knows to stay out of my way. There's nothing stopping me from knocking on her door and seeing if the heat from last night still burns in her eyes.
Her door is closed. I raise my hand to knock, then stop.
Voices. From inside.
No—one voice. Kristen's. She's on the phone.
I shouldn't listen. This is a violation of the tentative trust we've built.
But I'm Nico Sartori.
I always listen.
"—don't care what you think you're entitled to," Kristen is saying, her voice tight with barely controlled fury. "You lost the right to make demands when you?—"
A pause. She's being interrupted.
"No. No, Jack. I'm not doing this with you again."
Jack.
She's talking to him.
"I don't care if you miss her. You had three months to see her and you chose your girlfriend in New York instead. That's not my fault?—"
