Chapter Eleven
Struggling under layers of sleep and bedding, I wave away the whining buzz of a fly near my ear, eventually dragging myself upright.It’s like being reborn!I shield my eyes from the light streaming through the open drapes, almost knocking last night’s empty glass from the nightstand as the drone carries on. It’s my phone vibrating, set to that stupid misnomersilent. I prod the screen with an indiscriminate thumb, my brain sluggish and slow to realise it’s not my phone ringing, but Kai’s.
‘Far out,’ I groan, slipping the phone into my purse and grinding one palm against a narcoleptic eye. My stomach gurgles audibly. Now that I’m awake, I’m also starving, having ingested little since last night’s dubious taco.Nothing that belongs on a food pyramid, at least.
The sheets rustle as Kai stirs, interrupting my tasteless train of thought and quite possibly stopping my heart for a beat or two. Dark hair falls stark against the pale linens, lashes echoing the contrast against his skin, his mouth pouting softly in sleep. Lying on his stomach with the sheet pulled low across one hip, he looks like some kind of reverse or modern dayDeath of Abel:a work of art almost too perfect to be real.
So this is casual sex.
I’m no expert, but I’d say last night was anything but.Sex yes, but casual? Not a bit.Intense and erotic, full of fingers, teeth and skin.And I like touching myself with an audience. What’s that all about?My pulse begins to pound and my head to ache. I’m pretty sure it’s not a hangover, despite the sudden onset of nausea, as my brain kicks into overdrive.
I slept with a stranger. Who might possibly be my boss.
In a country where I could go to jail for kissing in public. Faaack!
Calm down, Kate. Deep breaths. Try not to overthink this. Yes, let’s give that a bash.
I try to refocus on Kai, unaware of the neurotic nut lying next to him. But I can’t chase away the images of how this might end. Will he wake and make some arsehole excuse to kick me out? Maybe I should leave first, might that be the more sophisticated thing to do? Though just contemplating a walk of shame through these opulent corridors makes me want to hurl. Then again, taking off before he wakes might make me seem mysterious, leave him wanting more?
Or glad I’d made it easy for him.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe I am middle-class. Middle-class with weak knicker elastic.
But one swallow definitely does not a girlfriend make, and in the absence of a decision, I begin to slide my legs from the bed.
‘Looks like the road to hellispaved with good intentions,’ I quietly rebuke.
‘Rooved,’ says a sleep roughened voice, ‘with lost opportunities.’
Kai lays unmoving, appearance suggesting a lack of consciousness. His breathing is deep and even as my own heart beats like a deafening drum.
‘And possibly the overwrought corpses of girls with pretty mouths.’ My body jumps as his pouting and somnolent lips form the words. ‘Penny for them.’ He yawns, rolling onto his back and stretching along the bed, hair deliciously dishevelled, dark lashes spiked by sleep.
‘I’d have to give you change,’ I mutter, readjusting the sheets and drawing my legs back under the covers.
‘You’re having cheap thoughts? I think I like the sound of that.’ Propping himself up on one arm, his grin becomes a teasing sort of corner-of-the-mouth arrangement.
‘As in not worth much,’ I answer stroppily.
‘Were you going to leave me a note?’ His voice is low, tone mockingly severe as his fingers pull at the sheet playfully, though I’m guessing he’s also serious about uncovering me. ‘Or just sneak out?’
‘I... well... I... ’
Rolling onto his back, he stretches long and fully, lifting his toned torso from the bed.
‘You know I know where you work, right?’
The words are spoken through gritted teeth and a stifled yawn, but I’m stopped from witty repartee—or a sarcastic comeback—by my stomach growling. Loudly. I could curl into a corner and die.
‘Someone worked up an appetite.’ With a smirk, he lifts his phone from the nightstand.
‘It rang. Earlier. While you were still sleeping.’ His eyes lift from the screen before sliding back. I’d say sheepishly, but why he’d be self-conscious when it’s mystomach that sounds like a lion that’s just ingested a walrus, I’m not sure. ‘Thanks, so I see. I’ve got to make a couple of calls.’
Throwing back the sheet, he stands and stretches unhurriedly, leaving me free to perve at the rear view: a graceful and muscular back, highly defined lats leading to a narrow waist and butt cheeks you could bounce pennies on.Freakin’ unreal!Just in time, I pull the edge of the sheet to my chest before it’s wrenched from the bed. ‘No escaping, now.’
Slipping into his discarded pants, he saunters from the room, phone in hand, his voice murmuring then falling away. I take this as my cue, almost jumping from the bed and making a nudie dash toward the bathroom, slamming the door with a click of the lock to follow.
In the vanity mirror, a stranger stares back through bright, wild eyes. My cheeks look almost wind burned and I definitely don’t have that sexy bed-head-hair going on, because my hair is just... fucked.I look like I’ve been getting it on in a wind tunnel.Grinning like the five year old that’s just discovered the keys to the lolly shop, I fan my hands across my cheeks and resist an undignifiedsquee!
