Tainted Kiss (Tainted Knights 1)

Santana rolled her eyes when she read them. “Sage is trying to figure out if I’m alive or dead. I don’t stay out all night like I did last night, and she’s starting to wonder if she needs to call the hospitals or the cops.”

Why I was relieved to know she didn’t spend nights with other guys, I had no clue. It had never mattered to me before with other chicks. Yet, there I was, jealous of any guy who might have been in her life now or in the past. I wanted to be the only one who had kissed her.

Touched her.

Tasted her.

Made her laugh.

TEN

Santana

It was after six-thirty by the time I walked into my apartment that evening. I’d had a full schedule with clients, but I’d also had a family walk into my studio that afternoon, hoping I could make room for them because the photographer they had originally had an appointment with that day had flaked out at the last minute.

I needed a shower and some clothes that belonged to me, and not the delicious rocker I had spent the previous night with.

When he had dropped me off that morning at my studio, he’d asked if I wanted to hang out with his friend Jace and a few other at First Bass. I had never been there, but I’d heard some interesting things about the club. It was a hot spot for celebrities and their antics. Not really my scene, but because I wanted to see Kale again, I had jumped at the offer. He was supposed to pick me up at eight, and I wanted to look my best when he got there.

As I walked through the apartment, I heard Sage in the living room and snuck a glance in to see if she was alone. Of course she wasn’t.

Wade was camped out on the couch like he owned the damn place, with a beer in his hand and Sage draped over him like a blanket while they watched television.

Clenching my jaw, I kept walking, not in the mood to deal with that little shit.

In the beginning, I had been able to tolerate Wade, for the most part. However, as their relationship had gone on, and I began standing up for Sage more and more when she wouldn’t, I started keeping my distance. They had been together for almost two years now, and I was to the point that I couldn’t even be in the same room with him for more than five minutes without running my mouth.

I probably should have just moved out, but I would have worried about her too much. I would constantly wonder if she was eating, if she was sad, if she had locked herself in the bathroom again and was thinking crazy things because she thought Wade was right when he told her he could do better. That he thought she was fat. That she was stupid and couldn’t do anything right.

All of those were things he had actually told her. And they had left Sage in a depression that hadn’t lifted for days, until Wade had come slinking back to the apartment, apologizing and telling her he loved her and she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The last two times that had happened, he had come back because he’d blown his money on something stupid and hadn’t been able to pay his share of the rent at his own place. I knew because I had called his roommates to ask what the fuck was going on.

His roommates didn’t like him any more than I did.

Locking myself in my room, I took a long, hot shower and washed my hair. It had needed washing that morning, but Kale’s shampoo and conditioner would have left my hair an untamable mess all day, so I had just tossed it into a knot on top of my head. My hair was so thick, though, that I didn’t do that often because it gave me headaches. I then got dressed and did my

hair.

It had been a long time since I’d gone through the trouble of curling my hair and putting on makeup, but I wanted to look good for Kale.

As I dabbed a little gloss over my lips, I couldn’t help thinking about our kiss that morning. It had been the best way to wake up, to have him kiss me so tenderly, as if he were pouring his soul into each brush of his lips across my own.

I squirmed as memories of how hungry it had gotten flashed through my mind.

If Sage hadn’t called when she had, things might have gone further. I had wanted them to go further, dammit. I’d just laid there, ready and willing for him to take things to the next level, but he hadn’t taken advantage. Instead, Kale had drawn back without complaining about the interruption.

I knew he had wanted me because his dick had been rock hard against my stomach as we tried to get our breathing under control, yet he had kept his hands to himself.

I was starting to see that my rock star was a gentleman.

And it was melting my heart.

Once I was happy with my reflection in my bathroom mirror, it was a quarter to eight. Deciding I could put up with Wade for that long, I grabbed my clutch and went into the living room.

My roommate and her boyfriend were still on the couch with some action movie I didn’t recognize on while they ate Chinese food I knew Sage had paid for. Wade didn’t spend his money on anything when he was here, which was one of the reasons he kept coming back. Sage had been his meal ticket practically from the minute they had started dating. He wasn’t going to just let that go, and I doubted he ever willingly would.

She couldn’t see that he was just using her. That he liked that he could control her so easily because she couldn’t, nor wouldn’t, stand up for herself. She was his little lap dog, and it turned my stomach that she let him treat her like that.

He was pathetic. Disgusting. A user and abuser.