I caught it, remaining silent.
“Why are you allowed? When did you move in with this family? You weren’t sleeping with Damon, because you were a virgin with me, so what was he doing with you, huh? Who exactly are you?”
I half-smiled. “Your favorite enemy,” I replied.
But just then, he darted out and grabbed my hands. I clenched my teeth together as he pulled off one glove and then the other, dropping them to the floor.
Goddammit.
He held them tightly, staring at the backs of my hands. Only one had the cigar burn on it.
I wore two gloves, though, to keep up the pretense.
I could hear his angry breathing getting faster. But he didn’t ask questions. I guess he was smart enough to figure out how Gabriel disciplined me.
Thankfully, it only took once for me to learn, though.
Rika shifted her head just a little, trying to be discreet as she got a look. The circular scar was about the size of a quarter, the flesh bumpy and pink. It wasn’t an old scar, but it had faded a lot over the past few years. I glanced at the small mark on her neck, knowing she got it from the same car accident that killed her father years ago.
“You don’t know what you’re doing to me,” Kai choked out, sounding solemn.
I turned my head away and kept my mouth shut.
Rika started to walk out, giving us privacy, but I stopped her.
“No, stay,” I told her. “He’ll need his friends.”
He stared down at me, getting in my face. “Do you want me to marry her?” he asked. “And this will be us? You, my little sidepiece whom I sneak off to fuck in the middle of the night. Huh? You’d like that?”
“You think I’d put up with that?” I retorted.
My face was starting to crack and my chin trembled, but I tightened every muscle I could muster, keeping the tears at bay.
“Look at me,” he whispered as Rika stood close but looked away. “Look at me.”
I didn’t.
“I like you,” he told me. “I want you in my house. I want to see you in my bed. I don’t want to not see you every day. Be with me tonight.”
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t be with him for anything more than stolen moments.
For one simple reason.
“Do you hate Damon?” I asked him.
He squared his shoulders, and I could tell a wall was going up. “He’s not a factor with us. He has no place in my life.”
“Well, he does in mine,” I stated. “I love him.”
Before he could say anything else, I spun around and left, jogging quickly down the stairs.
Enough, goddammit. Just leave. Everything was fucked up, because of him, and I wanted it back to when it was simple. When I was single-minded in the fact that I was loyal to one person, and that, alone, was my purpose.
When I didn’t want to say ‘yes’.
When I wasn’t falling in love.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and shot through the door, bumping straight into David.