“You didn’t either. And look where you are now.
Completely and utterly at my mercy,” I say with a villainous edge to my voice. “But since you spared me before, I’ll be fair. We’re both stuck here as bait anyway, so we might as well wait it out and see which team picks each other off first.”
Kayden recites a string of obscenities under his breath before going silent again. His gaze zeroes in on the guns I have aimed at him, and for a moment, I seriously think he’s gonna fight me for them. But eventually, he lets out a conceding sigh and musters a tight nod. I throw both the guns as far as I can across the room and sit down beside him. We huddle in the corner, out of sight of any outside intruders.
I pull my knees together and rest my left cheek on them, facing away from Kayden. “And now the waiting game begins.”
We spend the next minute sitting together in silence, focused on listening for any movements outside. I’ve no idea where Simon and Daniel are, but I’m certain they’re still waiting for Kayden’s signal. I wonder how long it’ll take for them to realize that it won’t be coming.
I cut a look at Kayden. He’s breathing hard, sweaty from all the running and sabotage from earlier. He notices me staring and wipes the sweat with his hand silently. I’ve almost forgotten how he looks since I’ve barely seen him this week. I stare at him longer than I would ever allow myself to, taking in his alluringly taunt eyes, lips that look pillowy soft to the touch, and that subtle five o’clock shadow that shades the top of his mouth and along his jaw.
A thick air of tension settles between Kayden and me, the reality of not speaking to each other for days becoming too palpable. And yet, no matter how many times we’ve been through this—him completely icing me out—I still put up with it. It’s stupid and I probably would have left a long time ago if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m falling irrationally in love with this man.
“Look, I’m really sorry for getting mad at you about the picture the other day,” he murmurs, slicing through the silence.
I guess we’re having this conversation now.
“That’s okay,” I say softly. “If anything I should be the one to say sorry. I shouldn’t have pried. Clearly that was a sensitive thing and I shouldn’t have looked at the picture.”
“It’s not your fault.” He shakes his head, leaning his head against the wall. “It’s just that you caught me off guard. And I shouldn’t have been pissed at you for being curious.”
I nod silently, wanting to end this back and forth of taking responsibility for what had happened. It seems meaningless to continue because I know he’ll be insistent on letting the blame fall on him.
I scoot over and lie against his shoulder, my arm brushing against his. Making another bold move, I spread my palm over his hand tenderly, to ease some of the guilt he’s feeling. He slides his hand out from under me and uses it to link our hands together, his fingers curling into mine.
When I look up at him, his eyes are heavy with pained affection for me.
“Why do we keep doing this?” Kayden breathes.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. This.” Aggravation creases his forehead.
“We said we were going to stop this. Just be platonic.
And then we hold hands and we touch and we have these moments. Moments that feel like something more.”
My lungs empty at his acknowledgment of what’s been happening between us. I try to keep my expression vague but it’s difficult to keep a mask on when he’s allowing honesty and vulnerability to pour out of him like this.
“Sienna, it’s like I’m addicted to you,” Kayden says, spilling more of his thoughts out loud. “You’re the first thing I see when I get into that cage. The last thing I think about before I go to sleep. I seek you out in the darkest days and I miss you when you’re not around. I think about what it’d be like to kiss your lips and every other part of your body. I want to feel you bare against me in bed. I want to say many things to you . . . things that I can only dream of saying to you.” His husky, rough voice sends a shiver racing through me.
I don’t say anything. Because he’s just stolen all the words that I’ve been too afraid to say to him. He drags his fingers lightly over his bottom lip, and when he catches me staring at them, he drops his hand.
“I don’t think I can just be friends with you.” Sadness softens his voice. “But it’s not that simple for me. Not when I can’t give you everything you deserve.”
“Don’t say that,” I whisper. “You are everything that I want, Kayden. Everything.”
“But you know it’s hard for me to open up about what happened. I’m scared that you’re not gonna want to be around me once you find out—”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me,” I murmur with a strained smile. I close my hand over his shoulder, eyes sliding over his. “Your past is in your past, and it doesn’t define who you are. I know it doesn’t because I can tell you’re a good person. I’ve known it ever since I met you. And it’s okay. Forget what you think you owe me. I like you as you are right now.”
Relief flits through Kayden’s expression. He studies me through the dark, and a deep, yearning ache passes through me as I realize that I’ve not been alone in trying to restrain my own feelings.
“What do you want?” He asks, his voice barely a whisper.
The air, which a couple of minutes ago was heavy with awkward tension, now pulsates with a new kind of energy. A sensual and lustrous kind. And I welcome it, exhausted from holding my feelings captive for such a long time. I don’t know how long I can keep going at this without bursting at the seams.
Kayden gently puts his fingertips on my jaw and turns me toward him. His face is so close to mine that I can smell the saltiness of his breath. Heat rises in my body and I’m certain I can feel my head pounding from the deafening sound of my heart thundering against my chest.
He knows my answer to his question.
He knows.
And so I deliver.
“This.” I grab a fistful of his jumpsuit and catch his lips with mine.