Page 126 of Something So Strong

“Eat.” The bag of salted cashews is thrust against my chest, and Kai’s lips are tugging at my ear lobe half a second later. “You’re gonna need your energy for what I’ve got planned.”

Hail Mary, Mother full of grace!

What he’s got planned?

Kai hasn’t done anything with even the semblance of dominance since discovering that my body makes for the perfect pacifier of his anxieties. Literally.

I’m covered with hickeys and bites.

Some mornings I wake up and he’s sucked my fingers purple, but that’s as far as it’s gone since our night at Misty Mountains.

I teased Kai for days leading up to it, about how Mavis had a crush on him and that I told her it was okay to make a move. None of it was true, of course, but she played along—dancing away between us. Though I could see beneath the strobing lights and fog of intoxication, that his eyes were only ever on me.

I’m all he needs.

And that’s why there was already a room booked upstairs.

A suite.

On the top floor.

For two nights.

He still doesn’t know what I had planned.

Not about the room, or the bottle of lube and condoms I’d packed because that night ended with a body beaten to a bloody pulp on the parquet floorboards of Misty’s nightclub, and Kai and I torn in opposite directions.

Saxon was my priority. Mine and Romeo’s.

Fuck, it was unforgivable.

That shit broke my heart.

Having to look into Saxon’s icy-blue eyes and tell him I couldn’t leave Canada with him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Since we met, there has never been a point in my life where he wasn’t there when I needed him, and I abandoned him.

But only because of the story he wrote.

He made his bed—and a string of terrible fucking decisions—and fled the country with one of the closest things Kai has to a best friend.

She’s the reason he did what he did. The pair of them are toxic beyond comprehension, but at least they balance each other out… I guess.

I know it’s not the end for us.

Romeo and I will see him in nine months.

We’re scheduled to fly back to London one week before the rest of my life starts. One week to get my shit together and push everything I’ve built here into the part of my brain that holds the fond memories of my past, that I only have time to get to when I’m not studying my ass off, or working myself ragged.

Tearing the bag of nuts open, I pour some directly into my mouth. “So what’s next on your agenda, then?”

Diving his fingers into the bag, Kai makes a show of pulling out one—one— cashew, putting it in his mouth, and licking his fingers. “Is our company not exciting enough for you?”

I rotate my neck and roll my eyes because if I don’t make a joke out of his behavior, I’m going to self-combust. “The heels and three extra inches of Cleo’s tits we’re being assaulted with tell me that—”

“Assaulted?” she shrieks. “These babies are perfection.” Kneeling by the end of the coffee table, Cleo cups her boobs and jiggles them.

“Put ‘em away,” Kai gripes, not giving her an inch of the attention she wants.

“What?” Cleo leans onto the coffee table with her elbows and pushes her tits together so much we’re all surprised her nipples don’t pop out.

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