Page 81 of Runaway Hearts: Seduced by Danger

I gasp, wishing I had a pint of ice cream. “Oh, god.”

Stop smiling so wide.

Kai stares at me with mixed feelings. “You shouldn’t be enjoying this so much.”

“I’m sorry.”

I can’t stop smiling.

“No, you’re not. You think this is fascinating,” he says smirking.

I squeak like a little kid caught with its hand in the cookie jar. “I can’t control it. I’m sorry. Does it bother you?” I look away, embarrassed by my lack of control.

A soft chuckle rumbles in his chest. “Not in the slightest. It’s delightful to have someone so in tune with the real me.”

“Keep going, then.” I wiggle in my seat with a grin.

A chuckle burst out of Kai in the most carefree manner, one I’ve never heard before. He reaches for my hand and places gentle kisses on each knuckle. “What about you put that wonderfully crazy brain of yours to work?”

“What do you mean? You want me to do what exactly?” I hesitate, mostly because I like when he confides in me and partly because I might fuck this up.

“Tell me how the story goes.” He nods at me, his fingers interlacing with mine. “Please.”

The softness of his plead knocks me out of myself, and I clear my throat. “Okay. But you’re not allowed to hold it against me.”

“Cutie, the only thing I want to hold is your hand.”

Shut up, baby. People might mistake your cheesiness for a midnight horror movie.

“Fine, here goes nothing. Your father forced your mother into a loveless marriage to get either power or money.”

“We’re getting warm,” he says, rubbing his palms together in glee.

“With my limited information, I’d say power more than money.”

Kai’s voice drips with an icy coldness I don’t want toward me. “Six needs to be in charge. Always.”

“Okay. So, your father is on a business trip in Europe, but things don’t go as planned. To avoid a shitshow of any kind, the other guyoffers to sweeten the deal with a girl he kidnapped. That gives Six power over him.”

Kai nods, a sick, curious gleam in his eyes.

“He brings her back and forces her into a loveless marriage without her consent. Treating her like property, and she’s miserable until you come along. And that makes Six happy because an heir means the Kwunarus line lives.”

I take a breath before I continue.

“And because he treats her better, she learns to respect him. Power, again. But when she has an affair with your math tutor and tries to leave with you and the new lover, his control starts to slip. That big loss of power is unacceptable. Your father executes her, keeps you, and raises you as his personal soldier. And his power returns because who would dare cross a man who killed his wife just to prove his dominance?”

It also means his mother and her lover were killed in a gruesome way.

Oh, that’s awful. I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

The car falls into a heavy silence after I finish speaking. Kai stares ahead, fidgeting with his fingers. “You were made for this,” he says, and I can’t identify the tremor in his tone.

He’s going to get mad.

“Wait! What? Did I guess it right?” I ask, horrified and excited.

His subtle flinch tells me to be careful.

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