Page 53 of Eye Candy

He was right, of course. I was ridiculous.

Nestling against him, having him hold me, my naked chest against him, it was nice. The last thing I felt was a sense of guilt, and I hoped Mike was the same. I didn’t regret any of this.

I let my eyelids fall and, soon enough, sleep took me. When morning came, I had to roll out of his bed, throw on my clothes, and tiptoe across the hall before anyone else woke up.

It was probably best not to take chances.

Chapter Eighteen – Laina

Days went by, and Kieran showed no signs of waking up yet. The doctors had operated on him, got the bullet out, but the bullet did some damage to a few organs. It wasn’t a cut and dry wound. Even if he woke up tomorrow, he’d have to let himself heal and probably do physical therapy to strengthen his core muscles again.

Kelly came over once, mostly because she was nosy about the shooting—which was fine. If I was her, I’d be nosey, too. She invited me to come visit her on campus. She said she’d take me to all of her classes as a guest, if I wanted, and that we could go to a frat party to forget about the little fact that someone had been trying to kill me and shot Kieran instead.

It wasn’t the time to tour campus, but… it might be easy to blend in at a frat party.

Tessa and my dad were gone a lot. The gunman wasn’t talking; we didn’t know who he was working for. My dad spenta lot of time in the office or with the police, trying to interrogate him; a perk of being the mayor in a corrupt city. Tessa… I wasn’t sure where she disappeared to.

That left me alone with Mike. A lot.

After what happened that night, Mike kept his distance from me. I think he was trying to forget what happened, act like the bodyguard he was supposed to be and not someone who’d taken off my clothes and looked down at my naked body with a ravenous glint in his eyes.

You know, not someone who’d gone down on me.

I found it a little annoying, frankly, and it was because of how annoying it was that I decided I would, in fact, like to go to a party this weekend with Kelly.

But, first thing was first: it was time to pay Fang a visit. I supposed I could’ve messaged him or called him to ask if he had anything for me, but a part of me wanted to see him again. That silver-fanged man intrigued me, and his face popped into my head often.

Hmm. Maybe I had a thing for slightly older men. Kieran, Mike, Fang; they were all older. Kieran was the closest at nine years above me, while Mike and Fang were a few years older than that.

Yeah, you could say I’d definitely come out of my kidnapping with a type.

It was just after lunch when I got ready to go. I changed into black leggings and a soft, fuzzy pink shirt that went well with my hair. I chose a pair of flats and slipped them on while Mike watched me from the doorway. He’d done his best to not step foot in my room lately.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked. He didn’t need to specify why I should be thinking harder about going to seeFang. The big one: it wasn’t safe. But I’d argue nowhere was truly safe in this city, and I’d be damned if I kept myself locked up in this house just because someone wanted to kill me.

Let them. Let them try. I wasn’t going to play prisoner any more.

“Fang said he’d have something for me in about week, and it’s been a little more than that.” I stretched, letting my gaze fall to my left hand. Every day that passed, the wound looked better, the scab grew smaller. The skin was healing. “I’m dying to see what he has—although maybedyingisn’t a word I should use.”

All Mike did was let out a sigh as I passed him to get into the hall. He followed as I went down the stairs, and then he went to grab his keys, probably knowing he’d never convince me not to go.

Mike was the first to walk out of the door, but right after he opened it and took a step out, he stopped, which made me walk face-first into his back. Let’s just say Mike was like a mountain. Walking into him was a little painful.

He bent down to pick something up, a small box, and he read the label. “It’s for you.” He handed it to me.

I wasn’t… wait a damn second. When I saw what company had sent me the package, I squealed. “I’ve been waiting for these. Wait right here.” I spun and ran into the kitchen to grab a knife, opening the small box, and then I hurried upstairs to my bathroom. With the box on the counter near the sink, I pulled out a single smaller box from within.

These were something I’d been waiting for, that, in the commotion of life lately, I’d completely forgotten about. I’d ordered them the same day I got my hair done, wanting a brand-new look.

Colored contacts.

Of course, as I opened them and tried to put them on, I realized I wasn’t very comfortable putting something in my eye. I didn’t have glasses or contacts to begin with, so it was a new experience all around for me.

Let’s just say there was a lot of swearing. It was a good thing Mike was downstairs, otherwise he might’ve thought a sailor had switched places with me. I didn’t think I’d ever cussed more in my entire life, not even when I’d been kidnapped.

After a lot of trial and error—mostly error on my part—I managed to get them in, and I blinked a few times, getting used to the feeling of them on my eyes. Taking a step back, I shifted my gaze to the mirror, momentarily stunned at the reflection staring back at me.

The contacts were a beautiful soft pink, definitely on the unnatural side, but that was to be expected with the color. With the pink and blue hair, the look was complete. I looked like a completely different person, aBarbiedoll, save for the small cut along my jawline, where I’d cut myself. The injury had healed since it was only a surface wound, and you got real close, you didn’t notice it.

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