Page 9 of Eye Candy

“Is that even a thing?” I asked, tilting my head at him. He stood three feet away from me now, close enough for me to see every detail on his body. No scars, no tattoos. He was a well-groomed man everywhere, from what I could see, let’s just say.

“You tell me.”

I’d never heard Kieran’s voice so low and gravelly. Husky, almost, like he was trying to bait me—but he wouldn’t. This wasmetrying to baithim, not the other way around… right?

It was harder for me to say “I think you should go shower” than I wanted to admit.

“Probably,” he whispered, taking another step toward me. “Wouldn’t want anyone to catch us like this, would we? They’d get the wrong idea, and then…” Kieran let out a sigh. “Then your father would pull me off protective duty, and you’d be someone else’s problem.”

Wearing nothing but his boxer briefs, he truly was a temptation I didn’t expect. Before I could say a word, he lifted a hand to my chin and angled my head back. “And let’s just say I hate the thought of someone else watching you.”

I fought the shiver that swept over me when he said that. When he said it like that, I hated the thought of someone else watching me, too.

Kieran smirked, just for the quickest of moments, and then he let my chin go, turning to leave the room. I remained rooted in place, waiting until I heard the bathroom door close in the hall before I let out the breath I’d been holding. That smirk of his made me feel things I shouldn’t, but I guess I could blame it on the fact that I’d been locked up in a room for the last two years, with no one’s company but myself and my Devil on occasion.

I’d missed two whole years. Two years I could’ve been dating, seeing boys, getting to know the ways their bodies moved, how they felt against mine. Two years I could’ve been rebelling against my dad.

Sighing, I left Kieran’s room and returned to mine. My feet took me to the dresser, where a mirror sat on top. The blue eyes of my reflection stared back at me, a face framed with hair such a light blond it was only a shade or two darker than white.

I looked the opposite of pretty, in my opinion. My hair hadn’t been cut this entire time; it was in vast need of one. I went for my phone—same phone I’d had before. My dad never stopped paying monthly for it, for whatever reason, so my number was the same. When my face unlocked the screen, I saw I had a few messages from Kelly, my best friend.

She heard the news. Or saw the news. However she found out I was back, she was so happy and wanted to see me andhang out, blah, blah, blah. My dad always hated Kelly, saying she was a bad influence, and back then I’d tried to care, but you know what? I was done caring. I was done caring about anything.

So, I decided to text her back after I made a very important call. After doing a quick search online for the city’s best salon, I called them up.

A woman’s voice answered after four rings, “Akryn Beauty. This is Cherise, how may I help you?”

“Yeah, hi. I want to make an appointment for a haircut—” My eyes once again found my reflection in the mirror, taking in the color. It was naturally that blond. My dad loved it. I think it was time to change it. “—and a color change. Do you do unnatural colors?”

“We do,” she told me. “We actually had a cancelation today, so we have an opening in an hour. If that doesn’t work for you, we have—”

“No,” I cut in. “Today works. What time?” As she rattled off what time, I found myself grinning ear to ear. She asked what my name was for the appointment, and I told her, “Lanie.” Not quite my real name, but not so different. I thanked her and hung up, suddenly giddy.

Odds were, I’d come home from the salon when my dad was home for the night, and he’d get a nice, long view of my new hair.

The question was: what was I going to have done? What color should I do? I definitely wanted to go for something unnatural, something that would give my dad a heart attack. Maybe pink… it was my favorite color, after all. Being stuck in a pink room the last two years didn’t make me tired of it.

Yeah, I think I’ll go with pink.

My gaze once more fixated on the mirror, on my reflection, on the blueness of my eyes. The girl staring back at me was the old me. If I was going to change things, then I wanted to change it all.

I decided to order something else online, something that would make it impossible to ignore me. If my dad thought I’d come back and be a meek daughter, someone who hid herself away in this house, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Once it was ordered, I bounced into the hall, smiling to myself. I posted myself directly outside of the bathroom Kieran was in, waiting for my Ken. I was about to Barbie this bitch up.

I ignored any texts I got from Kelly. She could wait. I was just too damned excited about this. The old me was officially going bye-bye, and the new me would show off her feathers like a male peacock.

The sounds of the water inside the room abruptly stopped, and I heard him sliding the glass door aside. It was another minute or two before he opened the door, letting a bunch of steam out in the process. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, covering his private dangly bits, and he started to walk across the hall to his room, but he froze the instant he saw me.

“Have you been out here this whole time?” he asked, grinning. “I’d make a joke about you joining me in there, but that’s probably too inappropriate.”

“Probably,” I agreed. “You and I have somewhere to be, Kieran, so take off that towel and get dressed. I’m getting my hair done.” I couldn’t hide the notes of excitement from my voice, and he definitely noticed.

“Good. I wasn’t going to say anything, but your hair looks like a dead cat that got ran over, all mangled up, then rained on, then—”

“Shut up.”

Kieran did a mock bow, overly dramatic in the process. “As you wish.” After bowing his top half, his head was the first thing that lifted, and I saw the twinkle in his black eyes, the amusement he carried.

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