Page 111 of Revenge

Lowering the glass, he placed it on the table and snagged the wrist of the hand that touched him. I watched as he lifted it towards his face, my breath tight in my chest as he ran his mouth over my pulse point.

“So why are you drowning your sorrows,” I questioned, feeding him back those words he had muttered.

“Because ofyou, Ava,” he muttered, lifting his chin, and watching me over my hand. There was something untamed and dangerous lurking beneath his quiet façade. Kai’s fingers then tightened, and he tugged me towards him. Having no option, I slid off the seat and then Kai’s other hand shot out to steady me.

I didn’t struggle when Kai manoeuvred my body, so I was sitting on his lap, his hard thighs pressing against my bottom. The flames from the fire flickered shadows across his face and I placed my hands on his shoulders.

Kai wore a look that resembled curiosity. I sat there in silence, waiting for him to explain himself. One of his hands was around my waist and the other rested on one of my legs.

And then his hands slid up my body to my jaw and he pulled my head towards him, his firm mouthcapturingmine. My lips opened as Kaidevouredme, his kiss was heated, and he gipped my jaw as his tongue slid between my lips.

Drawing back, he heaved, “How can you taste like heaven when I feel like I’m in hell?”

“Kai? I don’t understand. What did you mean when you said this is about me?”

He gently pushed me off his lap and we both stood. Kai stepped away and walked towards the window at the other side of his desk.

His office was still in the state I had left it, that drawer where I had first lifted my gun still sitting on the surface of his desk.

As I recovered from that spine-tingling kiss, I turned to watch him. He had his back to me and was looking out of the window. Kai’s shoulders were tense, and I knew he was unhappy. It made my heart squeeze in my chest to think of him hurting.

“Kai?” I prompted softly.

“Because I now know what I have to do,” he answered.

“And what is that?”

He turned to face me, “I need to let you go.”

I felt like I was the one who had been shot.

“You need to let me go? I don’t understand?” I muttered, taking a step towards his desk. It sat in the space between us, keeping us apart. It wasn’t that big a distance but it suddenly felt like we weremilesapart.

“I’ve decided to let you go. You’re free. Free of me, this shit life and the demons who lurk in the corners. This thing is over.”

“This thing?”

“Yes, the relationship between us. If you can even call it that,”

“I can’t argue with that. As far as relationships go, this has been a head-fuck of a rollercoaster. But I get it now.”

“Do you? How is that even possible?”

His words were like pellets from a gun across my skin, “Look, I may not have realised it at first, but you’ve made me the happiest I have ever been in my life, Kai as well as the saddest.”

“Really, when was the happy time, when we were fucking I imagine?”

“Stop trying to shock me, Kai. I think we’re beyond that,” I pointed out with a sharp look.

“So, I make you feel two extreme emotions that are opposite to one another?”

“Yes.”

“And how screwed up is that,” he burst out.

“Not at all. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Don’t they say there is a fine line between love and hate?”

“That’s nonsensical bullshit.Nothingabout this situation is how it is supposed to be Ava,” Kai said with a groan. I could see from his expression that he felt torn; torn between doing what was right and what he wanted.

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