Page 27 of Devilish

Lucien’s fingers tightened slightly on my hip before he nodded. “I will.”

As I carefully extracted the debris from his forearms, he kept his word, staying completely motionless while he watched me.

It felt like a privilege to be able to touch him like this, to be in his personal space and have him want me there, even if it was under the pretense of my helping him.

There were more scrapes on the insides of his wrists and arms, like he’d fallen and caught himself on pavement or something abrasive. I cleaned them as best as I could, but he would definitely need more than just water to get those to heal quickly.

When I told him that and asked about bandage wraps, Lucien rose to his feet. Gratitude shone in his eyes as he cradled my face between his large hands ever so gently.

“Thank you for looking after me,” he said. “You’re good at that.”

Then he leaned down like he was going to kiss my forehead, but before he made contact, I surprised the both of us by lifting my head and capturing his lips instead.

It was barely more than a soft brush of our mouths, but I felt it all the way down to my toes. The kiss instantly ignited something inside me, a hunger I hadn’t realized was there lying in wait, but all too soon it was over.

Lucien drew back slowly, smoothing his thumb over my cheek as he straightened. He was so tall that I had to crane my neck to look up at him, and I swore I thought I saw the faintest hint of a smile on his lips before he said, “Good night, Kai,” and slipped out of my room.

11

LUCIEN

WARM WATER SLUICED over my aching muscles as I stood under the shower and closed my eyes. I’d known sleep would elude me, plus there was no way I’d been about to get into bed smelling like a damn campfire. I hoped the water would somehow wash away the memory of my club going up in flames.

But as I braced my hands on the tiles and hung my head under the spray, I realized now that nothing was going to erase that. The biting sting from the cuts marring my skin was reminder enough, and even though the shower helped ease some of the tension, it did jack shit to help the fury roiling through me.

I’d somehow managed to keep that under control around Kai, knowing he already felt a tremendous amount of guilt over what happened to The Veil. But as I stood here now, alone, I let the rage course through me.

This was Rupert’s fault. I knew that in my very bones. I wiped the condensation from the mirror, and the cuts Kai had tended to were a stark reminder of just how close I’d danced with death tonight.

I touched the wound on my cheek. The one Kai had pulled the glass from. He’d been so gentle, so attentive in how he’dtaken care of me. It was hard to believe he’d never looked after someone like that before. A natural, he’d claimed, the underlying pain in his voice when he’d mentioned being kicked out absolutely tearing at my heart.

How could someone do that to a child? To Kai? He’d had such a hard life for someone so young. And that only added to my rage.

I smoothed my fingers down my neck, over to the gash on my arm, and the memory of Kai’s soft lips on mine soon took over my thoughts.

That had been unexpected, and so damn sweet. I wasn’t even sure he realized he was going to do it until he was in the moment. But that was what happened when something catastrophic took place. Or one’s life flashed before their eyes.

And Kai was right—I was lucky I hadn’t been killed tonight. But something inside me told me that was planned, not luck. If Rupert wanted me gone, he easily could’ve made it happen. But it was clear the purpose of his little fireworks display had been to prove a point.

It would’ve been smarter for him to kill me.

I toweled off quickly, wanting to go check on Kai and make sure he hadn’t changed his mind about staying. The last thing I wanted was for him to run off because of some misguided sense of protectiveness he felt toward me. I needed him close by, somewhere I could see him at all times now that I knew what kind of a maniac Rupert was.

Who knew what that fucker was up to? Was he happy with the message he’d sent, or was he just getting started? It was hard to tell with someone as unstable as him.

But one thing I did know was that I needed more eyes on this than just mine.

It was time to bring in King and the rest of my brothers. They’d know what to do. Or at least talk me out of doing something reckless.

I pulled on my clothes and headed out to the living room, and was shocked to see Kai sitting on the couch. The second his eyes landed on me, he sprang to his feet.

“Uh, hi.”

The blush that hit his cheeks was adorable as he wrung his hands in front of himself, and despite everything I’d been through tonight, I smiled.

“Hi. Couldn’t sleep either?”

“Uh uh.”

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