Page 31 of Devilish

Lachlan pumped his eyebrows at my words, and it was tempting to let him handle Rupert. The fucker had it coming, especially after what I could only imagine he’d put Kai through.

“—but I won’t,” I said. That would be too much for Kai. He’d never get over the guilt if something happened because of him.

We’d have to play this a different way.

“Rupert wanted to prove a point,” I said. “And now he has.” When Lachlan cursed, I shrugged. “Sorry, man.”

He flipped me off and headed to the bar as the waiter brought by our drinks.

“You okay?” I asked Kai quietly. I didn’t know what he was thinking, and the last thing I wanted was to make him feel uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry about me.” Defiance flashed in his stormy eyes. “He took something from you. Do whatever you want to make things right.”

My chest tightened at the permission Kai had just granted me, and I looked back at King, who watched our interaction silently. I knew him too well to know his mind wasn’t working a hundred miles a minute.

King rubbed at the dark stubble along his jaw. “It’s possible he could still be targeting other properties.”

“It is. Maybe we should look into targeting a few of his,” I replied.

He nodded. “Might not be a bad idea for you two to leave for a while. Let us look into it for you.”

I’d had a feeling he’d say that. That was what we all did for each other, whatever it took. What King was really saying, though, was to not do anything impulsive and get Kai the hell out of Dodge.

“You’re both more than welcome to my place,” he added, letting me know his private island in the Caribbean was ours if we wanted it.

But while it was an incredible offer, and an unbelievably beautiful location, it was too isolated for where Kai and I stood right now. He’d just started to trust me, I didn’t want him to think I waskidnappinghim, for fuck’s sake.

Besides, Kai wanted to see the world. He needed to be around people and life and entertainment and love and joy. Not hiding away on a deserted island.

“I really appreciate that,” I said as a different location came to mind.

“No worries. It’s on the table if you want it.” King motioned for the waiter. “What are you thinking instead?”

I looked at Kai. “How do you feel about flying?”

“Um. I’m not sure. I mean, I never have.”

“Oh yeah? What about race cars?”

12

KAI

“ICAN’T BELIEVE it,” I said for what had to be the millionth time as I stared out the window of the chauffeured Bentley that had picked us up from the airport in Nice, France twenty minutes ago.

I knew my jaw was on the floor, but everything was just so beautiful and brightly colored, and the Mediterranean Sea wasright freakin’ there.

The window opened suddenly, and I jerked away, thinking I’d hit the button by accident, but Lucien smiled and winked at me, encouraging me to take it all in.

Wind whipped at my face, blowing my hair in every direction as I took in a deep lungful of the salty air and grinned.

This was amazing.

The driver said something to Lucien in French.

“He says it’ll be a perfect seventy degrees all week,”Lucien translated.

Heaven. This was heaven. And Lucien seemed to be enjoying my reaction, always watching and smiling softly. He’d been so great at humoring me since the second I saw the private jet we’d boarded to fly the nine hours across the Atlantic. He told me he assumed I’d be breathing into a paper bag the whole time, whatwith it being my first flight, and was pleasantly surprised that my excitement had taken over instead.

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