Page 40 of The Wrong Side of Kai
It’s late, so although every car is in the driveway and it’s clear the Boyds are home, the house is also in darkness. There’s not a single light left on except for the porch light. I don’t know what Kai and I are hoping to find, except perhaps Harrison asleep in his room, but we’ve decided not to steal anything. At least not tonight. We’re hoping to creep Harrison out instead. It’s not about taking something of his – it’s about letting him know that if we want to, we can. We’ll move some furniture around. Rearrange some family photographs. Anything that makes it clear someone was sneaking around the house.
“It’s now or never,” I say, and I sprint off across the lawn, tracing a path from the tree to the driveway, using the cars as a shield. Harrison’s truck is missing three of its wheels – it’s jacked up, lopsided and forlorn, and Kai snickers under his breath as we pass it.
The basement window is just around the side of the house. I lead the way, sticking close to the wall of the house, like a true secret agent. Harrison never wanted his parents to know about me, so I would sneak around the house exactly like I’m doing now, then climb in through the basement window where he would be waiting for me on the other side.
“That?” Kai asks indignantly when we reach the window. “That tiny little thing?”
The window does seem smaller somehow, but perhaps it’s becauseweseem bigger when we’re wrapped up in so many layers of clothing. I cock my head at the window – it’s about an inch above the ground, and maybe three feet wide by three feet tall. I get down onto my hands and knees in the snow – hardened ice by now – and reach for the latch. With bated breath, I pull on the window, and it freely lifts open.
I flash Kai a beaming smile over my shoulder, but he only groans.
“Can’t you climb in there and then open a door for me?” he says, unconvinced by my plan.
“You’re not going to get stuck, Captain Washington,” I tease, rolling my eyes. Quickly, I pull off my coat to make my body slimmer and slide in through the window feet-first. I even give Kai a sweet little wave before I disappear fully inside the basement. It’s dark in here, but I turn back around and stare at him through the window, the moonlight illuminating him. “Are you joining me or what?”
“Fine,” Kai huffs. He tears off his jacket, gets down onto his back, and slides through the window with total ease. When he lands inside, his body bumps into mine, but we quickly step apart. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I say nonchalantly, but I’m just relieved it’s dark in here so that he can’t see the blush flooding my cheeks.
We look around the basement in silence as our eyes adjust to the darkness, and I use the furniture to guide me toward the stairs that lead into the house. I find a light switch on the wall and turn it on, bathing the basement in an orange glow. It’s really more of an extra lounge than a basement – there’s a flatscreen TV mounted to the wall, a plush couch, a bookcase that’s over-stacked, and even a small bar. It feels so long ago now, those times I spent with Harrison right here in this basement.
“So this is how the other half lives,” Kai says as he walks around. He plucks a trophy off a shelf on the wall, reading the engraving. He puts it back, grabs another.
How many times has Sierra Jennings been in this basement? I wonder. Hell, I’m pretty sure she was here on Monday while we were outside slashing Harrison’s truck tires. At least that’s what those text messages suggested.
“Kai,” I say, my back to him. I walk to the bar and run my fingers over the bottles of liquor. I keep my head down and take a deep breath, then quietly ask, “Really think about it. Are you still secretly in love with Sierra?”
The air in the basement thickens as silence crowds in the two of us. My gaze is burning holes in a bottle of vodka as my heart thumps in my chest, waiting for Kai to say something, and finally he answers, “No.”
I spin around to look at him, surprised. He stares back at me from ten feet away. “You’re not?” He shakes his head while I try to process this fact. If he isn’t in love with Sierra, then why did he seem so desperate to get away from me last night after I kissed him?
“Why would I still be in love with a girl who broke my heart?”
“Oh,” is all I can say. The way he talks about her. . . God, he must have really fallen hard. I believe that hewasin love with her, but I also now believe that he no longer is. I sit down on one of the bar stools and frown. “It’s not because you’re still in love with your ex then,” I mumble to myself.
“What?” Kai says.
“You obviously just don’t likeme.”
“Nessie, speak up,” he says, walking over. He stops a foot away, frowning at me. “What are you talking about?”
“Last night!” I blurt in frustration, then hide my head behind my hands. I’m too mortified to look at him, the guy who doesn’t like me back. It’s so embarrassing. “You didn’t want to kiss me.”
We’ve been around each other all day, yet neither of us has brought up last night’s kiss until right now. We’ve been carefully tiptoeing around the subject, and I know it’s hardly the time or the place for this chat, but I can’t take it anymore. I need to know why Kai doesn’t like me. I thought we’d been hitting it off this week. We’ve been laughing and having fun and joking around, and I guess I read the signals wrong. Perhaps that’s just what friendship feels like.
Kai is laughing now. A full, hearty laugh that he tries his hardest to suppress. “Trust me, I did. I do,” he says, reaching for my hands. He pulls them away from my face and looks down at me, his blue eyes locking on mine. His smile is gorgeous, inviting, but it always is. “I just didn’t expect it. I haven’t even looked at anyone since Sierra. You took me by surprise, that’s all.”
I stare into his eyes, trying to let his reassurances sink in. A jolt of electricity fires up through my body, spreading all the way out to my fingertips where Kai’s hands are still holding mine. “What?”
“Truth is,” he murmurs, “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I first saw you riding my bike down the street.”
My heart thumps in my chest at what he’s saying. “Why that moment?”
His smile only grows wider. “Because any girl who’ll ride around late at night on bikes with me is a girl I want to know.”
As soon as the words leave his lips, his mouth is against mine. He kisses me deeply, and it’s so much more intense than last night; it’s a kiss full of passion and desire. He moves his hands to my face and skims his thumbs over my cold cheeks. I’m numb from shock for the first few seconds, frozen under Kai’s touch, but then I break out of it. I kiss him back, my mouth moving easily in sync with his, blissfully allowing him to take the lead. I slide off the bar stool and get to my feet, pressing one hand to Kai’s chest and the other to the nape of his neck. We stumble around the basement, only the sound of my heart pounding in my ears, our adrenaline fusing together. He’s such a good kisser.
The kiss only breaks when Kai moves his mouth to plant a sweet row of kisses down my neck. It leaves me utterly weak at the knees. I lock my arms around his neck for support and fight the embarrassing gasp that’s rising in my throat. I guide Kai’s mouth back to my own.
