Page 17 of Until We Burn
“On their wedding night, her husband accidentally blurted out the name of the woman he was having an affair with.”
My brows dart up. “Well, that explains why his wife is practically digging her nails into his arm.”
“See?” Diana drawls. “They can judge you all they want. They’re still a mess.”
The tension unwinds from my neck as I laugh. “With eavesdropping skills like that, you must be a damn good reporter.”
Diana smiles shyly. Her eyes dart away from me. My hand flexes at my side, aching to turn her chin back so that she can look up at me again. The thought makes me go rigid.
I shouldn’twantto touch her. Girls are not in the plan.
Especially girls like Diana Huang.
Laughter suddenly echoes from the other end of the hallway. Diana’s smile falls. Her throat bobs as her brothers round the corner towards us.
“I know a quieter place where we can talk.” Diana snatches my hand. “Come with me.”
We hurry through the crowd until we burst through the doors leading to the backyard. The chatter and the music fade out. The cool night breeze settles over us, calm and still enough that I can hear the water trickling from the stone dragon fountain in the middle of the grass.
“We can talk here.”
Diana leads me towards the gazebo. Dimly lit sconces surround a round wooden table carved with flowers and lion shaped legs. A Go game board and a bowl of white and black stones surround it.
I sit down and nod at the game board. “Do you play?”
Diana smooths down her skirt and settles in the seat across from mine.
“My dad taught us how to play Go when my siblings and I were growing up. He says it teaches you how to build, conquer, and defend what’s yours.”
I learned how to play the game after one of my roommates—and DHU’s Zamboni driver—Wallace, taught the boys and me how to play it when he got back from South Korea. I’m not the best at it, but it’s fun enough to pass the time.
I tap at the game board. “How about one round?”
Diana looks confused. “We’re supposed to be talking business, Kai. Not battling for territory.”
“Why can’t we do both? I promise I’ll be nice.”
“I’ve heard of your plays on the ice. You’re not capable of being nice.”
“I’ll make a good attempt just for you.”
Diana pales. I clench up in my seat. Why do the fuck do I keep saying shit like this? She probably thinks I’m trying to get in her pants when that’s the last thing I want.
But she doesn’t let my words rattle her for too long. Diana raises her chin and answers with a bite in her voice that makes me smile a little.
“I won’t hold back, you know.”
“If that’s meant to scare me, you’re wrong.” I take the white stone and place it on the board. I look up, a little too turned on by the challenge burning in Diana’s eyes. “Game on.”
CHAPTER 9
DIANA
The rulesof the game are simple.
You take turns placing one stone on the board to capture your opponent’s stones and seize the territory they’ve built. The game ends when one of you conquers the entire board.
“You look nervous,” Kai muses. He nudges a stone beneath mine. Panic splinters my control when I see him breaching my carefully crafted territory. It doesn’t help when Kai glances back up at me, arching a brow with a faint smirk. “Is this a strategy of yours, or were you bluffing about kicking my ass at this game?”
