Page 28 of Sleeping Redemption
Announcing my presence with a clearing of my throat, I pushed away from the doorframe and dropped my arms. “With your track record, color me skeptical,” I said as I walked to the center of the room.
Kinley’s eyes fluttered open, and she bounded up to her feet with a cheerful smile. Shouting my name, she ran over to me, tossing her arms around my neck to pull herself close before attempting to land her lips on mine. Jerking my head back at the last second, my hands found her hips and forced some space between our bodies. No reason to give my dick another excuse to step out of line.
“Kin, what did you need?” Cutting straight to the reasoning for her pleas seemed like the safest bet.
Seeing I wasn’t in the same playful mood as her, she pouted and squirmed away from me. “Fine, be a grumpy motherfucker.”
She stepped back over to the storage bench, shutting it before taking a seat on the cushioned top. Leaning back on her hands, she crossed one toned leg over the other.
“You know how talented I think you are, right?” Her aquatic blue eyes remained locked on me.
I slowly nodded. Where was this going?
“My Divinity Sword you made, I think it’s incredible. It is a thing of beauty and the essence of perfection.” She kissed her fingertips and blew the invisible kiss into the air.
The feeling in my gut slowly churned, hardening into something that sat in the pit, ready to fuel whatever emotion my body would call upon next.
“But,” Kinley continued, always keeping a smile on her face. “Hear me out.”
Perking a brow up in curiosity, I wasn’t sure that this was anything I wanted to hear.
“I was thinking…it’s time to retire the old and bring in the new, ya know? She’s served me faithfully for all this time, but an upgrade is definitely warranted. What do you think?”
What I thought was she was fucking delusional if she thought I was going to give her a second sword.
Sighing, I shook my head. “You know the rules, you get one and only one. Sorry, Kin.”
Dissatisfaction flashed over her features briefly before she stood like a used car salesman who was just told maybe. Stalking over to me she batted her long lashes in my direction, her finger dragged down the center of my chest.
“Surely, you can bend the rules for an old friend. You bend your rules, and I’ll even bend mine.”
I laughed, needing a bit of humor today wherever I could find it. “You don’t have any rules.”
Smiling, she inched closer, her fingertip gliding lower until it rested on my belt. “Then, I will create one and bend it just for you. I can be quite,” she lowered her voice to a seductive whisper, “flexible.”
Grabbing her wrist, I pushed her hand away from the distracting touch before it dawned on me that she was going to great lengths to charm her way into my good graces.
“If I do this, I will need to see your current sword.” It wasn’t quite a lie, but she wasn’t being a vision of honesty either.
Kinley scrunched her face up. “So, here’s the thing…”
I closed my eyes.Please don’t tell me she’s going to say what I think.
Grumbling to myself, I say, “Kin, you better not have…”
“No! No, not at all. I haven’t lost it,” she quickly reassured me. It allowed me to release the breath I had been holding.
Then, she dropped the bomb. “But I can’t find it.”
A punch to the gut would have been more welcomed than to hear she had lost her fucking sword. The one thing in all of creation that could wipe her existence off the map, and she fucking lost it. I stood there staring at her, unclear if I had taken some of her crazy pills or if this was still some fucked up part of my dream from earlier.
With my jaw clenched, I slowly ground out my first words. “What. Do. You. Mean. You. Can’t. Find. It?”
She pursed her lips together and raised her shoulders in a shrug momentarily. “I’m sure it’s here somewhere. I very specifically remember seeing it just after Halloween.”
“Kin, that was months ago,” I reminded her as the impending migraine settled deep into my skull. “How many damn times have I told you to keep a close eye on your sword? Fucking hell! You only get one for a reason, and after all this time,nowyou’ve managed to lose it?!”
Ignoring my scolding, she appeared trapped in her own thoughts. “And I,” she rotated her head as she looked around, seeming to retrace her steps. She gasped as she walked over to a door leading into a walk-in closet, making a racket once she went inside. It sounded like she was tearing all the clothes from their hangers.
