Page 56 of Collide

“I do,” he replied with his usual air of arrogance. “But I want to hearabout it from you.”

I sighed. It wasn’t an exciting topic, but seeing as Kai knew it allanyway, what was the point in refusing him?

“There’s not much to tell. I had a good life until my dad was murderedand my mom turned into a junkie and OD’d. After that, the only thing that mattered was keeping Angel safe, and trying to give her the best life I possibly can.”

There wasn’t much more to it. I didn’t think too much aboutthe life I had before dad was killed, what was the point? I could never go back to that time and dwelling on it wouldn’t help provide food and shelter for Angel.

“Did the cops ever find the people responsible for shooting yourdad?” he asked, confirming he did indeed know how my father was killed.

“No.”

Despite telling myself to stop drinking, I took another swig of mydrink, desperately wanting to change the topic and refusing to let memories of my mom and dad seep in.

Thankfully, Kai took pity on me. “How did you end up in Hollows Bay?”

“It wasn’t planned or anything. I put Angel and myself on a bus androde it to the end of the line. By the time we got to Hollows Bay, we were both exhausted and there were no more buses until the morning.” I shrugged and stared at the bubbles fizzing in my glass. “We found a bench to crash on for the night and then after that, well, I guess it didn’t make a difference where we went. We were going to be homeless for a while and it didn’t matter whether that was in Hollows Bay or any other city in the country.”

The memories flooded back to the day we arrived in Hollows Bay. Ihad been terrified to the point of wanting to walk straight into the nearest police station and admit what I’d done. But the fear of losing Angel was greater than the fear of living on the streets, so no matter how scared I was of being alone in a big city, I put it to one side and got on with it.

I peeked up at Kai when he didn’t say anything and found him onceagain watching me closely, a look of curiosity mixed with sympathy on his handsome face.

It was a look I’d never seen from him before and I’d be lying if I said itdidn’t warm me.

“What happened next?”

I sucked in a deep breath before replying, knowing the weeks thatfollowed were the hardest both Angel and I had ever struggled through.

“Truthfully, it was hell on earth,” I told him honestly. I blamed thealcohol for my loose tongue, but surprisingly when Kai wasn’t being a scary bastard, he was quite easy to talk to. “We spent the following weeks sleeping on benches and doing whatwe could to find food. It was horrible and people would look at us like we were nothing but dirt on their shoes. After a few weeks, we found other kids who took us to a derelict train station where pretty much all the homeless kids were living, and we stayed there for a while.”

Kai listened with rapt interest and I had a feeling this was part ofmy life he didn’t know anything about. He may have known some of the facts, but not the personal details, and it seemed I was only too happy to share with him.

I drank some more of my champagne. I hadn’t appreciated thattalking about this part of my life was going to be as emotional as I was finding it, but the drink was helping.

Kai followed suit and took a large gulp of his drink. I couldn’t tear myeyes away from the way his throat moved as he swallowed the drink down. Fucking hell, how did everything he did get me so goddamn hot. I was rapidly forgetting the hell this man had put me through over the last few days.

Damn him.

Before Kai could ask me any more questions, the waiter knocked andthen entered the room with trays of yummy smelling food. My mouth watered the second he put my dinner down in front of me and I had to remind myself that this was a classy establishment, and it wouldnotbe ladylike to gobble down my dinner like I wanted to.

Kai and I ate in silence, enjoying the delicious meal. The firstbite of the tender steak I popped into my mouth tasted like nothing I had ever experienced before, it was simply exquisite. I couldn’t help but close my eyes and let out a little moan. When I opened them, Kai’s dark eyes had turned even darker and burned fiercely into mine.For a brief second, he looked like he was about to swipe everythingoff the table and devour me instead.

Holy fucking hell.

Once we had finished, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that Idemolished every tiny morsel on my plate, the waiter came back and swiftly cleared the table. He moved quickly and before I knew it, he was gone again.

“That was delicious. Thank you,” I said to Kai.

He smiled softly at me, sending warm fuzzies straight to my belly. Theworrying thing was, the food had soaked up some of the alcohol and my head wasn’t as fogged, which meant whatever I was feeling was not a result of champagne.

I wasn’t the sort of girl who wanted to rip the clothes off a man andhave her wicked way with him, don’t get me wrong, I was no virgin, but I’d never really had time for men. But Kai, well he made my imagination run wild with all the naughty things I wanted him to do to me, and me to do to him.

For the millionth time, my cheeks heated.

“Would you like to step outside for some fresh air?” he asked,noticing my flushed cheeks.

Fresh air, yeah, that was what I needed. Maybe that wouldcool the burning lust zapping through me right now.

“Sure,” I replied, trying to sound casual but Kai gave me a knowinglook, the bastard knew the effect he was having on me.

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