Page 10 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

Cece

“You can’t swim?” Kai didn’t hide the shock that lifted his dark eyebrows on his forehead.

It was as if he could not comprehend, or even entertain, that someone couldn’t master the basic life skill of swimming, let alone me, Cece Astor, the daughter of one of the world’s wealthiest men, educated at the most elite universities, the person I was supposed to be: smart, capable, perfect.

I couldn’t blame him for not understanding.

“Are you deaf or what?” I lashed out, though I was angry mostly at myself. “I can’t swim. I won’t. I hate the water, and I especially hate the ocean.”

“You hate the water?” His throat rippled with an astonished swallow. “All this time you’ve lived here, in this seaside paradise, and yet you don’t like the ocean?”

The surprise in his voice was honest. He stared at me for a few seconds. They felt like hours of burning shame, and yet there was none of the ridiculing I had expected, no scorn or sarcasm in his gaze, just… what?

Astonishment was my best guess.

I’d never revealed this to anybody. Not even my sisters knew.

Whenever we spent time by the pool or hung out at the lake behind Astor House, I used all kinds of diversions to conceal this particularly embarrassing failure of mine.

If I ventured into the pool or the lake, I stuck to the shallow end.

Mostly, I avoided the water and made a habit of reading under an umbrella while my siblings swam, pretending I was too busy with my tablet to bother.

I had reasons to feel the way I did, but I couldn’t admit or explain them to anyone, let alone this fine-looking stranger. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried learning to swim. I’d failed every time. Shame deflated my chest, and yet I cut Kai a fierce glance.

“You go,” I muttered, knowing time was short. “I’ll escape some other way.”

“There is no other way.” He lowered his chin and skewered me with his stare. “Come on. I’ve got you.”

“Famous last words of cocky males to trusting females.” I grimaced. “I’ll figure something out. I just can’t do this.”

“Yeah, you can.” He flashed his Zen smile, the one capable of destroying my brain on contact. “You’re Cece Astor. You just gave the NWO the finger. You can do whatever you put your mind to.”

“Don’t even start with me.” I sank my nails into my palms. “Everyone thinks I’m so fucking smart. If I could swim, I’d be doing it right now, leaving you flat in my wake.”

“You’re a competitive spitfire, aren’t you?” He knuckled his chin, considering me all over again. “Good to know. For what it’s worth, on a surfboard, I think I’d have the advantage. Your sisters didn’t mention your inability to swim. Do they know?”

Shaking my head, I bit down on my lip and hid my flushed face behind my long bangs.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” he teased me with a grin, then sobered up. Placing his finger under my chin, he encouraged me to meet his gaze. “Right now, I need you to get on this board and trust I’ll get you to safety.”

“Don’t you get it?” I growled in frustration. “If I get on that damn board, I’ll drown. This is not an extraction. It’s not even a rescue. It’s premeditated manslaughter. Or womanslaughter, in my case.”

The man had the gall to chuckle. “Your dry sense of humor wasn’t part of your profile, either.”

I whipped up my chin. “I’m not even gonna ask about this ridiculous profile of yours. It obviously sucks.”

“It’s incomplete, but we threw it together fast, and you are a complex, fascinating person.” He measured me with his soulful gaze. “Do you seriously think I would allow you to drown?”

“Look at those waves.” I gestured toward the bay. “Of course I’m going to drown!”

“I won’t let you.” He stepped up to me.

“There’s an empty promise if I’ve ever heard one.” I scoffed. “You can’t control the waves. Or the sea. You’d have to be an ocean god to get me through that alive. You’d have to be Poseidon himself.”

He lowered his face and fixed his gaze on me, pressing his lips together. My stomach fluttered in the weirdest way. I liked the heat that came with the stupid flutters, but I also hated myself for it.

What is wrong with me?

I didn’t react to men like this. In fact, I made a point of never reacting to men, period. And yet, since I’d first met him, my stomach seemed to harbor a kaleidoscope of seditious butterflies.

Why did I have such a visceral reaction to him?

“Cece…” He caressed my face with his soulful gaze. “I know you can do this.”

“You know nothing,” I snapped.

“I know you’ve got heart and courage, and that I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” He reached out to run his hands up and down my arms softly.

I wanted to shake off his touch, to run away from him, but his eyes lingered over my lips and a quiver traveled through me.

Butterflies again?

Ridiculous!

And yet it was true. His touch did something remarkable to me. Out of nowhere, I craved his strength, his warmth, him. My gaze drifted down to his mouth and fixed on his lips. Something surged inside of me, a burst of passion, an explosion of life.

My brain turned to mush.

As a wave slammed against the rocks, I pushed to the tip of my toes and brushed my lips against his. I didn’t stop there, no way. I never half-assed anything. A powerful, inexplicable impulse demanded I kiss him.

I pressed my mouth against his. To my shock, he parted his bow-shaped lips, an overt invitation. For a moment, I froze, but when I yielded a small gap, he took charge of the kiss.

Oh. My. Freaking. God.

His lips were soft. His kiss was all-consuming.

My knees went wobbly. I had to brace my hands on his biceps.

Beneath the neoprene, his powerful muscles tensed and flexed under my fingers.

He slid his hands over my sides and coiled his arms around my waist. I was suddenly greedy for him, eager to discover more about how the rest of his body felt under the wetsuit.

The trails of pleasure permeating through me sprang from his touch.

His arms pulled me even closer, and his hands slid down my back, stoking the heat pooling between my legs.

The unfamiliar need that pushed me to accept the dance of our tongues was more powerful than fear, more daring than reason. I melted against him.

As long as he was kissing me, everything seemed possible.

It had been so long since I’d felt the wonder of human touch that I’d forgotten how it felt. It had been even longer since someone had kissed me. Or tried to kiss me. I’d never been exactly receptive before. Until now. Until Kai.

An unfamiliar sensation skittered beneath my skin and pooled in my sex, an urgency foreign to me. My body combusted under his touch.

Is this what desire felt like?

My thoughts dissolved. The world blurred around me, and I got lost in the feeling of him.

The kiss stretched out. Our lips met at different angles.

Kai worked his mouth over mine, filling my senses with his scent—fresh ocean breeze, dewy grass at dawn, and a sultry hint of tropical hibiscus.

He tasted salty, like the sea, but also sweet like a snowmelt brook.

The passion gushing through me had me responding to him with heat that burned through me. I’d always been the cool, logical one, but right now?

I was none of those things.

Instead, the warmth flowing from his mouth built my inner heat. I felt the blaze converging in the neglected space between my legs. Moisture dampened my panties. It was a reaction that I’d been told was common in most women but had never registered with me, even on those occasions where I had sex.

Arousal. Is that what this is?

I had to suppress the sudden need to climb Kai like a tree, to rub myself all over him until I got some relief from this shocking compulsion.

The growl he trapped in his throat vibrated through me like an echo reverberating in my body’s hollow cave.

The waves shook the rocks beneath my feet, but it was his kisses quaking through me.

The fortress I’d built around my fractured heart wobbled.

If my rational side broadcasted a warning, I never heard it.

Instead, I lifted my hands and settled them on the back of his neck.

His skin thrummed with that amazing warmth that wrapped around me like a blanket of muscle and man.

His mouth draped over mine, stoking my fire, and his heat felt comforting and protective against my cool palms.

How long had I been this cold? Minutes? Days? Weeks? How long had I felt nothing moving inside of me? Months? Years?

The heat ran through my veins, wild and wicked. Life stirred in my chest, in my core, and lower still. His touch didn’t reach my skin, and yet it made me tingle with passion. Every contractible part of me tautened and ached.

I kissed him as if his lips belonged to the last man I would ever kiss, as if his mouth were the only one that could give me pleasure. I gave in to his touch as if his caresses were the first and last my body would ever enjoy.

Boom . My heart crashed against my ribs as hard as the waves on the rocks. Boom . For once, it beat, not to nourish my brain, but to nurture my soul.

“Cece…” he whispered against my lips as he broke the contact.

Seeking more of his kisses, I teetered forward. He steadied me against his body and hugged me to his chest. He sighed as he pressed his forehead to mine.

Did that really just happen?

“Yeah, it happened,” he breathed, and I realized I’d asked aloud. “We can talk about it later. We need to go now.”

The world came back into focus. Reality hit.

He seemed… regretful? The night gained a red tint from the fire burning above.

Smoke filled my nostrils and coated my throat with the bitter taste of ashes.

It wiped his delicious flavors from my tongue.

Fear returned to punch me in the nose. Even though the moon sketched a path in the water, it was a dead end for me.