Page 21 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

Cece

“A special connection?” I choked out, keenly aware of the sizzling touch of his hand on mine. When he nodded, I opened my mouth and couldn’t close it again. It took me an entire minute to make words again. “What the hell do you mean?”

“Together.” He lifted his hands in the air and intertwined his fingers for a moment. “That’s what your sisters think.”

The absence of his touch left me feeling hollow, even though I gaped like a guppy before I spoke again. “Have they gone bonkers?”

“They looked perfectly sane last I saw them,” he assured me with a straight face.

“Do you believe this…?” What was this? What on earth could I call this? “Do you believe this crazy hypothesis?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure what to believe, but I trust Thena and Missy’s hunches.”

“Wait.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you saying my sisters are… what? Playing matchmakers in the middle of this shitshow?”

He lifted a noncommittal shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I blew out a breath. “What kind of answer is that?”

“The only kind I have,” he said in that firm yet gentle way that reminded me of strong but sweet chocolate martinis.

“Look, I don’t pretend to understand the forces that are at work here.

Your sisters didn’t elaborate. They sent me to find you and warned me that something could happen between you and me—keyword ‘could.’”

“Why would they think that?”

“You’d have to ask them, but…” He paused as if grappling for words. “There are precedents to consider.”

I gawked. “Precedents?”

“Thena is back with Dash,” Kai explained, as if this was relevant to this conversation. “She chose a Marine called Javier Guzman to find Missy. Javier and Missy are together now.”

“I wouldn’t call those precedents.” I went straight into my logical mode, ignoring the unease that squeezed my stomach, and his aura, shining as bright as ever.

“Thena and Dash have been attached at the hip since forever. Those two were bound to find each other again. As for Missy, she’s the kindest, nicest, most soft-hearted person I know.

She’s easy to love and loving by nature.

If this Guzman dickhead has half a brain, he knows she’s an easy catch. ”

“You’re underestimating Missy.” A warning hardened Kai’s voice. It was the first time I’d heard annoyance in his tone since I’d met him. “She’s strong. She knows what she wants.”

“That’s not the Missy I remember,” I grumbled under my breath.

“Maybe she’s changed,” Kai suggested. “People do change, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved a dismissive hand in the air. “But not really.”

“The Missy I know is an amazing person and a woman I admire and respect as much as I do Thena,” Kai insisted. “Missy’s my friend, and so is Javier. He fell for Missy head over heels. They’re in love.”

“Sure.” I curled my fingers and drew quotations in the air. “‘In love,’ whatever that means, for however long that fleeting emotion lasts, which won’t be too long once I put this Guzman through the wringer and unmask his greed.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Kai pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed. “Can you dial down your skepticism for one second?”

His disappointment only irritated me more.

“Skepticism is my middle name.” I flashed my best smirk, the one that scared kittens and terrorized academics around the world. “It has spared me a lot of misery in life.”

“Or maybe it’s made you miserable,” Kai returned, his voice calm but his determination to defend his friends intact.

A wince escaped my control. I went from irritation to pain. His words stung near my heart. Was he right?

“Spare me the lecture.” If I kept rolling my eyes at this rate, I was going to develop a severe case of vertigo. “Love is a fallacy. It starts with the biological need to reproduce and becomes a clinical condition of co-dependency.”

“Wow.” He quirked his eyebrows. “That’s like, a lot to unpack right there. Do you think Dash and Thena are delusional?”

“They might be the exception to the rule, and yet, if you’d been there as I was when Thena and Dash broke up, you’d know that her suffering proves my point. And FYI, I’m nothing like Thena and Missy.”

“I know that.”

“You don’t understand.” It was time to squash the tickle of joy that made the cobwebs wrapped around my heart vibrate with a hint of hope. “I don’t accept your so-called ‘precedents,’ and I don’t do relationships.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” I snapped. “I’m allergic to love, incapable of it, and unwilling to believe that it’s anything other than an illusion.

No man is worth the aggravation. Didn’t my sisters tell you?

They call me the no-love sister. I’ve never had a boyfriend.

I don’t want one, and I don’t have time for the drama that comes with it.

My work comes first. I’m not in the market for a man. Never been. Never will be.”

“Strong words.” Chewing on the side of his mouth, he seemed to consider me as if I were some sort of oddity, but when he next spoke, I didn’t get any judgment from him.

“I get that last part, believe me, I do. Love is a high bar, and yet this special connection your sisters mentioned could fall into a range of possibilities.”

I drew back and frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.” He slumped back on the bench. “Forget I said anything. I just wanted you to know what I know, that’s all.”

“Oh, no. No. You brought this up. I need to talk to my sisters.”

“We’re in silent protocol at the moment, but if you understand the risks and want to take them on, I can make it happen.”

If I insisted on the call and Kai put me through, and then the mercs found us, we’d be in a lot of trouble. I could endanger my sisters and miss our opportunity to find Affie and defeat the NWO.

“I’m not that desperate.” Security took precedence over curiosity. “I won’t risk my sisters’ safety,” or Kai’s , but I didn’t say this aloud. “We need to figure this out ourselves.” I considered what he’d said. “I guess there could be different types of connections.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” I threw the whole thing back in his lap. “You give it a try.”

“Your sisters can be odd,” he said. “But they have your best interests at heart. What if they saw or sensed something—”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know, Cece, but what if we , somehow, at some level—what if we make sense? What if we’re meant to be together?”

“Together?” I croaked. “How?”

“I don’t know.” He threw his hands in the air. “It’s your turn to give this a go.”

“I don’t know either, but when we kissed…”

“Yeah?” He perked up. “Go on.”

“Obviously, there was something there,” I admitted, albeit reluctantly. “The kiss was pretty good and the chemistry—” I stopped before I embarrassed myself.

“The chemistry was off the charts,” he finished my sentence. “I agree.”

“So,” I ventured. “Are we talking lust here?”

“You tell me.”

“Are we saying that my sisters foresaw we would… what? Become fuck buddies?”

“Your words, not mine.” He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.

“And you just… what?” I fought to find the words, ignoring the way my body clenched in all the places it shouldn’t be clenching. “You believed them? You kissed me to test for chemistry?”

“You make it sound so clinical.” His voice lowered by a decibel. Our eyes locked, and there was nothing clinical or detached about the way my pussy tightened. “I kissed you because you kissed me, and you were into it. Do you deny the attraction between us?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Good, because I heard you moaning in your bed this morning,” he said, as blunt as I was. “You sounded like you needed some action.”

“Fuck.” I’d moaned the shit out loud.

“Fuck indeed.” He kept going. “Look. I don’t know much.

I’m as confused as you are, but I know two things for sure: your sisters believe we could have a special connection.

And we enjoyed kissing each other.” His aura appeared as if it somehow realized I needed proof to believe him.

“I wouldn’t mind doing more of that, you know, to test your sisters’ hypothesis. ”

I studied the bright indigo light flaring around him. It was pure as ever, and it radiated with warmth that reached out to stroke my erotic heat. “If it wasn’t because of your aura, I wouldn’t believe a word you said.”

“My aura?”

Oops . Misstep . Evasive maneuvers. Quick, Astor.

“The one thing I know about you is that you’re not a liar.” I tried to throw him off the “Cece-is-nuts” scent I’d accidentally given out.

“That’s good, I guess.” He paused and frowned. “You did say aura . Right?”

“Never mind that.” He was sharp and hard to misdirect, but I did my best. “What if this is lust?”

His eyes lingered on my face, and the gleam that turned his gaze into sweet honey heated my cheeks and teased my body with a quiver of desire.

“What if fate intended for us to fall in lust?” he asked softly.

“Fate?” The heat burning through me went straight south and pooled between my legs. “Hey, slow it down, buddy. That’s a big reach right there.”

“Yeah, sure, so then, what?”

“A fling? A hookup?”

“To be honest, hookups are not my thing.” He surprised me with his frank admission. “I like to have a meaningful connection with my sex partners.”

“That’s very… romantic.”

He lowered his chin and walloped me with a stare that steamed me from head to toe. “Would you like romantic?”

Yes. Yes, please . It’d be nice for a change. “No,” I said instead. “Absolutely not.”

Like a cat hanging from its claws, I clung to my long- held assumptions. I was not capable of love. I did not need or want a relationship. Men were trouble. Most of them were mean, domineering, soul-sucking bastards.

I glanced at Kai. This one was beyond trouble, terrifying, because he attracted and intrigued me like no one else had ever done. He tempted me to think differently. To feel differently.

“This is ridiculous,” I spat, turning my confusion into anger. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. Would you really want to sleep with me, and I mean, not just to prove a stupid hypothesis, but because you found me, oh, I don’t know, fuckable?”

“Yeah.” There was no doubt in his reply. “Assuming you were interested.”

My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what to say to that. His honesty left me speechless. I was frantically trying to find a smart comeback when his cell beeped in his pocket. In unison, another alarm went off inside the cabin.

“Excuse me.” He slid off the bench and hurried inside, leaving me facing a mountain of questions.

My mind reeled. A connection? Between him and me? Perhaps not love, since I wasn’t capable of it, but lust?

From my deepest, darkest depths, my lust howled like a hungry she-wolf. This conversation was far from over.

I followed him into the cabin and found him sitting at his navigation station. He studied a map, reading the data streaming on the screens. The discreet alarm beeped on the console, and a flashing red frame encased the image. The tension I spotted on Kai’s face twisted my stomach.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice shakier than I liked.

He looked up and met my gaze straight. “They’re coming.”