Page 16

Fifteen

Reign

I forced Killian to help me plant daisies in the garden.

Out of all the flowers Baba and Mama have planted, there are no daisies and daisies happen to be one of my favorite flowers.

So, because Killian and I haven’t hung out since the beach, which was a few days ago, I decided to have him help me.

Yes, we have meals together and train together every day, but we barely talk during those times.

During training, Killian is always barking out orders at me while I try my best not to faint from how hard he pushes me.

He never lets me take a break.

I asked him one morning why he always pushes me so hard, and he told me, “Because your dad doesn’t. You haven’t reached your full potential because he isn’t pushing you.”

And Killian isn’t wrong, but God I wish he was.

But during workouts we train and then he works out while I’m doing whatever conditioning he makes me do. Sometimes when we are punching the bag, he is behind me, and I feel his body heat against me and then his deep breathing in my ear.

Sometimes he puts his hands on my waist to position me and I know he knows that he has an effect on me. He isn’t stupid. He sees the blush in my cheeks and then the goosebumps rising on my skin.

He will also tease me and dip his fingers below my waistband and rub the skin there but that’s it.

Nothing more.

And don’t get me started on him staring at me during dinners.

I always feel eyes on me and sometimes Killian smirks whenever I blush at him.

Papa notices the looks because he always clears his throat extra loudly and starts picking a fight with Killian on purpose to get Killian’s attention off of me.

But the stolen glances and the lingering touches, need to calm down because my heart is too sensitive for Killian’s reckoning force. Killian and I are so different I could never see myself liking him but when he touches me and looks at me, it makes me feel all hot and like there are butterflies in my stomach.

I’ve never had a boyfriend; I’ve told Star that. He told me it’s good I’ve never had a boyfriend because boys can do some pretty good damage to girls with innocent hearts like me.

Star told me, don’t trust a guy if they don’t break down their walls for you.

I told him about the things Killian would do and Star would just say be careful.

Guys like Killian would break a girl like me.

“Are you ready?” I turn around and see Killian, blocking the sun from my view. He is shirtless, of course.

I asked him once why he is always shirtless and Killian told me, whenever he was home, he would never wear a shirt because he wanted to be comfortable in his own home.

And now that he’s living here, he wants to feel the same way.

Which I don’t mind because his body isn’t the worst thing to see first thing in the morning.

“Yea. I’ve just been maintaining the rest of the flowers,” I say, moving to the side so he can sit. Killian sits down next to me and leans on his hands as he observes me. “So basically, all we have to do is water all of them and then start planting these ones that Baba got from the market. It’s not that hard. I’ve been gardening since I was a kid, so Baba taught me everything she knows-”

“What do you want me to do?” Killian asks, interrupting me.

I smile, realizing I was oversharing. “Just water them. It’s not hard and you can’t mess up on that.”

“You saying I can’t take care of a flower?” Killian raises an eyebrow at me.

“No. I’m just saying you’d probably ruin them with your hands. You don’t seem like the gentlest person to be taking care of flowers.”

All of a sudden, Killian’s lips are close to my ear, and he whispers soft and sensually, “I can show you exactly how gentle I can be, Reign.”

I turn my head to make eye contact with him and I feel the brush of his skin on my cheek. “I doubt you could be gentle.”

“What makes you think that?” Killian tilts his head to the side.

I look down at his lips before looking at his hands.

His hands have small scars and cuts on them with a few tattoos on his fingers. He is wearing two rings on one hand. One of them looks like an heirloom and the other is just a chrome hearts band.

His tattoos consist of stars on his wrist leading up to his ring finger while the pointer finger has a sword tattoo on it. Another one on the center of his hand says, “Devils Don’t Sleep” and the last one on that hand has a small smiling face with x’s as eyes.

“Your hands. They don’t exactly scream ‘gentle’.” I meet his eyes and realize we are closer. My heart is beating so fast to the point where I think Killian can hear it. Killian licks his bottom lip, and he looks like he’s about to move away but I say, “Show me.”

Killian’s jaw hardens and I see his hands form in a fist.

“Why would I do something stupid like that? I could break you.”

“Then prove it,” I urge him.

I see doubts in Killian’s eyes but for a second, I swear I see something darker flash in them, like he wants to give in to the urge as if he is a drug addict and I’m the drug he shouldn’t take.

Killian’s breath hits my lips making them part and I swear I feel the brush of his lips before the sound of a phone going ringing makes him back away from me.

He cusses in Italian and pulls out his phone.

He picks up the phone, gets up and walks away while talking in Italian.

I didn’t run but with how fast my heart is beating, it feels like I just did.