Page 10 of The Chaos She Brings

There’s a tattoo above his chest of some kind of abstract circuit board pattern that extends over his shoulder and down his right arm.Please let me lick it.

When my gaze finally moves up to his face there’s a raised eyebrow waiting for me alongside his signature frown. He’s leaning casually against the kitchen counter like he has all the time in the world.

“Can you blame me?” I ask, not even pretending I was doing anything other than checking out the masterpiece that is Kai’s body.

“Yes.”

That’s it. That’s all he says. Completely monotone.

I sputter, once again taken aback by his gruffness. “I… Well… Fuck you.”

So eloquent.

He laughs, a real genuine chuckle, and it feels like I just won the lottery. The sound is rich and deep, and so very sensual.

I get the feeling that Kai doesn’t let many people in, but I bet if I crack his walls he’d not be quite as detached as his outward persona seems.

“Coffee?” He hands me a cup before I can even answer. The gesture warms me as much as the first sip of the delicious nectar does.

Kai watches me and having his eyes on me is so intense I have to look away.

“So… are you going to ask me about what happened last night?” I ask, trying to break the tension.

Kai scoffs. “I wasn’t.”

“I don’t really know what happened,” I tell him anyway, needing to explain. “We were watching TV, nothing out of the ordinary. And then… he was strangling me.” I spare a glance in his direction, finding Kai’s expression darkening at my words, but I keep going.

“I genuinely thought he was going to kill me. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, I don’t know. But I wasn’t waiting around tofind out. So, I whacked him over the head with my lamp and then just kept hitting until I was sure he wasn’t getting back up.”

“You probably could have stopped a couple hits earlier.”

I laugh—my shoulders shake, my breath comes out in gasps, tears spring to my eyes. Then I’m no longer laughing. I’m crying.

Because I just murdered a man. Killed the bastard. Unsubscribed him from existence. Gave him an express ticket to the afterlife.

Oh fuck.

I can’t breathe.

There’s no fucking air.

Warmth cradles my face, and blue-green eyes stare into mine. His lips move but I can’t make out the words past the ringing in my ears.

“Breathe for me. Just breathe.” Kai’s deep rumble helps me claw back some footing on reality. “Come on, deep breath in,” he waits for me to do as I’m told, “and out again.

“There you go. You’re fine.”

Finally, I can pull enough air through my lungs and the fog over my mind lifts. Only once my breathing has calmed does Kai pull back and I immediately miss his touch.

“Thank you,” I whisper, my eyes trained on the floor.

My heart is still hammering in my chest, my hands shaking. I swallow hard, inhaling deeply as the panic inside me begins to calm.

“Not my first experience with panic attacks.”

My head snap up in time to see him shrug casually. My mouth parts but then his expression hardens once again.

“Guessing this was your first kill?”