Page 46 of The Chaos She Brings

Right. Okay.

“If you need anything, you let one of us know. We’ll be making a run into a nearby town for food and essentials later.”

Grumpy leaves without another word, and suddenly it’s just me and Kai, the two of us standing awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs.

“After you,” he says, motioning for me to head up, his voice calm, like this is all completely normal.

Upstairs, there’s a short hallway, but it’s not much of a hall—just a small landing with a single door. I hesitate for a second before opening it, half-expecting some weird layout with more doors beyond it. But no.

It’s a bedroom. Just one bedroom.

And one bed.

I stand frozen in the doorway, taking in the ridiculously oversized bed, the neatly made sheets, and the obvious implication.

This is justperfect.

Kai

There’s one bed.

Of course there is.

Because it’s not enough that I’ve somehow had to uproot my entire life in the space of a week.

“I’ll take the couch,” I say to Tess as we stand in the doorwaytogether, both of us with our eyes fixed on the bed.

There’s little I want to do more right now than to have her writhing beneath me on those sheets, my cock pressing into her tight pussy, her moaning my name—

Stop. It.

I can feel my dick hardening at the thought of her red hair fanning out on the pillows, sweat beading on her silky skin with each thrust of my hips taking her higher, closer—

Nope.

I high-tail it down the stairs, sprinting like a bat out of hell before she replies.

This is going to be so, so bad.

I can’t want her. It might seem illogical to most—why not just give in to the fire raging through me, to the desire I know she feels too? But I can’t.

Everything about Tess is wrong for me. She’s messy. She’s unpredictable. She’s loud in every way—her voice, her emotions, her presence. She doesn’t fit into the neat, controlled lines I’ve drawn around my life. She makes my mind spin, and I can’t afford that.

I’ve spent years building walls around myself, perfecting the art of control. Control keeps me steady. It keeps me safe. Tess doesn’t just chip at those walls; she bulldozes right through them without even trying.

And that’s the problem. Tess is chaos. I’ve lived through chaos before, and it nearly destroyed me. I can’t let it in again, no matter how much I want her.

Because if I do, I might not come back from it.

14

Why Must He Be So Hot?

Kai to Nico: Stop fucking flirting with her. [delivered]

Tess

Morninglightfiltersthroughthe blinds and I blink my eyes open.