Page 10

Chapter ten

Keala

W hen she got off the elevator to Ikaika’s floor later that night, she heard some commotion and looked up from her phone. A few muscular men were taking boxes into the apartment across the hall, and Keala marveled at the fact that she hadn’t known it had been vacant until now.

As she stuck the key in the door, she heard a voice behind her she had dreaded having to hear again. Velvety and deep as hell.

And quite frankly, maddening.

When she had to come to the realization that he was close friends with Ikaika, she’d been annoyed with herself for being so vulnerable. Also for being dumb enough to believe that he would just disappear from her life when they were both so deeply entrenched in the Sentinels franchise. And even though she had known who he was and not the other way around, the irrational part of her brain blamed him for this situation they were in.

Keala whirled around, dropping her bags as she did so and looking for the culprit. Landon stood just inside the apartment across the hall, a shit-eating grin on his face, though he had the good sense to hold his hands up in surrender when he saw her expression. His eyes drifted over the tight, all-black workout set the Sirens wore for Thursday practice, appreciation clear.

“You,” she hissed, all her natural instincts jumping out the window when she started putting the pieces together. The boxes in his apartment last week. The same boxes now in the foyer in this apartment. Still, she asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Well, I did buy the place.”

“The building?”

“Sweet that you think I want to spend my entire contract and more to own a building of this size, but no. Just this apartment here.” He hooked his thumb behind him.

Keala took an angry step closer to him. “Why wouldn’t you have told me that? You literally forced your way all the way up here when you dropped me off. You’d think you might have said something about this.”

That irrational part of her suddenly seemed more rational, because while she had known who he was, he had known that they were about to be living across the hall from each other, something he hadn’t made her aware of. That pissed her off. Now she really did feel like she could blame him for all of this.

Landon stepped out of the doorway toward her. “For one, you were trying to get away from me as quickly as possible, which didn’t exactly leave me with a lot of room for talking. I wanted to come up when you gave me your address so I could confirm my hunch that you were Ikaika’s cousin, which I didn’t put together until you gave me the address. And then we came up to the top floor, and…you weren’t exactly honest with me either. Ikaika’s cousin and a Siren?” He tsked, shaking his head, though that lopsided grin was still on his face.

“Yeah but—”

“Plus, you were all, ‘trust me this isn’t going to happen again,’ so it shouldn’t matter if we’re living in the same building, right? It’s like it never happened. I didn’t think it was super important at the time, especially with you running away, but I was going to tell you after we talked Monday. You just haven’t been around much. And to be fair, you were the one who knew I was on the team. You knew I was your cousin’s teammate, and you knew you were prohibited from fraternizing. I didn’t know a thing about you until we got here. So really, even though this doesn’t matter because nothing happened, I think you have some explaining to do.”

Keala’s mouth opened and closed. So many things floated through her head. It mattered to her because it was the hottest kiss she had ever had, and it made her want so much more the longer she thought about it. And now, not only was she learning he was close with her cousin—and therefore she would see him here and there—he was moving in across the hall .

He was infuriating. She wanted to stab him with her keys.

The worst part was that there was a flurry of emotion going on within her, but the one that was most prevalent was utter and absolute embarrassment. This man had watched her struggle through her first ever attempt at a one-night stand. But more than that, he had been a witness to the catastrophe of things that had fallen from her mouth that evening. She had told him things she hadn’t ever told anyone outside of Ikaika.

This man, who she was never supposed to see again—as dumb as that thinking might have been on her part—could not possibly live in her building, on her floor . She would have to see him as she came into the building, as she left the building, and more likely than not, in her apartment. And often.

Was she living in a nightmare? She thought about pinching herself but didn’t want to give him that satisfaction.

“You’re doing an awful lot of thinking,” he said, smirking. “Get out of your head, Keeks . I think you’ll find that I’m far more fun.”

Shoving a finger into his chest, she said, “Don’t call me that. You might not think it’s important, but it is if we have to see each other every day. Especially with my no-fraternization clause. Which, by the way, wasn’t in effect at the time because I’d been told I was off the squad.”

“Oh, so you are back on the team.” His smirk widened. “Good. I’ve been betting with myself about whether or not I’m going to get to see you in that hot-as-fuck cheerleader uniform.”

“That’s not—that’s so not the point. I wouldn’t have hooked up with you if I thought you were going to be living on my street , let alone across the hall .”

“Well, we didn’t exactly hook up, did we? We could remedy that if you want. My bed was delivered earlier.” His dumb grin widened.

“I’m—Are you…Is that a joke? Are you kidding me right now? Did that seem like the right thing to say in this moment?”

“I’m not not joking. Unless that sounds like something you’d like? I don’t have anybody else on the docket for today.”

An image of her keys jabbed into his carotid flashed behind her eyes, and she squeezed them in her fist. She never got this angry with anyone. It was probably because she’d had a shit day, but Landon being an asshole wasn’t helping any.

“Stay. Away. From. Me.” She punctuated each word with a stab of her finger to his chest, but that only served to make him smile wider.

“You’re doing an awful lot of touching for someone who claims they have no interest in me.”

“For the love of…” Keala took a step away, realizing they were toe to toe and had an audience that was pretending not to listen.

Landon dropped his voice, suddenly serious. “Don’t worry. They won’t say anything.”

Keala sighed, picking up the bags she had abandoned on the floor. “Dance is important to me. I don’t need to lose my last year because you’re an arrogant ass. I know you’re Ikaika’s friend, as bizarre as that may seem to me, but leave me out of it.”

She turned around, about to open the door, when he said, “Okay, but in the interest of full disclosure, which it seems you want, I did tell Ikaika about us.”

Keala closed her eyes, rolling her neck and pushing the door open. She slammed it behind her.

She knew his type. He was conceited and a total slacker. She had looked him up. His whole family was in sports, including his parents, and she could tell he got by on talent alone. She had watched him at the last game, showboating when he’d barely been trying, barely playing. All he seemed to care about was partying and women.

He was the type of person who had things handed to him and didn’t have to work like she and Ikaika did.

“Hey, Keeks. You okay?” Ikaika stood from the couch, a video game controller in hand and his curls wet. He gave her a hug as Chowder turned her nose up.

“I do not like Landon.”

“You hide it so well.” Ikaika pulled away, a small playful smile on his face. “Does that mean I have to stop playing with him? Do I have to find another friend?”

Keala tried not to, but she let out a small chuckle.

“Wow, you really don’t like him. You’re all tense.”

“I’m always tense,” she mumbled.

He nodded solemnly. “Very true.”

“Why did you never talk about Landon when I was in Virginia? It would’ve saved me tons of trouble.”

“We only got close last season after I moved up to first string. The few times you and I talked, it was about important stuff, not our daily life.”

Keala grimaced, looking down at the floor. She hadn’t been the best at communicating with how busy she’d gotten, so it wasn’t a surprise he hadn’t felt comfortable talking to her about his day-to-day life. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about what happened. I was embarrassed.”

“I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t surprised. But I don’t care what you guys do. Just be careful with the Sirens and everything, and don’t hurt each other. I trust you to be adults about everything so things don’t get weird.”

“Trust me, nothing is going to happen. Nothing even happened. I didn’t want to come back to the empty apartment while you were in LA. I made a dumb mistake, but all we did was go to his place for a couple of minutes and that was it.”

“Don’t hurt each other . ” Keala scoffed internally. There would be no opportunity for that. It was clear that Keala wasn’t programmed for one-night stands, and it wasn’t like Landon would ever want more. Relationships took work, and he wouldn’t know work if it smacked him in the face.

Not that she would want a relationship with him anyway. He was the last person she would be willing to bend over backward for.

“Gross. I don’t need to know that.”

Keala shoved him. “Shut up. All I’m saying is, you have nothing to worry about. I made it very clear to him that I have no interest in him.”

Ikaika’s eyebrows raised. “So you actually told him how you felt? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.”

“Oh, yeah. You missed the show.” She crossed her arms. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me he was moving in across the hall.”

If she didn’t love him so much and if he hadn’t done so much for her, she would be mad at him. Instead, she was just peeved.

“Hey, I hardly saw you this week!”

“Right, ’cause it would’ve been so hard to say, ‘Hey, just so you know, Landon is moving in across the hall.’”

“And what would you have done if I had?”

Keala blew out a breath. What, indeed. Torch the place, maybe.

“Exactly.” He waved the controller. “Now, stop pretending to be mad at me and come race me.”