Page 70 of Wild Like Us

Thatcher nods stiffly.

I’ll be okay.

I have to believe I’m headed towards something good and beautiful. I’m headed towards her, aren’t I?

Soon, their cars are kicking up dirt and gravel. Leaving me alone with Akara. It’d be easier to tell him about the kiss right now. Not have a second where I’m keeping anything from him. But I understand why Sulli needs to do it, too. It’s the same reason I have to. We care too much about Akara. Simple as that.

We’re headed back to her now. So the truth will be out there sooner rather than later.

Trekking through the parking lot, I ask Akara, “How’d Jane, Maximoff, and Charlie come into the motel room earlier? They didn’t have a key.”

His mind seems to be somewhere else. And for the umpteenth fucking time, I wish I were in Akara Kitsuwon’s head.

13

AKARA KITSUWON

“I gave them my key,”I answer Banks, a little distantly. “They wanted to surprise Sulli.”

He shifts the grocery bag of Ripley’s extra applesauce and Teddy Grahams to his other hand. “They surprisedme,” Banks says. “I nearly shit myself.” His tone is light-hearted.

I want to smile, but as we walk back to our motel room, I can’t stop picturingSulli.

Naked Sulli.

I tilt my head, eyes drifting. Spacing out. Bodyguard 101—donotdrift. I’ve ripped into my men for doing what I’m doing. That glazed “where’d you go” feeling is all so…unfamiliar.

But so is seeing Sulli withoutpanties.Or a bra.

I thought I’d want to toss clothes at her. Tell her tocover uplike I’m some prude. Like I’m herbrother.But I’m not.

I’m not her brother.

The fact has never been more firmly set in my brain. Like concrete, it solidified tonight.

Flinging clothes at Sulli didn’t even register. Maybe I was in shock.Yeah.I was definitely slack-jawed, stumbled-backshockedthat she’d drop her towel in front of us. But I kept my composure. Inwardly, I felt more like a Looney Tunes character—where my heart ejected from my body, pumped five-times bigger, then went back inside.

While we walk to the motel, I’m still dazed. “How is she?” I ask Banks, then quickly remember the scorpion, how I left Sulli too quickly. “Shit, I hate that I had to run out on her like that.” I wipe a hand down my face. “It wasrightafter I saw her naked too. She probably thinks I find her grotesque.” I groan and expel a cringing, nauseous breath.

And I’m expecting Banks to ask,You like what you saw?But he’s pretty quiet. I wouldn’t categorize him as a chatterbox, but whenever I bring up Sulli, he’s neversilent.

Maybe what he said in the motel room is coming to fruition. He’s trying not to sway my feelings for Sulli one way or the other. But Banks yelling at me earlier has already chiseled me open. It’d be nice to have his advice, but he’s not my moral conscience.

He’s just my friend.

“You okay?” I ask him, making sure I’m not assuming too much. He had this same odd look when we were around the other guys and Jane.

Banks nods. “Sulli is alright too. Farrow checked her out.”

“I saw.” We stop on the stoop to the motel room. Bugs chirp in the night. I dig in my pocket for the key. He’s not avoiding my eyes. So there’s that. “How are we not talking about this?” I ask, dropping my voice. “When she was with the Rooster, we never hesitated to talk shit about him or discuss Sulli—and now she got naked in front of us and we’re acting like it’s nothing?”

He scans behind us. “You didn’t want to talk about the funhouse.”

“Just with her,” I retort in a cringe. “Which was stupid. I was scared.”Scared of change.But I’m more scared of losing her because…

Because you like her, Nine.

My chest knots, the key cold in my hand. I miss Banks flinging the topic ofSulliin my face, even if I end up telling him to shut the fuck up.I can’t lose Banks.I’m afraid of losing him too. “What was your first thought?” I ask him. “When you saw her naked?”