I looked away from him and just knew he was shaking his head at me. We walked into every clean, bright room and for a new house it actually didn’t look that boring and samey as they usually did. It still needed personalising but it was plenty big enough.
“I love it, I love it, I love it,” Holly chanted as we walked into the back garden. She’d said that about every room so I was pretty sure James was getting his checkbook out real soon.
“Come on, talk to me,” he said, groaning and trying to step in front of me.
“You shouldn’t have been a dick to her then,” Holly said, poking him in the chest.
“You don’t even know what I’ve done,” he replied.
“But I know you’ve done something.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I forgive you for being a prick.”
“Thanks,” he replied sarcastically.
James grabbed Holly’s hand and said, “Let’s go see upstairs again, I want to make sure we’ll get all your clothes in the room.”
“There’re three bedrooms, James.”
“Yeah, I know!”
I heard her nagging at him as they walked back inside. I was left with Kai. Narrowing my eyes, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Are you ready to be nice to me now?”
He opened his arms. “You only ever need to ask and I’ll be as nice as you want whenever you want.”
I slapped his chest. “Ha ha.”
Dropping his hands to block my blow, he asked, “So where’s your crazy friend?”
Sophie he meant. “Why is she crazy?”
“She keeps texting me.”
“Yeah, you’re right, she must be crazy if she likes you.”
He glared. “I know you don’t mean that, you’ve been under and over me enough times.”
I really did bring it on myself. “She’s with Will.”
“Ah, Will’s this week’s conquest then.”
I slapped him again in Sophie’s defence.
“He’s not a conquest. She just likes to try before she buys.”
He laughed. “Right. Hey, I’m all for doing what the fuck you want, but a reputation as a slut is hard to shake and makes it hard to get the person you want to trust you to actually trust you.”
“Hey, I was like her before,” I said. His words made me feel ashamed, not that I wasn’t already. Losing my virginity in the backseat of a car was a particularly low point.
He ran his fingers over my forehead, flattening my frown. “You were nothing like her.”
“You didn’t know me right after my dad died, Kai.”
“So tell me.” I looked at him like he’d grown another head and then I started to consider it. “Tell me,” he said and snorted. “It can’t be that bad.”
Oh, it could.
“Okay. I was innocent before he died, like nun innocent. I lost my virginity a few days after his funeral to Adam’s older brother on a drunken night out in the back of his car. I slept with random guys at clubs and parties and I didn’t care what happened to me. Before I met you there was a different guy almost every time I went out and I hate myself for it.”
“I’m sorry, princess, your first time shouldn’t have been like that,” he said and wrapped me in his strong arms.
“It’s fine, not every girl gets flowers, candles and expensive hotel rooms, Kai.”
“You should,” he replied.
I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure. Hold on, I was one of your passing random guys?”
“You were but I just can’t seem to get rid of you,” I teased. Completely unexpectedly, he bent down and bit my neck, making me squeal. “Boundaries!”
Laughing, he pulled back and winked. I was still in his arms and I was pretty sure I couldn’t overpower him to get out.
“Whoa!” I looked up to see James and Holly at the back door. James pouted. “Hey, we want to be the first ones to christen the garden so knock it off.”
“Very funny,” I replied dryly, shoving Kai off and slapping his chest for the third time in as many minutes. He did nothing but flash that cocky smile.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Kai
I would damn well love to christen the room with her. She drove me crazy and could literally get me hard with just one look. I wished I’d met her right after her dad died, maybe then she wouldn’t have lost her virginity on the backseat of a car. I wasn’t an angel but I wouldn’t have let that be a girl’s first time. Well, not anymore anyway.
Back at mine, we sat on the sofa, waiting for Sophie and some Mark guy to get here. She’s spent the day with someone called Will but had moved on already. I didn’t even know the same amount of people as she’d slept with.
“Don’t leave me alone with Sophie tonight, Tegan,” I said as Holly let them in.
She giggled and grabbed my hand. I felt her touch down south. “I got your back, don’t worry… Astro.”
“Astro?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Spaceman’s just too long.”
Fuck my family.
“No,” I said. “No space related nicknames or I’ll have a chat with your mum, there must be something I can use against you.” Of course I wouldn’t really have a conversation with her mum since I was pretty much the anti Christ.