“Meet me tonight,” I murmured. “I want to give you your present.”
She raised those warm, golden eyes of hers and peered at me. “Christmas is tomorrow. Don’t you want to wait?”
I shook my head. “Not for this one.”
Her lips parted. She exhaled slowly and then nodded. “Okay.”
“Who wants chocolate?”
Abandoning her rummaging, Mom leapt over the scattered remains of crumpled newspapers and skipped into the kitchen. I removed my hand in case she could see at that angle, but my gaze remained locked with Kia’s.
“Yo, bro!” Kenny pitched a green, plastic bulb at me. It struck my chest and landed in my lap. “We need the lights.”
“Kenny, don’t throw the ornaments,” Mom scolded, stirring packets of chocolate into hot water. “Some of those are antiques.”
“Sorry, Mrs. C.” He picked up a magazine off the coffee table and pitched it at me instead. It hit Kia instead.
“Hey!” she shouted, laughing. “We’re working on it!” She hurled the thing back at him. It missed him completely and hit Van in the back of the head.
“What the hell!” She twisted around and snatched the magazine up. “I haven’t read this yet. Keep your hands off my stuff!” She slapped the magazine down on the coffee table.
“Sorry,” Kia murmured.
Van turned back to the box of ornaments in her lap without a word.
Beside me, Kia sighed.
I glanced at her. “What’s wrong?”
She just shook her head, eyes focused on the lights. But there was a shadow drawing her face and her shoulders were drooped. I wanted to touch her, coax her to tell me, but I held off, making a mental note to get answers later.
Kia was already there, standing beneath the lit tree when I made my way downstairs later that night. Her head was tipped back as she stared at the prehistoric angel perched at the top. Light glinted through the soft strands of hair slipping free from the tiny ponytail at the back of her head and shone in the dozen or so pins she’d used to keep the stray locks contained, but they’d managed to slip free, falling around her face and the back of her neck. She wore a long t-shirt with yoga pants and her glasses, and I was a little glad about the latter.
Kia turned, having been alerted by the stray floorboard I deliberately stepped on to keep from startling her. She blinked and then broke into the biggest grin I’d ever seen.
“I didn’t know you had glasses!”
I shrugged, keeping my hands deliberately at my back as I crossed to her. “You never asked.”
She was still beaming when I reached her. Her eyes shimmered as they stared up at me, taking in the dark, square frames. She laughed, shaking her head.
“What?”
She shook her head again, biting her lip. “It’s nothing.” She looked up at me again. “It’s just they make you look really good.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How good?”
Even with only the Christmas lights emphasizing her face, I could see the faint blush work its way up her neck to fill her cheeks before she dropped her gaze.
“Like a lot.”
I made a humming sound in my throat, secretly delighted by her reaction. I knew Kia would never judge me for my eyewear, not when she always looked so comfortable in hers, but I’d been uncertain when slipping them on earlier. The majority of the time I wore contacts and not even Kenny had ever seen me with my glasses on, so it had been a big step for me showing her. Her reaction made me want to kiss her.
“Then maybe I’ll actually wear them out one day,” I mused, grinning.
Kia frowned. “Don’t you?”
I shook my head. “You’re the only one who’s ever seen them, except for my family.”
She blinked. Her eyes widened. “Really? But they make you look so hot! I mean…” She trailed off, her face as bright as the red lights on the tree.
I chuckled. “I wear them at home when I’m doing homework and my contacts are making my eyes itchy. Otherwise, they stay in my desk. But if you like them so much, maybe I’ll wear them more.”
She was chewing on her lip and only stopped to reply, “I do like them.” She cleared her throat. “So, is that my surprise?”
My head tipped to the side. “Would you be disappointed?”
Her head rocked quickly from side to side. “I love it.”
Strange girl.
“No, that isn’t your surprise.” I brought my hands out from behind my back and presented her with the silver box. “This is.”
The shine in her eyes intensified with delight as she looked from me to the box. Her fingers brushed mine as she took it.
“This is only gift one of two,” I told her, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my flannel bottoms. “You’ll get the other one tomorrow morning.”
“I only got you one gift,” she said, anxiety clouding her eyes.
I grinned. “Well, that is just unacceptable. You’ll have to make it up to me.”
“How?”
“I’m sure we can think of something.” I grinned at the embarrassed look on her face. “But for now … open.”
She continued to look uncertain as she peeled back the lid. Her eyes widened and her lips parted as a soft gasp escaped her.
“Oh Adam…”
Pleased by her reaction, I slipped my fingers inside the box and lifted the silver chain from its bed of cotton. It unwound as I held it up for her.
It was a bronze locket with two swans carved into the face. The cameo was the soft blue of a clear sky in winter. The birds bobbed in soft waves of delicate white. The larger of the two seemed to be kissing the brow of the smaller one. It was elegant and adorable. It made me think of Kia the moment I saw it.
“I couldn’t find any black ones with gold wings and a tiara, but…” I nipped on my bottom lip, feeling my cheeks warm as I forced myself to meet her wide eyes. “I’ll keep looking.”
She said nothing as she offered me her back. I unclasped the tiny hook and slipped it around her neck. My fingers trembled and I thought for sure I would drop it. It was some kind of miracle when I got it in on the first try and let the chain rest lightly on her neck. Spontaneously, I laid a kiss there as well.
Kia turned. Her arms went around my shoulders and slipped up to close around my neck. Her soft curves fit perfectly into me like she’d been made to be there, in my arms. I crushed her close, breathing in her sweet scent of watermelons and strawberries.
“I love it,” she murmured into the side of my neck. “Thank you.”
I exhaled into her shoulder. “Welcome, nena.”
Chapter IX
Kia
Nessie was up at the crack of dawn, which wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t gone to bed only two hours before. Her blunt little nails cut into my arm as I was shoved and pulled nearly off the bed. She was saying something in her loud, excited chatter, but I couldn’t for the life of me make sense of it.
“Nessie, slow down,” I groaned, stuffing my hands into my eyes, which was a bad thing to do because it only made me want to keep them there fusing my eyelids shut.
“It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!” she shouted like a five year old on too much sugar.
“Santa isn’t real,” I grumbled, not sure how to muster that level of enthusiasm so early in the morning. “Go back to bed.”
The sheets were torn from away from my body, exposing me to the nippy chill in the room. I cursed loudly, pitching a pillow blindly in the general direction of my best friend.
“Get up!”
My arm was grabbed and I was physically dragged off the mattress. I would have face-planted had my body not realized the threat quickly and jerked away.
Groaning and mumbling none-too nice things, I shuffled after her out the door.
While she scrambled from room to room like a puppy that really needed to go pee, I slumped against the outside wall and watched her, wondering very seriously if anyone would blame me if I knocked her out with a frying
pan. From the frustrated groans echoing from the other rooms, I had a feeling I would be thanked, possibly with cupcakes. Mmm. Tempting.
“Get up!” Nessie was whining. “I want to open my presents. Yay!” she cried when her badgering succeeded.
I had no idea whom this person was. I hadn’t seen Nessie this alive in days. We shared a room and I hadn’t said two words to her since our shopping trip. I hadn’t known what to make of it. Adam had told me to let it run its course. Apparently sullen Nessie was normal over the holidays. He swore she would be back to normal once we returned home. I wasn’t so sure, but I did know that I would not accept another invitation from her for next year. I didn’t like this angry, disconnected Nessie; one who pushed me away when all I wanted to do was help and be there for her.
Nevertheless, I watched as she skipped out of her parents’ room and threw open Adam’s door. Curiosity had me following and leaning into the doorframe as Nessie ripped off blankets and tore away pillows, screaming for everyone to get up.
“Get lost or I’ll throw you into a snow bank!” Adam grumbled, flopping over onto his stomach.
On the floor, Kenny barely moved even though he’d been robbed of his blankets and pillow. His head was tipped too far back, extending his Adam’s apple to a sharp point stretching the skin of his throat. His mouth was gaping and he laid sprawled uncaringly in his tightie whities.
I giggled without thinking and turned my gaze away.
Nessie was still trying to rouse Adam. She was jumping on his bed, singing at the top of her lungs about four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
“I swear to God, I will kill you!”
“You know the rules,” Nessie panted with every leap. “No presents until everyone is awake. So get up. I want my presents.” When Adam ignored her, she humphed and hopped off the bed. “Fine. I’m getting the pitcher of ice water I put in the fridge last night for this very reason.” She stormed across the room, dark coils bouncing around her shoulders. “Stay here and make sure he doesn’t go back to sleep,” she told me in passing. “Keep him awake by any means necessary.”
I watched her thunder down the stairs.
“You better hurry.” The low, lazy drawl had me turning back to the room. Adam lay on his back, arms folded beneath his head. “I think I’m beginning to doze off again.”
Stifling my laugh, I stole a peek up and down the hall before slipping inside and shutting the door. I crept across the room, careful not to stir Kenny who snored like he’d swallowed a blow horn.
“I don’t know if I want to wake you,” I murmured, stopping when my knee bumped the edge of the mattress. “You might throw me into a snow bank, too.”
There was something intense about the way he watched me. I didn’t know what it was, but it had my heart galloping and my body reacting in a way that brought a flush to my face.
“The only place I’m going to throw you is right here.”
He had my wrist before I could catch his meaning. I was yanked onto the bed, still warm and rumpled from his body. I might have squeaked or gasped or something, but it was a distant memory when his mouth took claim of mine.
It wasn’t a kiss. It was war. It was cruel and hot and demanding. It was his hands ripping up my body, fisting in my clothes, in my hair as his body restrained mine, pinning me to the mattress. He kissed me as though he would die if he didn’t consume me. My legs were roughly thrown apart and my thighs were filled by the pressure of his hips settling into place. A sound between a whimper and a cry left me as his body aligned with mine in a way that sent fire racing through my veins. I was only barely conscious of anything except how much I wanted him to keep going. It was only due to the snort-grunt from the other occupant in the room that I tumbled down a notch from the heights he was taking me.
“Kenny,” I gasped, my body bowing into his.
He snarled. His fingers tightened in my hair, making me cry out as sharp slivers of delicious pleasure ripped through me.
“Adam!” he hissed. “When you’re in my bed, it’s only Adam.”
“Adam!” I obediently complied.
Then he kissed me again, forcing apart my lips to slip his tongue in to invade. But all too quickly, he was gone from my arms, gone from the bed. He stood over me, looking down at me as I fought for breath. My body hummed in a way that made me want to beg him not to stop. His mouth quirked with the dark pleasure glinting in his eyes.
“Better get up, nena,” he said calmly, not even remotely breathless while I lay there trembling and gasping for air. “Or you won’t get any presents.”
I had no feeling whatsoever in my knees as I rose to my feet. My heart was on the verge of having a stroke and I was hot all over. Yet somehow I managed to make it all the way to the door without capsizing.
Adam opened the door for me, then leaned a forearm against the edge as he leaned into it and watched me. His blue eyes were dark, shadowed by the thick fringes fallen over his brow. Neither of us said a word as I slipped into the hall and stumbled my way downstairs.
“Why’d you leave? I’m almost done. I think that little shit emptied it last night,” Nessie said when I made my way to the sofa and collapsed on it. She stood over the sink, filling a glass pitcher with water and ice cubes. “I told you to—”
“He’s awake,” I mumbled.
Nessie straightened. “He is? What did you do?”
I let him kiss me and completely melt my brains.
“Poked him a few times,” I said instead.
There was an angry accusation in Nessie’s eyes when I dared myself to look. She snapped the tap off and left the pitcher in the sink, half full as she shoved away from the counter, muttering, “I bet you did.” She flopped down on the sofa next to me and folded her arms.
Carefully, I edged closer. I didn’t miss her jerking away from me. I tried not to let the gesture hurt, but it did.
“Ness? What’s wrong? Are you angry with me? Did I do something?”
Her eyes were chips of blue ice when they snapped to me. “What do you think, Kia?”
I opened my mouth and started to shake my head when another voice spoke up from the stairway.
“Incoming presents!” Mrs. Chaves strolled down the stairs with her arms full of brightly wrapped boxes. Mr. Chaves was behind her, arms equally piled high. He even had bags hanging from each arm. I had never seen so many gifts.
I’d noticed the night before while I waited for Adam that there were no presents under the tree, just a red tree skirt with reindeers on it. I’d asked him about it and his answer had been to simply say, “Van.”
“Why aren’t the presents under the tree?” I asked, wondering where the ones I’d given Mrs. Chaves the night we returned from our shopping were.
Nessie rolled her eyes. “They hide them.”
“And why is that, Vanessa?” her mother said, making her way across the room.
“Because you guys have trust issues,” Nessie replied simply.
“Excuse me?” Mr. Chaves made his way around the sofas to dump the packages on the floor next to the tree. “I thought you wanted your presents.”
“I didn’t say anything wrong!” Nessie cried.
Sure she was superficial and spoiled and a drama queen, but she was also sweet and kind and had a heart a mile wide. Those were things she kept hidden well, but I’d seen them enough times to know they existed. Plus, she was my best friend and I had accepted her for the way she was ages ago. It was just Nessie. But her parents … they confused me. They were both wonderful people from what I could see. They loved their children and supported them. They obviously spared no expense when it came to their wants and needs. Yet there was something off about the way they treated Nessie. I wasn’t saying it wasn’t warranted. Nessie brought trouble on herself without trying, but it was like they couldn’t bring themselves to give her a break.
Maybe it was because I didn’t have any siblings and my parents had never felt the need to reprimand me, but in four days, I had yet to h
ear them say a single good thing about Nessie, yet they were so quick to criticize. I could see what it did to her. Every time they praised Adam, I could see the light dim a little more in her eyes. I hated it. I wanted to say something. I wanted to defend her against the people who raised her, but it wasn’t my place. I was a guest. I had no right to say anything.
“Morning, boys!” Mrs. Chaves said, passing gifts to Mr. Chaves to be placed around the tree.
I didn’t glance up, but I felt him enter the room. I felt his presence like a physical caress. I tingled all over as Adam and Kenny made their way around to dominate the sofa across from us.
He’d showered, I noted, not looking directly at him, but watching him from the corner of my eye. His dark hair glinted wet in the soft morning light. Someone had turned the Christmas lights on so they shone through the blue-black strands. His white shirt was damp and stuck to him in the most inappropriate way. I balled my hands into my lap and dragged my knees up to hide them.
“Is everyone ready?” Mrs. Chaves rose and went to the armchair while Mr. Chaves remained kneeling next to the tree and the enormous pile of presents. “Adam.”
“Of course he’d be first,” Nessie muttered, drawing her knees up to her chin and hugging them to her chest.
Adam accepted the rectangular box. I watched as he neatly picked at the tape holding the corners. For someone who had been so impatient and desperate kissing me, he seemed content taking his time unwrapping his gifts. It made me wonder if he was as careful removing a girl’s clothes as he was unwrapping presents. The thought brought a flood of heat to my face, which was heightened by the thought of him opening my gift to him.
“Kia.”
I jolted, glancing away from Adam to stare at Mr. Chaves. I was surprised to find him holding a flat, square box out to me.
“Oh!” I scrambled up and accepted it with a murmured thank you.
Revealing Kia (The Lost Girl Series, Book 2) Page 10