Falling For The Bad Boy

by Glenna Maynard

  “Kai,” his name leaves my lips barely in a whisper for the first time in months.

  “I want to hate you, but I can’t,” he admits.

  Tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

  “You promised me wild horses, Kat.”

  “I’m sorry…” my words are cut off by his.

  Three words that turn me into mush leave his lips. His voice comes out shaky. “Killing me, Kat.”

  “Want you so bad, Kai,” I say back, choking on the words.

  His hands cup my face, and then he whispers softly in my ear, “I am going to kiss you, Katie, don’t kick me.”

  I can only nod as his mouth crashes down to mine. Our tongues tangle and mingle as we find our way to the bed. I don’t even know if he shut the door. I only know I cannot breathe, and I need him to suffocate the fire burning through my veins with his love.

  We kiss, touch, and stroke each other for minutes or hours, I don’t know. I just know that for the first time in a year, I feel at peace. I feel whole as his body lies here next to mine, our hearts beating fast, in perfect harmony, as they always have.

  “We need to talk, Kat.”

  “I know, just being here…it scares me, Kai.” I don’t know what he is about to tell me. What if he has moved on? What if there is someone else? My heart skips a beat. I don’t know if I can take hearing he has fallen in love with someone that isn’t me.

  “You don’t know how many times I have thought of this moment. I had this big idea of how I would scream at you and tell you that I hate you for breaking my heart. But this past year, as miserable as I have been, it’s been good too.”

  “I’m proud of you, Kai. I am glad that you are living your dream. I knew you would do amazing things.” I am really proud of him. I want good things for Kai, no matter what.

  His hand is resting on my hip, fisting the hem of my shirt. He sucks in a breath between his teeth. The suspense is killing me. I have to know if he feels the same. I love Kai Cooper, and I always will.

  “Only been one thing missing... Kat.”

  “What’s that, Kai?”

  “The other half of my soul. And now that you’re here, I am not letting you go a second time.” He kisses me hard, not giving me a chance to talk. His mouth devours mine.

  Penny knocks on the bedroom door.

  “Go away,” Kai yells at her.

  “Sorry, but the bus is getting ready to go…so, I need Katie.”

  Kai looks at me with a panicked expression. I don’t want to leave him now. I can’t. It’s as though we haven’t spent the past year apart. Even though nothing has been discussed, I can’t walk away this time. My heart isn’t strong enough.

  “I need her more,” he says, holding onto my shirt still.

  The band is headed to Texas for another show and then they are taking a two-month break before they are slated to record their second album. I don’t know what I’m doing, but when Kai asks me to stay on the bus with him, I say yes.

  I don’t have anything with me other than the clothes on my back, but as long as I am with Kai, I don’t need anything more.

  Penny said she had a feeling I wouldn’t be coming home with her tonight, and she actually brought a bag for me. She has it in her car. Hunter brings it to the bus for her. He and Vance both tried to get her to come with us, but she declined. I think they both were sad to find out she is now engaged.

  Penny squeezes my neck and kisses my cheek. “Katie, I think you are finally where you are meant to be, so don’t screw it up this time.”

  “How did you even make this happen?”

  “I had help from an old friend.” She looks at Vance and winks. I didn’t know they still talk.

  He grins and opens that stupid mouth of his. “I had to get Kai’s dick back. Every day I have watched him pine away, wanting you and hating you. He is worse to be around than a woman on the damn rag.”

  “Thank you,” I mouth to Penny as she walks off the bus. The door shuts and Kai throws me over his shoulder like a caveman and carries me back to his bed while the guys whistle.

  “I guess I owe you an explanation about Khloe and Raven,” Kai says somberly, bringing up what divided us in the first place.

  “Kai, I’m sorry for how I reacted. I just wasn’t expecting that, ya know.” I wasn’t ready for the responsibility that could have come with his secret. I was scared.

  “Khloe isn’t my daughter. She’s my niece.” He holds his finger to my mouth, so I can’t interrupt. “Raven cheated on me with my brother. Hell, we really weren’t even dating. We were just kids. It was the summer before ninth grade. I kept trying to get up the courage to approach you.” He wraps his pinky around mine.

  He squeezes my pinky hard with his. “Raven and I were stupid. Like I said it was the summer before ninth grade. We connected over music. I thought she really liked me. Some other girl had my eye, but she made me so nervous, I couldn’t ever get the courage up to talk to her.” He looks at me with sad eyes, and I know he is talking about me. I’m the other girl.

  “Kirk had just graduated, and I looked up to him so much. Raven started coming over a lot. He would pick her up and drive her home. That was the summer we found out he had a drug problem. Anyway, it turns out Raven had a crush on Kirk. She had this big fantasy about how they would fall in love. She was just using me. Long story short, she slept with my brother one night when he drove her home. I didn’t find out about it until much later when Raven told me she was pregnant. She told me her family threatened to put my brother in jail for statutory rape. I stepped up and said the baby was mine. Kirk doesn’t even remember having sex with her he was so out of it.”

  “God, Kai, that’s horrible.”

  “My parents told me to claim Khloe as mine. They had me lie and say that I was the father. My mom works with abused children, Katie, how would that look for her to have a son known as a child rapist? Raven was just fourteen at the time. Her family just wanted the baby to go away. They never questioned any of it. My father was a judge at the time when Khloe was born. He was so intent on keeping his perfect image. Raven went on homebound and when Khloe came, I signed the birth certificate, and then we both signed our rights over to my mother. Raven held my brother and our lie over my head all through high school.”

  “Where is Khloe now?”

  “She’s with Raven and Kirk. They actually got married. It’s ridiculous, but somehow they are making it work.”

  He goes on to tell me that Khloe was really confused at first, but she now knows that Kirk is really her dad and that Raven is her mom. His family was afraid that Kirk would get back on drugs, so they kept the truth about Khloe being his from him all that time. Raven really wasn’t trying to hurt Kai and me, she just wanted the truth out there. She wanted her daughter, but she didn’t go about things in the best way. I want to hate her, but I can’t judge her knowing everything I know. She was just a screwed up girl.

  “I should have fought for you, Katie. I should have told you the truth. I thought I was doing the right thing.” He brushes his strong thumb over my lips.

  “I should have stayed and listened, Kai.” I was too upset at the time but maybe our year apart did us both some good too.

  “Oh, I’m sorry about your car,” he says out of nowhere.

  What the fuck did he do to my car? “My car?” I ask him, curious why he is sorry. After I left Kai, I gave the car back. I could not bring myself to keep it. I had Becks return it to Kai’s parents.

  “I sort of set it on fire,” he mumbles into my neck, kissing my fevered skin.

  “You did what?!” I scream, smacking his chest. I am going to kill him, and then I am going to kiss him before I kill him again.

  “I was really angry with you, Katie. You probably shouldn’t listen to some of the songs I wrote about you.”

  “Oh really? Now I have to listen. Today was the first day in a really long time I have listened to music. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to anything. I was afraid I would hear you
r voice.”

  He clutches his heart in a dramatic fashion as if he is wounded.

  I start to get up from the bed. He grabs onto me, holding me tight against his bare chest. “Where are you going, Kat?” He seems panicked as though he is afraid I will leave him. He doesn’t need to worry. I will never leave him again.

  “I am just going to get my phone, so I can listen to your album.”

  “That can wait, Kat. I have been one year without feeling your skin pressed against mine.” His hard length presses into my side, and he groans as I die a little, remembering how good he can make me feel.

  “Why…are you afraid I won’t want to sleep with you once I have heard what you have written about me?” I tease.

  “No, I am afraid I am going to die before I get to sink my cock deep inside you. Killing me, Kat.”

  “Then. Take. What. You. Want. Kai.”

  His mouth is on my neck as he tugs on my jeans. We can’t get each other undressed quick enough. I almost bust his nose when I go to yank my shirt off. We are tangled up in our clothes and the sheets as he slams into me.

  “Fuck. Kat. You. Are. So. Beautiful.” His mouth latches onto my pebbled peak.

  “I can’t believe I’m back in your arms…” His lips are on me…his hands touching me, claiming what has always been his.

  Our souls connect, and I die a little on the inside as he finds his way home—his way back to me. You would think our bodies have always been tethered. He knows exactly how to make my toes curl. His tongue caresses my smooth skin as his hands roam my torso. My hands thread through his hair and slide down the curves of his muscular back, digging my nails into his skin as he drives me wild.

  He is breathing hard into my hair as I suck on his ear. My legs are wrapped around his waist, burrowing the balls of my feet into the top of his ass. He rolls us over and we tumble onto the floor as the bus makes a sharp turn. Kai doesn’t miss a thrust though. He continues to make love to me.

  “I love you so fucking much, Kat. You better not ever fucking leave me again,” he growls, biting my bottom lip.

  “Wild horses, Kai,” I say, biting him back as he fuels my desire with his words.

  I am now on top of him, taking control. Our hips roll in sync as I grind down on his firm cock. My hands are gripping his shoulders for support as my knees rub against the hard floor. My elbow keeps hitting the small dresser, but I don’t care. Being with Kai is worth the pain. He finds his release as I collapse on top of his chest in a sweaty heap.

  His hands stroke circles across my back as we fall asleep awkwardly, still connected in the cramped space between the dresser and the bed on his tour bus.

  Chapter 30

  After their show in Texas, Cooper’s Religion are back in LA. Kai has some things to go over with his recording label before he can take his much needed break. The only time we are apart is when he has to go to meetings. They want him to hold off on announcing our relationship, but Kai says he doesn’t care. The world already knows I own his heart after his first album anyways. A highly popular magazine wants to do a shoot with us on the cover and do an interview with the band about the next album.

  Vance jokes, “Katie, we are going to need you to break up with Kai again before we start writing this next album. Most of our chart toppers were about you, so yeah, going to need you to give our guy here motivation.” Kai punches him hard in the gut. He lets out an, “oomph.”

  “Not happening,” I snap at him and smack the back of his baldhead.

  Kai kicks the band from the set when we get ready to shoot our photographs for the spread because I am topless. They want a close-up of Kai and me with our bare chests smashed together.

  As he is going out the door, Vance shouts, “Should only be fair that we see her tits. We’ve done heard her get off.” That earns him a smack from Hunter.

  Kai looks pissed, but I roll my eyes. iI is just in Vance’s nature to be a dickhead.

  Taking the pictures with Kai is so fun. The set is completely white, and we are wearing dark denim jeans. My makeup is bare other than my eyes. They are done up in a smoky fashion.

  Most of the shots have us staring into each other’s eyes. They snap a few of us being playful too though. I told Kai I want a copy of the one of me laying across his chest. The photographer assures me we will get copies of all the pictures.

  The band is brought back in for a few more shots. Kai is not happy that I am topless for this as well, but the guys aren’t even getting to see a hint of my chest. I am standing with my breasts pressed into Kai’s back.

  After I get my shirt back on, Kai and I join the columnist for dinner to do a brief interview. He already interviewed Cooper’s Religion as a whole.

  “Kai, Katie, thank you for agreeing to sit down with me. Your fans want to know what the lie that sparked your break up was. Are you willing to go on the record with it?”

  Kai decides to answer this one. His publicist already prepared a statement. “Katie and I chose to separate. We had just gotten out of high school and we had our own personal issues to sort through. It was just hard for us to work them out together.”

  “You have a large female fan base. Do your fans need to worry about wedding bells in the near future?” He directs the question to me.

  “Kai isn’t putting a ring on my finger anytime soon, so they can rest easy for now. But the other members of Cooper’s Religion are incredibly good looking and single.” I wink.

  “In one of your songs, you call Katie your biggest regret. What do you mean by that line?” He looks to Kai.

  “I wasted a lot of time being too intimidated to approach her. I regretted the time I wasted.”

  The writer has a few more questions for Kai. I excuse myself to take an emergency call from Penny.

  When I answer her call, Penny is a sobbing mess. Bradly, her fiancé, passed away two days ago in Iran. The Humvee he was a passenger in hit a roadside bomb, killing him instantly. His side of the vehicle suffered most of the extent of the blast.

  My stomach drops. I feel so helpless. I cannot fix this for her. My best friend is devastated and alone. I offer to come to her, but she says she is going home to her parent’s place for a few days. She wants to know what she should do with Percy. I hate to bother him, but I text Stewart. I feel so bad for just blowing him off after he was so sweet to me.

  Me: Stewart, I hate to bother you, but I am out of town and Penny has something personal going on and has to leave Percy unattended. Is there any way you could take Percy to the clinic until she is able to pick him up? I will pay for anything you need for his care.

  Stewart: I can take Percy to my house, it isn’t a problem. I hope you are happy, Katie. I wish you the best. Just let me know when you can about future arrangements for Percy.

  Poor Stewart, I hope he finds him someone to make him care for them the way that I feel for Kai.

  2 months later

  Kai and I are back in Kentucky this weekend visiting with his family before he starts recording his second album. Seeing Raven at first was awkward, but she did apologize in her own roundabout way. When Khloe first laid eyes on me, she started squealing and clapping. I can’t believe how much she has grown. She is more than happy to take Percy off my hands. Stewart and Kai had an awkward meeting when we picked my cat up from him. I thought Stewart was going to shit his pants when Kai shook his hand. He is a huge fan.

  Kent and Kelli are happy to see Kai and I back together. They aren’t happy about us living together without at least being engaged but we are young and happy. There is no need to put a rush on anything. Kai and I are happy just to be together. Kai told them to stop pressuring us…it will happen when it happens.

  I am so excited that I am going along with him on his European tour after this next album gets recorded and released. Penny is going with us. She is still depressed over Bradly, but I am hoping this trip will help. Vance and Hunter are both eager to help her heal her broken heart. Kai is worried that she is going to cause a divide
in the band by coming between those two, but who’s to say what the future will hold. I found out that my Mom is really my aunt and my mother died during labor. My father was unable to raise me on his own and dropped me with Nancy and never looked back. I searched him up and found out that he is serving a life sentence in prison for an armed robbery gone wrong and he killed two people. I still don’t know how I feel about it, but I have Kai and his family. Nancy has reached out a time or two but I’m not ready to reconnect with her. I don’t know that I will ever want to.

  “I can’t believe you are going to be singing on tour with Kai and you are going to be singing a duet on this new album,” Raven says, smacking me in the chest with her copy of The Hit List.

  I look down, see Kai’s photograph and mine on the cover. “I had no idea this was out,” I shriek, flipping it open to the feature on Cooper’s Religion.

  Band

  Cooper’s Religion

  Album

  The Suffocation of Katie

  If you haven’t heard of the band, Cooper’s Religion, chances are you might be dead. Their debut album, the Suffocation of Katie, has been topping the charts for nearly a year now since its release. With a grunge sound reminiscent of the mid 90’s, Cooper’s Religion brings all the raw edginess rock lovers have been missing. Front man, Kai Cooper, makes you feel his pain, singing haunting lines such as “…I’ll be your pain and you’ll be my biggest regret…” Most of the album centers on front man, Kai Cooper’s relationship with longtime girlfriend, Katie. I recently sat down with the band and the infamous Katie for an interview. I can assure you she has not been suffocated and is breathing just fine.

  Kai comes over, resting his chin on my shoulder, and reads the article along with me. “Fuck, Katie. You look so hot in these pictures.” His facial hair scrapes against my jaw, making me tingle below.

  “Yeah, I don’t know who these losers are that photobombed my debut.” I smirk, browsing the pictures with the band in them.

  He sucks on my neck seductively. “Killing me, Kat.”