more block, then turned in to another underground parking garage.
As we stopped, the doors opened, and all the guards jumped out. I started to follow, but Kai took my arm again. He held me back, shaking his head.
I stayed. So did the two guards in the front.
The doors were shut again, and we drove back out onto the street.
We went into another parking lot and got out this time.
The entire lot was empty, except for our van. I thought both guards would come with us, but only the one in the passenger seat got out. As we started forward, the van peeled out, hurrying to the street and turning left, back toward where we’d just come from.
Kai let go of my arm and stepped behind me.
The guard went forward to push a button on the elevator. It was already there. We stepped in, and the guard pushed the button for the sixteenth floor. This was another building that had thirty floors, but it wasn’t a hotel. I could tell that much. There were no sounds as we went up, and we went straight to our floor. As the elevator doors opened, I realized it was an office building. We walked through a glass-walled lobby into the larger main room. Floor-to-ceiling windows made up the walls here too, and we walked all the way to the one at the north end.
The guard took out a pair of binoculars.
Kai took my arm and maneuvered us so he was standing in front of me, his back to where his guard stood. My back was to the elevators now.
I stared up at him, feeling his hand tighten on my arm before letting me go.
“What?”
“I know you’ve had training for your job. I know you can fight and handle yourself.” He stepped closer, his gaze boring down into mine. His eyes were heated, smoldering with promise. “I am better than you.”
I almost laughed. “Are you serious? You want to do a whole game of I’m better than you…”
My voice trailed off as he closed the distance. His hand held my elbow, and he pressed me against him. He was rock solid, every inch of him tense.
He was serious, deadly serious.
I swallowed over a lump. “Okay.”
“I travel with fewer guards than my brothers because I am as good as my men, better than most of them.” His hand tightened on my elbow, sliding up to the back of my arm. His fingers pressed in. “I am allowing you leeway by only bringing one of my men. The rest need to be on the ground. My man is here because of you, not me. I’m telling you this as a warning. Do not run, or you will get hurt. It’s not just one guard you have to calculate taking down. It’ll be me as well.”
He pulled me all the way against him. I could feel his breath on me, warming me. A few inches separated our lips.
His eyes moved there, lingering before looking back up.
“Do not get foolish and make a mistake, thinking you can escape me here,” he said flatly. “You can’t.”
His hand slid up, over my shoulder and around my neck to cup the back of my head. He closed the distance, his mouth almost touching mine.
“I do not want to hurt you,” he whispered, his lips brushing against mine. “But I will if it means losing my sister. Remember that.”
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t move.
I didn’t dare.
I didn’t know if I wanted to, so I kept still, my eyes holding his, and when he didn’t move away or kiss me, I knew he was waiting.
I nodded, my lips brushing back against his. I whispered, “Okay.”
That was it.
He released me, stepping back, and I felt deprived of…something.
Something wrenched out of me as his body moved away. I wanted to pull him back. I wanted to feel him against me, but I gritted my teeth. I pushed that desire down.
I was fucked up—that was the only reason I could find for my attraction to him.
My father was a monster, so I was attracted to a monster.
That’s why I felt this lust.
Disgust flared up in me, so much I could taste it, and I forced myself to step around him.
“I won’t run,” I told him. Then I went to see what his guard was watching.
I’d been expecting to be at the meet with Blade.
I’d been expecting he would step out of his vehicle with Brooke. Kai would have me. We’d meet in the middle, and whatever happened after