Deviant King (Royal Elite #1) - Rina Kent Page 0,51

spend the rest of the evening studying then binge watch a few episodes of Lucifer until Aunt returns.

A while later, Kim leaves to help Kirian with his homework. She always pretends that he’s a pain, but she can’t spend an entire day without thinking about him.

Kim’s father is a diplomat who spends most of his time in Brussels and is rarely home. Her mother is a renowned artist who’s usually locked in her studio, so Kim has become a grown-up since Kirian was born eight years ago.

She’s not only his eldest sister, but she’s also his mother and father and best friend. She always said that she doesn’t want him to feel the emptiness she felt while growing up.

Aunt and I prepare dinner together. I barely listen to her and tell her about my day at school.

I’m distracted out of my mind.

“Is there something on your phone?” Aunt asks with a suspicious tone when I check it for the millionth time in the past hour.

I force a smile. “No, nothing.”

Absolute desert.

Aiden didn’t send any of his night texts.

I’ll loosen him up.

Silver’s voice wraps a noose around my neck. My fingers itch and my hands feel dirty even though I just washed them.

I put them underneath the water in the sink then pull back when I notice Aunt watching me.

She knows I only get obsessive about washing my hands when I’m anxious.

“I’m heading to the grocery store,” I blurt to dissipate her attention.

“What for?”

“I ran out of tampons,” I say the first thing that comes into mind.

“But you’re not on your period, honey?”

“I’ll be in a few days. You know I like being prepared.” I’m already heading to the door.

“Elsie.”

“Yeah?” I throw over my shoulder.

Aunt Blair waves a bill. “You forgot the money.”

“Right.” I offer an awkward smile and take the bill from her.

“And wear a sweater. It’s chilly outside.”

“Yes, Aunt,” I call from the doorway.

“Hurry back.”

Shoving my feet into flats, I throw a thin sweater over my black cotton dress on which is written ‘Comfy at Home’. It’s similar to an oversized T-shirt that stops at my knees.

The moment I’m out of the house, the first drops of rain hit my nose and lashes. I could’ve gone back for the umbrella, but I don’t.

Instead, I let my legs take reign.

I run down the empty, lit streets as hard and as fast as I can. The night’s chill slaps me across the face and the rain soaks me in seconds.

But it isn’t enough.

There’s a weight on my chest.

It’s suffocating.

It’s robbing me from any clean air.

Every breath I take feels dirty and impure.

I feel dirty and impure.

The only thing able to cleanse me is running and the rain.

Only… it doesn’t.

Images of Silver loosening up Aiden keep playing at the back of my mind like some porn.

That must be why he’s too busy to text me.

I close my eyes and try to purge the images out of my head.

Silver and Aiden are made for each other.

I don’t care about them and their after school activities.

But why ask me to be his if he already has someone to tend to his whims?

Dickhead.

Once I arrive at the grocery store, I buy some tampons and an umbrella. I would rather run back in the rain, but Aunt will give me grief about it.

Not to mention that my heart feels kind of funny. I won’t push it for no reason.

I’m around the corner to our house, carrying the grocery bag in one hand and the umbrella in the other when I notice a black Mercedes with tinted windows. I think it’s been there since the grocery store.

Panic grips my chest and I run the rest of the way home. I opt for the back entrance since it’s the closest.

The moment I round the corner, a strong hand clamps around my mouth. I shriek, the umbrella and the bag fall from my hands.

My scream is drowned by the hand on my mouth.

I’m hauled forward. I trip and my cheek smashes against the hood of a car. I recognise his smell before his hot breath whispers in my ear.

“Time to pay, sweetheart.”

Chapter Eighteen

“A-Aiden?”

My heart lunges in my chest, beating sporadically against the hood of the car.

His car.

The dim light coming from around the corner doesn’t allow me much vision, but I feel him.

It’s impossible not to when I smell his clean, unmistakable scent mingling with the rain.

The bottom of my stomach hurts with that strange awareness I always had for him.

That damn awareness is like an incurable disease refusing