Rocking Kin (Lucy & Harris, #3) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,38

tears blurred my vision as I turned the phone off and put it into the top drawer of the nightstand without replying to Jace’s message. He was sorry. I got that. He’d told me plenty of times in his many messages and texts.

It didn’t make my hurt and the lingering pain any better. Why couldn’t he realize that?

Chapter 10

Jace

Kassa didn’t come out for Thanksgiving. It was something that had both me and Gray in a piss-poor mood. I’d been looking forward to seeing my little sister, but she had a bad stomach virus and couldn’t make the trip. Gray, who I was sure was looking forward to having my sister around just as much as I was—if not more—had gotten quiet during the week of Thanksgiving and hadn’t been himself during that entire time.

Between that and the scene I’d had with Lucy Thornton the week before at First Bass, I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Didn’t want to see them. Didn’t want to so much as hear them fucking breathe.

Lucy hadn’t been happy with me when I’d started chatting up one of the loyal Tainted Knight groupies that we’d gotten from the first week we’d worked at First Bass. Honestly, I hadn’t been too happy with me either. Fucking hell, I’d just wanted a sign from Kin that she wasn’t turning into some damn robot.

Something I’d gotten, but it had been at the expense of not only Kin’s feelings but nearly my life after what had followed.

The show had left me more pumped up than usual. Adrenaline was rushing through my blood making me high from the way the entire club had been chanting the band’s name. Maybe it was because Kin had been standing front and center with Lucy and I’d felt her eyes on me during the entire show. Maybe it was because I was so excited for Kassa to get to town and spend some time with her after not seeing her for so many months.

Either way, I was hyped up more than usual after the show. Gray, Kale, Sin, and Cash bailed not long after the last song. I figured they were going to go hang at my apartment with Gray or find a hookup for the night. What I was feeling had been contagious for the other four Tainted Knight guys and they had been practically humming with the energy pouring off of them.

I’d found Kin and Lucy already up on the VIP floor, already laughing with Harris who was sitting so close to Lucy she might was well have been on his lap. As soon as I sat down on the arm of the leather couch beside Kin, however, she lost her grin and her laughter had faded into a cool glare.

She was still pissed at me. I wasn’t blind to the fact that she was holding on to her anger at me like a shield. I had no clue what was going on in her life outside of what I saw when she came to First Bass, but from the emptiness in her big blue eyes I could guess things weren’t good at home for her. I wanted to pull her into my arms, hold her close like I used to do when life seemed to be throwing curve balls at her.

Knowing that doing that would probably get me a knee to the balls, or one of her deadly right hooks to the jaw, I didn’t reach for her. I was trying to be patient, but, fuck, a guy could only take so much before the coldness thrown his way started causing frostbite. So, instead of sending the groupie who had approached me not even five minutes after I’d sat down on her way, I wrapped an arm around her waist and waited to see if Kin still cared even a fraction of the way she once had.

As soon as the groupie had leaned in to whisper in my ear—what, I couldn’t say because I wasn’t even paying attention to the chick—I’d felt Kin tense beside me. I’d shot her a quick glance over my shoulder to see the expression on her face, but she wasn’t even looking at me right then.

Clenching my jaw, I’d turned back to the chick in my arms and let my lips skim over hers. The kiss had been short, but the chick had been instantly affected. I’d heard her indrawn breath, felt the way she’d pressed her chest harder against my own. Her manicured