Drifting in a sad fog had made my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. The doorclickedas it closed, but we could still hear Barber ranting about Ren at top volume.
KC growled, which sounded nothing like him. “No wonder Ren knew stuff about both of us. I was so stupid. I never got an answer to a few questions I had about him knowing you and how he just seemed to know stuff about us in general. He kept distracting me. Now I know. I wish I didn’t.” KC’s jaw jumped. “No wonder he pointed out that I was ajock. He was telling me I was dumb without saying it specifically.”
“Oh, KC . . . .”
KC and I locked eyes. Someone had taken an ice cream scooper to my chest and removed all the important parts, and I wanted to curl into a ball on the floor. There was a sheen inhis dazzling blue eyes that made the amber flecks shine brighter than pieces of stained glass. His sadness, which was so not him, made me want to throw up.
Barber let out an animal roar in the living room followed by “Why would my brother hate me? This is bullshit!”
There was a soft murmur that had to be Quain. The only reason we’d snuck past him was because Barber had immediately lost his shit the second he’d laid eyes on his boyfriend.
Barber shouted again, but this time the words weren’t quite as audible. More just an angry buzz, hornets in my ears.
I flinched hard, and KC set a trembling hand on my shoulder. His bottom lip wobbled, but the more he stared into my face, it firmed up.
“Let me just....” He patted my shoulder, then tugged out his phone. An instrumental score swelled from speakers around the room, something soothing to drown out Barber’s ongoing tirade. He tossed his phone on his nightstand and sat down on the bed, face blank as a fresh canvas.
That wasn’t KC.
He was fun.
Bright.
Happy.
The change was shocking. He hadn’t even been this way when he was lying in a hospital bed begging us—mostly Ren—not to call his father.
Tears gathered in my eyes. My heart broke as another shout from Barber busted through the music. All this pain had come from less than two minutes of Ren ripping off the mask he’d been wearing.
It hit me how important Barber was to me as a sob broke free of my chest. I spent a lot of time mad that I didn’t really know mydad, but I’d had Barber, and I’d thrown him away like trash for a man who didn’t even want me.
Stupid.
I was probably as terrible at tattooing as I thought.
Tears trailed down my face. “PD always said my art wasn’t there. Wasn’t ready for the tattoo gun. Was Ren telling me I have potential just to convince me to leave Barber’s shop?” My dream was slipping through my fingers. I wasn’t able to catch a single piece of it. Ren had poisoned it all. The tears dripped off my chin, but I didn’t move to brush them away. What was the point? There would just be more.
“No.”
“Why would you believe that?” I whispered.
KC shrugged and his eyebrows furrowed. “Because everything is going to be okay.”
“No, it won’t,” I croaked and crossed my arms. A watery laugh tore out of me. “It was dumb to think a guy like Ren would want me.”
KC frowned, and finally, a crack emerged in his stony facade. “I need you.”
My heart jolted, jump-started by his words. I stumbled over to him, and he caught me, steadying me. “Are you sure? What if you’re lying to me?” The hurt that swept across his face had me pawing at his shoulders. “Sorry.”
KC pressed his lips against mine, a warm brush that left my heart the slightest bit lighter. “I promise I need you. Now more than ever.” His voice cracked.
Sad music spilled into the room from the speakers, something that reminded me of stormy weather and graveyards, but that was fine. We were grieving.
He cupped my face, and a thousand awful emotions swirled into a heavy ball in my gut, but the longer he stared into my eyes, the warmer my cheeks became. My hands trembled as I restedthem on his solid pecs. Our kiss was salty. His tongue eased inside my mouth, a gentle dance of teasing back and forth that thawed the ice in my veins.
Without Ren here, a strange shyness swirled through me as KC lifted the jersey—hisjersey—over my head. He spread his thighs, and I stepped into the puffs of air that slid across my collarbone before he pressed a light kiss to the center of my chest. The air conditioning kicked on and my nipples peaked painfully.
“Pretty,” he mumbled and thumbed my right nipple, then sucked it between his lips, delivering a sharp pleasure that landed in my stomach and had my dick kicking in my jeans. I arched my back and leaned into the wet heat while my abs flexed. Sizzling tension crawled through my body. “Damn.”
