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“Is that right, baby?” He asks me with a smile.
“Ugh, gods yeah,” I say with a grin, as if I’m not thinking about the same thing he is. “She’s all fake tits and bleach blonde hair. Giggles a lot too. It’s disgusting,” I tell him as I screw my face up.
“Emma’s really mean, you wouldn’t like her,” Poppy says sleepily. I look at her and see that she’s snuggled up in Xave’s lap with her eyes closed and I smile at how sweet she looks.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it, but carry on,” he says, running a hand down Poppy’s hair.
“Okay, so I knocked him down a few times, you know, just to play with him a little, before he managed to grab me and I nearly broke his nose. He looked pretty with blood on his lips,” I say with a smile as I remember the look on his face, before I shake my head and continue. “Anyway, to keep my stupid promise to you, I was trying not to hurt him too bad. So after landing a few punches to teach the dumb bastard a lesson, I choked him out.”
“Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it? I now understand why you felt the need to bring Poppy here,” he tells me with a nod of his head and a small smile.
“Right,” I say, looking at my Angel sleeping in Xave’s lap. “They don’t seem to be too great at listening and I didn’t trust them to stick to the deal,” I let out a small sigh and look back up at Xave. “I also told his dickhead friends that I would hear what he had to say. Heapologised, Xave, and out of everything he could have ever said, that was the one thing I never expected,” I say as I close my eyes at the memory of his whispered apology.
“It’s a good idea to hear him out, Kenz. It may be our chance to find out what is going on,” he says as I open my eyes to look at him once more. “Do you believe he meant it?” He asks me, his eyes going soft as he senses the turmoil going through my mind.
“I really don’t know. I mean, hewasonly seconds away from hitting the mat, but then he also never once tried to land a punch when we were fighting. I have wanted to hurt him for so long, Xave, and this whole thing, being around him, is confusing the fuck out of me,” I rub my hands over my face and let out a groan. “Ugh, this whole week has been one giant mind fuck from the start. Is it nearly over yet?” Xave laughs at me and I drop my hands to look at him.
“Unfortunately not, baby. You’ve still got a job to plan for tomorrow,” he tells me.
“Ahh, yes.” I say with a smile. “Now that’s more like it. Where’s the file with all the information on this arsehole?” He reaches down beside him and throws the folder he picks up to me.
“This is everything I could find on him this week,” he says as I open the folder. “His name is Joseph Hamilton and everything I’ve found out points to what I was told.” He looks down at Poppy asleep in his lap and stands up cradling her in his arms. “You start taking a look through the file. I’m going to put Poppy into bed and grab my laptop, and then we can work out a plan for tomorrow.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
POPPY
I’m disoriented at the feel of the strange bed underneath me, until the fuzz of my sleep addled brain clears and I remember everything that happened yesterday. I slowly open my eyes and let out a breath to see that I am in my room at Kenzi’s house. I look at my phone and see that it is nearly lunch time, and my stomach growls at the fact that I slept in and deprived it of breakfast.
I make my way into the bathroom to get ready for the day and stop as I catch sight of my hair in the bathroom mirror. Someone braided it last night when they put me to bed. I should probably be weirded out by that, but to be honest, I’m so much more relieved that I won’t have to worry about the crazy bird's nest of bed head I would have had to deal with if they hadn’t done it. It’s actually quite a sweet gesture when you think about it.
I turn on the shower before grabbing my toothbrush from the side of the sink and start brushing my teeth as I think about everything that happened yesterday. I had been so scared that I had messed everything up when I woke up yesterday, but we had an early class and, as I had fallen asleep not long into the journey to London, we hadn’t had a chance to speak about what had happened between us. Which only managed to amp up my anxiety when I woke up and she told me we were here.
So when she started talking about the kiss and the fact that she had rules after Clay, my thoughts immediately spiralled to the worst possible conclusion and I was certain I was going to lose my only friend. Causing me to remember what I was taught and turning me back into that scared girl hiding away who I was, holding back tears as I told her how I knew I should never have kissed her and tried to take back everything that had happened.
I shake my head at myself and put my toothbrush down as I remember my words to her and how much it hurt to say them. I have never had anyone treat me the way that she has, or been as protective over me, apart from my parents, but my father doesn’t even know this side of me, he is just as bad as everyone else in that town and would never understand.
I step into the shower, letting the water chase the last vestiges of sleep from my brain as I remember the way she grabbed my hair and slammed her lips to mine, pulling me in between her legs and kissing me until my head was spinning and my breath was heaving in my chest, and I let my tears finally fall in relief instead of sadness.
She had tried to reassure me with the little I had told her, and I let her believe that she had, needing nothing but the feel of her lips on mine.
But those thoughts are ingrained in me now, indoctrinated as deeply as any religion, and I don’t know if I’ll ever feel completely comfortable with myself no matter how much reassurance I’m given.
The truth is, growing up in that town is as close to a cult that you can come, without actually being called a cult. It has always reminded me of that film with Simon Pegg, not the one where he’s battling zombies or aliens, but the one where he’s a police officer in that creepy village and everything is done for ‘The Greater Good’. I mean, it's even got people disappearing without a trace when they don’t fit in with the status quo.
But then she was telling me she wasn’t sure she could let me go, and calling meAngel, and kissing me again, and all of my thoughts of inadequacy fled. Like the press of her lips against mine was all I needed to vanquish the demons in my mind.
Well, until Xave showed up, anyway.
He sounded so angry, and I was so embarrassed at being caught by him that I had immediately dropped my head so as not to see the disgust that I was sure would be there in his eyes. But I got a quick look at the anger in his features before Kenzi sent me to my room, and I ran out of the kitchen.
I had paced my room worrying about what was going on downstairs in the kitchen, until I started to hear the sounds coming from downstairs. I was hurt and confused, considering she had just been with me, but just imagining what they were doing down there had the fire that Kenzi had stoked inside me with her kisses roaring into an inferno and, as I became more turned on listening to the sounds Xave was pulling from her, I was touching myself and coming apart to the screams of her pleasure.
I turn the shower off and grab the towel, wrapping it around my body and drying myself off as I walk back into the bedroom. I get dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as I think of the moment I got my first good look at Xave when he sat across from me in the living room.
He was gorgeous, staring at me with intense deep green eyes that had me wondering if he could see right into the heart of my soul, and had me blushing and dropping my head in embarrassment. And then he was asking me why I was here in a tone that told me not answering him would be very bad for me, and my food was instantly forgotten as the heat raced up my face.
But I had no idea what Kenzi had told him and, after our talk about not needing to run to Xave with every problem, I really didn’t want to get her into any trouble if she hadn’t told him what happened.
