AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eventually, something penetrates through the cold numbness—a dull heat that intensifies with every passing second, slowly pulling me out of the fog that’s cloaking my mind. The comforting weight of something wrapped around me like a therapy blanket brings me back to the room, back to the situation, and I blink several times as I register the source.
Kai.
Kai is the source. He’s on the floor with me, his muscular arms wrapped around my middle as he holds me against him, using his broad frame and firm grip to radiate warmth and comfort.
As I slowly begin to relax, he shifts, getting us both more comfortable as I perch in his lap, my face buried against his chest while he strokes my hair. It’s so soothing, and I can’t recall being held like this since I was a young child. I should probably be embarrassed, and I should definitely be removing myself from his embrace. Kai has done far too much for me already. He doesn’t need to comfort me as well. However, instead of pulling back, I press my nose more firmly against his t-shirt. He smells like sage, only softer and sweeter, and it chases away the final remnants of my panic attack.
I’m not sure how long we sit like that, but it’s a while. The entire time he just holds me, stroking my hair while I breathe him in, as I feel my heart rate slow down with every sage-infused inhale.
By the time I lift my head, I still don’t feel ready to leave his arms, but I know we’ve been sitting on the floor for quite some time, and I’m sure it can’t be comfortable for him.
We lock eyes, worry shining in his as he checks to see if I’m okay. With one arm still banded around me, he lifts his other hand to cup my face. “I promise you, Emilia. Iwillget this guy. I won’t stop until he can no longer hurt you.”
Unable to muster a smile, I simply nod, but his words dig into my soul and stay there. I know he means them. Not only can I see the truth of his promise burning in his bright green eyes, but I know Kai isn’t the type of man to just give up on someone. He’s in this with me until the very end, no matter what happens, and there’s something incredibly consoling about that.
“Come on.” He urges me to get up. “You need a distraction, and I need a night off. Pick a movie and I’ll make us some popcorn.”
I quirk a brow, surprised. The whole time we’ve been cooped up in this house together, we’ve never sat down and watched a movie together. Occasionally, I’ll flick through the channels while he’s on his laptop, but we’ve never sat down to watch anythingtogether. Yet, now that he’s suggested it, it sounds like exactly what I need.
“Okay.”
He watches me until I plonk myself on the sofa and grab the remote before he leaves the room to grab the popcorn, and I search out a movie for us. I have one cued to play by the time he returns and takes a seat next to me on the sofa. He sits so close that his thigh brushes mine, and I startle, taken aback at his close proximity. The other night when I watched a movie with Hawk, he sat on the other side of the room, and although Kai and I have often sat on this sofa together, we’ve never been this close before. As the heat of his body warms mine, I relax against him and press play to start the action movie.
We watch in companionable silence, munching on popcorn. Only the entire time, I’m fully aware of his thigh pressing against mine and the way he radiates heat like a goddamn furnace. I don’t know if it’s because he comforted me in a moment of weakness, but I can’t stop darting my gaze his way. Especially when he snorts out a laugh or scoffs at something ridiculous on the screen.
I’m so busy focusing all my attention on him that I don’t even realize the movie has ended until he grabs the remote. As he does so, he turns to look at me, his eyes roaming over my face as if checking that I’m okay. Although I still feel like crap, the last two hours have been a pleasant distraction—and, no, I do not mean the movie. I barely paid it any attention. The second Kai sat down beside me and his heat infused my skin, I was sidetracked. It feels like something has shifted between us—at least on my end—but I can’t quite put my finger on what or why.
“Feeling any better?” he asks, still watching me closely.
“Yeah, a little. The movie helped.”
He quirks a brow, as if he somehow knows I wasn’t paying any attention to it, but thankfully he doesn’t call me on it. “Good. Do you want to watch another?”
“Sure,” I find myself saying before I’ve even really thought about it. Whatever keeps both of us planted on the sofa with his comfort and heat oozing into me and keeping me calm.
With a twitch of his lips, he surfs through the channels until he finds some late-night horror movie. It’s not really my style, but again, it’s not like I have any intention of watching it. I just want to continue living in this moment of peace, where I have Kai’s silent strength bolstering me and holding my demons at bay.
In an effort not to appear like a total creep leering at him, I focus back on the television. I flinch when the psycho killer starts chasing the dumb blonde, my thoughts once again beginning to spiral. The movie had already been on TV for nearly an hour before Kai switched to this channel, so I have no idea what the storyline is, but I can’t help wondering if one day I’ll be that dumb blonde. Or maybe I already am, except instead of being chased by a psycho killer, I have my very own psycho stalker.
My palms sweat as my breathing becomes shallow, that downward spiral building up all over again until I’m no longer paying attention to the TV, which is why I don’t notice Kai has paused it until I feel his hand on my face, coaxing me to look at him.
Rather than seeing the look of terror on the female character’s face, I focus on the brilliant green of Kai’s eyes. They look like two emeralds, warm and soothing, and I let them do exactly that as I all but fall into them.
“I’m sorry. A scary movie was a pretty stupid idea, huh?” He gives a small, self-deprecating smile, making me chuckle.
“No, it’s fine. I didn’t think it would…” I trail off, unable to put words to exactly what it did. Trigger me? God, am I one of those people now who have traumatic triggers they have to avoid? It’s not that I think less of those people—because I definitely don’t. I’ve seen how very real and debilitating they can be. I just feel like I haven’t been through anything traumatic or particularly distressing—other than having Richard’s finger delivered to my door and finding out I have a crazy stalker. But it’s not like this stalker has done anythingto me.He hasn’t hurt me or abused me. Hell, if it weren’t for Hadley and Kai, I wouldn’t even know he existed. Compared to what Hadley has suffered, I’ve lived in a sheltered bubble. I have absolutely nothing to betriggeredover.
As if he can see where my thoughts have gone, Kai, whose hand is still cupping my cheek, strokes the skin with the pad of his thumb. “It’s a normal reaction,” he assures.
“How?” I argue. “I haven’t been victimized or harmed.”
“Haven’t you?” Kai lifts a brow in question. “You’re the victim of a stalker, Emilia. Just because he hasn’tphysicallyhurt you doesn’t mean he hasn’t hurt you. Because of him, your entire life has been uprooted. He’s the reason you’re currently hiding in this house, on edge and stressed out. The reason you can’t go to work and do the job you’ve worked so hard to achieve. The reason your boyfriend isn’t the one here comforting you.”
At the mention of Richard, I chew on my bottom lip and glance up at Kai through my lashes, gathering the courage to ask the question that’s been on my mind constantly the last two weeks, but I’ve been too chicken to actually ask him.
Wringing my hands, I ask, “Did you, uh… Did you ever find him?”
After spending my first few days here asking about Richard and receiving the same answer that he still hadn’t surfaced, I stopped asking. I trusted that Kai would tell me when he had something, but more than that, I think deep down, I came to accept that he really was dead. What other outcome could there possibly be after this much time?
