Chapter Seven

Katrina lit the last candle and set the tumbler she’d bought King from the store by the bed. A knock sounded on the door. She padded across the hotel room and opened it to find King.

“I left my key behind earlier,” he said softly.

“So did I. I had to go to the front desk and ask for a new one.” She opened the door wider to let him in.

He stepped inside and looked around the room silently. The five candles she’d bought flickered with the entrance of the hallway air. “What is this?”

“An apology.”

“No, no, no, you don’t owe me an apology for anything.”

“I do. Just…listen. I went out and had a heart-to-heart with Silver, and she said some eye-opening stuff. I think sometimes I get so lost in my own head, I forget there is an outside world. I shouldn’t have used that word with you. I can understand how it is a trigger, and I won’t ever use it again. You had already explained that what happened was hurtful to you, and I—”

He stepped to her, and kissed her into silence. She was shocked into stillness, eyes still open.

King’s lips softened as he pulled her in closer and moved his mouth against hers. A breath of relief escaped her, and Katrina rolled her eyes closed and got lost in him. His hand was on the small of her back, pulling her in close, and his other gripped the back of her neck gently. She hadn’t done this in so long, but with him, it was natural, and filled her with a fluttering sensation she’d never known. King angled his face the other way and kissed her deeper, slipping his tongue against her lips, and she opened for him, desperate to taste him. His big, powerful hands were so gentle against her body, and his lips so soft, and the movement of his mouth so fluid against hers. She didn’t know how long he kissed her for. All she knew was that she never wanted this feeling of connection to end.

When he did ease out of it, she kept her eyes closed for a few seconds more, just savoring the moment they’d just shared.

“I wanted to come back in here and do that right after I left. I knew you were overthinking what I’d said, and I didn’t want you to be upset. I got to the hall and I knew I needed to Change, and I spent the entire time out in those woods thinking about getting back here to you. I wasn’t rejecting you.”

“You…” She swallowed hard, grasping his wrist so he would keep his hand at the nape of her neck. “You ruined my speech.”

A slow, sexy smile took his masculine lips, and with purpose, he stepped back and leaned against the dresser, one leg locked, the other crossed at the ankle, and one of his hands wrapped around his other wrist. She knew what he was doing. How fast was his heart racing right now? Was it as fast as hers?

“First of all, I have never in my life been kissed like that, so you’re going to have to be a little patient while I get my thoughts back on the right track.” He’d said kissing was big to him, and he’d shared that with her. It felt like he was giving her a part of himself. A gift. “Whoo.” She flapped her shirt a few times. “Is it getting hot in here?”

His amused smile stayed right where it was. “Feeling okay?”

“Um, better than okay.” She blew out another breath and hooked her hands on her hips, stared at the pattern of the floor to try and remember even one thing she’d been planning on talking to him about. “Oh! Okay.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “Okay,” she repeated. “I am going to be honest here. I am a disaster, right in the middle of maybe the biggest storm of my life, and I feel like the earth is cracking under my feet. I have these moments where I want to push you for more, and moments where I feel like I can’t breathe and the world is caving in. I think you’re getting the brunt of that roller coaster, and I’m asking you to be patient with me. Um, also I was going to talk about how we could try to be friends? Build up a friendship because I clearly need a friend, and you could probably use one too, after everything, but then you kissed me, so now I’m confused about that part of my speech and will have to think further on that. I also got the okay from Wreck to move back into my other room and give you space—”

“I don’t need space.”

“Well, I was unaware of that until right this second.”

“You overthink.”

“I am very good at that. I have always been confused by people, and have a hard time understanding intentions. Usually, my habit is to lash out and push people away if they confuse me, or if I feel like they’re testing me. Unfortunately the overthinking isn’t something that will probably ever go away. It’s how I’m wired. Or maybe how I was built. In my old life, I was always being told I was doing something wrong, so I tried to adapt and do things perfect, you know? But all that did was steer me away from being myself, and got me into more trouble. So I think now, in my new life, I need to maybe just learn who I am and be myself.”

“You should absolutely do that.”

“But that also means that sometimes I’m going to say the wrong thing, but I hope that over time you’ll see I don’t have bad intentions. I’m just imperfect, but trying.”

His smile had gone from amused to softer. Impressed, perhaps.

King looked around. “What are the candles for? Are you seducing me?”

“Um, apparently I have no clue how to seduce a man, so no.”

He chuckled and rolled his head back, then laid his gaze back on her. “You do just fine seducing me without even trying. Do you know how fucking tempting it was earlier when you asked me for that? It was torture walking away. I just don’t want to cross that line until you know what you’re really asking, and until you know me a little better.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “What are the candles for?”

“Silver said you’re probably going through it with the headache, and burning off the rest of the animal-suppressant meds. I know I feel like I’m really up and down right now. She said when Owen went through this, he was down for a week, no lights allowed. I remember it being awful. So! I got you a present.” She motored over to the bedside table and grabbed the insulated tumbler she’d found at a little store just down the road. It had a picture of the state of Alaska, and said Deadhorse, AK under it. “A souvenir. And also it’s full of ice water, and I talked to Wreck. He says you need to be drinking one of these an hour. I’ll refill it for you. I’m going to take care of you! No bright lights, rest, and water. We’ll get you feeling like a million bucks in no time.”

The smile had faded from his lips as she’d chattered on, and so she stopped and switched directions. “I mean. I can do that from my other room. I can set alarms on my phone. I already tried it, and it works. I could just come in here on the hour and, quiet as a mouse, refill your water, then tiptoe back to my place.”

“You want to take care of me ?”

She nodded.

“Of me?” He repeated, looking confused.

“Yeah.”

“And I just rest?”

“Yep.” She popped the p at the end.

He scratched his beard, then ran his hand down his chin. “I’ve never had someone offer to do that.”

“Well, you just kissed the coherent thoughts from me, and no one has ever done that to me, so I guess we’re both doing firsts today.”

He sat there against the dresser, a frown frozen on his handsome face.

“You look so suspicious of me right now,” she said with a laugh.

“This does not compute. I’m used to taking care of people. Do I just lay down?”

“Shirtless, preferably. Not just for your comfort. I like looking at your abs.”

That evicted the frown off his face. He laughed and stood up straight, peeled his shirt over his head, and made his way to the bed. She’d already turned down the covers.

“Drink,” she commanded as he relaxed in an upright position against the headboard. Katrina handed him the tumbler, and he drank it down. “How was your Change?”

The tension in his shoulders relaxed, and he patted the mattress next to him. Katrina hopped into the air and landed criss-cross applesauce with a hard bounce on the firm mattress. He chuckled and rested his hand behind his head, against the headboard. His biceps looked yummy like that.

“It was good. It’s been so long since I just Changed and felt like I wasn’t wanting to destroy everything. You know who stayed out there with me?”

“Reed?” she guessed.

“Yeah. He just followed me to the woods. After I Changed, I was pissed, and I charged at him. He didn’t budge an inch. And then while I stretched and did some tree work—”

“What’s tree work?” she asked.

“It’s swinging from branch to branch, tree to tree, stretching my arm and core muscles. It’s a good workout for gorilla shifters. I’ve got a lot of mass to carry, and it’s easier on my body if I stay flexible. Anyway, he just walked slowly along the ground, just trailing me. He wasn’t even wearing his jacket. He had to be freezing, but he didn’t leave. He stayed until my Change was done, and then he nodded at me and made his way back to the hotel. He didn’t say a word.”

“Well, he said words to me. He asked what I did to you, and he seemed frustrated with me when you stormed out.” She shrugged. “I kind of like him for the Crew.”

“I told Wreck that this morning.”

“Well,” she said as she poured a bottle of water into his ice-filled tumbler to refill it, “I also had a great Change.”

“Whoa! You Changed?”

“Yep.”

“Where?”

“In the woods on the other side of the road, going the opposite direction as you. Silver Changed with me. It was like old times. Don’t be turned off, but I ate a rabbit.”

“That you hunted?”

“Yes.” She watched his face to gauge his reaction. “It tasted delicious.”

A slow smile took his lips. “That doesn’t turn me off. How long has it been since your animal has been able to hunt?”

“Since the week before the Holland War. It’s been months.”

He looked so handsome with the candlelight illuminating his chiseled features like this. “How did it feel?” he asked.

“So good.”

“You seem happier. There’s less weight coming off you.”

“I missed her.”

“Your animal?”

She nodded and handed him the tumbler of water.

“I wish I could’ve seen her.”

She smiled a little somberly. “The scar translates to the animal, just a heads-up.”

“Well, then I’ll like your animal even more.”

“Where did your scars come from?”

“Taking over a family group. Silverbacks have to fight their way to leadership, and then they have to maintain that position. There are Challenges thrown all the time. It’s like being an Alpha of a Crew, but leadership can change out often. I was better at the fighting part than the leadership part. Where’s Rook?” he asked suddenly.

“Cold Foot Prison.”

His dark eyebrows arched up. “Seriously?”

“Yep. Unless he was transferred out. We were on the same transport bus going in, and were processed in the same group.”

He took another drink of water and grew quiet, and thoughtful. “You were in the same building as the man who cut your face.”

“Yep. Not just cut it. He did it in front of the Pride, and then rubbed this powder in it that would prevent it from healing too fast, so the scar would be ugly like this.”

“You don’t get a shaky voice when you talk about it.”

She shook her head. “He gave it to me after I warned Silver that Rook was planning the Holland War against the Fastlanders. If I had to go back and do it all over, I would do it the same. The Fastlanders were ready for us. The good guys won.”

“You see yourself as a bad guy?” he asked.

“Sometimes.” She took a drink of his water, and made a smacking sound. “That’s frosty.”

“You make the best ice water.”

“I can cook soup from a can, too. Are you even more attracted to me now?”

He belted out a laugh. “I can cook. We’re good.”

“Wait, can you really? That’s hot.”

“At least, I can cook if I can remember. It’s been a few years eating prison food. I spent most of it in solitary confinement, too.”

“Let me guess. Because of fighting?”

“Ding, ding, ding.”

“Monster.”

“You have no idea.” Oooh, the confidence his voice oozed. Why was it such a turn-on that he could handle himself in a fight?

Probably because only a battle-tested man would match her. He could understand the bloodlust, and the fight for control, and he wouldn’t be disgusted if he ever saw her lioness at war. The reason she felt comfortable talking about being the bad guy was that King had seen and done dark shit.

“Want me to massage your temples,” she asked, holding her fingers up like little guns.

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

He hesitated. “Okay, what do I do?”

“Lay your head in my lap, friend.”

“Friend,” he repeated as he maneuvered forward to give her room to slide under him with a pillow on her lap. “I don’t recall ever letting someone touch me like this, much less a friend, but you just go ahead and tell yourself whatever you like.”

“I also saw you showering today. I saw your back and your front. We will be elevated to best-friend status in no time.”

“You’re so weird,” he mumbled, but she put two fingers on each side of his head, right at his temples, and began a slow, rotating circular massage, and King groaned in ecstasy.

A smile confiscated her lips. Okay, this was awesome. He was noisy when something felt good.

She kept it up and watched as, muscle by muscle, his entire body relaxed. His eyes were closed, and his breathing had deepened, but still, she kept on. Eventually, she moved to his cheekbones, and then behind his ears, and down the sides of his neck. Next, she massaged the thick muscle of his chest and upper shoulders, and then moved back to his temples. He made the sexiest noises as she worked over his body, and she couldn’t help but think of how fun he would be in bed, now that they were out of the uncomfortable prison situation.

As minutes drifted by, she couldn’t help but feel powerful with his reaction to her touch. He was a huge, dominant, ferocious silverback to the outside world, but with her, he relaxed and let his guard down. Everything about him was attractive.

Eventually, he reached his arm back and rested his hand on her butt. It felt intimate, like a hug, and the fluttering sensation was back in her chest. Outside of this room, there was a competition for a place in Wreck’s Crew, but in here, it felt like the rest of the world and all its problems didn’t exist. After everything she’d been through, it felt like absolute peace.

The phone alarm startled her. Had it been an hour already?

King inhaled deep and looked up at her sleepily. “That feels so good,” he rumbled in a tired voice.

“Drink your water, and we’ll do another round.”

“Are you getting tired? Want me to do you?”

“Later. Right now we are working on you.”

His sleepy smile was so sexy. She reached for the water, and he drank the whole tumbler down as she set an alarm for another hour.

And they went on like that for hours.

He slept between water breaks, and she drifted into this heightened state of relaxation, taking care of his body until she was sleepy too. She started nodding off, and he caught her, looking up at her. Without a word, he pulled her down beside him, pulled the covers over them, and hugged her close to him, her back against his strong chest.

“You’re safe,” he rumbled against the back of her head. “Sleep.”

And she did.

How could she not?

It had been a long time since she’d felt like nothing in the world could hurt her.

The titan holding her wouldn’t let anything happen.