10. Kaia

10

KAIA

K aia storms into her apartment that evening, slamming the door behind her with a resounding bang. She throws her bag across the room in a violent rage and collapses onto the couch. Burying her face in her hands, she tries to calm the storm in her head, the humiliation and hurt coursing through her veins.

How could Hallie do that to her? After everything they'd shared with each other, Kaia thought she'd found someone who truly understood her. Understood what she spent every day fighting for. But apparently, she was wrong. Apparently, Hallie's position will always come first.

Her iron grip on her team, on her power, certainly came before her feelings for Kaia today.

Kaia's cell begins to buzz insistently in her back pocket, the sound muffled by the couch cushions. She fishes it out, glaring at the screen where Hallie's picture stares up at her.

Taunting her.

With a scoff, Kaia declines the call and tosses the phone aside.

"I thought we had something real," she mutters to herself, anger and confusion warring in her chest. "Well done, Kaia. You really misjudged that one."

The phone buzzes again and again, each vibration grating on Kaia's already-frayed nerves, but she ignores it every time. If Hallie thinks a phone call is going to fix anything between them, she's got another think coming.

An hour passes. Maybe two. Kaia doesn't care to check the time.

She just stays where she is on the couch, replaying each minute she's spent with Hallie over and over, wondering how they all led to that gut-wrenching exchange in training today.

It all flashes before Kaia's eyes like a living nightmare. The way Hallie singled her out time and time again. The smug look on the other rookies' faces as they watched her get torn apart. The sharp stab in her ribcage when she realized that maybe, just maybe, Hallie wasn't who she thought she was.

A sudden knock at the door startles Kaia out of her spiraling thoughts so violently, she almost jumps out of her skin. She ignores it at first, content to pretend she isn't home just to avoid speaking to anyone. But the knocking persists, growing louder with each passing second.

With a frustrated growl, Kaia drags herself off the couch and stomps to the door. Yanking it open, she's poised to tell whoever it is to leave her the hell alone. But the command dies on her tongue when she sees Hallie standing there, fist still raised as if she were prepared to keep knocking all night.

"What do you want?" she bites out through a clenched jaw.

"Kaia, I'm so sorry, please let me explain." Hallie's voice is soft and pleading, the sound so foreign it only makes Kaia angrier.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" she snaps, clenching the door handle like she might slam it shut at any moment. "Seemed to me like all you wanted to do today was yell at me."

She starts to close the door, but Hallie quickly puts a hand up to stop it.

"Kaia, please! I was an ass, okay? I know I messed up, just let me explain."

"Explain what exactly?" Kaia scoffs. "How you decided to throw me under the bus in front of the entire squad? And for what, huh? To remind everyone that you're the bitch in charge?"

Hallie winces at Kaia's harsh words, but she refuses to back down.

"It wasn't like that. Come on, how can you think I would do that to you?" She takes a step closer to the doorway. "Please just let me in. I don't want to do this in the hall."

Kaia hesitates for a moment, the pleading in Hallie's glistening, blue eyes making her second guess her anger. This is the side of Hallie that she's only ever seen in their moments alone together, when the mask of the fierce lieutenant slips away. At last, with a heavy sigh, she steps aside, ready to hear Hallie's explanation at the very least.

The two of them stride into the living room, the tension thick and suffocating in the small space. Kaia crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at Hallie expectantly.

"Well?" she demands, raising an eyebrow. "You wanted to explain. So, start talking."

Hallie takes a deep breath.

"I overheard a couple of the rookies talking after the meeting this morning." Her words tumble out in a garbled rush. "Well, they were looking at us first—in the meeting, I mean—and I thought something was up."

Hallie begins pacing, nervously wringing her hands and struggling to make eye contact. Kaia tries not to gape; she's never seen this fearsome woman crumble like this.

"And then I heard them talking. And they were making crude jokes about whether you were trying to fuck your way to the top. I just—I panicked!" She spins on her heel then, reaching out to Kaia and then pulling her hands back again as if she's not confident Kaia would let her hold her right now.

"I thought…" Hallie's mouth opens and closes a few times, as if she's struggling to get the last part out. "I thought if I came down hard on you, if I made it seem like I didn't even like you… then, I could kill the rumors and we'd stay a secret."

Kaia's chest tightens, the hurt and the anger warring for dominance against the part of her heart that understands exactly what Hallie was trying to do.

"Why didn't you say something?" she breathes. "We could have come up with a plan together. Instead, you made me look like an incompetent idiot in front of the whole team."

Hallie claws her fingers through her messy, golden curls, pure anguish written across her face. "I know, it was stupid," she admits. "I just… I've worked my whole life to get to where I am. If word got out that I was sleeping with a recruit… it could… it would ruin my shot at becoming captain."

At that, Kaia huffs a bitter laugh, shaking her head. "Wow. So, that's what this is all about? Can't have a dirty secret hurt your precious career?" She throws her hands in the air and steps back, needing to put as much distance between them as possible.

"And what about me, Hallie? What about my career, huh? The guys on that team are just itching for a reason to get me booted. You made me look like an incapable child!"

"Kaia, please," Hallie begs, her voice cracking slightly. "I never meant to hurt you. I figured I could just explain afterwards. I made a mistake; I see that now."

"A mistake? Is that what you call it? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you made a choice. Your career over me, Lieutenant Hunter."

Hallie shakes her head, her eyes starting to glisten on the brink of tears. "No, that's not true. My career would have been hurt, sure. But I can take a hit. Yours has just begun, Kaia, you wouldn't be able to come back from that kind of scandal." She takes a step forward, reaching for Kaia again. "I wanted to protect you too. I wanted to protect us both."

Kaia turns away, wrapping her arms around herself and squeezing, as if she could physically hold herself together. "I want to believe you," she says in a small, timid voice. "I want to believe that you won't chuck me away the minute things get too real."

Hallie comes to rest a warm hand on Kaia's shoulder. "They're already real for me, Kaia."

Kaia closes her eyes and exhales a shuddering breath. She had needed to hear those words from Hallie, to believe that everything she thought was between them wasn't one-sided.

"You mean that?" she murmurs, turning back to face her. "This is… this is something real for you?"

"Oh, baby," Hallie sighs, bringing both hands up to cup Kaia's face. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I'm sorry for fucking it up." She plants a soft kiss on the end of Kaia's nose and whispers, "I would crawl on my knees just to convince you of how much you mean to me."

Kaia giggles, overwhelmed with the rollercoaster of emotions this day has brought her, she flops her head forward to nuzzle into the side of Hallie's neck.

"I guess I could forgive you," she murmurs. "But I'm really not opposed to the whole on-your-knees-thing. You know… if that's still on the table."

A low chuckle rumbles through Hallie's chest. She snakes her fingers through Kaia's and leads her to the bedroom, stopping just as the backs of Kaia's calves hit the edge of the mattress.

"Let's get you naked, baby," Hallie whispers against Kaia's neck while she hooks her thumbs into the waistband of her sweatpants. "I have some groveling to do."

Kaia lets her head loll back with a groan before hurriedly peeling her tank top and sports bra over her head. Hallie is already sinking to her knees, dragging Kaia's panties down with her sweats and waiting there until she steps out of them.

Once Kaia is completely bare, Hallie peppers a trail of gentle kisses up each of her thighs, all the while staring up at her beneath hooded eyes.

"Do you like it when I'm on my knees for you?" Hallie murmurs, stroking her fingertips up the backs of Kaia's legs and leaving goosebumps in their wake.

"You have no idea," Kaia moans, raking her fingers through Hallie's unruly mop of cropped curls.

"Lie down, baby. Let me show you how sorry I am."

Kaia obeys, even with Hallie on her knees, she relishes the soft command, the warm safety of their usual dynamic.

Her toes curl in the plush carpet as Hallie begins worshipping her with her tongue, laving and sucking until Kaia's thighs start to quiver.

But it isn't enough.

Kaia pushes up on her elbows, locking eyes with an expectant Hallie.

"I want you to fuck me. Fuck me hard until I forget that I'm mad at you."

Hallie's answering chuckle sends a delicious vibration through Kaia's core as her lips remain clamped around her throbbing clit. She releases it after a long, drawn-out suck that has the rookie's eyes rolling to the back of her head.

"As you wish," she answers, rising to a standing position and tearing off her own clothes.

Kaia scoots further up the bed, turning onto all fours in a clear demonstration of exactly how she wants Hallie to make it up to her. She watches in delicious anticipation as Hallie opens the nightstand, pulling out the harness and dildo she had brought round the previous week.

As Hallie gets fastened, Kaia has to swallow the urge to drool, spreading her knees further apart and stroking a finger through her own slick folds as she waits impatiently.

Hallie rounds the back of the bed and settles herself between Kaia's legs. She slaps Kaia's hand away from her clit and then lands another blow on her ass for good measure. Kaia keens and rocks back, desperate for Hallie to fill her up as soon as possible.

But Hallie moves slow and teasing, brushing the head of the dildo through Kaia's lips and spreading her gathering arousal.

"So wet for me," Hallie says in a quietly reverent tone.

She kneads Kaia's ass with her other hand, caressing and spreading her open as she pushes slowly inside her, inch by inch.

Kaia moans and pushes back more forcefully this time, greedily chasing the fullness Hallie is taking her sweet time to give her. Her impatience earns her another sharp spank, and Kaia bites down on her lower lip, groaning and gasping as Hallie finally picks up the pace.

The punishing rhythm Hallie sets is overwhelming, hitting that perfect spot inside Kaia that turns her legs liquid and sends ripples of pleasure right to her fingertips. She closes her eyes and succumbs to the fog of blissful lust that clouds her brain.

Just for that moment of pure, warm surrender, she forgets everything that Hallie had snapped at her today, she forgets how hurt she was, how angry.

Hell, as Hallie pounds into her over and over, Kaia starts to forget her own name.

Kaia hears her own moans louder than ever. She is lost in the exquisite feeling of Hallie fucking her hard as Hallie's hand grips her hip roughly. Kaia's ass is in the air and her face seeks out the comfort of the pillow.

Suddenly, without warning, Hallie reaches forward and winds her fingers into Kaia's hair, yanking her upright and flush against her sweat-slicked body.

Kaia yelps, the new angle hitting her G spot and making her legs shake uncontrollably as she leans back against Hallie's strong torso.

Hallie caresses and worships her, bringing a hand up to knead and pull roughly at one of Kaia's nipples while she snakes the other round to stroke rapid circles around her throbbing clit.

All the while she bites and sucks at Kaia's neck and shoulder, fucking into her while she worships as much of her skin as she can reach.

It takes barely a minute for Kaia to completely come undone, her climax building deliciously low in her core before exploding all at once, sending a white haze across her vision.

She feels herself gush hot and wet across Hallie's thighs.

It's all she can do to grasp at Hallie's strong arms as she strokes and thrusts through Kaia's orgasm until she's totally spent. As she eventually slows, Kaia sags slightly, confident that Hallie won't drop her while she pants and trembles.

"Was that enough groveling for you, baby?" Hallie whispers against Kaia's sticky neck.

For a moment, Kaia can't offer anything more than a contented moan.

She sighs and blinks slowly, perfectly satisfied and wrapped in Hallie's warm embrace.

"Maybe," she eventually exhales. "Give me a couple of minutes and I'm sure I'll be ready to go again. Tell me you planned to stay over tonight."

Hallie huffs a quiet laugh, gently easing Kaia to the mattress and pulling out of her thoroughly pleased pussy.

"I wouldn't dream of leaving so soon."