Down to My Soul (Soul Series Book 2)(67)

“So in a way, I was with you back then.” He smiles against my cheek.

“In a way, yeah.”

“I want to be with you every step of the way.” I can almost hear his hesitation. A pause that says so much before he voices it. “Kai, it doesn’t have to be tonight, but we need to talk about your contract with Malcolm.”

I knew this would come, but was hoping it wouldn’t be day one.

“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m with him for two years.”

“But what are the terms?” he presses. “I’d buy your contract out. You know I would. I’ve wanted you on Prodigy for a long time. Malcolm mismanaging you on your first tour, compromising your health—”

“No one knew I was sick, Rhys. I didn’t even know how much.”

“Yeah, but—”

A light rap on the open door stops whatever he would have said. Aunt Ruthie stands at the entrance, her eyes moving between the two of us facing each other on the bed.

“You guys okay in here?” She leans into the doorjamb, one fist on her hip. “Ya hungry?”

Rhyson sits up, looking back and pushing a chunk of hair behind my ear, traces my eyebrows with his thumb.

“I think we’re just tired.” He smiles, some of the irritation from our contract discussion clearing from his face. “Especially this one.”

“Well, get some rest.” Aunt Ruthie turns to go.

“Could I get some sheets and a blanket for the couch?” Rhyson walks over to where Aunt Ruthie stands. Surprise flits across her face before she looks back at me on my bed.

“Sure,” she says. “Oh. Kai, I know you’re just getting back, but Mr. McClausky wanted to cook chicken in the pot for you tomorrow. He’s the only one I told about you coming home.”

“Chicken in the pot?” Rhyson looks between the two of us. “Is this a thing?”

“It’s my favorite thing.” My lips are almost too tired to grin, but I manage. “And, yeah, Aunt Ruthie, I’d love that. You can invite a few other folks you know won’t talk about us being here or make a big fuss. I’d love to see everybody who was here for Christmas dinner.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Aunt Ruthie smacks her hands together, eyes bright despite the lateness of the hour. “I’ll call ‘em all in. They’ll love seeing you. Well, I’m gonna turn in.”

She blows me an air kiss.

“See you in the morning. Sleep as late as you want.”

Aunt Ruthie leaves, and as much as I love Rhyson considering her beliefs, which were once mine, I want him crawling under the covers with me. Not to do anything other than hold me all night, but I can tell it’s important to him that Aunt Ruthie knows he’s behaving. I have no idea why, but I love him for it.

He digs into my suitcase until he finds one of my vintage nightshirts, tossing it to me.

“Put that on and go straight to sleep. Dr. Wells won’t be blaming me for your relapse.”

A wicked, wanton imp possesses me for one last hurrah before I surrender to the sleep dragging at my consciousness. I slip one button and then another loose on my shirt until the lacy edge of my pink bra peeks out.

“Why don’t you come put it on for me?” My raspy, barely-there voice sounds even huskier in the confines of my childhood bedroom.

“I don’t think so.” Rhyson leans out into the hall, looking in the direction Aunt Ruthie went. “There’ll be plenty of time for that when we get back to LA.”

“You’re kidding, right?” My mouth falls open. We haven’t made love in a month and he’s serious. “But we—”

“Kai, I want Aunt Ruthie to like me.” Fatigue and desire darken his eyes to slate.

“She does, Rhys, but I think she knows we sleep together. I was practically living with you a few months ago. I didn’t hide that from her. I didn’t have to.”

“I know. I just . . . Let me do this, okay?”

I never thought I’d be the one pushing for sex. The thought of me pressuring Rhyson to sleep with me makes me smile all the way into my dreams.





THIS COUCH GAVE MY CHIVALRY A bad back.

I shift a little to avoid the spring poking my lower lumbar, but encounter a warm, curvy lump nestled against my chest. The smell of pears and cinnamon wafts up from the petite person squeezed between my body and the cushions.

“Pep,” I whisper, more to myself than to Kai. This is how every day should start. For her to slip in here with me and endure this lumpy couch when she had a perfectly good bed up the hall tells me she feels the same.

I don’t want to wake her. An investigative look over the top of the couch through the window sheers reveals the sky is still that just-past-dawn palette, faintly splashed with pinks and gold.

I want to keep things above board in Aunt Ruthie’s house, but I have to squeeze Kai a little tighter to my chest. As sprawling and complex as my life can be sometimes, it really all boils down to this. To this girl huddled into me, sharing a blanket in the morning chill. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from the likes of Malcolm. To keep her from guys like Dub. Anything to hold her right here this close.

“Guess she couldn’t stay away,” Aunt Ruthie says softly from the hall that leads to the bedrooms. “You two are like magnets.”