It's All Relative(38)
Leaning down close to his face, she whispered in a shaking voice, “I think I’m falling for you.”
Her heart hammering in her chest, she lightly pressed her lips to his. She pulled them away instantly, but not before she felt him minutely respond, his lips softly moving against hers. But she must have been imagining that. He was asleep. He probably wouldn’t kiss her back right now, not with how tired he’d been.
Putting her fingers to her suddenly hot lips, she swallowed the painful lump in her throat. He shouldn’t ever kiss her back, just like she shouldn’t ever kiss him. Cursing all the feelings that she couldn’t seem to shut off, Jessie stood and grabbed her things. Then, shutting off the lights, she closed his door and left him alone in his slumber.
Kai woke up the next morning from a disturbing, but pleasant, dream. Pleasant, because he’d been dreaming about Jessie. Disturbing, because he’d been dreaming about doing very inappropriate things with her. In his dream, she’d told him that she was falling for him, and then she’d tenderly kissed him. As he lay awake in his bed, his eyes straining to make out any coherent shape in his dark room, he still felt the thrill those words had given him.
He wearily ran a hand down his face. What he wouldn’t give to hear her actually say those words to him. But no. That was a really horrible thing for him to want. Jessie shouldn’t be dragged down into his confusion. It would be best for her to find a way past the attraction that he could sometimes feel from her, and only see him as family.
He was struggling with doing the same.
Kai had been isolated from his extended family for so long, that the only person who actually felt like family to him was his grandmother. Everyone else, all of the miscellaneous cousins, uncles and aunts, were nothing more to him than a long list of names on the annual family letter that Gran put together every year, but DNA didn’t lie, and Jessie and Kai couldn’t share that kind of future.
Sighing, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Grabbing his cell phone off the nightstand beside his bed, he glanced at the time. He’d given into sleep much too soon, and now he’d woken up well before work. He would probably be exhausted by the end of the night again. Oh well. At least his body was shifting in the right direction, and Kai was sure that, given another couple of days, a week at the most, he would be in line with the people here.
Yawning, Kai noticed he’d missed a call from his mom. She was probably curious how his first day had gone. It was too early in her time zone to call her back. He would just have to call her after work. As he rubbed the sore, healing spots on his back, he wondered what he’d tell her. He didn’t have very many positive things about his first day that he could share. The strange Louis, the horny Missy, the damn bees, and his oddly distant boss.
Frowning as his thoughts turned to Mason Thomas, Kai got out of bed. For someone who was connected with his parents in some way, the man had sure been strange to him. As Kai had gone about his day, helping Mason with various projects, learning the ropes, the man had alternated between being curious, reluctant, kind, and standoffish. Kai had tried not to take it personally. It couldn’t be because of him. Aside from silently suffering from multiple bee stings, Kai hadn’t done anything wrong or inappropriate. He’d tried to be as friendly and helpful as he could, without seeming like an overeager suck-up. And he thought he’d pulled it off well, but his boss had still seemed uneasy around him.
Sighing as he shuffled to the bathroom, Kai shook his head. Maybe Mason was just trying to not show favoritism toward Kai to the rest of the team, since he was sort of a family friend. Yes, maybe he just didn’t want to appear like he was doing Kai any special favors. Stepping into the shower, he turned the water on and twisted the knob to scalding hot. No, Mason was definitely not treating him like he was special. Kai hoped today would be smoother.
He also hoped the hot water didn’t aggravate his tender spots. Quickly undressing, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the stream. He flinched as the hot water entered the slight pricks in his skin, then he sighed as the water relaxed him. The steamy shower was nearly as soothing as Jessie’s miraculous fingers. Smiling, he remembered the wondrous feeling of her hands running over his skin. Scrubbing a bar of soap over his body, he closed his eyes and visualized her soft fingers trailing over him. It had felt amazing, and he swore, for a moment there…it had been so much more than just a massage. For a second, a single thought had entered both of their minds, he was sure. A thought that involved bare bodies, tangled limbs, slippery oils…and a spacious bed.
As his mind took over, and his fantasies took flight, Kai started pretending that his hands were hers. The act of cleaning himself forgotten, he started tracing the distinct lines of his muscles. His body instantly reacted; warmth, blood, and a growing ache in his groin. Biting his lip, he knew he should stop this, knew he shouldn’t let himself think about her that way. Putting the soap back on the shelf, he rested his head against the shower wall. He’d gotten carried away, and his body was completely hard now, ready for a woman who wasn’t even around. A woman he couldn’t ever have again. Another sad sigh escaped him.
Ignoring the ache, Kai washed his hair. He kept his hands away from his waist and forcibly shifted his thoughts. His mind drifted to Jessie’s generous box of decorations that she’d brought over yesterday. The stupid but charming camel, the waterfall photo that painfully stoked memories of home, a few candles to help mask the scent of “bachelor,” and that one amazing picture of a red-rocked river. Kai liked that one the best. He had a special connection to water, and the photo impossibly and perfectly captured the flowing movement of a rushing stream. By the warm glow in Jessie’s eyes, he’d known that the picture meant something to her, but she’d given it to him anyway. She was so sweet and so good to him. In two days, she’d seen everything that he’d been missing, and without asking, she’d stepped in and taken care of it for him. He was blown away by her.