Jackson gives her a weird look. “No it’s not, don’t be silly. If I’m actually showering or using the bathroom, I’ll shut the door.”
“Yeah, but I just walked into your room. You could have been naked or doing something I don’t even want to know about.”
Jackson chuckles deeply. “I’ll change in the bathroom from now on, and I will never be doing anything in my room that you can’t walk in on. Deal?”
“Okay,” Kayla says with a curt nod. “I still feel weird walking into your room.”
“Don’t. I promise I don’t mind,” Jackson says. “Damien, however, is not allowed in my room when you’re changing or taking a shower.”
With a smirk, Kayla replies, “But you’re allowed?”
Scoffing, Jackson laughs. “Of course, it’s my room. What’s the advantage of having a beautiful girl in it, if I can’t walk in whenever I want?”
“Well, you’re the only guy I want walking in on me,” Kayla says back.
Jackson stops and looks at her. “You don’t want Damien to walk in on you all naked and stuff, but me doing it is okay?”
“Damien would make it dirty…you would make it playful,” Kayla retorts, walking into the bathroom.
He follows her. “How would I make it playful? I walk in on you naked and say what, want to play hopscotch?”
“No, you would make me giggle and laugh about it, so I wouldn’t be embarrassed. You would be sweet, not dirty.”
“Kayla, if I walked in on you naked, there would be nothing but dirty thoughts going through my mind. Don’t paint me as something I’m not. I am insanely attracted to you. My hands would want to be all over you and exploring every inch of your incredible body.”
“Wow,” Kayla squeaks. “That was really…intimate.”
Putting his hands up, Jackson says, “Don’t get me wrong, I will respect you, and I will never do anything intimate unless you ask me to, but the thoughts I would have after seeing you in the shower would be nowhere near innocent.”
“But you would still make me laugh about it somehow, it’s what you do,” Kayla replies. “I know you a little better than you think Jackson.”
Jackson starts to talk but then stops. “I guess you’re right.” He sighs. “I would totally make a joke out of it.”
“See?” she quips. “It would be funny.”
“If it’s going to be funny, then I’m going to walk in on you while you’re in the shower. I always like to laugh.”
She gives him a look. “Not a chance in hell.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Jackson quips as he turns around and walks out of the bathroom. “See you later, I have to get to school before I’m late!”
“Bye! Have a good day,” Kayla yells. “I’ll miss you!” She starts to giggle hysterically.
He comes back into the bathroom a few seconds later. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll miss you. Go…go to school.”
“I know you will secretly be sitting here pining away for me. You’re too easy to read.”
Kayla crosses her arms. “Oh really, what am I thinking right now?”
With a thoughtful look, Jackson hums, “Mmmm, you’re thinking about…how you want to rip all my clothes off and have your way with me…in the shower.”
“That is not even close to what I was thinking,” Kayla states, walking over to him. She starts to push him out of the bathroom. “Go to school, I have to get ready.”
Jackson grabs the doorframe. “Tell me what you were thinking.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything, I just wanted to see what you would come up with. Now, go, go to school.”
He stops resisting and backs out of the bathroom. “Please try to not get into trouble today, okay?”
“I’ll do my best,” Kayla declares honestly. “Don’t forget Tracy.”
“I won’t,” Jackson says. “I’ll see you later, babe.” He turns and walks away.
Kayla catches herself checking him out. She quickly shakes her head and turns around to brush her teeth. When she returns to her room, she catches Damien doing crunches. “Wow, I feel like I should be exercising with you, but it’s too early in the morning for me.”
Damien stops his crunches and looks up at her. “You’re perfect the way you are. You don’t need to do anything.”
She smiles in response to his compliment. “What are we going to do today?” she asks, walking over to him.
Looking up at her, he says, “What would you like to do? We can work on your blocking and then go on a run.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Kayla chirps with a smile. “We should eat breakfast first.”
In one elegant movement, Damien is on his feet. He grabs her and pulls her close. “We need a proper good morning first.” Bending down he kisses her softly on the lips. Kayla kisses him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. It only takes a few seconds before the kisses increase in intensity. They stumble their way to the bed and fall down on it. Damien lifts her up and shoves her back a little bit. Bending back down, he kisses her again.
Kayla pulls away and gasps. “We need to stop.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I am so sorry. It’s just when I kiss you, I lose myself. It’s like I don’t have a brain all of a sudden.”
“All of a sudden? I didn’t think you had a brain at any time.”
He starts to tickle her and she screams. “You’re feisty this morning.”
“You may be book smart, but you have no common sense.” Damien tickles her even more and she squeals. “Stop it.”
Damien hovers over her. “Apologize.”
“Never!” she shouts. He continues torturing her with his tickles. “Okay! Okay! I give,” Kayla finally pants out. “You’re so mean.”
“I am not, I’m sweet.”
She meets his gaze. “You are, I know.”
“I want to kiss you so badly, but I won’t. We should get up and get you breakfast.”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Kayla murmurs.
Damien shakes his head. “No, controlling myself is becoming more difficult.”
“I didn’t say ravage me, I said kiss me.”
He looks at her carefully before bending down and kissing her. She responds by pulling him close. Damien runs his hand up the side of her leg and then under her waist. Kayla pushes herself against him. He emits a sigh of protest, but it doesn’t take him long to press himself against her. Suddenly, he pulls away. “Enough, we can’t do this.”
“Yeah, we should get out of bed.”
“Mmhmm,” Damien agrees, crawling off of her. He extends his hand and she takes it. He pulls her gently off the bed. When Kayla stands up, he looks at her. “I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you are setting my nerves on fire.”
Kayla smiles. “Good.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to need a cold shower.” Damien gulps. “A seriously cold shower.”
“With me in it,” Kayla teases.
He gives her a look. “You are merciless.”
“Come on,” she giggles, grabbing his shirt. Kayla pulls him out of her room and down the hallway.
After breakfast, they sit in the living room and practice her blocking. She gets better and better at it. “You’re doing well,” Damien finally says. “It’s becoming instinctual.”
“Let that jerk try it now; I’ll show him a thing or two.”
“Okay, one more time in Shima and then we’ll go for a run in the woods.”
A gong interrupts their escape to Shima. “What in the world is that?”
“The doorbell; it’s probably your car.”
Before he can say another word, Kayla is up and running to the front door. She flings it open and finds an unfamiliar man staring back at her. “Huh?”
“I’m looking for Kayla Hendrickson.”
Kayla takes a small step back. “That’s me.”
The guy thrusts the long box forward. “This is for you.”
Damien walks up behind her.
“What’s going on?”
“Did you send me something?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
Kayla takes the box. “Uh, who sent this?”
“We have no idea. It was an online order,” the delivery driver says. “Have a good day.”
Damien takes the box from her. “Can I open this?” Kayla nods. When he lifts the lid off her heart drops. “What in the hell?” Damien stutters.
Inside are a dozen red roses. “Is this a joke?”
“Not at all,” Damien replies.
“There’s a card,” Kayla says, pulling out the little envelope. She opens it. “It’s computer printed.” Kayla takes her time reading the card. As the message sinks in, she starts to freak out. “It’s from William. Damien, what am I going to do? He knows where I am!”
He drops the box on the ground and snatches the card from her. “What!”
Tears start running down her face.
“I want to call my dad, come on.” He kicks the box away from the door. Slamming the door shut, he grabs Kayla’s hand and pulls her down the hallway.
“Why is he doing this?” she whimpers.
Damien shakes his head. “I don’t know.” When they get to his room, he grabs his phone. Damien presses a number and holds the phone to his ear. After a few seconds, he snaps, “Dad, we have a problem. This William guy just sent Kayla flowers at Jackson’s. What? Yeah, I’ll see you in a few.” He hangs up the phone and walks over to his desk.
“What are you doing?”
“Videoconferencing, two of the families are with my father.”
“You aren’t expecting me to talk to them, right?”
He turns and looks at her. “Why, would that be a problem?”
“I don’t know,” she says, throwing her hands in the air. “I’d like to clean up and at least look a little better than I do right now!”
“I’m sure you’ll see my father more often now that we’re dating. Relax, okay?” Damien chuckles.
She gives him a pleading look. “Damien, he is the head of our people and the other two families will be on this call too! I would rather not do this.”
“Fine,” he sighs, shaking his head with a smile. “I will do it.” He turns on his computer, and Kayla sits down on the bed. Damien connects to the Internet and sends out the call. From the bed, Kayla sees a window pop. “Hello, Father,” Damien says. “Jasmine, Gregory, good morning.”
Kayla’s interest peaks. She gets up and walks over by Damien. Everyone on the screen looks at her. A black-haired older gentleman sits in the middle of a table with a blond woman sitting on his right and a brunette gentleman on his left. The black-haired gentleman says, “This beautiful young lady must be Kayla Hendrickson.”
She waves and awkwardly says, “Hi.”
Damien turns to her. “Kayla, the guy talking to you is my father, Drake Blakely. That is Jasmine Marques,” he points to the screen, “and that is Gregory Caster.”
“Hello,” Jasmine says with a grin.
“Miss Hendrickson, I want to reassure you that William is no relation to my bloodline,” Gregory states. “I have looked into it. My father, William, only had one child, me. We have no males in our family line right now.”
Kayla shrugs. “I have no idea who he is. At first he said his name was William Caster, but when I confronted him on it, he was all shady but admitted his name was really William.”
“I have no idea,” Gregory says. “I even went as far as to ask my daughters, and they said they know no one by the name William.”
“He sent me flowers. That really freaked me out.”
Drake looks at his son. “Do you want me to send guards?”
“No, I have her security under control,” Damien assures. “That may be a slight overkill.”
“Guards?” Kayla chirps.
“Yes,” Drake says. “We have our own police system. Part of their job is guarding the families. If you are in danger, they will step in.”
Her eyebrows pop up. “Do you think he’s going to hurt me? He seems like he just wants me to marry him. I don’t think attacking me is going to get me to do that.”
“True,” Gregory replies. “But we still don’t want you in danger.”
“I know how to kill one of our kind, if need be,” Damien growls. “He won’t lay a hand on her.”
His dad gives him a stern look. “Really, Damien, killing is slightly dramatic, unless he’s trying to kill one of you. You can bind him up or something instead.”
“Mmhmm, we’ll see about that.”
Grabbing the bridge of his nose, Drake sighs. “Anyway, Kayla, if at any point you become worried, we will send help.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary right now,” Kayla replies. “I just wish we could track him by the flowers.”
“We are looking into that right now,” Drake reassures her. “He had to use a credit card of some sort, if it was online. Hacking a florist’s system isn’t hard.”
She shakes her head. “This is all too much to take. Damien taught me to block out William and either he or Jackson are sleeping with me at night, so I don’t accidentally go to Shima alone.”
Damien drops his head into his hand. Drake narrows his eyes. “Why are you sleeping with Jackson? You are allowed to date whomever you want. Damien hasn’t said anything about you dating Jackson too. We don’t usually want females to bear children to fathers in the same family.”
“I DID NOT MEAN IT THAT WAY!” Kayla screams, her face flaming. “Not to be rude, but I have been informed about what you want from me, and that’s not going to happen. I’m sorry, but no.”
His father looks at Damien. “And tell me, son, what have you been telling her?”
“I just told her how we try to populate the species as much as possible.”
“Mmm,” his dad hums. “Kayla, we understand that you were raised as a human. We will never expect anything out of you that you aren’t comfortable with. Of course we want to keep the species alive, but we don’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to. As a species we are very sexual, and it is not uncommon to take more than one partner.”
Putting her hands up, Kayla shouts, “Seriously, I don’t want to have this conversation with you. I don’t even want to have this conversation with my parents. Please, stop.”
Jasmine chuckles. “Then you can have this conversation with Damien or Jackson.”
“You’re a nice shade of red.” Damien laughs.
Kayla punches him in the arm. “Shut up.”
He grins and turns back to his father. “You will let me know about William? There really isn’t much we can do right now.”
“No there isn’t,” Drake replies. “It’s hard to gauge what he even wants.”
“Me, he wants me,” Kayla states. “He wants me to marry him or whatever. He kept saying how there were four other families, but if he isn’t part of one of those families, what does it matter? It doesn’t make sense.”
Gregory shakes his head. “It makes no sense. If we can figure out who he is, it will make a difference.”
“I’ll ask him if I see him again,” Kayla sarcastically replies. “I pray that doesn’t happen, though. The flowers are creepy enough. What if he pops in at school or something?”
“Jackson’s at school with you, right?” Drake inquires.
She nods. “Yeah, but he’s not in all my classes.”
“Wait for him and have him escort you from class to class. You will be safe with him. He’s a fierce fighter.”
“I feel so much better. I don’t mean to be rude,” Kayla says sarcastically.
Drake folds his hands on the table. “Do you want me to send extra guards to protect you?”
“How would they really protect me? Are they going to chaperone me everywhere I go? That’ll be awkward.”
“They remain unseen, very black ops sort of stuff,” Damien states. “You wouldn’t even know they were there.”
Kayla looks at him. “That may cree
p me out more than William.”
Damien laughs. “Well then, you can stick with Jackson and me. We will be your chaperones.”
“I can handle that. I won’t be farther away than in the same building for right now.”
“If I have my way, you won’t be that far away from me,” Damien says, with a huge smile.
She rolls her eyes and groans. “Whatever.”
“Hhheeeyyy.”
Kayla just smirks at him.
“Good girl, give him a hard time. Keep him on his toes,” Damien’s dad says.
Damien turns back to the screen. “You’re supposed to be on my side. You are my father after all.”
“Oh come now, son, I will always be on the side of a pretty girl.” Drake chuckles.
“Aww, thank you,” Kayla replies.
“All right, not to cut this short, but we have more things to tackle right now,” Mr. Blakely says. “It was very nice meeting you, Kayla. I hope to do it in person very soon.”
Giving a quizzical look, Kayla asks, “Where are you guys right now, anyway?”
“Top secret information.” Drake chuckles. “I’m only kidding. We’re in LA.”
“You said they were out of the country when you were in trouble with the cop,” Kayla snips to Damien.
“What about a cop!”
Damien gives Kayla a dirty look. “Traitor. It was nothing, Father, just a little skirmish with a guy. He called Kayla a slut, so I punched him.”
“Damien, you are supposed to set an example,” Drake warns.
He puts his hands out in innocence. “He deserved it! Like you wouldn’t punch out a guy if he said that about Mom.”
Drake gives Damien a stern look. “Don’t get into a fight unless absolutely necessary.”
“We have really good lawyers. Why pay them so much money if we don’t use them?”
“Damien, don’t get into fistfights!”
Kayla interjects, “It wasn’t a fight. He just popped the guy in the face. He really did deserve it. It was either Jackson, Damien, or me and obviously, I hit like a girl.”
“Please, my dear, do not encourage him. Jackson shouldn’t hit anyone either,” Jasmine says softly. “We need not attract attention to ourselves, as much as possible.”
“So I can’t become a movie star?” Kayla giggles.