Figment of Dreams - The Skylar Rains Series I

Kai picked me up at nine; he drove this old pickup truck. My dad hated it, but there was not much he could say since Kai never brought me back a minute over curfew. Malin was in the back, chatting away about the rumors she’d heard about Miro and Jenna Parkson.

I tuned all of it out, and Kai noticed my absence in the conversation. He grabbed my hand and squeezed. His blue eyes sparkled with some hidden emotion I couldn’t place. His thumb was rubbing my hand slowly. My belly was doing that low, hard flip again at the contact. I was grateful he was here to keep me sane tonight.

“It’s going to be okay, baby. I’m there. I’m not letting anything happen to you, alright?” He raised his right eyebrow at me and kissed my knuckles leisurely. He didn’t let go of my hand and let it rest in his for the entire ride.

The Parksons lived in what I could only call a modern mansion. All-white walls with brown touches, very Hamptons meets L.A.

We entered the mansion, and I ran headfirst into a hard chest. As I looked up, I looked straight into the blue eyes I had known for so long. Still as gorgeous as always.

He was grabbing both of my upper arms pretty hard for some reason, and I was frozen in place until I snapped out of it. “Sorry…” I mumbled and sprang back straight into Kai, who wrapped his arms around me protectively. His pine and sandalwood scent engulfed me completely.

Kai was becoming a new home. So different from the home I had with Jax, but I was starting to really appreciate it. He rubbed my arms in up-and-down motions, trying to calm me.

Jax just stood there, saying nothing. Being a brood as always.

I tried to step forward, but he blocked me again. “Sorry, Elmrose, this is not your party tonight,” he said with his deep, gravelly voice, slightly accented. He was looking at me with eyes as cold as ice. No emotion. Nothing.

Kai was breathing heavily against my back, his heartbeat pounding. “You have no right to deny her anything, Skylar.”

My ears were ringing. I just had to get out of there. I didn’t hear what was said after Kai uttered those words. I just turned on my heels and ran back out. I kept on hauling ass out of there like my tail was on fire.

I heard some shouting and saw Kai in the reflection of the car windows coming for me. “Baby! Wait up!” he yelled, but I didn’t care. My cheeks were already wet with tears. How could someone I loved for so long look at me with such disgust?

Was I really that appalling?

My chest hurt with that notion again. I just wanted my old life back. I felt so unloved it was making me dizzy. I had to stop for a second and placed my arms on the hood of a car, breathing in deeply.

Crying like a baby. Kai was on me in a second. He turned me around, grabbed my face in both of his hands, and wiped my tears away. He had so much hurt in his eyes it shocked me. He was truly upset about this.

He yanked me forward against his chest, and I froze up for a moment, but then I hugged him back. He relaxed all along my body and placed his chin on my head.

I just cried. And cried. And hugged him closer, which he repaid by slowly rubbing up and down my back, whispering sweet nothings in my ear, kissing the top of my head tenderly.

We stayed like that for a long time until I was done with crying but felt hollow and empty. I kept my face resting against his chest, my own hitching and falling with the aftershocks of my cryfest.

He kissed the top of my head a few times and said something in Mons I couldn’t understand. “Baby…” he sighed again and hugged me closer once more, kissing my nose softly.

“Thank you…” I mumbled against his shirt. He showered me with small kisses; it made me weak inside.

“Let’s go inside for a second.” Then I realized I had chosen his car to break down on. I nodded against his chest. He opened the back seat, and we both slid in. I was still hugging him, so I was on his lap now.

I wasn’t moving. Forever. It felt so good to be hugged like this. I was sitting sideways in his lap now. One arm was on my back, and the other was rubbing up and down on my legs. His mouth was placing long kisses on my forehead like he couldn’t help himself. He needed to touch and kiss me.

I was still numb, cheek against his chest. I felt his heart erratically beating. “Mi Nomure…” he whispered again.

“What does that mean…” my voice was barely a whisper.

“It means a lot of things in my language. It’s difficult to find a name for it in English, but it’s a mix of ‘baby’ and ‘sexy.’”

I snorted. He laughed, and his body shook with it. “I’m serious, though, baby…” for the first time in a long time, I lifted my head, and my face instantly felt cold from lack of his body heat.

I looked up at him, those ocean-blue eyes again. This time they were hooded a little bit. Mine probably looked puffy and red.

At that moment, in that car, I felt something again. It had taken me years. But I felt like I could trust him. Like I cared for him and couldn’t imagine not having him in my life.

I cleared my throat, looked at my hands, and said,

“We were best friends for 14 years, and then he threw me out like I was nothing.” It was hard to say this out loud, having never really spoken it into the universe before.

I felt Kai wince. “How can anyone do this… to you, the kindest soul I have ever met.” His voice was a near whisper. His thumb caressed my cheeks and lips, eyes lingering on my lips.

“I… I… loved him…” it was the first time I actually had said that out loud. Kai grabbed my chin and made me look up into his eyes. He scooted lower on the bench, placing his feet on the middle console, making me slide up higher, almost at eye level.

“Is there anything else that he did to you? Because I’m about to go out there and kill him. And those arrogant brothers as well. And that will decide the amount of pain I’m going to inflict.” His voice was a low whisper, menacing, laced with something more. Something darker. I believed he truly would hurt Jax, and I was still not comfortable with thinking about that, even though I had murdered him in my mind many times.

“He… he… was disgusted with me…” It was difficult to talk about again; tears were forming, and my voice was acting up.

“How in the world is that even possible?” was Kai’s response. I began fidgeting with one of the buttons on his shirt.

“He kissed me and told everyone that I—for a human girl—smelled more like garbage than anyone he has ever kissed…” a lone tear slid down. I felt it drop onto my cleavage and roll down my top.

It stayed silent for a moment, and I knew it. Kai couldn’t lie to me and tell me I didn’t smell. My heart was starting to break a little again. Not him as well.

As I was about to look up again and tell him it was alright and that he shouldn’t lie to me, he made this low growling sound and grabbed my face.

“Fuck this…” he found my lips and kissed me, long and slow, asking permission. When I gave him permission, his tongue took its time.

I felt my body weaken and mold to his. He grabbed my legs and placed them on either side of him. I kissed him back, hard, needing. He was amazing.

One arm was under my butt, his other had my neck in a headlock. “Baby…” he whispered between long kisses. “You taste better than anyone I have ever kissed…”

That made me kiss him even harder. My hands roamed his chest. I needed him so badly that I felt a need to crawl into his torso to be closer. Like I could never be close enough.

I let my hands wander around his chest, under his shirt, and his breathing hitched. “If you keep wriggling and touching me like that, I can’t stop in a moment, sexy…” his voice was such a deep haze from his usual voice. I looked up; his eyes were nearly entirely dark and hooded.

“Fuck…” he whispered again and started kissing me with more passion. “We need to stop… I’m about to—” I already had an idea what he was about to do.

I wanted him so bad right now. I didn’t care where we were.

“Please…” I said again. He was breathing so hard I thought he was going to pass out.

“Don’t say it…” he pleaded, moaning, his hand kneading my breasts, his actions so needy I doubted he was going to walk away. Good.

“Please… Kai…” I moaned his name again, and that was it. He was ripping my pants off in one swift motion. God… that Rainer strength.

I was seeing red, purple, and green; I was not myself. I was lost in Kai, and he seemed to be so lost in me he was a panting phantom of himself. As he was pulling his pants down with a moan, a hard sound came from my right, and a wave of cold air hit us hard.

The car door was opened, and Jax was standing there with a murderous expression on his face. Underneath me, Kai tensed and seemed to snap out of his haze. I was mortified. Completely and utterly mortified.

I searched for my pants and was still getting them on when I was being dragged out of the car by my upper arms. Kai was scrambling behind me, yelling and cursing, but the only thing I heard was a loud ringing in my ears.

“Stop, let me go, Jax! Let me go! Kai!” He was so angry I felt the heatwaves of pure hatred radiating off Jax. “You are hurting me, stop!” he was holding on to my arm so hard I felt it in my bones.

Kai was still behind me, trying to catch up to us, but Jax was moving unnaturally fast. Really unnaturally fast.

Tears sprang from my eyes again; I didn’t realize I had any left tonight, but here they were.

Jax glanced right into my eyes, and I saw the worry in them. So he loosened his grip a little, which made me stumble over my feet because of the lack of balance that caused, and I crashed hard on the left side of my body. My forehead hit a car’s side mirror. I saw dots and stripes, and then I smelled Kai again.

Kai on my right, Jax on my left. Yelling at each other like two manatees. “Are you okay, baby…?” Kai said between curses, his voice laced with worry. He was grabbing my face just as Jax clocked him straight in the jaw.

I screamed.

They started fighting in the middle of the street, and it was ugly. They were not holding back at all.

I had no clue why we were the only ones out there, but there literally was no one else around to help.

So I jumped up and threw myself right in the middle of them. They had such ferocious looks on their faces that they even started scaring me now. I was pushed hard between them and felt like a ragdoll being tumbled around.

“Get out of here, Lulu!” Jax tried reaching around me to get to Kai, but I felt such anger boiling up I couldn’t contain myself. I hit him with my clenched fist, so hard on his jaw that he cringed down in pain.

For a moment, I felt nothing but pure gloating, and then my hand hurt like a bitch. I probably broke it. But seeing how much pain he was in, it was worth it. So worth it.

Kai was on me in an instant, hugging me and pulling me away from Jax. He kissed my forehead. “Are you okay, baby?” he tried to grab my hand, but I flinched. It definitely was broken.

I was not able to move my fingers. Behind me, Jax was getting up again, a bruise already showing around his eye. “Lulu, you need to come with me. We need to talk.”

He was out of breath, and the words came out weird.

“Don’t call me that… you haven’t said two words to me in four years! I’m not coming anywhere with you, ever!” Kai was still rubbing my back and walking me back to the car.

“I swear to god, Kai, if you touch her again, you are dead! I will kill you!” he yelled at us.

I was so shocked by all of this I couldn’t even comprehend tonight. So I turned around again, not done with this asshole at all.

“Why are you even here, Jax? You have no business in my life anymore. You don’t get to tell me what to do!” my voice was hoarse from all the crying, screaming, and from being so damn turned on. If Jax hadn’t stopped us, I was pretty damn sure what would have happened.

“I can if you are fucking a Rainer in the back of a car!” he growled at me.

“Fuck you, Jax!” I growled even harder back. “Who I fuck or don’t fuck is none of your business.”

Kai was awfully quiet as we stepped into his car again. We drove in silence for a while, my hand and my forehead aching. My entire body was pounding, still, a need that I had never felt before coursing through my veins.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered as we neared my home.

“For what? For hitting him, he deserved every punch.”

“That and for… nearly having you in the back of this car. You deserve better than that, and therefore, I’m sorry, baby.” He sighed and kissed my nose. “I just couldn’t control myself. I should have known better. I’m really sorry.”

I grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Don’t worry about that. I felt better than I have in a long, long time. Thank you for that.” I kissed him. He grabbed my face and let his tongue wander over my lips. We started to literally devour each other again.

He pulled back with a gasp and adjusted his pants. “I think we need to go home and just… I don’t know. Not tonight.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. My blood buzzed with lust. I could only imagine, by the erection in his pants, what he must be feeling.

He saw me looking. “Trust me, I would in a heartbeat—don’t look at me like that with those goddamn Bambi eyes—I would…”

I laughed and winced when I felt my face and hand contracting at the motion.

“Put some ice on that.” He motioned for me to go. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, alright?”

“Goodnight, Kai.” I smiled and did as he said. Even though my hand felt broken and my forehead was a mess, I had no visit from the Dark Stalker that night for the first time in a very long time.