I recalled him saying he played guitar, but I’d never actually seen or heard him play. Kaidan began to pick at each string, testing and tuning with his full attention. I watched the way his hands moved across the wood and strings, gently, reverently, his body seeming to curl around it as if it were a part of him. . . . I felt my hands getting sweaty, because watching Kaidan get lost in music did crazy things to me. My breathing became ragged and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He looked up at that moment and caught me staring hard. He knew. He knew what it did to me! I could tell because his badge expanded.
He angled himself away from the others and signed to me, I want to be alone with you tonight.
Patti did have a lot of guests staying in the house. I signed back, I’ll work on it.
“Excellent,” he whispered, a hot grin sliding onto his face.
“Hey, Kai,” Jay called from across from us.
“Yeah, mate?”
“What’s the difference between a drummer and a large pizza?”
Kai held back a smile. “I’ve no clue.”
“A large pizza can feed a family of four!”
Everyone cracked up.
Blake said, “Thank God for Daddy’s money, huh?”
“Bloody right.” Kaidan turned his attention back to the guitar. When the first rich notes of a popular ballad met my ears, I stared at his forearms and lower biceps, then his fingers as they moved, seemingly without effort. The way he concentrated and fell into his own world fascinated me. Each sound was clear and vibrant, stirring my blood until I had a dizzying head rush. Yep, I was taking this guy home tonight. He was all mine.
I went upstairs and found Patti making the second guest bed. I got on the other side to help straighten the sheet. “So . . . I was wondering if you minded if Kaidan and I went back to my dorm tonight, since you have a houseful and all? We’d be back first thing in the morning.”
She tried to keep a straight face, but I could see her fighting a smile. “Sure thing, honey.” She may have been the woman who raised me, but she was also a romantic.
Kaidan and I weren’t the only people walking across campus close to midnight, but we might have been the only sober ones. At one point while we were walking I heard distant cheers, then Kaidan busted out laughing next to me. I followed his eyes and the sounds until I spied the backs of three naked guys streaking across the quad.
Kaidan covered my eyes, but we were both cracking up.
We passed a big group of girls who were talking at top volume, giggling like crazy. They got quiet when they saw Kaidan, putting all their energy into staring as hard as they could. Kai didn’t even glance their way, but his fingers tightened around mine as if to reassure me.
The moment we passed them, they broke into another round of giggles and began talking over one another about how all the hottest guys were taken. It was strange to think we looked like an average college couple. Kaidan released my hand to put his arm around my shoulder, and mine went around his waist, my thumb linking through a belt loop. We threw all caution to the wind, but Kaidan’s eyes stayed always on alert. Always searching.
When we got closer to the building, I wondered if I was allowed to bring him in. Probably not since it was an all-girl dorm. I made Kaidan wait for me at a side exit while I went in and then came to get him. As soon as the heavy door clicked closed behind him, he pinned me to the wall with a hard kiss. I let myself pull him close and melt into him, savoring our aloneness. I forced my mouth from his so I could talk.
“For the record, you can play guitar for me anytime.”
Dark hair hung in his eyes as he loomed over me, so hot. “Liked that, did you?”
He took my mouth again and I groaned just thinking about his hands on the guitar. His hands on me.
He grinned and said, “I love it that you have to sneak me in.”
“I’m such a rebel,” I joked. “You’re getting the college experience without having to take any classes.”
Kai crinkled his nose. “Something smells bad.” He looked at the floor suspiciously.
“See? The full experience. Come on.” I pulled him up the stairs, careful not to step in any mysterious puddles along the way.
When we got into my room, Kaidan reminded me of everything I’d been missing since our wedding night, and more.
At two in the morning we lay half asleep, spooning on the twin-size dorm bed. I ran my fingers up and down his arm.
“Do you ever let yourself dream?” I asked him. “Like, imagine what the future could be like?”
Kaidan paused. “No. But I’m betting you do.” He placed a kiss on my bare shoulder.
“Yeah.” For a while after I found out I was a Nephilim, I had laid my dreams to rest, but since finding out about the prophecy, they’d been reignited. Dreams gave me hope. “I want you to dream big with me.”
Kaidan was contemplative, having grown up believing that these kind of wishful thoughts were dangerous.
Finally he said, “Tell me your dream for us, sweet Anna.”
I smiled into the darkened room. “It starts with us defeating the Dukes. We survive and they’re gone. We can do whatever we want with our lives. I know you love music, so I figure you’ll still work with music in some way. When I finish college, I want to be a social worker. I’d be able to gauge the danger kids are in better than a human could since I can see their emotions. I’ll be able to rescue children from bad situations.”
“I can picture that.” Kaidan brushed hair off my neck. I felt his lips running up and down over my shoulder and the dip of my throat, but I sensed he was still paying attention, so I kept going.
“We could live wherever you wanted. Patti would probably follow us. After a few years of working, we could think about adopting. I know Patti would just die to babysit while we work.”
“Wow. Kids.”
“Yeah . . . like five or six.”
“Five or six?”
I held back a giggle.
“You’re a nutter,” he said, laughing. “One boy. Maybe two boys, but even that’s pushing it.”
I couldn’t believe he was playing along.
“We have to have girls, too!”
Behind me, he stiffened and the room went silent.
“No girls.” He was deadly serious.
I rolled over to face him. Before I could say a word, he sat up and shuddered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He dug the heels of his hands into his tired eyes. “I can’t even . . . just the thought of having to care for a girl, watching all the bloody gits sniff around her with their red auras . . . it would kill me and I would deserve it, because I was the worst offender of all.”