Chapter 11: Chapter Eleven--I Hope This Night Never Ends
“Tell me something,” I asked.
“Hmm?”
“Why did everyone stop moving when you said I was under your protection? What does that even mean?”
He laughed. “You’re observant, aren’t you? That must’ve lasted all of three seconds.”
“I spend more time watching people, than interacting them. The finer points of humanity aren’t lost on me.”
He rolled his shoulders. I’d imagined if he had feathers, I’d just ruffled them. I didn’t have the slightest clue how.
“When I speak, they listen.”
“I noticed that too, as if your word is gospel. Why is that?”
“Most of the time it is.”
I swallowed a thick lump. In my beer-wrought haze, the first sliver of light pierced me. “Do you guys belong to some kind of cult? Did you bring me out here to sacrifice me to some god no one has ever heard of?”
He shook his head, tossing his hair. “Your imagination greatly amuses me.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I wouldn’t hurt you, Katrina.”
I shook my head. “You are frustratingly evasive.”
He pulled me to a stop. His hand ran down my jaw and turned my head. “It’s the way of the beast.”
“Is that what you are? A beast?”
“In a manner of speaking. To answer your question, I feel protective of you.”
“Why is that?”
“You are full of curiosity. I am unaccustomed to having intentions questions.”
I pulled him to a stop. “Get used to it, bud. I don’t answer to you.”
“No,” he mused. “I guess you don’t.” A long breath exploded from his lungs.
I’d sworn I’d heard him whisper, “Yet.” But I wasn’t sure.
I tapped my foot.
“As for my protective urges, they come as natural to me, as your aversion to social interaction.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your demeanor loses all that vibrant, youthful joy, particularly when you are not with Lola. As if she is your shield, which is understandable. The farther you get from her, the more artificial layers are peeled back, to reveal an untrusting, cynical woman.”
My tattered pride kicked in. I straightened to my full height. All five-two of it. “You sound so sure of yourself—of me.”
He shrugged, my hard tone rolling off him. “As you do, I observe the people around me. I know what broken looks and feels like. I hate that at your age there is any need for it at all. Listen, I get that I’ve barely scratched the surface, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Today aside, I sense you keep your pain under wraps. You don’t open up easily, and I’m honored you decided to tell me the parts you did.”
His sincerity brought tears to my eyes I refused to unleash. I blinked them back. I hated to admit it, but the man got under my skin.
I’d become adept at reading people, seeing through their lies and betrayals. I recognized falsehoods, because I’d had to tell so many over the course of my life to get through. Kalvyn had yet to tell me a lie, if you didn’t take omission into account. How could I be angry about that, when I hadn’t told him every sordid detail?
I’d never be a hypocrite.
He pulled me into a hug. My cheek rested against his bare chest. I tipped my head back, to watch an array of emotions cross his face, any one too quick for me to comprehend.
“What are you?” I bit my tongue. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
One corner of his mouth twitched. “Don’t ask questions you aren’t ready to hear the answer to.”
My heart skipped a beat. “So, how am I supposed to take that?”
“Take the comment however you prefer.”
“Do you typically have this conversation with complete strangers?”
“No, and you’re not just a regular human, Katrina. You’re so much more than that. Somehow.” He studied me. “Ask me again what I am in a few days. I just might tell you what you want to know.”
I pulled away, only to have his arms tighten around me.
“Cue the evasive. Again.”
“I just have the feeling I can confide in you, but right now, this is about you, not me.” That brilliant smile painted his lips with perfect contentment, though the murky apprehension in his eyes suggested a clink in the show he sought to put on. “Enough of the dark. That is not why I asked you to accompany me. I wanted to add light.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“Ahh, beautiful, I have my ways. I can assure you.”
He released all but my hand and walked backward. Two parts of me warred. The hopeful side whispered, “Go with him. It’s time to let go and do something for you.”
The cynical side, screamed, “Run, you fool! Don’t you sense the danger here?”
Later, I’d question why my body hummed when he was close. How the sound of his voice soothed my mind. I craved him, unlike anything I’d wanted in my life. I’d take a page out of Lola’s book and take what I wanted.
I took a long pull of my beer, then gave the skeptical part of me a shove. “Fuck it,” I whispered.
“Drink up, for where we’re going, you won’t want to bring the beer.” He drained his, and I followed his lead through a clearing.
We came out onto a smooth stone the size of three of my trucks. The cliff overlooked a beautiful lagoon. The moon caressed the gentle lapping of the water that reflected the dozens of stars peeking out from behind creamy clouded drifting over the horizon.
I slipped out of my shoes, so I could feel the cool smoothness of the rock beneath my heels. He placed our empty beer bottles beside my flip-flops, straightening to his mammoth height.
He walked backward, toward the slope of the rock that led to the edge. “Feeling adventurous?”
“Certainly, more than usual.”
“Have you ever been cliff jumping?”
“Nope, and I’m not going to start now.” Even as I said this, I wondered what it would be like. I’d been that kid who sat on the sidelines, watching others do the stupid, exciting stuff, while I’d been too damned scared.
He circled me, and I rotated with him. “Come now, Katrina. Tell me, have you ever done anything truly exhilarating, pushing past your limits until you couldn’t see them anymore? Something that made your heart race, adrenaline pumping through you?”
The naughty answer that flashed in my mind never left my mouth. But it flashed in my eyes. My cheeks burned. He threw his head back and laughed.
“Okay, perhaps the wrong description. Ever jumped out of a plane?”
“Hell no.”
“Bungee jumped?”
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
“True. Okay. Realism I can do. Ridden a roller coaster?”
“No. I don’t trust those things.”
He stopped. So, did I.
“Is there anything you do trust?” he said. Yeah, Lola. But that went without saying. “It’s time for a change, Katrina. It’s time for you to step out of your suffocating box. Life isn’t life, until you live it.”
“By jumping off of a cliff?”
“For you, baby steps are necessary.” He turned me around and pointed over the edge. “To feel the wind running through your hair, caressing your skin. The freefall is how you break free from oppression.” He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and walked around me. “Take a leap of faith. Find your freedom. Live.”
Oh my God, he pouted. Kalvyn stuck that temptingly full bottom lip out. He batted his too-thick eyelashes!
“I’m afraid of heights,” I admitted.
“Ahh, fear. Mankind’s greatest crippling block. Fear is of the unknown, until you crash through barriers, take fate by the hair and make her your bitch.”
Now that’s a visual for you.
“And if I break something?”
“We’re hitting deep water down there, not concrete. I wouldn’t ask you to do something, if there was a chance you would hurt yourself. I’ve jumped much higher.”
“Only you could make a rational argument out of this.”
“Is that a yes?”
“If I die, I’ll kill you.” No, the contradiction was not lost on me.
“I will keep you safe, Katrina. I gave you my protection. That is no small thing.”
I rolled my eyes to hide my nervousness. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
“I promise you won’t regret this.”
I snickered. “You promise a lot.”
“I never break my promises. Once you get to know me, you will understand what honor and integrity mean to me.”
I swallowed. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s plummet to our impending death before I lose my nerve.”
“My, my. I think I am insulted with your pessimism. Tomorrow, we shall work on that.”
He didn’t give me a chance to reply. He yanked on my arm, and we ran at the cliff full speed.