Influenced a romantic co.., p.26
Influenced: A Romantic Comedy, page 26
“Is that why you still try calling?”
If looks could kill, I’d be dismembered, tossed in the ocean, and eaten by sharks with the way my ex is looking at me. “You’d know if you ever answered.”
Rolling my eyes, I’m about to put her in her place when Kaia presses herself against my side. I wrap my arm around her as she smiles innocently at Sidney.
“That’s my fault. I’m sorry,” she tells her and looks up at me. “I keep him pretty busy.”
Arching up on her toes, she kisses me slowly and intently. I’m not stupid enough to think it’s for my benefit, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy it anyway. When she finally pulls away, Sidney looks like someone kicked her puppy. She makes a noise of disgust and marches her little ass back over to her friends.
“I’m sorry. Was that rude?” Kaia asks.
I chuckle, pulling her closer and kissing the top of her head. “You’re my favorite pain in the ass.”
IN A HILARIOUS TWIST of fate, most of Sidney’s friends actually end up being fans of Kaia. It took a bit for them to admit it, but seeing what a sweetheart she is, once one came clean, they all followed. Kaia has spent the last hour doing Swype dances with them and following them all, while Sidney pouts in the corner.
But of course, mean girl mentality isn’t Kaia’s style, so it doesn’t surprise me when she goes over to Sid and tells her to join them. I smile fondly as I watch her.
“You two are good together,” Christian tells me.
Reluctantly pulling my gaze off Kaia, I look at him. “Come on, man. You know it’s not real.”
He smirks knowingly. “So you mean you’re not fucking her?”
I exhale a laugh as I look down at the floor.
“That’s what I thought.”
My gaze finds Kaia again, and I watch the way she interacts with everyone—as if she isn’t quickly becoming one of the most popular influencers on Swype. She’s just being herself.
“We’re just having fun.” The words feel wrong on my tongue. It feels like a lie. “It’s nothing serious.”
“Okay. You keep telling yourself that,” he tells me. “Though it might sound more believable if you weren’t looking at her like she hung the damn moon while you said it.”
IF I HAD A resume, it would probably read: Declan Royce, Master of Suppressing His Feelings, but Kaia always has been one to fuck all my rules while creating her own. So, it shouldn’t be a shock with this either, but it is.
It doesn’t hit me when we spend the night of my mom’s birthday playing board games with my family. Or the next day when I show her around my hometown. Or even the night of the party, when she won the approval of my best friend without giving a shit if she got it or not.
No.
It doesn’t hit me until we’re back home, in the most normal of circumstances.
Kaia is filming a dance video with Nate. A dance that he just can’t manage to get down, no matter how many times she teaches it to him. But every time she does it, she looks so damn good.
I can’t seem to take my eyes off her.
She hits each move the same way she always does, with a professional level of skill that makes it look less like a Swype dance trend and more like a music video. At the end of the routine, she does the move where she needs to bend over and stick her ass in the air. And let me tell you, it’s un-fucking-fair how good she makes that look.
My body wants to grab her. To walk in there, wrap my arms around her, and carry her ass up to my bedroom. The caveman in me wants to claim her all to myself, and make sure I’m the only one who ever gets to watch her shake her ass that way.
But I can’t.
And it’s fucking torture.
My gaze stays locked on her, until ice cold water splashes onto my head and runs down my back.
Every muscle in my body tenses as my hair covers my face and drips onto the floor. I turn around to see Havoc holding a now empty water bottle.
“You looked like you needed to cool off,” he says, pretending to care about my wellbeing.
I shake my hair out of my face and glance over to see Kaia looking back at me, smiling. She winks at me and giggles before going back to what she was doing. The gesture is so damn innocent, she probably doesn’t realize she did anything—but my world is immediately flipped onto its axis.
I am so fucked.
28
KAIA
“Declan,” I whine through a laugh. “Delete it.”
He shakes his head. “Absolutely not. This is perfect. I may even make it my background.”
“Don’t you dare.”
It was an accident, really. I was so engrossed in something on my phone, that I didn’t realize he was trying to get my attention. Apparently, he was trying to take a picture for his Instagram. And the fact that I just happened to look at him when he pressed the button was pure luck.
I look like something out of Dumb and Dumber.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen such a stupidly clueless look on my face.
Of course, the second Declan saw the picture, he fucking lost it. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, though he still managed to keep his phone away from me so I couldn’t delete the picture myself.
Realizing he isn’t going to give in, I sigh. “That’s fine. Just know if you post it anywhere, I still have the one of you playing Pretty, Pretty, Princess with Addy.”
His jaw drops. “You didn’t take a picture of that.”
“Oh, I definitely did,” I reply. “You were wearing clip-on earrings and a tiara. Not even a saint could resist snapping a photo of that.”
He groans. “At least that’s better than when she painted my nails pink.”
I try not to smile, but I can’t help it. “Don’t worry. I got that one too.”
Everything goes quiet, and I can practically see the gears turning in his head before he lunges. I hold my phone out of his reach, and then in a spur of the moment move, I quickly shove it into my bra. Declan looks down at my chest as he hovers over me.
“Baby, you don’t have to trick me to get me to go in there,” he jokes.
I throw my head back, laughing, but the humor is quickly stripped from the room when he uses the move as an opening to kiss my neck. It’s like he’s taken the time to memorize all my weaknesses—learned how to play my body like a violin.
My hips arch as he grinds down against me, both of us seeking pressure where we need it the most. When he slides his hand up my shirt and brushes the underside of my bra teasingly, he smirks.
“Are you just going to leave your phone in there?”
I take my bottom lip between my teeth. “Maybe I want you to get it for me.”
He hums. “Fucking gladly.”
Gripping my waist, he rolls us over so I’m straddling him. I flip my hair out of the way and stare down at him. Every part of me is regretting the no-kissing rule I set into place right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it makes sense, but that doesn’t mean I like it.
Dex arches his hips up at the same time he uses his hold on me to pull me down, and all my previous thoughts are wiped straight from my mind.
“Hey, D…” Havoc’s voice echoes into the room as he starts to open the door.
My eyes widen, and in a panic, I flip myself right off the side of Declan’s bed. My limbs go flailing and my body hits the floor with a thump, but the way Havoc keeps talking, it’s as if he doesn’t suspect a thing.
“Do you know where I left my board? Rhys said he hasn’t seen it.”
“Of course he did, because he’s the one that gave it away to some fan,” Declan answers, laughing.
Havoc exhales. “That son of a bitch.”
“Hey, I told you not to spray paint his favorite deck pink.”
“That was epic. Giving my board away is just plain rude.”
“Don’t kill the messenger,” Declan tells him. “I just live here.”
Havoc goes quiet before starting to retreat from the bed. “I’m going to think of a way to get him back.”
“You do that.”
“I will,” he answers. “Oh, and hey, Kaia.”
Fuck. I cringe as I squeak out a “hi.”
The door shuts, and within seconds, Declan is leaning over the side of the bed, gazing down at me and smiling.
“You could have told me he knew,” I tell him.
A small laugh bubbles out of him. “And miss the sight of you yeeting yourself off the bed? No way.”
Prick.
A hot prick, but still a prick.
ONE THING I DON’T think I’ll ever get tired of is the California sun. It shines down from the cloudless sky, heating my skin and contributing to the natural golden tan I’ve been working on since I moved here.
Normally, it comes with some much-needed peace and quiet, but not today. Lux and Maisee are obsessing over the fact that Brayden Hodges has been liking and commenting on some of my posts.
“He so wants you,” Lux says, her eyes trained on her phone.
“Name someone who doesn’t,” Maisee challenges her.
“Easy. Nate.”
Maisee snorts. “Did you see how he acted when she first moved in? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was his one vagina hall pass.”
My nose scrunches. “I love Nate, but that’s a disturbing thought. He gets more dick than I do.”
“Ugh, he called you flawless,” Lux groans. “Bitch.”
Before I can think better of it, my mouth opens and the word vomit comes out. “He said more than that in the DM he sent me.”
They both go completely silent, to the point where I have to open my eyes to make sure they didn’t randomly decide to walk away. When I look at them, I see Lux staring at me with her jaw dropped and Maisee trying her best not to laugh at our friend.
“He’s messaged you?” I nod slowly, almost scared to answer. “Saying what?”
“He asked me if I’d want to go out to dinner with him.”
“And you said?” The question comes from both sides of me.
“I didn’t answer,” I tell them honestly.
That seems to outrage Lux even more. “Why the hell not?”
“Because I’m supposed to be in a relationship with Declan?”
She rolls her eyes and looks over at the halfpipe. “Dex! Come over here.”
Jesus Christ.
Declan skates over on his board, looking way too good with his shorts hanging low on his hips, and his shirtless torso on full display.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“You’re a fucking cockblock.” Lux turns her phone to show one of the comments Brayden left on a picture I posted. “He even asked her out, but she can’t go out with him because she’s dating you.”
The air quotes she puts around the word dating makes me laugh.
Declan shrugs, looking completely unbothered. “What kind of douchebag would ask out someone’s girlfriend, anyway?”
“Fake girlfriend,” Maisee corrects him. “Unless that’s changed.”
Instead of answering, he just chuckles and flips her off as he skates away, effectively ending the conversation.
I CAN’T IMAGINE ANY house full of a bunch of twenty-something-year-olds could be boring, but I feel like this one is especially entertaining. Specifically, because we have Havoc and Mayhem. I hope their mother has been rewarded by karma, and the universe, and divine intervention, because I can’t imagine raising them was anything less than a mom’s definition of straight hell.
The two of them come running out of the house with their hands filled with boxes of Dreft detergent powder, shouting, “Foam party!”
Havoc walks over and slams his hand on the button, turning the custom jets on all around the pool as Mayhem starts pouring in the detergent. I stand at one end of the pool, watching as they ultimately ruin the pool and film it at the same time.
“Think Beau will be pissed?” Declan asks, appearing beside me.
I glance at him and back at the scene in front of us. “At the fact that he’s going to have to drain the pool to fix this shit? I’m not sure pissed is going to cover it.”
He snickers, but it sounds forced. We both go quiet as we watch Havoc and Mayhem, until Declan’s voice meets my ear again.
“You really haven’t answered him?”
My stomach flips at the question, because I know what the answer says about me. “Nope.”
He exhales, as if he was holding his breath that whole time. “Why not?”
“No desire to,” I say as my eyes meet his. “Besides, I have a boyfriend, remember? I’m happily taken.”
He doesn’t need to know that I don’t consider that last part to be a lie. We may not be dating for real, but the things we do behind closed doors don’t feel like pretend.
All the tension seems to drain from his body as I brush my hand against his, but when he looks back at the pool, his jaw drops. I follow his gaze and can’t help but do the same.
There are bubbles everywhere.
I’m not talking a few clusters here and there. It looks like the pool went to Starbucks and got topped with cold foam.
“Holy shit!” Mayhem yells. “This is fucking awesome!”
Havoc hands the camera off to Lux and Maisee, and both twins jump in at once, doing a cannon ball and disappearing into the foam. I’m not even entirely sure it’s safe, but when Declan and I give each other the same look, all reservations are gone.
He puts his hand out and I take it, squeezing tightly as we run full speed and leap into the water. It feels cold as we plummet beneath the surface, and I have to let go of Declan’s hand to swim back up.
The video is bound to look amazing—with Rhys doing a backflip into the foam and Nate lying on a giant inflatable unicorn as he picks up a handful of bubbles and blows them toward the camera. Even Beau does a swan dive in after he got over his immediate reaction of what the actual fuck did you do and opted for it’s too late now.
All in all, I can’t wait to see what it ends up looking like finished and edited.
Once the camera is put away, we decide to enjoy it while we have it. I mean, it would be shitty to make Beau go through the hassle of having the pool fixed just for a few minutes of video, right?
Mayhem makes a fake beard out of the bubbles, while I put a handful on Declan’s head. I reach over and grab my phone from the ledge, taking a picture.
“I have to send this to your mom,” I tell him. “Addy is going to love it.”
Opening a text with Liz, I send her the picture, with a note to show Addy that her favorite Ducky finally found his bubbles. I press send and toss my phone onto the nearest lounge chair.
“The bubbles are going away!” Havoc whines.
Sure enough, I glance around to see that most of them are gone, but when my eyes land on Dex, I find him already staring back at me. He looks like he’s deep in thought, as if he’s battling some massive internal conflict, but there’s also that sparkle I adore so much.
I smile, not able to help myself when he’s looking at me like that.
“What?”
And the next thing I know, his lips are on mine.
29
DECLAN
Fuck the rules.
That’s all that goes through my head before I pull her in and kiss her in front of everyone, breaking all three rules in one move.
Fuck the rules.
Fuck the boundaries.
Fuck anything that keeps her from being mine, because goddamn it, I can’t do it anymore.
I can’t sit here and act like I’m pretending when I pull her closer because she’s too far away. Like she’s not someone I would be happy to stare at all damn day while she texts my mom and talks about my baby sister.
I’m not pretending.
Not anymore.
Not with her.
Her mouth moves against my own, kissing me back and breathing the life into me. I place one hand on the small of her back to pull her closer, while my other hand rests on her cheek. She sighs into my mouth, and it’s fucking intoxicating.
Just as I start to bite and suck on her lower lip, someone whistles. I keep my eyes closed and rest my forehead against hers, laughing breathlessly.
When we finally pull apart, it’s to find every member of the house staring at us—slack-jawed and confused. Well, everyone except Havoc. He’s just smirking, clearly feeling special at being in on the secret.
Maisee is the first one to speak. “So, we do this now?”
Kaia chuckles and dips down into the water as she starts to back away. “You can deal with that, Casanova. You did it.”
I roll my eyes playfully but don’t argue it, because she’s right. I did this. I’d do it again without hesitation, but I was the one who ripped our secret from its hiding place and threw it at their feet.
But I don’t know how to answer her. So I don’t answer her at all.
I cup my hand and smirk as I send a wave of water flying in Maisee’s direction. The sound of her shriek fills the air as she tries and fails to shield herself from it. And it’s the perfect distraction, because within moments, everyone is in a water fight.
And I get away with not having to confirm or deny anything—at least for now.
I WAKE IN THE morning, feeling like the world is mine. The sun rests on my face and wills me to get up, but when I feel for the warm body next to me, I’m met with a cold, empty bed. I sit up and look around Kaia’s room, but there’s no sign of her.
I slip out of bed and run my fingers through my hair to detangle it as I make my way downstairs. It doesn’t take long before I find Kaia, sitting on the kitchen island and eating a yogurt.
“You ditched me,” I tell her as I slip between her legs and rest my hands on her waist.
She scoffs playfully. “I did not ditch you. I got hungry. You wear me out.”
I lightly dig my fingers into her sides. “Nice try, Superstar, but we didn’t even have sex last night.”
