“Hey!” she hollered. “Could you keep it down
for a few more minutes? I’m trying to finish a video!”
She waited for a response, but none came.
Kyra glanced back at the clock; she really didn’t want to have to
redo this video. As much as she said the mask was great, it really
stunk. Her whole bedroom reeked. If she stopped now, her video
would be ruined. But she only had a minute left before she could
wipe it off. She looked at the blinking red light on her camera and
held her breath.
Today was not her lucky day, and it was
apparent Hale really did hate her. From the back of the house came
the blaring sounds of the stereo. Kyra gasped and covered her ears.
It was louder than ever before. She felt the vibration of the music
from the floor beneath her. People on the other side of town could
likely hear this music.
“Hale!” she screamed. “Turn it down!”
Nothing happened. The clock said it was time
to take the mask off, but if she didn’t get that music off, her
video would be ruined. With a scream of frustration, she jumped to
her feet and raced down the stairs.
It wasn’t hard to find Hale. He was in the
dining room, destroying a wall with a heavy sledge hammer. He swung
again and plaster flew in bits from the gaping hole he’d made.
Through her rage, Kyra sincerely hoped that was a wall they’d
agreed to actually tear down and that Hale wasn’t just taking out
his anger on her house.
Kyra stomped into the room and unplugged the
stereo. The silence was almost as loud as the music had been. Hale
whirled around, his expression murderous. He flung the sledge
hammer to the ground.
“What the hell?” he shouted.
His pale green eyes were wild and sparking
with rage. Every muscle on his body stood out in rigid salute. Even
like this, Kyra had to admit he was hot with his tattoos and
flaring nostrils, but he didn’t hold a candle to her anger.
“I told you I was making a video!”
Hale noticed her mask just then. At the same
moment, Kyra remembered it too. She must look like an idiot, but
the thought only pissed her off more.
“Do you know how hard this was to make?” she
screeched, pointing at her mask.
“Looks like you rubbed your face in cow
shit,” Hale said with a sneer. He crossed his arms over his
chest.
“Well, it’s not. It’s very expensive mud,
actually.” Kyra checked her watch. “And you’ve ruined my
video!”
Hale shrugged. “So make another.”
Her mouth fell open in shock. She sputtered,
“Make another? Do you listen to anything I say? This mud was
expensive and I only had enough for one!”
“It’s on your face. What’s the big
deal?”
“The big deal? Can’t you tell?” She gestured
wildly to her face.
“It’s not readily apparent.”
“It’s dry!” Kyra shouted, throwing her hands
up in frustration. “I was supposed to take it off while it was
still wet!”
“You’re right. That makes complete sense.”
He bent and picked up his sledge hammer. “Probably should have
taken it off instead of coming down here and yelling at me.”
He went to plug in his stereo again, but
Kyra blocked his way. “Are you serious?” She shouted.
Hale looked around like she was talking to
someone else. “Makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Ugh! What is your problem?”
“What’s
your
problem?”
“I don’t have a problem!” She kicked his
stereo to prove her point. “You have the problem. I thought we were
being nice to each other now. What happened? Do you hate me that
much?”
A line formed between Hale’s eyebrows. He
drew back slightly. “I don’t hate you.”
“Then why do you act like it?”
“Do I?” He seemed genuinely confused. “I’m
just in a bad mood, okay? So back off.”
“Oh, well, I’m
so
sorry you’re in a
bad mood,” Kyra said sarcastically. “Trust me when I say I really
hate
that for you, but my videos are important to me.”
“My music is important to me.”
“So keep it turned down!”
“I like it loud.”
It was all too much. Hale Cooper was the
most infuriating and stubborn man she’s ever met. Kyra howled in
frustration.
“It ruins my videos!”
“I hate that for you,” he said, his
expression looking way too cocky for Kyra’s taste. He was making
fun of her; he thought she was a joke. Then he actually laughed at
her, and Kyra saw red.
She couldn’t hit him. She didn’t believe in
violence. Besides, she doubted she could do much damage, but she
wanted to bring him down a peg or two. She wanted to knock him on
his ass for once.
While he was still laughing, she launched
herself up his tall frame. She was athletic and just tall enough to
make it work. Her body hit his, and he staggered back into the wall
he had been bent on destroying moments before, sending bits of
plaster raining down on them. He struggled to catch her in his
shock, but Kyra latched her legs around his hips. She raked her
hands behind his head and jerked his face to her.
Her lips crushed against his. She forced his
mouth open and flicked her tongue inside. Immediately, all the heat
in her body flooded between her legs. His mouth felt amazing
against hers, and he tasted of coffee, which made the kiss
literally delicious.
He was too surprised to react at first. Then
his hands tightened on her waist, and he kissed her back. Kyra
sucked in a breath at his attack against her mouth. He took control
of the kiss and deepened it. Kyra’s hand slapped up to the wall
behind them as she struggled to hold on.
He was a fantastic kisser, even if it was
rough, which was just like she’d imagined. He bruised her lips
between his and thrust his tongue deep in her mouth. Kyra had
limited experience kissing, and it had never been like this. She
couldn’t keep up, so she gave into him.
When he’d claimed every part of her mouth,
he pulled back. His eyes gleamed with the hard lust she felt
pressing into her. He panted as his chest heaved against her.
But Kyra couldn’t hold back the laugh. It
bubbled out of her mouth until she threw back her head and howled
with it. Hale’s grip tightened and when she looked back at him, his
expression was thunderous.
“You laughing at me?” he growled.
Kyra could only nod. Tears were streaming
down her face. Hale glared and sat her down roughly. She bent over
double and pointed at him as she laughed.
“
What the hell
?”
“Your face!” Kyra gasped, clutching her
side.
Hale’s face was covered with her mud mask.
He reached up and confirmed it. His fingers pulled away with a dark
brown, cakey sludge. “This shit stinks!”
“I know!” Kyra howled. “It really does!”
“You don’t look much better,” Hale said as
he tried to wipe off the mask. He looked so indignant that Kyra
lost it again. Hale watched with a glower, but apparently it was
too much for him too. The tiniest form of a smile spread across his
lips and brightened his eyes.
It was so unbelievable that Kyra’s laughter
died off. She stared at him in awe as he smiled at her, his
shoulders vibrating with his own slight laughter. He was the most
amazing thing Kyra had ever seen. His smile, this smile, was so
perfect. Everything she’d felt that night at the bar came flooding
back.
Hale finally noticed she wasn’t laughing
anymore. His smile fell away and his eyes darkened once again.
“What are you staring at?”
“You,” Kyra breathed.
Hale frowned, his brows drawing together.
“Why?”
Kyra shook her head at him. He let everyone
assume the worst of him with their judgments, but if he would just
try a little harder and let people see who he really was, they
would see how amazing he could be. She felt like one of the
privileged few to have broken through his rough exterior, and she
bet he didn’t give away those smiles often.
She grinned. “Because you’re a beautiful
person, Hale Cooper. And for some ungodly reason, you let everyone
in this town think you’re an asshole, but now I know
different.”
eleven
K
yra thought she’d
stunned Hale into silence, but she wasn’t that lucky.
“What was that?” He stomped out to the front
room, cutting Kyra’s grand exit short. She paused at the
stairs.
“I kissed you.”
“Why?”
Hale was so angry she’d kissed him that it
was almost cute. “Because I needed to get your attention. Will you
keep your music down now?”
It took a moment for him to register her
words. Then his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
Even if she hadn’t enjoyed the kiss as much as she had, watching
Hale Cooper struggle for words would’ve been reward enough.
“You kissed me like
that
to make me
turn down the music?”
“Yep!” She beamed at him and started up the
stairs.
He jumped forward and grabbed her. “Oh, no.
You’re not leaving. You’re going to explain yourself.”
“I just did.”
“No, you didn’t. That was a stupid reason.
You don’t kiss a person like that and say it was for a stupid
reason. That’s just…
stupid
.” Hale glared up at her when he’d
finished.
“That was really eloquent, Hale Cooper. What
reason do you want me to say?”
“The real one,” he growled.
Kyra frowned at his vivid, livid expression.
Kissing him had stirred something inside her, and she felt
incredibly brave. Seeing him now, demanding the truth from her,
stirred that something even harder, and the words were out of her
mouth before she could stop them. “Because I’ve wanted to for a
while, and you’ve been so mean to me lately that you haven’t given
me any other good opportunity. So I took one.”
He didn’t seem to know what to say. Finally,
he opened his mouth to speak right when a thumping knock came from
the front door. She held up her other hand.
“Hold that thought.”
She pulled out of his grip and jogged over
to the front door. She threw it open with a smile that quickly fell
away.
“Hello, Kyra.”
“Florence,” Kyra managed.
Her grandmother stood in all her nasty glory
on Kyra’s sagging front porch. Her graying hair was in a perfect,
prim bun. Even her shirt was buttoned to the topmost button, which
suffocated Kyra just to look at.
“What in Heaven’s name is on your face?”
Florence asked, her lip curling up in disgust.
“Oh.” Kyra wiped some of the mud from her
face. “It’s a mud mask. Wait. Why are you here?”
Florence sniffed and peered around Kyra into
the house. She instantly saw Hale standing at the stairs. “I’ve
come to offer you this money to leave.”
Her grandmother stuck out an envelope
stuffed with cash, waving it at Kyra when she didn’t take it
immediately. It had to be a decent amount of money; the envelope
was pretty thick. But Kyra crossed her arms over her chest and
said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Florence laughed, the sound fit to come from
an evil sea-witch. “I’ve been very generous. It’s more than you
deserve.”
After the confrontation yesterday with
Florence, Kyra’s nerves felt fried. She didn’t know if she was
going to start crying or screaming at her grandmother. “I’m not
leaving. This is my home now.”
“You don’t belong here,” Florence hissed,
leaning in close to Kyra’s face. Her perfume was musty and too
floral, and Kyra resisted the urge to sneeze into her face.
“Excuse me,” Hale said from behind Kyra. She
stepped aside as he walked to the door. “But it seems slightly rude
to tell someone that she doesn’t belong in the house she just
bought.”
Florence looked Hale up and down, taking in
his tattoos and piercings. Her judgment was perfectly clear on her
face. Then she noticed the mud, and her dangerous gaze flicked back
to Kyra. “I should’ve known you’d be just like your mother. She was
a slut too.”
Hale took a step forward, but Kyra put up
her arm and braced it against the door frame to block him. “How
could you say that about your own daughter?” she asked, completely
shocked and repulsed by Florence.
“It’s the truth,” Florence hissed. She
wrinkled her nose at Kyra and Hale. “You’re both trash, and you
will be leaving.” Florence jabbed a pointed, sharp-nailed finger
into Kyra’s chest. Hale tensed behind her, her arm going to his
chest to stop him, which made Florence laugh again. “What are you
going to do? Hit an old woman?”
“If she deserves it,” Hale growled.
Florence’s smug look fell away. She stepped
back, looking truly afraid of him now. She hurried down the steps,
but called back to Kyra, “One way or another, you will be leaving
this place!”
With those words, Florence slid into her
swanky Cadillac and roared away, leaving Kyra standing in her open
doorway with her eyebrows raised. She didn’t know why she’d
expected anything different from her grandmother. Never once had
the woman shown any interest in Kyra. Not one birthday or Christmas
card. Not even a toy doll.
Kyra slammed the door a little harder than
necessary before she turned to Hale. “You wouldn’t really have hit
her would you?”
Hale’s voice was flat. “No.”
“Good, because if I’m ever moved to
violence, I want to be the one to slap some sense into her.”
Her words must have surprised Hale. He let
out a snort of laughter, and she won another rare, almost-there
smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Thanks.”
“That was your grandmother?” Hale asked.
“Canaan is a very small town,” Kyra mumbled.
“And you still didn’t realize that Florence Aberdeen was my
grandmother?”
“I make it a point not to get to know these
people.”
“Clearly.”
Talking with Florence had drained Kyra. Her
good mood had evaporated, and all she could think about was getting
to the water. She imagined the cool, salty kiss of the ocean on her
flushed skin. She needed it.