Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1) (17 page)

“You make a terrible bedfellow what with all your jittering
and giggling,” he said.

“Stop tickling me.”

“Not tickling. Learning.”

Violet pressed her lips together, amused and confused at
the same time. “Learning?”

“You,” Kaz said, his voice thick with sleep. “I’m learning
you.”

Oh.

She hadn’t expected him to say that. Suddenly, the
exploration of his fingers on her skin as they laid close to one another under
sheets in the dark didn’t feel quite the same as it had. The ticklish
sensations gave way to a much more contented, deep-thrumming need with every
slide and caress of his fingers.

She stopped moving.

Her giggles ceased.

Tilting her head up, Violet found Kaz with his eyes closed
and a lax, lazy smile curving his lips upwards at the edge. He looked so
relaxed, like there was no other place he wanted to be right then.

“Better,” he whispered. “Sleep.”

Violet knew it would probably be a good idea to go home
right then, and not wait until morning when she was more likely to be caught in
Little Odessa—never mind with Kaz. But strangely, she didn’t want to say a
thing, and she really didn’t want to move an inch. She liked the feeling of his
arm resting over her side, his fingers grazing her skin, and the comforting
familiarity that was seeping into her consciousness the longer she spent time
with Kaz.

Somehow, a simple hookup had turned into them tangled up
close to one another in his bed, and what should have been over as quickly as
it started, was looking like it would end up continuing well into the morning.

Violet still didn’t care.

She let his wandering fingers soothe her to sleep.

Violet liked the sun. It was hot and bright and pretty. Her
father liked to say that she was a lot like the sun—lighting up people’s days.
She didn’t understand what he meant.

He also said she asked a lot of questions.

She didn’t think she asked a lot of questions.

When the sun was out, she could play all day and never get
cold, wet, or sad. She couldn’t be sad when the sun was high and shining down.

Lifting her head up and closing her eyes, Violet felt the
sun warm her cheeks. She knew it wouldn’t be very long before the cold came,
because the leaves were already turning different colors.

Reds. Browns. Yellows. Oranges.

All sorts of colors.

But as quickly as the sun had peeked out from behind the
clouds, it was gone. The wind picked up, cooling her warm face.

Sighing, Violet opened her eyes again.

She glanced over at her new friend—Kaz, he said.

Kazimir.

He didn’t like Kazimir.

He liked Kaz.

His glasses hid his eyes, but she knew he was watching her,
waiting.

“Well?” he asked.

“It’s gone again.”

“But didn’t you see it before it went?”

Violet kicked her white sneakers to and fro, rocking the
bench she was sitting on with Kaz. “Nope.”

Kaz laughed. “You’re supposed to be watching, Violet.”

“Can’t you try?”

“No,” Kaz said.

“Because your eyes hurt, right?”

Kaz nodded. “A lot.”

Violet frowned. “Will they always hurt?”

“I hope not,” he muttered.

Violet glanced around the quiet place. She really didn’t
understand what it was, but she remembered being at a place like this once a
few months ago when her Grandmama got sick, went to sleep, and didn’t wake back
up. They put her Grandmama in a big, shiny black box with latches and bars on
the side, and then put her in the ground. Lots of people came and they cried.

She hadn’t seen her Grandmama since, and her Grandpapa was
always sad now.

All the stones in the quiet place were mostly shiny, but
some weren’t. Letters and words covered them all. Violet could read a few small
words, but not the big ones.

“What does … rest … mean?” she asked Kaz, finding one word
she could pronounce because of the letters.

“Um, my dad says resting means relaxing. Being quiet,
still. Sleeping, sometimes.”

Violet nodded. That made sense.

This was the quiet place. It was a good spot to
rest
.

Her father had told her to be a good girl when they first
arrived at the quiet place. He said other stuff, too, like “respect” and
“graves”.

Violet didn’t really know what all that meant.

But she figured that since she was sitting with Kaz, and
not running around, she was being a good girl, and respecting the graves.

Whatever those were.

Suddenly, the quiet place brightened again and Violet’s
cheeks warmed with the rays of the sun.

“Sun is back,” Kaz said.

Violet was already looking up, but she closed her eyes
again. It only lasted a few seconds longer than the last time, but her face
stayed warmer for longer, too.

After the sun was hidden behind the clouds again, Kaz
asked, “Well, what does it look like today?”

Violet shrugged. “I don’t know. I closed my eyes again.”

“You’re supposed to be helping me see.”

She was.

Violet smiled. “The sun keeps hiding and it doesn’t stay
for long.”

“What do the trees look like, then?”

“Pretty.”

“Pretty?” Kaz asked.

“Colorful.”

“What colors?”

“All the colors,” she said, giggling.

“Tell me more,” Kaz replied.

Violet started describing everything she could see for her
new friend.

Because he couldn't see.

And that wasn’t fair.

She didn’t mind.

Kaz was smiling.

K
az came awake slowly,
then all at once. The sharp rays of sunlight peeking through the drapes of his
bedroom were too fucking bright this early in the morning. With a groan, he
rolled over, putting his back to the windows, his arm stretching out beside
him, but coming up short when he was met with soft skin.

There was a moment of confusion as his foggy mind tried to
catch up with what his hands were feeling. Nevertheless, he continued on,
letting his fingers slide down and over feminine curves. Memories of the night
before slammed back into him as his eyes opened and he took in the sight of
blonde hair fanning out along his sheets and pillows.

From what he could tell, Violet was still sleeping, her
chest rising and falling with even breaths as she remained unaware to his
movements. How many hours had gone by as he had familiarized himself with the
very curves he was tracing once more? Did it matter? He still felt like there
was so much left to learn.

Even more so when it came to the woman herself.

Slipping out of bed, careful not to jostle her, he headed
in the direction of the bathroom, leaving the lights off as he went. After
relieving himself and washing his hands, he splashed water on his face, trying
to further wake himself up. He had only been gone a handful of minutes at most,
but as he reentered his bedroom, he could see that Violet was awake, though she
hadn’t moved from her spot in his bed.

And, oh, what a sight she made.

She was naked beneath that gray sheet she held against her
chest. Her hair rumpled and in disarray, she
looked
like she had spent
the night getting fucked. He might have smiled at that thought, but for the way
she was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and dawning realization.

Curious, he asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I remember you,” she said just soft enough that he almost
didn’t hear her. “We were in a graveyard? I think? I’m not really sure—it was
all fuzzy.”

It wasn’t fuzzy for Kaz. He remembered that day well,
mostly that he didn’t want to go. After the car bomb shortly before, Kaz had
hated any kind of light, the sight of it making his head hurt instantly, even
with the thick, opaque sunglasses Vasily had bought for him.

His father hadn’t told him much of what was going to happen
that day, only that he was expected to be there, and to be on his best
behavior. Even at ten years old, he knew better than to disappoint his father,
especially on a day as important as that one, even if he didn’t know it at the
time.

It had been one of the few times that Kaz had seen Alberto
Gallucci in person, and the lone time he had seen Violet in person before a few
weeks ago. More, it wasn’t the Italian Don, or his father’s excitement after
the meeting had taken place, that he remembered most about that day.

It was Violet.

She had to have been no more than four at the time, but she
smiled and talked to him like they were the same age. There had been no fear in
her when she spoke, talking about things he couldn’t see as she described them
for him.

It was the sun, she had said, that shined the brightest …

Thinking back on it, he wasn’t so sure that was true.

“Yeah,” he finally responded. “It was a graveyard.”

She ran fingers through her hair, trying to tame it as best
she could, even as she looked away from him, trying to remember a past that he
knew all too well. “Why were we there, though?”

That was one answer even Kaz didn’t have. He had asked
Vasily once, what he and Alberto had discussed that day, but his father had
never given him an answer, and even forbid him from asking about it again.
Until recently, he had abided by that—truthfully, he hadn’t given a shit to ask
again—but now, he was a little more curious.

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t seem surprised by his lack of knowledge. “That
was what you meant then, when you said we met before?”

Pushing off the wall, he crossed the floor in a few, quick
strides, and stretched out at the foot of the bed, tucking his hands beneath
his head. “It was.”

“Funny that no one’s ever mentioned that,” she said almost
absently, shifting in the bed so she was sitting up.

Especially with the way Vasily talked about the man, as
though he was the scum of the earth. One would think that the two men had never
seen eye to eye on anything, but at one point, at least for a time, they had.
There had been no bullets fired that day, nor had any voices raised above
pleasant conversation level.

Strange. All of it was fucking strange.

But the last thing Kaz wanted to be doing presently was
thinking about his father, and hers, knowing that if either of them knew what
was happening at that very moment, Kaz would be a dead man.

Reaching out, he offered her his hand, and she accepted it
without question, letting him pull her across the bed, dragging the sheet along
with her. As she straddled him, his hands drifted beneath the fabric that
covered her to rest at her hips, and he felt content, enjoying the visual she
made on top of him.

He could have never anticipated this, that he actually
wanted
her exactly where she was, but he did. And though he had business to attend to,
he wasn’t ready to give up this moment. He’d hold onto it for as long as he
could.

“Now it’s you,” she said with a smile, drawing his
attention back to her. “You’re overthinking.”

He merely returned her smile, reaching up to let the
strands of her hair drift through his fingers. She leaned down further to give
him better access, but the moment she did, he stole a kiss instead, feeling her
contented sigh against his lips.

One hand drifted around to the back of her head, fisting
the hair there to keep her in place, the other palming her backside to keep her
steady. It was only supposed to be for a moment, just a quick kiss to remind
him of what she tasted like, but it soon spiraled into something else as she
ground down on his cock, making him grip her ass just a bit tighter.

Kaz was hard, had been since the moment she climbed on top
of him, but at the feel of how wet she was, even the slight tremor that worked
its way through her body, it became almost painful.

Last night hadn’t been enough. No matter how many hours
were spent rolling around in his bed. He was quickly learning that when it came
to her, he was insatiable, the need almost making him crazed. But as he had
half a mind to grab a condom from his nightstand, a ringing phone made him
pause.

It took him a moment, thinking it was his phone, but as
Violet shot up, scrambling off of him to go in search of it, he knew their
moment was over, and at worse, their time was up.

She hadn’t been gone long before she was right back in his
bedroom, the phone to her ear, her face devoid of color. “Hey, Daddy.”

There was nothing quite like the sound of her saying,
‘Daddy,’ that made his cock shrivel up, but he didn’t move from his spot on the
bed, not wanting to even breathe in her direction.

“In
thirty
minutes?” Violet said, the anxiety in her
expression making Kaz frown, wondering what they were talking about. “I won’t
be ready by then. I’ve only been awake for a few minutes. I need to shower, do
my hair—and you know how long it takes me to do my makeup, I—”

She grew quiet again, and he could almost hear her father’s
muffled voice on the other end.

“No, no. An hour is fine … right, I’ll see you soon … bye.”

The second she ended the call, she turned her panicked eyes
on Kaz. “My dad is sending a driver to my place in an hour. We need to go.” She
spun around, rushing back to his bathroom where he had thrown her clothes all
over the floor.

Fuck.

It was already hell trying to get through Manhattan traffic
on a good day, and that was on top of the hour and a half drive that it took to
get there from Little Odessa. To get her there in less than an hour?

Kaz grabbed the first pair of pants he could find, then a
shirt, and finally shoes before he had his keys in hand and was ushering Violet
out the door. Down in the parking garage, he unlocked the doors to his Porsche
with a press of the button, but as he walked toward it, Violet hesitated.

“What?”

She bit her lip. “Everyone knows this car …”

True enough. “But if you want to get back to Manhattan
anytime soon, it’s the Porsche—the Rover will be too slow.”

He didn’t have to say anything further before she was
sliding into the passenger seat. He barely gave her a chance to buckle in
before his foot was on the gas and he was shooting out of the garage and onto
the street, ignoring the blaring horns he left in his wake.

Shifting into second gear, he bypassed another set of cars,
barely making it through a yellow light before it turned red.

“You know, if I die in a car wreck,” Violet started, her
fingers white-knuckled around the center console. “That’s not going to help
us.”

Kaz merely said, “I got this,” before concentrating on the
road again, the speedometer already approaching ninety miles an hour.

He hardly paid attention to anything else besides the cars
surrounding him, and the time ticking by on his dash. Doing well over forty
above the speed limit, he knew if he passed any police, he was definitely
getting stopped, but that was the last thing on his mind.

Just sitting beside her, he could feel the waves of anxiety
pouring off her, the fear that she wasn’t going to make it in time, or worse …
that she would be caught with him.

But he couldn’t—
wouldn’t
—let that happen.

“You know,” Kaz said, a sudden thought popping into his
head. “I don’t have your number.”

Violet looked at him as though he’d grown a second head.
“Are you serious?”

“About needing your number? Absolutely. The next time I
show up to your place uninvited might not work out as well for me.”

With one hand still on the wheel, he dug into his pocket
for his phone, typing in the four-digit code before passing her the device.
“Plug it in.”

She didn’t question his command, merely did what he asked,
then went on to call her own phone so that she would have his number as well.

The hour mark had just passed when he made it into the
city. The traffic was far worse there than it was outside of it.

Worse, he knew better than to pull up directly outside of
her building. There was no guarantee that her father didn’t have people
watching the place, or even just in the neighborhood doing business. So
instead, he turned on a side street, parking on the opposite side of the back
of her building.

He didn’t get a chance to say a word before she was whipping
her seatbelt off and opening the door, but before she got out, she leaned
across and gave him a quick kiss, surprising the hell out of him for a moment.

“See you later.”

Violet was gone seconds later, dashing across the street in
a flurry of blonde hair. Even with the circumstance being so dire, and the fact
that he still had to make it back out of Manhattan yet, Kaz still smiled.