Page 65 of Fake Fae-Ancée
"Yeah," I said.
And then we both stared ahead. The words "Continue? Y/N" flashed on the screen. An awkward silence the size of a cargo ship stretched between us
"The Witch talked to me," Kai said eventually, clearing her throat.
I twisted and turned the controller in my hand, giving her a side-glance but not saying anything.
"She said we need to be more convincing," she added.
"Did she, now?"
My throat was suddenly so tight that I briefly feared I had a sunflower seed allergy. But it was the unknown intensity in Kai's eyes that cut off my breath. Something in them made my heart jump.
Kai gave a short sigh. "That's why I panicked when your brother wanted to see us… you know, kiss."
"You don't have to explain yourself," I quickly said, placing the controller on the table and turning to face her.
She sat cross-legged opposite me. The princess act was gone, thank the fucking elders in the sky. Now she was just… Kai. No tough agent of P.A.S.H. Just her. Just the vulnerable girl I had kissed back in the rec. The version she never showed to anyone. Rare like a snow leopard and fleeting like a ghost. And I had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her before she would disappear again.
"Baba told me we should..." Kai’s face worked and she squinted her eyes. "It's so stupid, and that's why I panicked. She said we should... practice kissing."
This is probably what a spontaneous pressure drop in the plane cabin felt like. The world was dipping down. All warmth left my face, only to be replaced by searing heat.
"And that kiss earlier was just horrible," she continued, and with a mixture of shock and delight I saw her cheeks flush. "It was stilted and awkward and should anyone ask us to do something like that again, we’d be so busted."
"I doubt that at the Ball of Falling Stars anyone wants us to snog on command," I brought out, throat thick with heat. I had crushed any thought of kissing her, and then I couldn't think of anything else, and now she wanted what — a practice kiss?
Was this some kind of joke?
Kai’s eyes were dark now. Midnight black, with just the merest hint of purple glimmer.
"This plan needs to work. To get your throne back."
"You just want to be rid of me," I rumbled. Bear rumbled, too. And her soft lips on mine came to mind, yielding and plump and — stop it!
Kai shrugged, pressing her mouth into a shy smile. It looked so outlandish and uncommon on her, it was fascinating to watch.
And disarming.
"That’s part of it," she said. "But the Witch is right. We need to practice, if we want to convince anyone."
Bear growled in consent.
"That’s not a good idea," I said.
Kai glowered at me. "Oh, believe me, I don’t want to kiss you, either. The only thing that could force me to even suggest such a mad thing would be, say, a killer being after me, and the only way for me to get out of it alive is to jump your face."
I chuckled. Her frown melted into a smile again and something in my chest grew soft at that — and something else, a few levels further down turned rather hard. What the fuck?
"I mean, it’s just practice," she said. "It’s physical. Nothing pleasurable about it. We hate each other."
"You hate me," I corrected her. "I don’t hate you."
She blinked, like she hadn’t considered that.
"I never have," I added, reaching out without actually wanting to, but there was nothing I could do about it. My knuckles brushed her cheek.
She didn’t recoil. She didn’t even blink. I could feel her hold her breath. The world around us grew dense. That same frantic electricity from our first kiss in the rec room suddenly crackled between us.
