ZARIA

Chapter 14

Zaria

"Good night," Zaria said, glancing over her shoulder to where Kei was still sitting on the sofa, having not moved even an inch, his gaze far away and his face giving the impression that he was deep in thought.

The man nodded, and then she turned around and left, making her way to her room. She went in, softly closing the doors to not wake Ren, whose room was across from hers.

As soon as the lock clicked into place, she let out a big sigh, letting her head fall against the wood as she closed her eyes.

She was tired, so exhausted after the day she'd had. The only thing on her mind was the urge to go to bed and sleep for the next century, and yet, she didn't think that she could fall asleep no matter how much she wished to, her body thrumming with a strange energy, her nerves tingling as if in expectance of something that her brain hasn't registered yet.

It was Kei's fault; Zaria knew that.

The man was such an enigma, going from a stern, no-nonsense boss to a worried and angered father and then to someone who seemed like he wanted her to be his friend or something more, though she didn't dare think about that. It made her head spin.

And then, to top it all off, he almost kissed her today. Because that was what would have happened if Ren hadn't interrupted them earlier, and just realizing that made her jittery throughout the rest of the day.

She couldn't stop thinking about their almost kiss after she had left Kei by the lake. She kept imagining how it would have felt to have those lips pressed against hers or to have Kei's hands travel over her body. Needless to say, she had spent more than an hour beneath a cold shower to cool herself off before she felt ready to join the father and son in time for dinner.

Zaria didn't even dare to imagine what she would have been like if Kei had kissed her, seeing as just the thought turned her into a hormonal teenager who had just seen a porn movie for the first time.

She sighed once again, rolling her eyes at herself as she felt the stirrings in her lower half, unsure if she should be angry with herself or laugh it off. It really was getting quite ridiculous, these reactions her body had at just the thought of Kei, especially once you considered everything she had gone through.

Zaria was anything but innocent; her father, along with the rest of the men from her past, had made sure of it, and yet, every time Kei was near, she felt as if she had never been touched by another in her life.

"It's different with Nate...He makes me feel different. Morocco, the past, it all kind of disappears when he touches me. I don't think about it, about all those men when he kisses me. It's just the two of us in those moments; everything else disappears. I... I don't know how to explain it..."

Nura's words from a months-old conversation drifted through her mind, and something in her stomach flipped at the thought.

Could it be?

Zaria wondered as she stared across the room, her mind spinning with possibilities.

She started in surprise as a quiet knock suddenly echoed against the door, making her almost trip as she jumped away from them.

With a hand pressed against her chest, she stared at the door, listening for a sound from the other side, unsure if it had been just her imagination. Then the knock echoed once again, this time a bit louder.

She stepped closer, her hand shaking as she grabbed the door handle. She frowned at herself for acting like a scaredy-cat as she opened the door, fully expecting to find Ren on the other side, which sometimes happened if the boy had a nightmare, only to find Kei on the other side.