Tempted | Kai Parker

five: the dress

As soon as Kai was ready, the pair of us climbed into his car and set off for the mall. His car was some dark green hunk of junk with chips in the paintwork that exposed rusty metal, and bruised framework that was littered all with dents of varying sizes.

The moment the heavy doors slammed shut, Kai's freshly showered scent filled the car. The intense scent was warm and peppery, somewhere perfectly between sweet and fresh. And my god, it was addicting. He smelled expensive and intoxicating, and my senses relished it. I found myself having to crack open the window just to escape the pleasure of the scent I didn't want to enjoy.

As the warm summer breeze whistled through the window, Kai gripped the wheel with one hand, his eyes every so often flicking from the road to me, giving me a quick glance. Protesting my natural instinct, I stared out of the window adamantly. I was determined to pretend that I couldn't see his sporadic glances, because I didn't want to find myself caught in his gaze. His scent was already plaguing my mind, I didn't need to think about his appearance as well.

Eventually the short journey to the mall was over and Kai carelessly abandoned his car right outside the mall entrance. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as he turned off the engine and I knew I could finally escape his tempting scent. Stepping out of the car I took a deep breath of fresh air, happy to cleanse my senses of Kai.

I began to walk through the doors of the mall with Kai following at my heels. The high-pitched squeaks of our sneakers against the shiny floor seemed to echo around us in eerie shrieks, the mall uncharacteristically quiet. Glancing briefly around the vacant shops, I promptly decided that I wanted to go to the large department store, as they would have everything I wanted in one place.

As we both entered the store my eyes quickly scanned around the place. It was so bizarre to see a shop this big so empty. It was free of annoying customers who walked too slowly in front of you, and ladies on fragrance counters who insisted you must try their perfume, free of the woman who simply would not move from the rack you wanted to look at.

It was perfect.

With a brief scan around the store, my eyes quickly landed on a large sign that directed toward the men's section. "I think the men's stuff is over there." I told Kai, pointing to the far side of the store.

A look of disappointment washed over his boyish features, his eyes following where my finger was pointing.

"I wanted you to help me." He said in an almost childlike way, his demeanour surprisingly innocent.

The corners of my mouth upturned, softly chucking at his request.

"You want me to help you?"

"Yeah, you know, tell me what looks good. It's been a long time since I've been able to get someone else's opinion on - well, anything really."

For some reason, Kai's words pushed a wave of compassion through me. His sentence was said in a light-hearted way, but I couldn't help but feel strangely sad for the witch who stood before me. I've struggled spending almost four months in here, with company, but Kai had spent eighteen years in here completely alone. I couldn't even imagine all of the ways in which that would completely destroy me.

"Okay. Let's go." I sighed, pretending I had no interest in entertaining him, careful not to let the inner workings of my mind be seen.

Kai started to grin victoriously as he practically skipped over to the men's section, running his fingers through the fabrics on every rack he passed.

He truly was the biggest man-child I had ever laid eyes on.

Shaking my head at Kai's giddiness, I stopped at one of the racks and began pulling out garments for inspection. Each time I dragged an item from the rack I gave a quick glance to Kai, trying to envision how it would look on him.