King of Pride (Kings of Sin, #2)(74)

If it were any other man and any other island and any other sunset, I would’ve hated it. What was interesting about a walk? Nothing.

But this was Kai. Brilliant, gorgeous, thoughtful Kai, with the lazy half smiles and knowing eyes that saw parts of me even I couldn’t find. A deep golden glow drenched the island, lending it a dreamlike haze, and I was quite sure, in that moment, that there was absolutely nothing I would rather do than walk side by side with him.

“I had a feeling you would,” he said with one of those smiles I loved so much. I couldn’t believe I once thought he was stuffy and boring. Well, okay, I could believe it, but I’d since amended my opinion. “But I haven’t shown you the best part yet.”

“This isn’t the part where you whip out your dick and try to seduce me on the beach, is it?” I teased.

“Darling, if I wanted to seduce you on the beach, you’d already be screaming around my cock,”

Kai drawled, his casual tone at odds with his dirty words.

Heat crawled over my cheeks and tugged at my stomach. “You have quite a high opinion of your skills.”

“It’s the inevitable outcome of sustained, raving feedback, I’m afraid.”

I wrinkled my nose and bumped my hip against his as we reached a rocky outcropping toward the end of the beach. “Egomaniac.”

Kai laughed. “I’ve been called worse.” He stopped at the largest rock. “We’re here.”

I stared dubiously at the weathered limestone formation. This was what he wanted to show me? It looked like every other beach rock. “Oh. It’s so, um, jagged.”

“Not the rock, love,” he said, his voice dry. “This.”

It was then that I noticed the carvings—the letters C+M etched on the side facing away from the ocean, inside a heart. It was the type of sweet, cheesy declaration one would expect to find in a high school bathroom, not a private island in the Caribbean.

“I found it a few years ago,” Kai said. “That was when my family bought the island. I don’t know who C and M are since they don’t match the initials of the island’s previous owners, but I like to think they’re living happily together somewhere.”

I brushed my fingers over the rough-hewn rock face. For some reason, the simple, heartfelt carvings made my heart twist. “Kai Young, a secret romantic. Who would’ve thought?”

“It’s the dinosaur erotica you gifted me for Christmas. It’s opened my eyes to a whole new world of romance.”

“Shut up.” I laughed, then paused. “Did you really read it?”

A grin stole over his lips. “You’ll never know.”

He still hadn’t said anything about my manuscript. At this point, I’d rather he forget all about it. If he thought it sucked, I didn’t want to know.

“I don’t know how old the carvings are, but they’ve lasted at least half a decade,” Kai said, his face sobering with contemplation. “They should’ve eroded by now. Whoever C and M are, they’ve left their mark.”

Like Kai, I hoped the mysterious couple was sipping mai tais and strolling the beach together somewhere in the world. Even if they weren’t, the carvings were an unexpected monument to the love they once had. Proof that, no matter what happened, there’d been a time and place where they loved each other so much they immortalized it in stone.

Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out a chisel.

“What are you doing?” I asked, semi-alarmed. Where did he even find a chisel?

“Thinking we should give our anonymous friends some company.” He held out the tool. “Shall we?”

My heart thumped. After a moment’s hesitation, I took the chisel and gingerly pressed the tip against the rock. Moisture had softened the limestone, making it easier to manipulate.

Kai and I took turns carving until clear letters took shape. We didn’t have to discuss the message; we already knew.

K + I, inside a heart.

It was hands down the cheesiest thing I’d ever done, but that didn’t stop a wonderful, aching pressure from pressing against my rib cage.

The etching wasn’t a ring. It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t even a love declaration in the normal sense of the word. Yet somehow, the fact that we’d made our mark on the world together meant more to me than any of those things.

It was small, but it was ours, and it was perfect.

Kai’s hand found mine. Our fingers interlaced, and the pressure ballooned until I thought I might burst.

“I’m liking secret romantic Kai more and more,” I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat. I attempted a lighthearted tone. “If this is the result of dino erotica, expect more Wilma Pebbles in your future.”

“Good. I’ve already finished translating the first into Latin.”

My eyes snapped to his laughing ones. “Are you ser—”

He cut me off with a kiss, and the rest of my words melted beneath the insistent heat of his mouth.

The holidays in New York. The sanctuary of a hidden room. An island nestled in the heart of the Caribbean.

Magical pockets of time and space that belonged only to us.

And as the sun died brilliantly on the horizon, and the shades of our kiss transformed into the cool blues of dusk, I found myself wishing I could stay in this particular moment, with this particular man, forever.