Documentary (11 page)

“Me too,” she whispered as he palmed her cheek, but he pulled away suddenly and she watched his brow crease in thought.

“I should tell you about the website,” he said, waking the laptop. Once the screensaver faded, a list of U.S. city names appeared down the length of a Word document. It looked like a tour itinerary.

“Wow, is that your complete schedule?”

Kai minimized the document quickly and cleared his throat. “No, just some stuff Nina was talking to me about. Anyway…”

Before he could click on the Internet browser, she tapped the desktop background image. “Is that you?” she aske
d, smiling. It was a photo of a dark-haired adolescent boy, maybe at age seven or eight, smiling wide and squinting in the day’s brightness as he stood on the dock of a lake holding hands with an adult woman.

Kai nodded, pulsing out a brief smile. “Me and my mom.”

“She’s beautiful. Where is that?”

“North Carolina in Lake Lure, a really little town my mom grew up in. She was on the outs with Butch so we went to stay with my aunt and her husband for a while. But her whole family’s from there. I hadn’t met them before. Probably the best few weeks of my life.”

The comment struck her. He was rich and famous, and the best time of his life had been during his childhood in a small town. It was endearing. “Looks beautiful. Do they still live there? Have you been back to visit?”

Kai shook his head without speaking and clenched his jaw. “They called once or twice after mom died of breast cancer
, but I never heard from them again. So weird, Nina gets email from tons of random people claiming I owe them money or who
say
they’re my family but never any contact from my actual family.”

“I didn’t know your mom was dead. I’m sorry.” Dylan’s insides bunched in the silence, mostly due to embarrassment for prying into his life but also in sadness for him that his family had pulled away at one of the most tragic times in his life. And even now, fame and fortune couldn’t draw them. His pain was something unimaginable to her in the aftermath of Mac’s death. Even though Dylan was distancing herself a little, she knew her family would never become estranged.

Kai rescued her from prolonged awkwardness when he opened the Internet browser, shielding the photo beneath it. “So, this is where everything’s gonna be,” he explained when a webpage popped up with a large image of him in the top left corner. “Nina wants tons of content for fans.” He touched her temple with his thumb.  “What kind of stuff you got brewing up there for this project?”

Dylan cleared her throat and tried to ignore the fiery warmth that pumped through her. “For the vi
deos? Lots of exclusive moments mostly. I want it to be intimate at times so it can seem like your fans are right there with you. People clearly need to see what you’re like when you’re not on stage, and connect to you in a way where you become Kai White—
friend—
and are less Kai White—
famous singer
. I want them to see you with your friends, and talking about your fears and your wants, what makes you smile.”

Kai dug one of his intense, unreadable looks into her; the kind of stare she was sure she would never get used to. It pushed contrasting sensations of hot and cold over her skin, and it made her tongue-tied. “You, uh, um…
you, uh, work with charities that you almost never talk about. I had to dig to find those. We should get that stuff out. I think if you randomly surprised your fans with a live webcam conversation that’s raw and honest, and just you talking to them right before a show or something like that, people would love that. People want to know the real you, I bet.”

“I think people would rather see me go apeshit and get to watch the disaster. That’s the stuff they
really
like. Seems to be the stuff that makes them hang around. Any article that ever gets written about me circles back to my teenage DUIs, fighting, hotel room trashing and vomiting on stage from when I was with Evernight,” he said with a spiteful laugh. Kai linked his fingers behind his head and tilted it back. “Gotta keep feeding the monster. My album sales actually increased after the fight. People thought it was a publicity stunt, especially after the video came out.”

“Was it?” she blurted out. Kai lifted his head and jerked his gaze toward her. He looked disappointed but not surprised by the question. Dylan had wanted to ask for a while but the timing never seemed right.

“No… it was a disagreement I let get out of hand. Regardless of my problems with Jeremy, I shouldn’t have done it.” Kai gulped down hard. “Does it make you not want to work with me?” He sounded so vulnerable that her chest squeezed.

“No. I know all your legal problems before that happened when you were a teenager, and there hasn’t been anything else. The press writes about you partying a lot, but the fight seemed like an anomaly,” she said, and she meant it.

“It was…” he assured her. He dropped his hand on hers and looked relieved. “It’s a hectic lifestyle, but nothing like that will happen on tour. We’re all a family. Everyone’s pretty cool. Fighting isn’t really my thing anymore.”

Kai shut the laptop and set it on the chair arm before offering her a hand to help her up. They were about to go back downstairs and she secretly hated the idea. She wouldn’t have minded talking to him up there all night. The fighting didn’t bother her as much as before because it was actually dulling under the glow of his personality. She only thought he was being really vague about the reasons for beating Jeremy up, but he hadn’t made any excuses for it or shifted any blame. Dylan thou
ght back to the incident in CSFC’s quad, where he hadn’t done anything at all, and suddenly felt obligated to apologize. She placed her hand on his elbow while they were still near the loveseat. “The thing at my school, the students aren’t normally like that… you don’t have bodyguards?”

“Had them a while after the fight ‘cause I was getting threats here and there, but I hate having them. Most of the time, I can just walk around anywhere without being bothered by anybody, except paparazzi. People will stare if they recognize me, some take pictures and ask for them, but they usually leave me alone.”

“Why were you
really
at my school anyway? Were you guys just filming extra scenes for the movie or something?” she asked.

“Yeah, Lava likes to add that kind of extra content to their DVDs and website, but…” Kai leaned in. “…For you.” He said it like he was sharing something he had never told anyone else. “One of the guys called your cell but you didn’t answer. Figured if we generated enough attention, you’d end up out there, anyway.”

“To offer me the job?”

“Yes, but…
for you.”
Kai touched her shoulder, and when he pulled her a little closer, she tipped her head up. His mouth was so close. Recklessly close. He leaned down just slightly, as if to ask her to meet him the rest of the way. She had wanted to kiss him earlier, but now there was mild worry about mixing intimacy and her job. There was also the issue of adding her name to Kai White’s ‘list’ in a house full of people or ending up a blind item on someone’s vile blog.

But Dylan smiled to herself and touched his face lightly
.
It was
a
kiss, and what was
one
kiss? At least they were hidden behind a wall. The tension from the night had built up too much to withstand, so she mashed her mouth to his. Kai fell back against the wall, rocking the art on it as her body tumbled onto his. He held her face between his hands, her hair netting his finger, and she gripped his solid waist over his shirt. The kisses were soft and steady, each just a little deeper than a graze, and teased at the sweet longing she felt all through her body. When she moaned softly, he responded with a gentle nibble to her bottom lip.

“I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he whispered
into her mouth before he slid his tongue between her parted lips. It moved in past her teeth, converging with hers.

Pulling back, she said, “Me too.” She inched her hands up his chest, still on the outside of his shirt. It was strong, hard and broad. Kai’s lips pressed into her neck and his hands eased down the sides of
her body, rounding the curve of her butt. It felt great to be touched like this, and it had been a long time since.

“We should probably go downstairs.” He dropped his lips to her shoulder before they skated over her collarbone. When she gasped, he tightened his grip on her waist. The growing bulge in his jeans dug into her body, and he groaned every time she moved against it.

“Yup, downstairs…” She trailed off as she raked his hair back. Kai stood upright, grinning. He slid out from under her, still clutching her waist, as he moved to sit on the chair arm. Suddenly a crash sounded at their feet.

It was the laptop and there was a Lava logo on the back.
Shit.
“Oh my God. Did we break it?” It would’ve been proper justice for her libido-driven judgment. Kai picked it up, seemingly unconcerned; he could afford to be though. They took turns examining it, but the laptop had been closed when it landed, and the chair arm was only about three feet off the ground, so it had survived the fall unscathed. Dylan surveyed it with shaky hands a final time and cursed herself further for letting her hormones dictate her decisions.

Kai didn’t seem to think it was a bad omen. “Coffee table this time. No worries, it’s mine,” he said, laughing as he set it down, but then his expression turned
grim. Kai put his hands back on her waist. “Hey, you don’t feel pressured to do anything, do you? The job and…
this
… are completely unrelated. I just want to make that clear.”

She smiled. “Thanks for saying that. And I didn’t feel pressured.”

“Good.” Kai offered his hands, and she pulled him up to a standing position. “So,” he said, “beer pong, round—”

A blast of violent, harried knocks on the wall near the entry to the den startled them both. “Kai!” It sounded like Leko, and Dylan
panicked about him seeing her in there with Kai, but he didn’t even acknowledge her presence when Kai led her to the entry. The color was gone from Leko’s hardened face as he shoved a cell phone at Kai.

“It’s Erica.”

Not Allowed – Chapter 7

“Shit,” Kai whispered. Dylan watched a foreboding look move from Leko to Kai, and the sound of another girl’s name was like a clamp on her stomach. He didn’t have siblings.
So,
cousin? Close friend?
Dylan dug into her bottom lip with her top front teeth.
Girlfriend?
It was a stereotypical thing to think, but he was a famous musician after all.

“E? E…
What’s—?” Kai’s voice was small when he pressed the phone to his ear. He was frightened. He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled his strands taut at the end. Dylan searched Leko’s face for some kind of answer, but he was frozen solid with his arms folded tight across his chest. It felt like a private moment, and she felt like shit, so Dylan tried to squeeze through the strip of space between Kai and the wall. Kai sensed what she was doing and grabbed her arm gently with a pleading look.

“E, where are you?” He spoke with intense frustration.  “Dammit. E, just tell me where the fuck you are. Is that in West Hollywood? Okay. I’m sorry. Tell me, please. Okay. Please, just wait for me. I don’t care…
Yeah! I’ll call you when I’m closer.” The guys shared the same look of understanding before he twisted around to Dylan.

Taking her face in his hands, he said, “I’ll be back. I promise.” In a surprising gesture, he kissed her, and it yanked a flurry of conflicting emotions to the surface. Relief. Confusion. Exhilaration. Worry.

What the hell is happening?
“Uh, ok,” was all she could manage when he let go, and Kai didn’t explain any further before he jogged down the stairs, leaving them standing there.

“I need to get a cab. Make sure she’s okay, Lek,” Kai shouted up when he was halfway down, referring to Dylan. Then he blended into the shadows on the second floor. The party was still alive, the bass from the speakers thumping the heartbeat. Dylan twisted a chunk of her hair in her hands and turned toward Leko. He smiled out of civility, but it did nothing to disguise the heavy concern in his eyes. Something was very wrong.

Dylan awoke with a start in a bed she didn’t recognize. It was too fluffy and soft and big to be a dorm bed. She stayed absolutely still with her eyes open to allow the memories from the night before to trickle in.
L.A. Beer pong. Dancing.
Kai.

“Kai.” She rolled over and there was a colorful makeup smear matching her face on the pillow beside her
, and the sheets on that side were cool. She had slept alone. But she had intended to. Caroline had insisted she stay at the house once it was nearly cleared out by security.

L.A. morning fog (or was it smog?) curbed most of the sunlight piercing the slight gaps between the thick
vertical blinds. The inside of her head felt like it was hosting an encore of the party. Doing those shots with Leko had proved to be a terrible idea in hindsight, but she had done them to pass the time waiting for Kai to get back. He never did. She pushed the disappointment away by reminding herself that he was probably passed out in the house somewhere or at the hotel. When she dropped her feet to the floor, a sledgehammer of pain ricocheted from the front to the back of her skull. Dylan massaged her temples all the way to the bathroom, and she laughed at her reflection in the mirror: one side of her hair was completely bunched up and her mascara was like war paint on her cheeks. Maybe it was a good thing that Kai hadn’t come back.