Shift (The Neturu Chronicles) (66 page)

               
Kayla stands up in front of him.  “See, I trust you.  I care about
you.  It’s okay.”

               
“Not that I don’t like seeing you undressed, but I don’t want you to do it just
because you did it with Jackson and you’re trying to prove a point.  I
just want to know that you want to be with me.”

               
“This isn’t about Jackson,” Kayla says, putting her arms around his neck. 
“This is about you and me.  Shut up about Jackson.  I am standing
here right now, and I want to be with you, Damien.”

               
Damien puts his hands on her hips.  “Tell me you don’t want to be with
Jackson.”

               
Kayla hesitates for a moment, but Jackson had made himself clear over and over.
 “Nothing will ever happen between Jackson and me.  You, on the other
hand, have a half-naked girl standing in front of you, and you won’t stop
talking about him.”

               
He opens his mouth and then closes it.  “Good point.”

               
“Now, kiss me,” she whispers, pulling him down to her.  Damien wraps his
arms around her and kisses her softly.  They stand there for a minute,
holding each other.

               
Finally, Damien pulls away. “We need to put our clothes back on.  This is
improper.”

               
“Shut up,” Kayla whispers, pulling him back down.

               
Shaking his head, Damien gently pushes her away.  “No, really, I only have
so much control.”

               
“What happened to being a little bit of a scoundrel?” Kayla inquires.

               
“Even the scoundrel needs to slow down once in a while.  Your parents
would be very angry right now if they knew, and rightfully so.”

               
“Are you going to tell on me?” Kayla giggles.

               
With a chuckle, Damien says, “No, but I want your parents to like me, and
actually like me for me, not because of who I am.”

               
“You will win them over,” Kayla states, picking up her pants.  “You won me
over.”

               
A knock sounds on the door.  “Hold on,” Damien shouts.  The door
opens before he gets to it, and Damien quickly shoves Kayla behind him. 
“I said hold on.”

               
Jackson walks in and looks at him.  “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”  When
Jackson’s eyes fall on Kayla, he shouts, “What the hell, why are you both
practically naked?”

               
“That is between us,” Damien snaps back.  “It’s none of your business.”

               
“Kayla,” Jackson growls.  “You told me to keep you from going
overboard.  Well, guess what, you are getting pretty close to the edge.”

               
She blushes.  “We didn’t do anything.”

               
“You do not need to answer to him!” Damien exclaims.  “Jackson, back
off.  Kayla and I are in a relationship.  What we do is our
business.  It has nothing to do with you, so stop acting like it
does.  She doesn’t want you.  Kayla chose me.  So deal with it.”

               
Damien’s eyes lock onto Kayla, and she feels Jackson’s stare as well. 

“I guess you’re right,
”
Jackson says. 
“
She is yours.  I’ll keep my mouth
shut now.  You made your choice, Kayla.  Don’t do anything you’ll
regret.”

               
“I’m not going to have sex with him,” Kayla murmurs awkwardly.

               
“Even if we did have sex, it’s still none of your business,” Damien snarls.

               
Exhaling, Jackson pinches the bridge of his nose like he’s in pain. “I think
I’m going home.  I brought her here like you asked.  You don’t need
me anymore.”

               
“No!” Kayla yells.  “You need to stay.”  Both guys look at her. 
“You have to at least stay and hang out for a day.  We want to go to a
shifters club.  You said you wanted to be there if I go, so wait.  We
can go tonight.  Please, wait until tomorrow or the next day.”

               
He’s quiet for a moment and then says, “Fine.”

               
“We should get ready,” Damien declares.  “We can eat at the restaurant.”

               
“The restaurant?” Kayla asks.

               
“We have places that are
members
only restaurants, so
that humans can’t get in.  You can order food with Kiej and other native
plants.  It will be good for you to keep you from shifting.  We can
eat there and then go to the club.”

               
“Is the club only for shifters too?” Kayla asks.

               
Damien nods. “Yeah, you literally have to be a shifter to get in.”

               
“How do you know that someone doesn’t bring in a human?”

               
Both guys start to laugh.  “We’ll keep that as a surprise,” Damien
replies.  “Do you want to go shopping for an outfit?”

               
“No, Jackson says the dress I brought will help me fit in.”

               
“I’d like to see this dress,” Damien quips with a grin.  “How much has he
told you about the clubs?”

               
“Nothing really, why?”

               
Trying really hard not to laugh, Damien says, “You’ll see.  Let’s get
ready.”

               
“What are you going to wear?” Kayla asks, looking at both guys.

               
“Dress clothes. We’ll look awesome, trust me,” Damien answers.  “What
color is your dress?”

               
“Red.”

               
He nods. “Good, then I’ll try not to clash.”

               
“I’ll go get dressed,” Jackson murmurs, turning around.  “Try and actually
put clothes on instead of take them off.”

               
Kayla realizes she is still in her underwear.  She immediately blushes and
steps behind Damien.  “I have to do my hair and everything,” Kayla
says.  “So it’ll take a little while.”

               
“All right, why don’t you guys come and get me instead of the other way
around?  I don’t want to walk in on anything again,” Jackson states as he
walks out the door.  “I don’t care what you do anymore.”

               
“Jackson,” Kayla retorts with a sigh.

               
He just walks away.  Damien shuts the door.  “Ignore him.  Do
you need to take a shower?”

               
“No, I took one already.” 

               
“I need to take one.  I was going to ask you to join me,” Damien says with
a huge smile.

               
Kayla narrows her eyes at him. “Nope.”

               
“One day you will.  Just give it time.”

               
“When we get married, only then.”

               
“When?” Damien quips with an even bigger smile.

               
Smacking her forehead, Kayla says, “
If
, not when,
if
we get
married.”

               
“I like the when better.” Damien sighs, walking over to the bedroom door.

               
“We’re only seventeen.  We have years before we should even talk about
that.”

               
“Whatever,” Damien says and walks into the bedroom.  He presses a button
on the wall. 

               
A voice comes from somewhere in the room.  “Yes, Master Damien?”

               
“I need my bags brought up,” he says.  “You can put them in the living
room. 
Do not
come into the bedroom or bathroom.”

               
“Very well,” the voice says.  “Your luggage will be up momentarily.

               
Kayla quickly shuts the bedroom door.  Damien grins.  “I don’t want
them to see me in my underwear,” she says.

               
“I don’t want them to see you in your underwear either,” Damien retorts. 
“But you’ll have to put your dress on now, because the clothes you were wearing
are sitting on the floor out there.”

               
“I can get ready in front of the mirror out here in the bedroom, while you take
a shower,” Kayla states.

               
Damien points to the bathroom. “You can get ready in there.”

               
“Not while you’re in the shower,” Kayla retorts sharply.

               
“Why not?  You aren’t going to be in the shower with me, so it’s fine.”

               
She shakes her head vigorously.  “I’d rather not.”

               
“I look great naked, just saying.”

               
“No, Damien, go take a shower,” Kayla instructs, pointing to the bathroom.

               
“Fiiiiinnne, you're missing out.”

               
“Oh geez,” Kayla groans.

               
Damien shuts the door to the bathroom and Kayla exhales. A big part of her does
want to follow him, but she would never admit that to him in a million
years.  “It’s got to be the hormones,” Kayla whispers to herself.

               
She grabs her stuff and sits down at the mirror.  It doesn’t take her long
to flatiron her hair.  When she’s finished, she applies makeup, giving her
eyes a smoky shade of grey and black.  She decides to wait to put on the
lipstick until they leave, knowing she will probably end up kissing
Damien.  Satisfied with her hair and makeup she grabs her dress.  She
snaps the tags off and slides it on.

               
Kayla walks over to the mirror and looks into it.  Her eyes nearly bulge
out of her head.  “Tracy, what were you thinking?”  The dress comes
only half way down her thighs and dips down really far in front.

               
Suddenly, the bathroom door opens and Damien walks out in a towel.  His
eyes turn to Kayla. “Damn!”

               
“I’ve never worn this before,” Kayla states strongly.  “Tracy got it for
me for my birthday.  I think I need to put on something else.”

               
“Don’t you dare,” Damien snaps with a huge grin.  “Wow, I mean,
wow
,
Kayla.  You will fit in perfectly tonight.  I may have to deck a few
guys for staring at you inappropriately, but it’ll be worth it.”

               
Kayla shakes her head. “I should change.  I look way too—”

               
“Sexy?” Damien finishes for her.  “I’m fine with that.”

               
“Are you sure?” Kayla asks.  “I mean really, I don’t know if I should do
sexy.”

               
“Trust me, it’s not that bad,” Damien reassures her.  “I would tell you if
it was.  You are naturally very modest.”

               
She tries to pull the skirt down a little farther. “All right, if you say so.”

               
“Now, I need to get dressed,” Damien says.  “Do you need to leave?”

               
“I should.”

               
Damien opens the bedroom door and goes into the living room.  He grabs his
suitcase and sets it on the bed.  “You can close your eyes while I put my
boxers on.”

               
He opens the suitcase and takes a pair out.  “You don’t have to, but you
can shut your eyes now.”  Kayla turns her back to him.  “I want to
explain something to you.”  A few seconds later, Damien says, “All right,
they’re on.”

               
Kayla turns back around and smiles.  “You do look really good with your
clothes off.”

               
“I know,” Damien replies mischievously.  “I wanted to tell you something
about the Neturu.”

“What’s that?”

“The Neturu develop faster
than humans, both intellectually and psychologically.  I developed faster
than most Neturu my age.”

               
Giving him a quizzical look, Kayla says, “What do you mean?”

               
“Other than intelligence and being from a different species, the reason you
didn’t like the guys in school is because you were more mature than them, even
with Jude when you were fourteen.”

               
Kayla snorts. “That’s a given.”

               
“That’s because, in all sense, if you were comparing us to human psychological
maturity, we’re technically in our early to mid-twenties.”

               
Kayla freezes.  “What do you mean?”

               
“We develop and mature at a faster rate.  Before we were on earth, the
Neturu got married and started families at our age.  That’s why the
pheromone and hormone levels are so high.  In my case, when I was
fourteen, I was approximately eighteen years old.  I got emancipated,
hooked up with women, and prepared for college well before I was seventeen
because I felt much older.”

               
Kayla stares at him.  “Seriously?”

               
Damien turns to her. “Look at it this way, when did you first feel that you
were more mature than everyone else?”

               
“When did I start feeling like I had a superiority complex?” Kayla
retorts.  She looks up and thinks about it.  “Gosh, in middle school,
actually.  I would look at my classmates and raise an eyebrow.  God
love Tracy, but I do that to her sometimes.”