Sins Chaos

Chapter Nineteen

Aerin

TRIPLANET KINGDOM DIMENSION

INSULA GENERALULUI

DISCIPLINED INQUEST

WINTER BREAK

I was going to die of heatstroke.

If the lies weren't so freaking complicated from the events of the last eight months, and if I would just pull my big girl panties up and tell the truth, I could have been doing this in the early morning or early evening when it was considerably cooler. As it stood, I was stuck dying in the afternoon sun if I wanted to be outside in a swimsuit.

As I leaned back in the lounge chair, I flipped my sunglasses, which had been sitting atop my head, down over my eyes, and focused on not frying like an egg in the summer heat. I sipped ice cold lemonade through a straw as I closed my eyes and enjoyed the relative peace and quiet.

I was the only one home, so I had taken the opportunity to don my favorite blue and green bikini and sunbathe on the back deck, thankful for the six-foot wooden privacy fence that surrounded the backyard.

Well, Perla was around somewhere, but she wouldn't question the scars like the guys would. As far as she was concerned, the scars had always been there. She had a few scars of her own she didn't want to answer for, so she didn't ask and I didn't explain. It was why our friendship worked out so well.

I set the glass of liquid heaven down on the small glass table beside the chair, pulling the rubber band from my short, wavy hair. I pulled it back into a ponytail at the center of my head, twisting it into a bun as I replaced the rubber band, sighing in contentment as my neck began to breathe again.

As the blue sun beat down on me, I closed my eyes again, letting the rays tan my already dark skin as I thought about the last few months.

Roz and I had officially been together for three months with no major hiccups. Him not knowing about the incident last month and the results of it had a lot to do with that blissful happiness.

What were a few more secrets and lies between us?

I opened my eyes as the back door slammed shut. I hid a smile as Perla dropped into the lounge chair beside mine with a dramatic sigh. I studied my best friend out of the corner of my eye. Her cobalt hair now rested comfortably on her shoulders, her saffron colored eyes were shimmering happily, and her curves were currently covered by a little yellow bikini that left little to the imagination.

I pulled my sunglasses off. Thank God Donny and Wicked weren't home. They drooled over Perla when she was fully clothed. Raanan in a bikini? Yeah, they'd never find their bodies.

"So much for girls' day in," Perla muttered, flinging an arm over her head.

"Wait. Why did you make that statement past tense?"

"Donny's home," she replied, shattering my hopes of a peaceful afternoon. "I saw him pull up before I headed out here. Looks like he has Roz, Wicked, and Klay in tow."

Before I could respond, the screen door slammed open and all four guys spilled out onto the wooden deck. Rolling my eyes, I pushed off my chair, crossed the deck to the grass, and climbed into the pool.

"My face is up here," I heard Perla comment dryly as I broke the surface, pushing my hair out of my face.

Klay Auden absently nodded, not bothering to move his eyes up from their current position. "And what a beautiful face it is."

I snorted. My brother was an idiot.

"How would you know? You haven't seen it yet," Perla responded wryly.

I noticed she made no effort to cover up or shift out of Klay's line of sight.

"Seen it before."

I raised an eyebrow at my boyfriend's comment. I watched him skirt my drooling younger brother and head in my direction. "And what is it you have seen before, exactly?"

"Her face."

"Clarify which face for the class please."

"The one with dark gold eyes, thin eyebrows, pointed chin, slightly crooked nose, and a mouth that never shuts up. Oh, yeah. It has two ears attached to it somewhere."

I swam to the edge of the pool to meet him, a grin on my face. "Nice save, Osric."

He leaned in and kissed my forehead. "I've only got eyes for you."

"That's bullshit, but it's a decent sales pitch." I grabbed the front of his T-shirt, pulling him into the cool water with me.

Roz broke the surface, sputtering and cursing. Glaring at me, he advanced towards me as I quickly swam to the end of the pool giggling.

"Oh. I'm so going to enjoy paying you back for that." He reached down, pulling off his tennis shoes one by one. He tossed them over the side of the pool. Pulling his shirt over his head, he tossed that haphazardly over the side, too. "You have no idea how much. You think you're cute. That's okay. I'll show you where cute gets you."

I took a second to admire his bare chest. He shifted. I shrieked and dove underwater.

A few minutes later, a laughing Roz and I emerged from the pool, dripping a trail of water from the pool to the towels that had mysteriously been spread out on the deck. Everyone else had disappeared inside.

I laid flat on one of the oversized towels, raising my hands over my head in an exaggerated stretch as the sun began to dry the small droplets of water off my skin.

I noticed my mistake too late.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Roz studying my side with avid interest that couldn't bode well for me. His eyebrows were drawn together in concentration, a confused look on his face.

Shit!

I grabbed an extra towel off the table and covered myself up with it. I had completely forgotten about the visible new scars left over from my last encounter with Kai and his crew. In my haste to escape hormone central and in the excitement of wrestling in the pool with my boyfriend, I had spaced the entire reason I had been sunbathing when no one was home.

Double shit.

Yeah, I so did not want to explain how I had gotten those scars when I was supposed to be at home that night. It was bad enough we had to come up with a cover story for my cover story. The cover story was to explain my funky walk. The cover story's cover was to explain how I was even in the position to get hit by a car when I was supposed to be at home with a migraine.

I was so not going into how I had been out with another guy—not what you think. The guy had been gone by the time I had been ambushed by Kai, but that wasn't the point.

Roz had no idea about that part of my life and I wanted to keep it that way for a while. I would tell him when it was safe to integrate my two worlds without all of the truth having to come out.

I had very good reasons for playing the things I did close to the vest. Just because my life was screwed up and straight out of a science fiction novel, didn't mean I had to drag the people I loved into the fray and potentially endanger them further.

I stood up, planning to escape to the safety of my room before Roz recovered from his shock.

I made it into the disturbingly quiet kitchen before he grabbed my arm, spinning me around to face him. I avoided meeting his eyes and pulled my arm roughly from his grasp and continued my mission downstairs to my room.

He caught up to me in the common room, this time wrapping a muscular arm around my waist. He lightly slammed me against the closed bedroom door.

Well, now, this was frighteningly familiar.

I met his angry blue eyes with my frightened green ones.

"Don't. Move," he ordered through gritted teeth.