Page 115 of White Hot Kiss

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. A muscle popped in his jaw. “That I knew about the damn Lilith thing. I didn’t. If I did, I would’ve told you as soon as you could’ve comprehended what it meant.”

I tripped over my feet, partly out of relief that he hadn’t known. And the other part? A surge of guilt slammed into me like a bullet heading straight for the heart. In that moment, I believed that Zayne would’ve told me if he’d known. He would’ve trusted me and he would’ve put me before his father.

I hadn’t put him before Roth.

Zayne stopped by my door. He closed his eyes for a moment and then turned to me. “Part of me can understand why you didn’t go to my father, but you could’ve come to me. I would’ve...”

“You would’ve what?” I kept my voice low. “Would you have believed me? Or would you have told Abbot?”

His pale gaze met mine. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll never know.”

I pressed my lips together as regret swelled, threatening to suffocate me. Zayne had never really let me down in the past. Yes, he’d stepped in when I didn’t want him to at times, and there was the stuff with Danika, but he’d never done anything that made me think I couldn’t trust him.

Squeezing my eyes against the burn of tears, I took an unsteady breath. “I screwed up, Zayne. I screwed up so bad with you. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” he said in a low, hoarse voice. “Yeah, you did.”

22

All meals were served in my room on Sunday. My schoolbag was retrieved from Stacey’s house by Zayne. My phone was confiscated, but not before I could delete Roth’s contact from it. So were my laptop and TV. I expected Nicolai to remove my books, but he must’ve taken pity on me because he left them behind.

I tried talking to him, but he wasn’t having it.

Besides the brief moments he’d been there, the only visitor I had was Danika when she brought my food. She didn’t speak to me, and I wondered if she’d been ordered not to. Abbot showed up for another round of “what is his name.” When I didn’t tell him, he slammed the door so hard the windows in my room rattled.

I didn’t see Zayne again until Monday morning. He knocked once before opening the door. That was how I knew it was him. “Get ready for school,” he said, staring at the floor.

“Abbot’s letting me go to school?” Stunned, I stared at him.

“I do believe he’s looking into homeschooling, but for now he figures school is enough of a punishment.”

Thank God I hadn’t told them about Roth being there.

Scrambling off the bed, I set a record for showering and getting dressed. Hope sparked, and I tried to keep my excitement at a minimum. Zayne didn’t speak to me on the way to school, except for one last parting shot.

“Don’t even think about sneaking out of school, either. Abbot will be checking in throughout the day.”

He peeled away before I could say a word.

Sighing, I turned and hurried into the building.

Stacey was at my locker when I got there. “Okay. You have to tell me everything. Starting with why Zayne showed up to get your bag and why you never called me yesterday.”

“I got busted.” I dug out my bio book. “And I’m grounded for life.”

“How?” she gasped.

“One of the Wardens saw us.” I shut my locker, hating that I was telling yet another lie after everything that had gone down this weekend. “The rest is history.”

“That’s so unfair. You don’t even do anything bad and the one time you do, you get caught.” She shook her head. “God hates you.”

“You’re telling me.”

Looping her arm through mine, she pouted. “So, move on to the better stuff. Did you at least get to hang out with Roth a little?”

“A little, but nothing...nothing happened. We got caught pretty quickly.” I changed the subject quickly, too nervous to talk about Roth when I should be seeing him in a minute or so.

Except once I was seated in bio and the final tardy bell rang, Roth was a no-show. Anxiety slipped over me like a second skin, growing worse when lunch came and there still was no sign of Roth.