Page 58 of Wild King

Everything seems to slow down until Salem and the guy move in slow motion. Great. Now not only do I get to see the woman of my dreams with another man but I get to see it all at one-quarter speed.

“Hey, Kellen,” she says like everything’s great between us and she hasn’t just brought another fucking man to my land of exile.

“Hey.”

Not my best retort, but I’m stunned she would do this. I get that we’ve had some rocky moments since we got here, and asmuch as I’ve wanted to make a move on her, the time hasn’t seemed right, but I thought we had a chance at something. I told her I hoped we could be something more than just two people who spent an incredible twenty-four hours together at an island resort.

Didn’t she believe me?

“Who’s this?” I ask, barely able to contain my anger that she’s seriously invited another man to this house.

She looks back at the car with the guy sitting inside and then at me. “Oh, that’s Micah.”

And with that, she strolls past me like any part of this is okay. What. The. Fuck?

Suddenly, my feet free themselves from whatever mysterious and invisible trap they were caught in, so I quickly have to decide which one to deal with first. Salem or Micah.

Micah. God, that name sounds fucking pretentious. It probably means sent from heaven or some other bullshit.

Since I doubt I’ll be able to keep my cool with him, I choose to deal with Salem instead. Spinning on my heel, I march into the house to find her in her office rifling through some papers. Maybe he’s a courier?

No, that doesn’t make sense. It’s nighttime. And he doesn’t seem like a courier.

“Um, what’s up? Who’s Micah?” I ask, still barely containing my emotions.

She lifts her head and looks over at me before returning to the mess of papers. “Nobody. Can we talk later? I’m in the middle of something here.”

Before I can say no, I’d like to know who the hell that guy is right now, she finds whatever piece of paper she was looking for and runs out of the office, leaving me standing there like some damn idiot. Now I have to decide whether to follow her andwatch the two of them drive off into the sunset or remain here and let my anger grow.

My feet, now full of life and making decisions I might not agree with, are moving before I think the rest of my body knows what the hell is going on. By the time I reach the front door, I haven’t decided what I’m going to say or if I want to say anything at all about this new development.

I look out and see Salem’s new guy in her car and her leaning in through the window. I can’t see what’s happening, but since I’m a grown man with a brain, I can take a guess.

She waves as he backs out down the driveway, and then turns to walk toward me as I contemplate how I want to handle this. She knows how I damn well feel. At least she should since I practically told her I wanted us to be together once this whole Gina mess was over.

Then again, maybe she and Micah have been together the whole time and she never told me. I don’t know why he’d be okay with her staying out here with me for months on end, but who knows? Maybe he’s a stupid guy. It’s not like there aren’t millions of those in the world.

Either way, staying quiet about this isn’t my style, so she better be ready to hear what I have to say.

Salem doesn’t even slow down as she walks past me into the house, forcing me to follow her with my opinions eager to leave my mouth. That she thinks this is perfectly fine pisses me off, but if I’m being honest, this hurts more than anything else.

She walks down the hall to the office, so that’s where I go too. I find her seated at the desk like nothing out of the ordinary just happened. I swear this woman is driving me crazy!

Leaning against the doorframe, I clear my throat and say, “So, what was that?”

Without missing a beat, she answers, “That was Micah.”

What am I? A fucking dentist who has to pull the information out of her mouth?

My patience all but gone with that damn answer, I say, “Yeah, I got that the first time you said his name. Who the hell is he, and why did you bring him here?”

Giggling, she says, “Oh, he’s nobody. It’s nothing.”

Nobody? Nothing? And she giggled? What is going on here?

I don’t know what else to say without making myself look like some jealous asshole, but I damn well want to know who this Micah guy who’s nobody is. If he was nobody, she wouldn’t have let him drive her car away.

“Why are you letting him take your car? Who is this guy to you? Let me guess. He’s some lawyer who wears three-piece suits and always colors inside the lines. Probably never gets in any trouble, so he doesn’t need your services, right? Well, good for you.”