Page 69 of Wild King

For a moment, I wonder if it might be helpful to have Nathan with us, but I highly doubt he has any experience with pregnant women or how to help them. “No, let him sleep.”

After rushing to dress,I hurry downstairs as the storm rages on all around the house. Kellen is waiting for me, and I see the clock on the range isn’t on.

“Did we lose power because of the storm?” I ask, pointing toward the kitchen.

“I guess. You don’t get spooked easily, do you?”

Shaking my head, I laugh. “No. I love storms like this.”

“Well, buckle up because we’re going out in it,” he says with a smirk.

The two of us get to the front door and see it downpouring. Kellen turns to look at me and smiles. “Thank God you aren’t one of those women who has an issue with getting her hair wet.”

“How do you know I don’t?” I ask, curious how he’s come to that conclusion, even though it’s correct.

A slow smile lifts the corners of his gorgeous mouth. “We covered a lot of ground in one day, Salem. If you had a problem with getting your hair wet, I would have found out when we had sex in the pool. And in the ocean. And in the shower. In fact, I think I should be wondering if you’re secretly a fish.”

God, he can be funny and charming sometimes.

“Let’s go. Ava needs us,” I say, unlocking the car doors before I set off running toward the car parked in the driveway.

Less than ten seconds later, we’re seated in Micah’s car drenched but at least out of the rain for the moment. Kellen starts to give me directions, but he’s talking too fast and I don’t know my way around the area.

“Maybe you should drive. Let me climb over into that seat and you come over here.”

He looks surprised until he realizes I’m dead serious. “Oh, you really want to do that. Okay.”

I throw my legs over onto the passenger side seat and on top of his before lifting myself up to ease the rest of my body over there. He doesn’t move, though, so soon I’m sitting on his lap with him smiling at me.

“You know, we really have to go. Are you going to climb over there or are we just going to hope the car drives us itself?” I ask, uneasy about how good he feels against me.

“I was just enjoying the moment.”

He finishes moving himself to the driver seat and looks over at me with wickedness in his eyes. “That was fun. I think we should do that again. For now, though, let’s roll!”

We take off down the driveway and turn onto the main road, but it doesn’t take long before we can’t go any farther because everything’s flooded in front of us. Kellen quickly does a U-turn and takes us back the way we came.

“How are we going to get there with the road flooded out?”

Staring straight ahead, he smiles. “Not to worry. We’re on my old stomping grounds. I know every back road in this area. Hold on. I’ll get us there.”

We run into flooded roads at every turn, and I begin to think his boast was just that. Bragging but nothing he can deliver on.

But then he makes a hard right onto a road that surprisingly doesn’t have much water on it at all, and we speed toward our destination. I silently chastise myself for doubting him, even if all seemed to be lost. He hasn’t shown himself to be anything but genuine, so I need to stop assuming the worst of Kellen King.

As we come up over the crest of a hill, I see a road that looks familiar. Excited, I ask him, “Is that the highway close to the house?”

“Very good,” he answers with a laugh. “Most people get turned around in this area. You have a good sense of direction.”

“I just hope she’s okay. Ava has been very nice to me. Much like Matthias. I hate the idea of something bad happening to the two of them and their baby.”

Kellen nods and presses his foot on the gas as the rain begins to let up for the moment. “Ava’s okay. I’ve known her all my life. She and I were in the same year all through school. She was Theo’s best friend and now she’s going to be the mother of my nephew or niece. Maybe even my sister-in-law if she and my brother get their shit together and finally get married.”

“Were you two close?” I ask as he turns onto the road leading to the house.

He winces but nods. “Yeah. Not as close as Theo was with her. In the past year, we drifted apart, though.”

“Why’s that?”