Chapter 300: Familiar stranger pt 2
By the time we reached the parking lot, my feet felt like they were moving through wet cement.
I made for the driver’s side of my car without thinking, fumbling for the door handle.
"Sir... no," Sarah’s voice cut through, firm but still laced with that respectful edge.
Her hand caught my arm before I could duck inside.
"I’m fine," I muttered, swatting her away as I patted my pockets for the keys.
She didn’t wait for me to find them.
She stepped right into my space, her hands moving over my jacket, down the sides of my pants... searching until the keys jingled in her hand.
"What the hell... "
"I’m not letting you drive like this," she said, pocketing them before I could grab them back. "Get in the back seat."
I scowled but the fight wasn’t in me anymore. My body sagged against the car, and she guided me to the back, her hand at my elbow.
I slumped into the seat, head leaning against the glass.
The next thing I knew, the world was passing in dark, blurred streaks. My eyelids dragged shut. The car’s motion lulled me into that heavy, half-dead haze.
When I blinked again, she was dragging me out into colder air. My feet scraped across smooth marble. An elevator swallowed us, humming softly, the floor numbers glowing one after the other.
We stopped. A hallway. Then a door I vaguely recognized.
"Passcode?" she asked.
I mumbled it without thinking. The keypad beeped, the door unlocked, and we were inside my place. My place... though right now, it felt too big, too silent, too hollow.
She pulled me through the dim living room toward the couch. My head throbbed in that deep, pounding way that told me I was far gone. My mouth was dry enough to sandpaper itself.
I sank down heavily, my vision pulling at the edges, threatening to drag me under. Somewhere past the haze, I heard her footsteps retreat, then the distant hiss of a faucet turning on.
But my mind... it wasn’t here.
It was back in that video. Back on that rooftop.
Back watching Aria... her mouth against Sylas’s like she’d forgotten how to breathe without him.
And I hated him.
God, I hated him.
But her?
She’d been hurting me for weeks, hiding behind her walls, pushing me out inch by inch... and then this?
This was the knife she didn’t even bother to twist because she knew it would stay in me anyway.
What were they doing now? After that kiss?
Talking?
Laughing?
...or worse?
The thought burned in my chest like acid.
Her footsteps drew close again. "Here. You need water."
I turned my head away. "Leave."
"Please, sir... just drink. You’ll dehydrate."
"Leave, Sarah."
Instead, she knelt beside me, pressing the cool rim of the glass to my lips.
The proximity made my skin crawl... not because it was her, but because it wasn’t Aria.
I took it, just to get her to back away. Drank all of it in one go, the water doing nothing for the ache under my ribs.
I pushed to my feet, muttering, "Thanks for helping me. You can go now... "
The room tilted hard. My knee buckled, and she reached to steady me.
"Don’t." My voice came out sharp. I didn’t like being touched. Not by her. Not by anyone who wasn’t Aria.
But Aria wasn’t here.
She was probably still with him.
I stumbled toward the kitchen, gripping the counter like it was the only thing tethering me to gravity. My mind clawed at the image... her legs tangled with his, her mouth on his skin... until I wanted to rip the thought out of my skull.
I twisted the tap and splashed cold water onto my face, but it didn’t help.
Didn’t clear anything.
Her voice was somewhere behind me, low and persistent, but it blurred into background noise.
Because in my head, I was still on that rooftop.
Still watching her kiss someone else like I’d never existed.
Her voice kept threading into the edges of my mind. Not quite cutting through, but not fading either.
"Sir... you should rest. Come on."
I stayed hunched over the sink, water dripping from my hairline, my hands braced on the counter like I could hold my thoughts down by force.
Rest?
I didn’t need rest. I needed to forget.
Forget her mouth on him.
Forget that I’d let her get far enough away to even imagine kissing someone else.
"Kael."
The way Sarah said my name wasn’t timid, but it wasn’t overstepping either. Just steady. Patient. Like she was used to talking people down.
I straightened slowly, feeling the weight in my chest shift into something hotter. Heavier. My pulse thudded behind my ears.
Somehow, my feet were moving.
The marble floor gave way to plush carpet. The room tilted in quiet shadows, the faint city light spilling through the glass walls of my bedroom.
I didn’t remember inviting her to follow me, but she was there. Always just behind my shoulder.
"Let’s get you lying down," she said quietly.
I sank onto the mattress without thinking, my head heavy, my breath catching against the heat building under my skin.
Then her hands were at my shoulders.
Tugging at my shirt.
Cool fingers brushing my collarbone as she said, "You’ll sleep better without this."
I let out a slow breath, my eyes narrowing on the ceiling. The heat inside me spiked, restless and dangerous, like a fuse being lit.
I wasn’t thinking about Sarah.
I was thinking about Aria... her body pressed to mine, her mouth tasting like all the things I couldn’t have anymore.
The fabric slid up over my head, and my skin prickled in the cooler air.
"Lie back," she murmured.
For a moment, I didn’t move. The room felt too still. My own thoughts too loud.
I could feel the recklessness creeping in... sharp, molten, begging for somewhere to go.
Something wasn’t right.
The heat in my body wasn’t just from the liquor anymore.
It was thicker. Heavier.
It crawled up the back of my neck and spread across my chest like someone had lit a match under my skin.
My breathing felt too slow, but my pulse was pounding like I’d just run a sprint.
Every beat thudded in my temples, loud enough to drown out the faint hum of the city beyond the glass walls.
I swallowed, but my throat was dry.
Too dry.
That was the first thing.