I’d set an alarm for five thirty am and I got out of his bed without a single snooze, flinging his comforter across the room before making a beeline for his closet. I threw his shit everywhere before marching out the door, walking straight past him where he slept on the couch like he was trying to spread his body over the entirety of it. His leg was hooked over the back of it while his other one dangled down off of the cushions and his hand was shoved firmly into his boxers. He was covered in bruises and cuts from his fights yesterday and I smiled darkly as I opened the freezer, took out Saint’s chilled bottle of vodka and strode toward him, standing behind the couch so I could avoid his swinging fists when he woke.
“Wakey wakey asshole,” I sang, twisting the cap off and pouring the vodka directly onto the biggest cut on his chest.
Kyan roared in anger as he woke and I splashed more of it on him so his cuts burned before turning and running to put the dining table between us. He leapt over the back of the couch with rage written into his features and I laughed as I placed the bottle down, a dare in my eyes. My pulse beat solidly against my throat as my breathing grew heavier.
“You’re gonna pay for that,” he growled.
“What are you going to do, Kyan?” I asked airily as he strode to the other side of the table, surveying me across it with a deadly scowl. My heart pounded out of rhythm, but I didn’t care anymore. I wasn’t frightened of him. I wanted to see how far I could push him before he snapped. “Leave me out in a thunderstorm in nothing but my uniform? Invade my privacy? Chain and collar me like a dog?”
“The last one sounds about right,” he snarled, then threw himself across the table, his arm outstretched to grab me as he knocked the vodka flying. It smashed into a thousand shards and I shrieked in alarm, just managing to miss being caught by him as I raced for the door.
I shoved my feet into my sneakers, making it outside a second before Kyan came charging after me barefoot.
I fled into the trees, a wild laugh escaping me as I put some distance between us.
I made it to a tall pine with low hanging branches and clambered up onto the nearest one. Kyan’s fingers grazed my ankle as he tried to get hold of me and I kicked out, my foot impacting with soft flesh and making him grunt as I pulled myself higher and higher. I could climb trees like a damn monkey. I’d been doing it since I was a kid and Dad had actively encouraged it.
I glanced down to find Kyan heaving himself up after me, moving at a frightening speed. Dammit, I guess I’m not the only good tree climber around here.
Adrenaline slid through my limbs as I climbed, sensing him gaining on me below.
When I was closing in on the top of the tree and my breathing was growing ragged, I chanced another look down, finding him pulling himself onto the branch I’d just vacated. But they were getting thinner and weaker. He couldn’t chase me forever. He wasn’t light enough to make it into the top of the canopy.
I pulled myself up three more branches before I knew it was getting unsafe to carry on even for me. But I climbed up onto another branch which probably wasn’t strong enough to hold me anyway. That meant it definitely wasn’t strong enough to hold Kyan if he dared to follow.
He growled as he dragged himself onto the branch beneath me, gazing up at me like I was a bird in a net he wanted to eat for breakfast.
“I can stay up here all day,” I taunted.
“That so, baby?” He smirked then dropped down to sit on the branch, resting his back to the tree trunk. “Well I can stay up here for a whole week.”
A cracking noise sounded and I glanced down at the branch supporting my weight with my throat thickening. Oh shit.
I looked around for another one to move onto, but the only way was down.
Kyan frowned up at me. “Come down here.”
“No,” I snapped, another crack sounding. Shit shit shit.
I gritted my teeth, looking to the next tree over. It wasn’t that far. I could make the jump, then I could race down the branches and reach the ground before Kyan did.
“Don’t you dare,” he warned and I glanced down as he shifted back upright like he was about to try and grab me.
I tiptoed to the edge of the branch as another splintering crack ripped through the air.
I can totally make it.
“Tatum!” he roared, a note of actual concern in his voice as I leapt forward, throwing caution to the wind as I aimed for a wide branch a few feet down on the neighbouring pine.
I fell through the air, my heart soaring into my throat, my veins humming with life. A laugh exploded from my chest as I landed on the thick branch, stumbling only once before turning back to look up at Kyan, bracing myself on a branch above my head. His eyes were wide and his muscles tense. He’d moved right to the edge of the branch as if he’d been about to jump after me.
“Oh dear, baby. Were you scared for wittle old me?” I taunted, then I ducked down, dropping at
