King of Pride (Kings of Sin #2) by Ana Huang

My heart skipped, then sank. It was a great offer, but what did I know about starting a business and being an assistant? Nothing. I didn’t want to start another job only to fail miserably again. I’d be better off sticking to what I knew.

“How about this?” Alessandra said quickly. “I’ll email you the details, and you can think it over. I am looking to onboard someone soon, so if you can give me an answer within the next week or two, that would be great.”

After another beat of hesitation, I agreed.

I hung up and returned to the table, where I finished my lunch and relayed her offer to Kai. His eyebrows flew up when I mentioned Alessandra was starting her own business, but he didn’t express the same reservations I had about the job.

“You should accept,” he said. “Ale’s a good person, and working for her will almost certainly be better than any bartending gig in the city.”

“But I’ve never been a business assistant.” My stomach twisted. “What if I fuck it up and destroy her company before it even takes off?”

“You won’t.” As always, his steady, confident voice loosened some of the knots. “Have as much faith in yourself as you do others, Isa.”

I wish I could, but faith was easier when I didn’t have a hundred what-ifs tearing it apart.

Kai must’ve detected the turmoil raging inside me because he pushed back his chair and stood.

“No more work today,” he said, holding out his hand. “Let’s enjoy the island. I have something to show you.”

For the next four hours, Kai and I indulged in all the perks of having a secluded tropical island to ourselves. We snorkeled, rode Jet Skis, and luxuriated in waters so clear I could see the scales on the fish swimming around us. When the sun dipped toward the horizon, we dried off and took the scenic route back to the main house.

“This is the most cliché thing I’ve ever done,” I said. “A long, sunset walk on the beach? You might as well slap us on the cover of a honeymoon brochure and call us that generic couple.” A dreamy sigh drifted past my lips. “I love it.”

If it were any other man and any other island and any other sunset, I would’ve hated it. What was interesting about a walk? Nothing.

But this was Kai. Brilliant, gorgeous, thoughtful Kai, with the lazy half smiles and knowing eyes that saw parts of me even I couldn’t find. A deep golden glow drenched the island, lending it a dreamlike haze, and I was quite sure, in that moment, that there was absolutely nothing I would rather do than walk side by side with him.

“I had a feeling you would,” he said with one of those smiles I loved so much. I couldn’t believe I once thought he was stuffy and boring. Well, okay, I could believe it, but I’d since amended my opinion. “But I haven’t shown you the best part yet.”

“This isn’t the part where you whip out your dick and try to seduce me on the beach, is it?” I teased.

“Darling, if I wanted to seduce you on the beach, you’d already be screaming around my cock,” Kai drawled, his casual tone at odds with his dirty words.

Heat crawled over my cheeks and tugged at my stomach. “You have quite a high opinion of your skills.”

“It’s the inevitable outcome of sustained, raving feedback, I’m afraid.”

I wrinkled my nose and bumped my hip against his as we reached a rocky outcropping toward the end of the beach. “Egomaniac.”

Kai laughed. “I’ve been called worse.” He stopped at the largest rock. “We’re here.”

I stared dubiously at the weathered limestone formation. This was what he wanted to show me? It looked like every other beach rock. “Oh. It’s so, um, jagged.”

“Not the rock, love,” he said, his voice dry. “This.”

It was then that I noticed the carvings—the letters C+M etched on the side facing away from the ocean, inside a heart. It was the type of sweet, cheesy declaration one would expect to find in a high school bathroom, not a private island in the Caribbean.

“I found it a few years ago,” Kai said. “That was when my family bought the island. I don’t know who C and M are since they don’t match the initials of the island’s previous owners, but I like to think they’re living happily together somewhere.”

I brushed my fingers over the rough-hewn rock face. For some reason, the simple, heartfelt carvings made my heart twist. “Kai Young, a secret romantic. Who would’ve thought?”

“It’s the dinosaur erotica you gifted me for Christmas. It’s opened my eyes to a whole new world of romance.”

“Shut up.” I laughed, then paused. “Did you really read it?”

A grin stole over his lips. “You’ll never know.”

He still hadn’t said anything about my manuscript. At this point, I’d rather he forget all about it. If he thought it sucked, I didn’t want to know.

“I don’t know how old the carvings are, but they’ve lasted at least half a decade,” Kai said, his face sobering with contemplation. “They should’ve eroded by now. Whoever C and M are, they’ve left their mark.”

Like Kai, I hoped the mysterious couple was sipping mai tais and strolling the beach together somewhere in the world. Even if they weren’t, the carvings were an unexpected monument to the love they once had. Proof that, no matter what happened, there’d been a time and place where they loved each other so much they immortalized it in stone.