THIS WAS MADNESS

SIENNA ~

I stayed up late on purpose today.

Most of the team had cleared out after the afternoon session. The hallways were quiet. The only sounds left were the distant hum of the ice plant and the occasional slam of a door somewhere deeper in the building. I told myself I was finishing the weekly recovery reports. The truth was simpler. If I left at the normal time I might run into him in the parking lot, and I was not ready for another one of those looks he kept giving me when no one else was watching.

I had spent the entire day avoiding him.

When he walked into the weight room I found a reason to be in the kitchen. When he came by the office with a question about his macros I sent the answer through Cole. Every time I felt him nearby I moved in the opposite direction. It was exhausting. It was also the only way I knew how to keep the line from disappearing completely.

It almost worked.

Until the knock on my door at 7:14 p.m.

I knew it was him before I even looked up.

“Come in,” I said.

Kai stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He was still in his training gear, black shorts and a faded Vipers t-shirt that clung to his chest from the leftover sweat. His hair was damp. He looked unfairly hot for someone who had spent hours in the gym. That fact alone made me want to tell him to leave.

“You’ve been avoiding me today,” he said.

No greeting. No soft lead-in. Just the truth, delivered in that low voice that always made my stomach tighten.

I kept my eyes on the laptop screen. “I’m working.”

“You’ve been working in every room I’m not in since this morning.”

I finally looked at him. “What do you want, Kai?”

He walked closer and stopped on the other side of my desk. Close enough that I could smell the clean soap he used and the faint trace of cold air that always seemed to cling to him.

“I want five honest minutes,” he said. “No staff walking by. No Maya. No pretending.”

“That’s a bad idea.”

“Probably.” He rested both hands on the back of the chair across from me but didn’t sit. “I’m still asking for it.”

I should have said no. I should have told him to leave and locked the door behind him. Instead I closed the laptop and leaned back in my chair.

“Talk.”

He was quiet for a few seconds, like he was choosing the words carefully.

“I hate the way we have to act when other people are around,” he said. “I hate walking past you in the hallway and having to look at you like you’re just another staff member. I hate that my sister can sit in this office and talk about me like I’m still sixteen and you have to sit there and act like none of this is happening.”

My throat felt tight. “That’s the reality, get used to it.”

“I know.” His eyes stayed on mine. “I also know you feel it too even if you deny it. You can keep avoiding me all day, but you’re not as good at hiding it as you think.”

Heat crawled up the back of my neck. “Don’t do that Kai.”

“Don’t what? Tell the truth?” He gave a small, humorless laugh. “I’m twenty-two, Sienna. You’re thirty-two. You’re my sister’s best friend. You work for the team that pays me. Your ex is a big problem I know. I get every single reason this is a disaster. I’ve repeated them to myself every night this week.”

He stepped around the desk slowly, like he was giving me time to stop him. I didn’t.

“But none of those reasons change the fact of what I want to do to you,” he said, voice lower now. “And from the way you’ve been running in the opposite direction all day, I’m guessing you can’t stop either.”

I stood up because sitting suddenly felt like losing. The movement put us closer than I intended. Only a foot of space was left between us now.

“You need to stop saying things like that to me.”

“Why? Because it makes it harder for you to pretend you don’t want me to?”

“Because someone is going to hear you and believe something is going on.”

“No one is here.” He gazed at my face. “It’s just us.”

The air in the office felt heavier. I could see the faint scar on his jaw from a high stick last season. I could see the way his pulse moved at the base of his throat. Everything about him was too much and too close and too damn hot.

“I am trying so hard to do the right thing,” I said. The words came out quieter than I meant them to.

“I know you are.” His voice softened. “I’m just not sure the right thing is the same as the safe thing anymore, It's hard to play it safe with you.”

He lifted one hand and brushed his fingers along the side of my wrist. The touch was light. Barely there but it sent a shock straight up my arm.

I should have pulled away but I didn’t.

His fingers slid up to my elbow slowly and carefully, like he was waiting for me to stop him. When I stayed still he stepped closer until my back almost touched the edge of the desk.

“Tell me to leave,” he said.

I opened my mouth. But No sound came out.

Kai’s eyes dropped to my mouth. The look on his face turned darker, hungrier. He leaned in so slowly I had time to stop him three times over. I still didn’t.

His breath brushed my lips. My hands had somehow found the front of his shirt.

Then, the door handle turned.

We broke apart so fast I almost lost my balance. Kai took two full steps back. I spun toward the laptop and opened it like I had been working the entire time.

Cole stood in the doorway.

His eyes moved from me to Kai and back again. Whatever he saw made his expression go carefully blank.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“No,” I said at the same time Kai said, “I was just leaving.”

Kai didn’t look at me again. He walked past Cole and out into the hallway without another word. The door stayed open behind him.

Cole watched him go, then turned back to me. His voice was quiet.

“Be careful, Sienna.”

He left before I could answer.

I stood there with my hands braced on the desk, heart slamming so hard I could feel it in my throat. The place on my wrist where Kai had touched me still gave me bumps. No, I needed to stop this madness—this was insane.

My phone lit up on the desk.

One new message.

**Unknown number:**

You should really lock your office door next time.

The hallway cameras are very clear Sienna.*