Kai's POV
I was just on my way to report in—nothing unusual. Coffee in hand, decent weather, world not ending yet.
And then I saw it.
A blur.
A very small, very fast blur.
"IS THAT—?"
Yes.
Yes, it was Ray.
Running like her life depended on it. Full-on sprinting down the hallway, hair a mess, barefoot, face red like she'd just wrestled with a thousand sins and lost every round.
She zipped past me like a comet, muttering something that sounded a lot like, "I'M NEVER RECOVERING FROM THIS," and disappeared around the corner.
I blinked.
Then turned.
And nearly dropped my coffee.
Because there, casually leaning against the doorway of the one room no one dares breathe near, was Sebastian Blake. The Sebastian Blake. Mafia boss. Silent reaper. Heart of cold steel.
Wearing nothing but a towel.
A towel.
That's it. That's all.
Hair damp. Muscles carved like marble. Eight-pack glistening from the steam. The man looked like the cover of a cologne ad called "Death Wish."
And the worst part?
He was smiling.
Actually smiling.
What the hell did I just witness?
I mean, sure, I've always known Ray was different. She poked at him without dying. She yapped like sunshine in human form. She even called him Seb and lived to tell the tale.
But this?
This was something else.
I stared for a second too long.
I'm only human, okay?
Then I shook myself, physically slapping my own cheek. "Get it together, Kai," I muttered. "Snap out of it. That is a warlord in a towel. Not your Roman Empire."
He finally noticed me, raising one eyebrow like the bastard knew exactly what I was thinking.
I cleared my throat. "Rough morning?"
He smirked. Smirked.
"You could say that."
"You look like a shampoo commercial for violence."
"She tripped over her own feet. Fell on me. Screamed. Ran away."
"Uh-huh."
"Touched the towel."
"Sebastian, please."
He went back inside. Door clicked shut. Like nothing happened.
I stood there, sipping my now-forgotten coffee, staring at the empty hallway like I'd just seen a unicorn gallop past.
"This house is cursed," I muttered.
And then, "I'm so telling everyone."