Chaos didn't speak at first. He simply drove, the city lights slipping past like falling stars while Kashi tried to read the unreadable expression on his face.
It wasn't until he left the main roads behind, away from the buzzing nightlife and towering skyscrapers, that she realised they weren't heading anywhere familiar.
The car climbed a narrow, winding path until it finally came to a stop at a secluded overlook high above the city.
Chaos cut the engine.
Silence settled around them, broken only by the hum of cicadas and the distant murmur of the city below.
He stepped out, rounded the car and opened her door. His hand extended towards her.
"Come."
Kashi looked past him.
Just beyond the guardrail, a small table had been set beneath the open sky. Candles flickered beside two plates, and a bottle of wine rested nearby in the cool night air. No crowd. No cameras. No headlines. Just them, with the city glittering far below like scattered stars.
Chaos leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear. "The world can wait. Tonight, you're mine alone."
Kashi turned her head towards him. "That's creepy. Do you use that bullshit line on every woman you invite to dinner?"
Chaos blinked, genuinely caught off guard. "No." He straightened. "Just you."
Kashi smiled. "Doesn't suit you."
He led her towards the table.
"Thank goodness." Chaos grimaced. "Being corny is way out of my league."
That pulled a laugh from her.
Chaos drew out her chair, and Kashi sat. A waiter appeared almost soundlessly, poured the wine, then vanished with such efficiency he might as well have never existed.
Kashi glanced around. "This place is nice."
Chaos had already settled into the chair opposite her, posture relaxed despite the sharpness that never quite left him. At her words, he looked at her over the rim of his glass.
"Nice?" He took a sip. Almost amused. "I don't bring people here, Kashi. This isn't…" Chaos glanced around. " 'Nice.' " He set the glass down and leaned forward slightly.
The candles threw shifting light across the sharp planes of his face.
"This is mine," he said. "A place no one else touches. Now it's yours too."
The words settled between them, heavier than the mountain silence.
"You own this place," Kashi said, unsurprised.
"Mm."
She picked up her wine.
Chaos swirled his glass lazily. "Of course. Everything worth having becomes mine sooner or later."
Kashi stilled, the words he spoke sounded more like hers than his. Chaos was throwing her own philosophy back at her.
Different words. Same arrogance.
Kashi studied him for a moment. "Is there anything you want right now, Chaos?"
"You."
No hesitation.
Kashi drew in a breath. "You're playing with fire again."
"I've always liked fire."
"I keep telling you, no one would approve."
Chaos actually pouted. "You're just playing hard to get."
"Really?" Kashi rested her chin lightly against her hand. "Then tell me what it is, exactly, that you like about me enough to want me."
"There's a lot." Chaos shook his head. "It'll take all night."
Kashi lowered her gaze with a small smile. Just as she thought. There wasn't one specific thing. Nothing beyond the fact that she was Kashi Saints.
What else could there possibly be?
She wasn't kind. She wasn't gentle. She certainly wasn't the sort of woman people looked at and thought wife.
Ridiculous.
She shouldn't have expected anything different.
Kashi turned the wine slowly in her glass.
"I like your eyes," Chaos said.
Her hand stopped.
"The way you walk."
Kashi looked up.
Chaos was watching her now. "I always look," he admitted. "I like women who walk as though every step carries weight. Commanding. Like the floor should be grateful you stepped on it." His mouth curved.
"Enough to make me want to worship you."
Kashi stared at him.
"Your attitude," he continued. "My fiery lady." He leaned closer. "Do you scare me? Of course. I'd be a fool if I wasn't at least a little scared of you. But that makes it more fun. It's exactly why I'm here." A quiet laugh left him.
Kashi said nothing.
"I like your stubbornness." Chaos gaze stayed on hers. "Your cruelty. The way you look at people like they're beneath you. The way you take what you want and never apologise for it. The way you walk into a room and somehow make everyone else feel like they should leave."
Kashi lowered her glass carefully onto the table.
"I like that you don't pretend to be good," Chaos continued. "I like that you're selfish. Difficult. Vicious." His voice softened. "And somehow still beautiful while doing all of it."
He reached across the table and took her hand. His thumb brushed slowly over her knuckles.
"And I like that when you look at me, you don't see something that needs fixing."
Kashi stared at him.
Chaos's expression had lost its usual mockery. "So if you're asking what I like about you, Wildflower…" His eyes darkened. "Everything everyone else tells you to be ashamed of."
For a moment, Kashi had nothing to say. Then her lips curved. "You're insane."
"With you, Saints?" Chaos smiled. "Yes." He gave her hand a small squeeze. "So. Is that enough?"
Heat crept into Kashi's face. She looked away but Chaos caught it. That tiny reaction tugged somewhere beneath his ribs. He wanted to see it again.
That expression. That moment.
For him.
Only him.
"So, Kashi," he said, "if you tell me what you like, I'll be one step closer to being yours."
Kashi cleared her throat. "I like a lot of things. Books. Working..." She paused. "Guns."
Chaos smiled. "Classic hobbies. Anything else?"
"I like dogs" Her finger tapped softly against the table.
Chaos's eyes snapped towards her.
"Woof."
Silence.
Cold. Absolute fucking silence.
Neither moved.
Finally, Kashi slowly lowered her hand from the table. Her eyes narrowed as she looked away before he could see the smile threatening at the corner of her mouth.
Chaos smiled he noticed anyway.
You're shameless." Kashi shook her head.
"For you?" He shrugged. "Completely."
Kashi's mouth opened. Nothing came out.
Then—
"Pfft—" She broke. "Bwahahahaha!"
Chaos sat back while Kashi folded over the table, laughing.
"I—" She tried to breathe. "I can't believe—hahaha—you actually—" Another burst of laughter took her.
Chaos shrugged lazily.
All right. Perhaps he had overdone it. But still. Anything for his Wildflower.
What was one bark?
"If you want," he said solemnly, "I can play that role."
That made it worse. Kashi covered her mouth with one hand, waving the other at him helplessly.
The CEO of X Holdings. One of the most feared businessmen in the country.
Barking. For her. She couldn't. The sincerity behind it should not have made the situation funnier.
Unfortunately, it did.
Eventually, Kashi managed to pull herself together. Barely.
Chaos could still see the laughter threatening at the corners of her mouth. He looked wounded.
That almost set her off again.
Kashi bit the inside of her cheek and reached for her fork.
"Ahem."
Chaos waited.
"Your intentions…" She examined the fork as though it had suddenly become fascinating. "I'll consider them."
Chaos went still.
His composure cracked for only a moment, something hungry flashing through those icy blue eyes, he slowly set down his glass. "How soon?"
Kashi looked at him.
Chaos leaned back in his chair, never taking his eyes off her.
"I am a very impatient man."
His fingers traced idly around the rim of the glass.
The humour between them had faded and the air between them sharpened with it.