Chapter 20
Temptation of the TakenTwenty
The warmth of the Los Angeles sun raining down on Kadence made her feel all happy and fuzzy, teaming that with the fact that she was currently at Disneyland with EXO and the rest of the staff and she was having trouble wiping the grin off her face. Her and Yoonhee had spent the day following the group around and taking in all the sights, occasionally exchanging words with the boys when the fans weren’t being too demanding.
“Jie jie, you haven’t been on any rides with us yet. Let’s go on that one,” Luhan urged, tugging at her sleeve. Kadence’s eyes grew wide as she looked up at the tower before them, screams of the current patrons filling the air.
“Nah uh, no way. I don’t do big scary rides,” she refused, shaking her head and trying to wriggle out of his grip, only to bump into Wu Fan. He looked down at her with a playful smile on his face, pointing off to the side.
“What about that one instead? We can hold your hands if you like,” he suggested and Luhan nodded along furiously, pulling her sleeve once more. Her hesitation caused the shorter boy to give her a pleading look and she felt herself giving in. She simply nodded and he let out a shriek, now taking her hand and dragging her towards the line. The others followed closely behind, chattering excitedly as they joined the queue. Kadence chewed her lip as they moved up; it wasn’t a terrible ride, just a lot of up and down through water channels, but she simply wasn’t a fan of rides.
“Relax Kay, you have six strong men looking after you,” Wu Fan murmured quietly from behind and she tried her best to suppress the shivers. Glancing back she raised an eyebrow at him, placing her hands on her hips.
“Really? I don’t see any.”
“Oh burn, you at least have me Kay,” Yoonhee interrupted as she sidled up next to them and the pair turned back to face the front, giggling at a now frowning Wu Fan. Eventually their turn came and they all clambered into the round buoy that would take them around the circuit. They all tried to ignore the cameras that were constantly pointed at them by the fans, laughing and joking between themselves instead.
At the end of it Kadence had to admit she enjoyed herself, even if she had let out a squeal at being sprayed with water. As she attempted to retie her hair she at least took consolidation in the fact that the other boys and Yoonhee were also drenched, laughing at Wu Fan’s freak out over his hair. Having decided that a break was called for, both to dry off a bit and find some food, everyone regrouped and headed to the nearest appealing stall that provided seating.
“Okay, this beauty needs a bathroom break,” she announced as everyone began to debating what to buy, excusing herself as she headed to a toilet block nearby. Attempting to fix her hair and any smudged make up a bit better she soon gave up, realising that the drowned rat look would have to do. With a small sigh she gazed at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much, and the day off to relax from all the stresses of helping to organise SMTown was doing wonders. She felt great both inside and out, and with a final squeeze to wring out her shirt she left the bathroom.
Stepping out she found Wu Fan was heading there himself, pulling a face at him as she approached. She expected to walk on by him, but as she passed she felt a hand wrap around her wrist, halting her steps. Glancing up she shot him a quizzical look and he smiled at her.
“You look really happy today Kay,” he started and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes playfully at him.
“Why thank you Wu Fan, I didn’t realise I looked unhappy every other day,” she teased, her good mood evident and it was his turn to shoot her an unimpressed look. He glanced around them, ensuring no fans had followed him this far, and stepped in closer. Immediately Kadence sobered, wondering what he was doing.
“Haven’t I told you before what using that name does to me?” he questioned, his voice almost dangerously low and all the redhead could manage to do was nod. Letting out a curse, he turned his head away, releasing her arm to run a hand through his damp hair and let out a sigh. “Why do you always do this to me?”
“Do what?” Kadence asked, wondering what he was going to rant on about this time. Butterflies enveloped her stomach as she remembered the first time he had accused her of doing something.
“Make me second guess and take back my decisions,” he started and she swallowed thickly. “I told myself I wouldn’t do anything, but I’ll be damned if you haven’t been all I’ve thought about in the past few days. And seeing that smile on your face all day today is driving me insane.”
“Um, I’m sorry?”
“Stop saying sorry for stuff that isn’t really your fault,” he said, shaking his head and chuckling lightly. Kadence glanced away and he once again looked around himself for any signs of fans, before cupping her jaw in his hand. “Perhaps I just need to stop resisting so much.”
Again his lips were on hers, though this time it wasn’t nearly as demanding. Although she felt he could quite easily back her against the wall if he wanted, he kept it slow, as if trying to properly take her in. When he pulled back she had to take a moment to catch her breath, clinging to him to steady herself. His hands supported her and he seemed reluctant to let her go when she stepped away.
“As much as I would love to stand here and repeat this over and over, you should probably go to the bathroom before you wet yourself,” she murmured, still stunned and he chuckled, shaking his head. “...You didn’t actually need the bathroom did you?”
“Guilty as charged,” he answered, his grin growing and she hit him playfully. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you think you could manage to get Yoonhee out of your room this evening so I can visit? I don’t want to kiss you and then only see you at work.”
“I could probably arrange something, as long as you don’t plan to take advantage of me,” Kadence agreed coyly, holding a hand up as he went to oppose the very thought of that. With a grin she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I’ll be waiting, for now though you should probably actually make it look like you went to the toilet. I’ll head back out.”
Letting his hand drop, she headed back out into the open, wondering if anybody would be able to tell the difference in her. If she had been happy before she was absolutely ecstatic now and as she made her way over to Yoonhee she couldn’t help skipping. The Korean raised an eyebrow at her as she sat down, clearly asking what had happened.
“I’ll tell you everything when we’re alone. Speaking of, you’re going to have to clean out of the hotel room tonight; I need to have a very serious discussion with a certain leader,” Kadence whispered with a wink and Yoonhee let out a gasp, followed by laughter. Joining in Kadence couldn’t help but finally feel like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Despite the fact that things were sure to be difficult she could finally stop telling herself she was doing something she shouldn’t. Instead, she felt she was doing something very right.
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Well here we have it, the last chapter of Temptation of the Taken. I want to thank each and every one of you (This actually has quite a few subscribers) for following me in this journey, and hopefully sticking with me despite gaps between updates. I wish to give a special shout out to Adee who has faithfully commented on every chapter I've posted, thank you so so much for your kind words and motivation.
Hopefully I'll be able to get started on something new, I have a couple of ideas I'm toying with, I'm just unsure of which to post. Thank you again and I love you all. I hope you have enjoyed this. :)
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