Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
“He almost got me!”
“Almost,” Justice agrees. “But that’s just a scratch.”
I narrow my eyes. His indifference is unacceptable, both professionally and personally. I know better than to think someone I hooked up with mid-air is going to be the love of my life, but he could at least try to keep me slightly safe.
“You really don’t care if you get me, or Tessie, or Obigor killed, do you? It’s all about getting what you want, using us as tools, and then leaving when it’s all over.”
“It had to feel real, Sally.”
I gasp and draw back a foot before lunging forward again, my finger pointed against his chest. “Don’t you ever use that name audibly. Or inaudibly,” I say.
Tessie is laughing, which really pisses me off. I pretend as much as I can not to have a first name. Sally is just so… so many things I do not want to identify with. Old-fashioned, feminine, delicate, wholesome. I wish I had been called something with more edge. Sally is the sort of name that makes a girl desperate to prove herself. Maybe it made me tougher than I’d otherwise be. Whatever. I don’t want to hear it coming out of this guy’s mouth.
“You have to stay here until morning,” he says, changing the subject, or more likely, ignoring me. “Rage has your scent, and he will come back for you. Nowhere will be safe for you tonight besides this place.”
He has the whole night to hunt for me, and he’s pissed. He’s going to be limited with his hands still cuffed together, but he has already proven he’s plenty dangerous that way.
“If he goes to my apartment and hurts my books…”
Justice looks very confused. “What do you care about books when your life is at stake?”
“What do you care about my life when you were dangling me like a fucking…”
“You weren’t harmed,” he growls. “You have a scratch.”
“A scratch that’s probably infested with mutated bacteria from the claws of someone who uses them to murder people.”
“Aww! You two are cute! You know, I always wondered what kind of guy you could possibly end up in a relationship with, and a mutated moth monster man is not what I thought of, but it makes sense.”
Damn Tessie and her incredible unbothered-ness in this moment.
“I will clean the wound,” he says. “Because you are a baby.”
“Fuck you, buddy!”
He laughs. He was joking. He has kind of a twisted sense of humor. I wonder how many other jokes of his I missed.
“Come to my room,” he says. “I have antiseptic and bandaging.”
I want to see his room. He saw my private sanctum sanctorum, it is only fair that I should get to intrude upon his, though it doesn’t have quite the same vibe when you’re invited.
I leave Tessie dangling, apparently unconcerned by her predicament. I don’t know what exactly is going on there, but I do know we are going to have a lot to talk about when this is over.
“Uh.”
The next room, Justice’s room, is empty. It has a bedroll, the kind that soldiers use on training exercises, and a med kit. Literally nothing else. Fortunately for me, I need what’s in the med kit.
“You talked about how weird my place was, and this is yours?”
“This is a room I use to sleep,” he says. “The rest of the place accommodates any other needs I have. I don’t need anything else in here.”
“That’s my exact philosophy. I think you were projecting your weirdness onto me. Is that what you need? You need me to be weird like you?”
“Maybe I do,” he says gruffly.
Just like that, the mood shifts. There’s suddenly something intimate in the air, a release of pheromones, maybe. Or maybe it’s just the chemistry of the argument. Whatever it is, some kind of heat is charging between us. I don’t trust it.
He turns to me and holds me.
“Stay still,” he says. “I need to get all this scary mutant bacteria out of your little boo boo.”
“Oh my god, you fucking jerk,” I laugh.
He draws me close and hitches me up his body so we can be properly eye to eye. I used to find his red gaze strange. Now it’s just kind of hot.
“I missed you,” he breathes against my mouth.
“Since yesterday?”
“I could not think of anything other than you. Even Rage occupied less of my mind than he should. You are a distraction. And I do not wish to remain distracted.”
“You’re hoping to fuck me out of your system? That it?”
It’s not typical for men to be this blunt about their desire to use my body to moderate their own emotional state. Usually men at least pretend to want something deeper. They talk about things like love and marriage, they dog whistle about family and kids. They think that’s what I want to hear, and so they lie to me ineffectively.