Page 102 of 10 Days to Ruin

My phone buzzes with Gina’s victory emojis.Did he puke? Did he cry? Did we win?

I bite back my reply as Sasha steps to the car and opens the door for me.Worse,I want to tell her.He almost acted human.

32

SASHA

“Put the gloves on.”

“Aw, c’mon, Sash, I really don’t feel like?—”

“Quit being a coward and put on the gloves, Feliks. I need to punch something and your face is the closest target I can reach.”

Feliks sighs, but he turns to the rack of gym equipment, plucks down his dusty pair of boxing mitts, and starts tugging them on.

I’m already laced up and ready. I’m still wearing the suit pants I wore to that fucking ridiculous Lamaze class, though I’ve stripped off the shirt and cast it aside, leaving my torso bare to the cold air whistling through the vents.

The gym is cold as a morgue, which is how I prefer it. Reminds me of the early days. Of the woods.

I bounce from foot to foot. “If you take any longer?—”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” protests Feliks. “Fuck, impatience is not a virtue of yours.”

He’s not wrong. But if he’d seen my performance tonight, he might change his tune.

For sixty minutes, I was as Zen as it fucking gets. Patience oozed from every pore. As I cradled Ariel in my lap. Cupped that absurd prosthetic baby in my arms. Breathed in and out, the scent of Ariel filling my lungs with every inhale and stupid, stricken dreams of this being real rushing out with every exhale.

That’spatience.

“Alright. Ready. Ready as I’ll ever be, at least.”

“‘Bout fucking time.”

I duck under the ropes and start shuffling around the ring, testing the air with jabs and uppercuts. I need to move and set these thoughts elsewhere.

I tried leaving them at Ariel’s doorstep when I dropped her off after the class. She lingered on the sidewalk for a moment after I helped her out of the car. Almost like an invitation.

I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d taken her up on it.

Want to come inside for a sec?

Just a second. It’d be a bad idea to stay longer than that.

Of course,she would agree.Very bad idea. Can’t have that.

Then we would have fucked like rabbits ‘til the dawn rose.

That’s how it goes in my head, at least. The fact that those fantasies are bubbling right below the surface, ready to surge out the second they spy a crack in my mental dam, is troubling. I don’t even want to know what might be happening in Ariel’s mind.

None of this is as simple as it was supposed to be. What ever happened toSeduce. Marry. Control?That was a simple, three-step process. Damn near foolproof.

The only fool left anymore is me.

I drop to the ground just in time to miss Feliks’s fist coming to knock my skull off its moorings.

“Blyat’,youmudak?—”

“You’re the one who wanted to get feisty. Don’t start throwing a hissy fit just because I got the ball rolling.”

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