Page 39 of Séance

“Hey,” Rue replies, fiddling with the rings on her fingers. “Do I look okay?”

She runs her hands down her skinny jeans. My eyes immediately follow, tracing every delectable curve, and my hands itch to mimic the same path. If she were anyone else, I would say she did it on purpose to entice me, but her teal eyes are innocent and trusting when she peers up at me.

“You are perfect,” I answer truthfully, the words escaping before I have a chance to filter them. I shuffle awkwardly but can’t look away from the vision of her standing before me. Her hair is once more in bouncy curls that invite me to sink my hands into the strands.

Whatever makeup she uses is minimal but effective. Her dark lashes make her teal eyes pop, but it’s the red lipstick that draws my eyes to her pouty mouth, and it’s all I can do not to lean forward and steal a taste.

I step back, putting a little more distance between us, trying to remember what we had planned. “The market!” I mentally groan, rolling my eyes at myself, then I turn toward the door and open it before I do something else stupid. “Ready to go?”

She pauses before exiting, looking up at me with a gentle smile. “If it helps, I’m nervous too. This will be my first time shopping.”

My mouth drops open as she sweeps out of the house. I lock the door and follow a little bemusedly, wondering what kind of life she lived if she’d never been grocery shopping. When she heads toward the car, I skip ahead and open the door with a flourish.

With a bright smile, she slips into the seat, and I gently close it after her before hurrying around to the other side. I fasten my seat belt, pausing when I notice she fumbles to grab her own belt to copy me.

What the fuck?

Has she truly been locked away where such a simple ride is foreign to her?

I grip the steering wheel, struggling to control my rage. “Why don’t we put on some music for the ride?”

I pull out my phone, open the app, then lean toward her. She watches me carefully as I slowly flip through my playlists. Classical rock from the nineties soon spills through the speakers. “You can search through the songs and switch it by just pressing this button.”

She nods like I’m telling her the secrets of the universe. I would never hand my phone over to anyone else, but I weirdly trust her. If she wants to snoop, I’m fine with that. For the next five minutes, bits and pieces of different songs play, then she types something into the phone, and seventies rock music fills the car.

With a smile, she hands the phone back to me. “This is one of my favorite playlists.”

My eyebrows shoot up, then I smile, slightly relieved by her knowledge. My imagination was getting the better of me for a moment. “Hicks listens to the oldies too.”

We ride in silence for the next minute before she sighs and turns toward me. “Ask me.”

“What?” I glance at her from the corner of my eye, not taking my attention off the road.

“You’re obviously dying to ask me something.” She rests her hands primly in her lap. “Ask me.”

My curiosity gets the best of me, and I confess to what’s been bothering me. “You have a favorite playlist, but never owned a phone. You are familiar with computers, but you’ve never been grocery shopping. You look out the window like it’s a foreign country. You are covered in bruises. You moved in with your nan without a single belonging to your name. You are acontradiction, innocent but cynical at the same time. Who are you, Rue?”

She tilts her head to the side, not shying away from my question. While she appears calm and collected, I don’t think she realizes she’s twisting her rings around her fingers. “I won’t lie to you and give you some bullshit answer. Truthfully, I don’t know who I am yet. I’m learning that myself. I’m…just me.”

She wilts in her seat, her gaze dropping, and I don’t like the way she mentally retreats. I reach over, lightly placing my hand over hers and squeezing it gently. When her gaze snaps up to mine, I smile gently. “I happen to like what I see. You don’t have to talk about your past until you’re ready. Until then, I look forward to getting to know you better. Maybe we can do it together?”

Her smile is blinding, and she twists her hand until she’s gripping mine tightly. “I think I’d like that.”

“Me too,” Jameson says, popping up from the back seat like a fucking jack-in-the-box.

Rue yelps, and I jerk so badly that I nearly drive us off the road. Only my quick reflexes save us from driving into the ditch. I slam on the brakes, ignoring the blare of horns from behind us, and pull over.

I twist in my seat, ready to crawl into the back seat and beat the shit out of the fucker. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I heard you guys were going shopping, and I thought I would help.” James leans back with a smirk, effectively removing himself from my reach, then slips his hands behind his head with a confidence that I envy.

I bite back a growl before it can escape. The slippery little fucker is lying, but I know from experience that I won’t be able to beat the answer out of him. The only way he’s going to talk is if he wants to talk. Narrowing my eyes, I huff in annoyance. “You’ve come to play babysitter.”

It’s almost ironic that they would send the man whore to chaperone us.

His eyes widen in genuine surprise, and he immediately shakes his head. “You don’t need a chaperone. You would never do anything Rue didn’t want. I honestly came with you to run interference. Rue shouldn’t be out with only one protector. If we run into trouble, you will need me.”

I reluctantly nod in acknowledgment, because he’s one hundred percent right. While I would love to thump my chest and say I could protect her myself, experience says otherwise.

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