Page 141 of The Art of Exiley

My breathing is unsteady as I look into his eyes. His guard is down, and I see the boy I met in Italy. Not the prodigy master who’s younger than all his colleagues and working twice as hard to prove himself, but the passionate boy with a sweet tooth who craves connection, sees the wonder in everything, and is willing to open his mind to different perspectives.

Iknowhim. And he knows me. We have always understood each other.

“Michael…” But I don’t have the words to express any of my jumbled thoughts.

“I missed you,” he says, voice tight. He strokes my cheek, and my breath catches. His eyelids are heavy, his pupils wide, and when instinct has me tilting my face up to his, he leans to meet me. Our noses brush, then hesitantly our lips. Michael cups my face in his hands as he kisses me, soft and sweet and tender.

I’m kissing Michael. Michael is kissing me.

“I’ve thought about this so many times,” he breathes between kisses. My lips part, and his tongue slides against mine.

Me too, I want to say, but I’ve lost my ability to form words, so I say it with my kisses instead.I think about you all the time. You mean so much to me. The thought of not seeing you again was tearing me apart.

I grasp his shirt as the kiss deepens and grows more urgent. And then he’s pushing me up against his desk, his body pressing into me. He buries his hands in my hair, the remains of my braid crown coming undone.

There’s a twisting inside me that pulls everything tight like tuned guitar strings.

Scratch the dragon ride; this is the most breathtaking, wondrous, and terrifying experience of my life.

Michael hoists me onto his desk, papers scattering. His kisses travel to my neck, and he murmurs my name against my skin. I slide my hands into his hair and pull his face back to mine, my teeth nipping and sucking at his bottom lip.

His hands move down my back, lower, his fingers press into my curves through my jeans, and I swallow his strangled moan. My legs wrap around his waist, and as I press against him, I can feel how much he wants me.

Everything about this feels so right.

But how can it ever work while I’m lying to him? And if I tell him the truth, I’ll surely lose him.

My momentary hesitation causes Michael to still. His breath is ragged as he slides his hands up to my waist and gruffly whispers into my ear, “We shouldn’t be doing this.” His breath hits my neck in hot gasps as I feel him trying to get control over his body.

“Yes, we definitely should,” I say, pulling him close and resting my cheek in the hollow of his throat. I feel his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows,and I turn just enough to be able to press my lips against it, then my tongue. I feel the vibrations of his groan.

Please stop not kissing me.

But he gently pushes my legs from his waist and peels away from me. A rush of cool air steals the warmth of his now absent touch.

“Ada—” But Michael’s words are swallowed by a gasp of pain as he clutches his stomach. He lifts his shirt, and we both watch mesmerized as letters form on the bare skin of his abdomen.

“Gravdammit, Ari!” he chokes. Michael’s skin is reddened and swollen as the letters continue to form. His teeth clench with obvious agony.

When it’s clear what the inverted letters say, all the color drains from his face.

They have Hilde.

What? My blood chills.

Of course. Kor told me that they’d found another universal blood donor. I slide off the desk to my feet. How is that people I love keep harming other people I love? I take a deep breath. No, they won’t harm her.

Michael looks up at me with complete and utter hopelessness. “I warned her. I… I can’t help her.” He runs both hands through his hair and clutches his scalp.

But maybe I can help her. The Atlas is down, and Kor is detained here on the island, but I can use Georgie’s computer to call Mom.

“Ada, I’m so sorry. I know the timing… I have to go.”

“I understand.”

He gives me an awkward hug, rushes to his desk to retrieve something from the center drawer, and then hastens out of the room.

I take a moment to fix my hair, straighten my clothes, and have a total mental freakout about the fact that I just made out with Michael. Then I follow him out and head to my apartment.

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