Page 18 of Strangers in Love

When I’d toldFreedom that I’d take care of everything, I hadn’t really thought that she’d end up having to stay in the hospital all week. She’d had her appendectomy not long after she’d arrived at the hospital, but there had been a couple complications with infection, but they’d been minor. Not enough for any major concern or even bad enough for us to have to postpone our return home. She would, however, have to go straight from the hospital to the airport tomorrow morning, which meant it was my responsibility to pack, turn in the room key, do all those sorts of things.

It’d been a strange week for me all the way around.

Since I hadn’t had Freedom to translate for me, I’d had to struggle my way through my classes, using what little Persian and Arabic I’d picked up whenever my students hadn’t been able to find the English word they’d wanted. There had been more than a few moments of laughter as communication disintegrated into hand gestures and poorly drawn pictures, but we’d all muddled through. I had a feeling that if it’d been at the beginning of our classes, things wouldn’t have gone as well, but it had happened the way it had, and it’d worked out well for all of us, even if it hadn’t been what I’d planned for the last week.

Honestly, I was proud of what I’d accomplished by myself, and I was looking forward to spending at least the first few hours of the trip back home telling Freedom all about it.

I bent over to check under the beds for anything I might have missed. The last thing I wanted was to tell Freedom how well I’d done, only to find out that I’d forgotten something. I was anxious enough about it that this wasn’t the first evening this week I’d spent checking every nook and cranny in the entire place for anything Freedom or I had left somewhere.

“Damn. I should’ve brought a camera.”

I jumped, cracking my head on the underside of the bunk hard enough to make my eyes water. I bit back a curse as I stood, my hand rubbing the spot that throbbed. Despite the pain, I fixed on a smile before turning to face Serle.

Ever since Monday, he’d been hovering around me like some sort of carrion bird, waiting for the right time to approach. I’d been annoyed at Freedom for how aggressive she’d been with him, sure that she’d just been overreacting, but the past few days had forced me to reconsider my previous opinion. He’d been everywhere I looked, watching me, and not even trying to hide it.

“You startled me.” I glanced at my fingers as I pulled my hand away from my head. No blood, just a bruise. “What time is your flight tomorrow?”

I wasn’t particularly interested in his travel plans, but I was determined to stay polite and professional unless he gave me a good reason not to be.

“I don’t leave until Saturday morning.” His gaze fell to my chest. “But since you’re leaving tomorrow, we should make the most of our time left together, don’t you think?”

I sighed. I should’ve seen this coming.

“Thank you for the offer, but I just want to get everything packed up and turn in early.” I put my hands on my hips, then realized I looked silly and tried crossing my arms. I wasn’t sure I looked any better, but I felt a little less exposed with my arms covering most of my chest from Serle’s gaze.

“You can’t be serious.” He took a couple steps toward me, his eyes narrowing. “You’ve been flaunting yourself all over the place, teasing me, flirting.”

My jaw dropped. Flirting? Teasing?Flaunting?

Inever.

“Ever since your sister left, I’ve been waiting for you to come to me, to make good on everything you’d been offering.” His eyes ran down my body and then back up again.

I was going to need an hour soak in boiling water to get the feel of his slimy gaze off me. That’d be the first thing on my list for what I wanted to do when I arrived home. A hot bath. My favorite satin camisole and short shorts. A clean, soft bed.

I’d gotten so caught up in my thoughts about what would happen after I got home that I didn’t notice Serle was even closer than before. As in close enough to reach out and touch me, which he was trying to do right this second.

I jumped backward without thinking and hit my head again. I barely noticed the spike of pain. I just wanted to get away from him, and I didn’t really care if he saw it. Freedom had been right. Serle was a creep, and I didn’t want creepy creep’s creepy hands anywhere near me.

“I think you should go.” I was surprised that my voice was still steady. “I just want to finish packing and go to bed.”

I knew the words were wrong as soon as they came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t take them back.

“That sounds like a good plan.” He licked his lips. “Except the part about me leaving. I think I’m going to take a seat and watch you pack, and then we’ll go to bed.” He grinned. “Make sure there’s plenty of bending over.”

Heat flooded my face. “That’s not what I meant. I need to do things. Here. By myself.”

He laughed, and I realized I’d done it again. Said something that could be taken…wrong.

“You need to go.” I side-stepped to put a little distance between us, not realizing that it actually put me farther from the door until I’d done it.

“No. I haven’t spent all this time trying to get past your bitch sister to have you not put out.” He stepped forward until we were only a foot apart. “I’m not going anywhere until I get what I’m owed.”

That was what did it. One single word and all my nervousness drained away.

“Owed?”

I straightened, even though I hadn’t realized I’d been hunching. Anger made me stronger, bolder. Well, anger and the righteous disgust I had for all those jerks who talked the same way Serle did.

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