Page 25 of Unconditional

“Yeah, nah, I’m good.”

“Excuse me?”Jesus, he even sounded like a douche.

I chuckled throatily without any real humor.“I said,I’m good.If she wanted to talk to you, she would.Not like you’re even saved in her phone.”A dead lie, but it wasn’t like he’d know.I wanted to hurt someone, and if it had to be this stupid mother fucker’s feelings, so be it.

When he responded, some of his awkward demeanor was gone, replaced with blatant displeasure.“And who exactly areyou?”

Before I could answer, the door handle turned and it opened, Misely stepping into our room.She shut it gently behind her before turning to face me.I inspected her expression for the hatred I was sure had to be there, for the shame or the revulsion, maybe even fear—but there was none of that.She stared back at me with wide eyes that had cleared of all of their earlier misery, instead replaced with something that looked suspiciously like contentment.

When her sights landed on the phone I held to my ear, they narrowed, realizing it was hers with it's ridiculous glittering case.“Who are you—” she mouthed, but I began speaking, letting my lips pull into a wretched grin.

“I’m the guy who just had her out on her hands and knees in the snow.Thinking about doing it again, actually.”I pulled the device away despite the man on the other end immediately protesting and demanding answers.I hung up, turned on my heels and shut the bathroom door without saying a word to the woman who stood gaping at me.

It wasn’t morning time, so it would mess up my routine even further, but I started the shower anyway.Once I was no longer in the room to see the shock on her face, the satisfaction of creating discord between Misely and her alleged ‘friend’ vanished.The self-deprecation I’d felt only seconds before I’d answered her phone had come crashing back in full force.

So utterly disgusted with myself, I hadn't even taken the time to cuff her like I would have—like Ishouldhave—if for no other reason than to keep up appearances.But I just…couldn't.Before the water was even warm, I stepped in, bracing myself against the freezing cold.It was better than I deserved.

“Talon?”I hadn’t heard the bathroom door open.Jesus Christ, I hadn’t locked the bathroom door.I was losing my edge.

“What do you want, Blondie?”I couldn’t summon the venom.

Her silhouette was outlined through the shield of the shower curtain, and I watched as she stepped from foot to foot.There it was.What I had been waiting for.The nerves.The fear.

“Who was that on the phone?”

I forced out a sardonic snort.“What?Worried I told Mommy dearest how you like it?”

“No, I just—well, yeah, kind of.More like my boss or something.Who was it?”

I blinked back my surprise, trying to process how she could sound so calm.

“Just your little boyfriend.”

“Who?”There was no mistaking her confusion.So not a boyfriend then?“Brantley?”she asked, saying his name like a question.

I grunted, wishing she would leave me to my misery.She didn’t.She didn’t say anything else either.Squeezing my eyes shut, I ran the water over my face and tried to wash the guilt down the drain.I couldn't take it.

“Misely, I shouldn’t have touched you.”I could’ve punched myself.Why was I saying anything?I should’ve left it alone, let myself feel guilty and shameful forever.Let her keep me in her mind as a monster.I was a monster—

“What are you talking about?”Her words were sharp, laced with angry accusation.

Fuck it.I’d already dug myself a hole today.“In the woods.I shouldn’t have put my hands on you, I shouldn’t have—”

Cold air blasted my wet skin as she tore the shower curtain back, stepping inside the tub to join me.While I had been wallowing, she had been stripping.

And now I was gaping.Beautiful.So fucking beautiful from head to sparkly pink painted toes.Legs a mile long, a smooth toned belly with a glittering butterfly shaped stone pierced through her navel, and breasts I could wrap my hands around.A temptress.

“There is already plenty of shit you get to feel bad about.Plenty of things you have done wrong.”She growled, her blue-gray gaze hard.I swallowed, keeping myself as far from her as I could in the tiny space.“But this isn’t one of them.You gave me an out and I didn’t take it.Don’t apologize for that.You should know by now that I am not the kind of woman who goes down quietly.I know what I want and I take it.I wanted it.Ineededit.And now I want it again.”One of those perfectly manicured fingers poked into my chest forcefully as she stepped into my space, erasing the invisible line I’d drawn between us as our fronts brushed together.

Holding back a shudder, I murmured, “Are you sure, Blondie?”Closer still she pressed, the peaks of her nipples pressing into my skin.Her lips, still a deep maroon from the frigid cold outside, were parted.She tipped her chin once and whispered, “I shouldn’t be.I really shouldn’t.But I am.”Snaking her arms up around my neck, Misely closed the last centimeter of distance between our mouths.

She tasted as sweet as the maple syrup she’d drowned her pancakes in that morning, but I only wanted to drown inher.The way her tongue moved over mine, her fingers coiled tightly into the hair at the base of my neck, her tiny whimper when my teeth found purchase on her bottom lip…who needed oxygen?Not me, not ever again.

seventeen

Misely

Hehadfeltsogood.That was the only excuse I had for the way I’d felt compelled to walk through that bathroom door and into the spray of his shower.I knew what I was doing from the second my feet started moving toward the bathroom door.Hell, from the moment I’d finally managed to regain myself in those woods.

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