Page 80 of The Mercenary's Guide to Mishaps and Romance

“Well, the TV stand isinthe box.”

“How long have you had that?”

“Not long at all. Maybe… five months. I don’t do much at home, and if I’m home I just…” Don’t ever have the motivation to do anything. It’s not that it feels too daunting. I’m positive I could accomplish it. It’s more like… there’s no damn use. This house will change, just like every place I’ve tried to call home in my life. I’ll pick up and wander off. It’s like a fucking family curse that my father has dropped right onto me.

“I see. I… can help you build it… I mean… when this is all over… if you want,” Ellis says, then looks kind of embarrassed he mentioned it. “Unless you never want to see me again for the rest of your life, which is totally understandable. Ha.”

I glance over at the ridiculously sweet man. “You’re really fucking cute, you know that?” I ask. “How are you still single?”

He grins at that, but his eyebrows also lift. “And you are easily confused. You are ten times more charismatic than me, funnier, outgoing, and you’re right, the accent does do something.”

I grin back as I step up to him and am thrilled when he leans into me instead of moving away. “Oh yeah? What’s it do?”

The smirk playing at his lips is what’s doing something to me.

“Things… questionable things… things that make me question even more questionable things,” he says.

I chuckle and he gives me a soft laugh.

He’s watching me closely as I question whether enough time has passed since I wrongly abducted him for him to allow me to kiss him. I feel like that’s all in the past now, right? We’ll just forget all of that happened.

Ellis gives my face a light pat. “I would let you kiss me, but I have a rule with myself that I only kiss people who won’t disappear on me. You might not know this, I know I’vedefinitelynever brought it up, but I have this trauma from someone close to me just fucking off. You know? Like my father? And it led meto believe that anyone at any point in time could just walk out that door and never come back. Never write a letter, never call… just be gone forever. And…” He looks around my house. At the boxed TV stand, the lack of a kitchen table, the cupboard left half open that shows only a single bag of chips inside. “You kind of have a… vibe about you that says you might not hang around too long.”

I think about that for a moment, wanting to assure him I’ll be whatever he wants me to be. But would that be a lie? I really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t know when I’ll just jump up and head to the next spot. It’s like my father instilled in me that there’s something more, something else… and I’ve always been seeking it. And even after I ditched my father’s lifestyle, I couldn’t ditch my wandering. Six months is the longest I’ve ever stayed anywhere, and I’ve already started getting antsy.

His smile is sweet, but he also looks a little disappointed when I step back, feeling like I don’t know what to say. How can I promise him something when I’m not sure I can keep that promise? Hating myself, I head deeper into the house toward my bedroom. When I look back at him, he doesn’t seem upset with me. Disappointed, maybe, but not upset. No, he’s too damn nice. Do I deserve someone that nice? I mean… I really fucking want him… but do I know him enough to give him that commitment? “Well. Maybe I’ve just never had anyone worth hanging around for.”

“Hmm…” he mutters as he follows close behind me. “I’m not going anywhere… so… I don’t know… if you decide you ever might choose to stick around, maybe we could go out for a coffee… or you could throw me out of a plane again.”

I look back at him and grin. “Decisions, decisions. Whichever would I choose?”

Ellis smiles at me, and I’m so fucking tempted to turn around and press him against the wall. I’d tell him anything he wants to hear to see what those lips taste like, to feel him naked against me… under me… on top of me… I want it all.

“You’re killing me,” I mutter because I don’t know how to promise anyone anything. While his father ran, my father taught me how to run. He taught me how to be like a parasite that got what they needed by using others before feeding off something new.

“Why am I not even surprised your mattress is on the floor? I actually would have felt creeped out if it wasn’t on the floor. At least there are sheets on it.”

“I have a frame,” I assure him, oddly a little… embarrassed by this. I mean, it isn’t that I don’t have the means for that stuff; it’s that it got tiresome setting everything up each time I moved.

“Yeah? Where is it? Are you using it as a rack in the bathroom or something?”

“Out in the garage. I was using it as a table for some car parts,” I say. “I mean, I should at least get some points for being clean?”

“Oh, you’re definitely clean. This place is spotless. Eerily so. Almost feels like it’s perfectly clean because there’s nothing here.”

“Thank you,” I reply as I head over to the corner and yank up part of the carpet.

“What are you doing now?”

“Checking something,” I say as I pull it back far enough to reveal the hatch I’d made in the floor. Of course the lock mechanism is busted, and when I pull it open, the safe is inside but it feels ridiculously light.

I drag it out and see the key is still in the keyhole. I turn it, wondering how the hell the asshole found the key as well. I open it and see a single piece of paper inside with an IOU written on it.

“Goddamn, I wanna punch that man,” I mutter before tossing it back inside. “Alright. Let me grab some clothes and a couple of guns, then let’s go.”

“He took your stuff?” Ellis asks, looking upset on my behalf. It kind of throws me a bit that he cares so much.

“That’s what he does. I mean, it was nothing irreplaceable, at least. Some money, one of my favorite guns… it’s just the fact that he does this shit…”

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