Page 55 of Red Flag, Green Light

Laying my palm flat against my head, I measure out to the tip of his nose. “Hm.”

His throat bobs. “What…is happening?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I tilt my head back, slightly, and discover that it’s not really hard to look up at him, but he also is clearly not my height. I splay my fingers in the air before me. “Palm.”

His throat bobs again, but he obliges, pressing his hand to mine Tarzan style. Warmth melts into my skin as I stare. His hands are bigger. Significantly so. His fingers are long, slender, the sort of fingers that make everyone with a pulse bring up piano.

I’d prefer these fingers playing guitar or violin, or pinching a lit match…

“Huh,” I murmur.

“What is happening?” he repeats softly.

“Work stuff. Don’t worry about it.” Pulling my hand back, I return to my desk.

Sara: Any chance you can make him six-foot-one…and a quarter?

Moments pass; Rouge’s message bubbles appear and disappear, but Mars speaks before she replies.

“Ceres?”

I turn. “Yeah?”

Still standing, he says, “You…like Jove, right?”

I arch a brow. Against his wild black hair, his skin normally looks paler. Right now, though, it’s not. “Why is it so important to you that I like your brother? I like both of you. You’re good neighbors. Quiet. Comfortable. Unobtrusive…even when you literally walk into my living room. I appreciate knowing that if anything were to happen, people like you two are next door.”

Mars’s spring green eyes widen and catch sunlight before he blinks. “Wait.” His hand lifts, trembling, before it plunges into his hair. “I thought… I was asking if youlikedJove.”

I stare at him, wondering if I should encourage him to sit back down. He seems a little…sick. Unstable. Red in the face. “Yes? I do like Jove.”

His tongue flicks out and wets his lips. “No, Ceres. I meanromantically.”

Accidentally, I snort. “Um.”

The hues in Mars’s face deepen.

“Are you trying to set me up with your brother?”

“Absolutely not,” he blurts.

Leaning back in my chair, I consider it. “Fabulous shoulders on the man.”

Mars cusses, and his fist has clenched when I glance his way again.

“No, Mars, I don’t like-likeyour brother. I don’t know him well enough, but I don’t think he’s the right archetype for me. He seems a little…” My attention drifts across my ceiling.“Unaware? I’m more a mastermind girlie. I want the full self-awareness and schemes and power plays. Jupiter—”

“Jove,” Mars chokes out.

“—yeah,Joveseems too sweet. I completely want a toxic relationship. Amp up the manipulation to Mach nine thousand. Just think of the most unhealthy thing you can imagine, and that’s my type. Which…obviously…is why I’m single. My tastes collided with my working brain cell, and my working brain cell sent them straight to jail.” I mutter, “Stupid thing.”

Silence penetrates my living room, so I peer back at my uninvited guest. He sinks into the couch, deflating there, eyes fixated on the coffee table covered in plants before him, where his lock pick set rests among the ferns.

Normally—or, well, for the past few hours, anyway, since I’m unprepared to suggest that having Mars in my living room while I work isnormal—it doesn’t feel like he’s here. I’m just as comfortable with the lunatic hanging around as I am when I’m alone. In this moment, however, something heavy lingers in the air, constricting in my lungs, so I do what I usually do.

I say something stupid.

Which will inevitably result in my learning deep dark secrets and unasked-for trauma.

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