Page 76 of Red Flag, Green Light

Starved for air, I say the only haunting thing I can think of right now: “Mars…I think I like you.”

He exhales a curse and kisses my chin.

“A lot.”

His hand untangles from my hair and finds my waist, pressing fingerprints into my flesh. Bright eyes delve into my brain, and all my nerves light when his thumb moves against me. “Say that again,” he whispers.

I swallow, but my voice still leaves me raw. “I like you.”

His fingers dig into my side before going forcibly lax. “With my name, little goddess. Say my name.”

“I like you, Mars.”

His lips dip and tease and toy without giving me what I need to tame the burning in my chest. Before I lose my mind, stop gripping his comforter, and drag him to me, he says, “Why?”

The hollow word invades my skull, nulling the sensation of his nearness. “Why?” I echo, loosing my fingers from his blanket and cupping his cheek. “Why do I like you?”

He tilts his face into my touch as his eyes half lid, spring green irises swallowed whole by dark pupils.

They say your pupils grow when you look at someone you love. Knowing that, right now, I’d be a fool to think this man doesn’t love me. Even if it has only been a month.

What in the he-falls-first nonsense indeed…

I can’t help myself. I smile. “You’re right,” I say.

“Right?” he asks.

“Correct.” I comb my fingers through his hair, let my nails trace his skull. “Good. Honest. Kind. Sincere. Genuine. Precise. Calculating. Smart. Decent. And…just a tiny bit…mad.” I glance at the creepy smiles lining the walls, joker after joker grinning down at this exact location. “You’re exactly the kind of character I adore. Real, but wild. Free. You’re the kind of person I don’tneed to pretend in front of because you don’t like or dislike people based on how well they perform. Being with you…is like breathing. It’s a relief to be around you, Mars. You…areright.”

Lifting my other arm, I wrap him in a hug moments after his eyes close and a tear drops against my cheek. As the moisture falls from my face, he crushes me in his arms, and I lie there, beneath him, doing nothing but trying to match his strength.

Chapter Twenty-one

Just call me insecurity.

Mars

My brother’s dear Ly-Ly is a tense ball of nerves, but I do appreciate that she didn’t scream and slam her door in my face, even though I am here egregiously after the hours her fine plant nursery operates.

Wandering through the fairytale greenhouse behind her home, I scan among the butterflies and elegant patio furniture for the perfect gift. Ceres’s birthday is in two days, Friday, March 22, and she likes plants. Plants and bugs. Although I’m certain if I try to take any of the butterflies in here, Lyra will cry.

Behind me, apparently a safe distance away, Lyra squeaks, “I— Can I help you find anything in particular?”

I turn, spinning a card between my fingers, then tuck it seamlessly away from view. “How many different kinds of orchids do you have?”

She blinks, faces her orchids, and provides me with a confident, “Uh…”

“I’ll take one of each.”

While she rings up my order, I wonder if there are any discounts reserved for me considering she put my brother in a comatose state after not writing him a letter for roughly three million days.

“That’ll be—” she begins.

“You used to like Brian, didn’t you?”

Red flares to life in her cheeks, and her mouth opens, if onlyto close again a moment later.

“Man, that guy and his mail.” I lean against the dark wood counter. “Even I sometimes send letters, just to make Brian proud. Letters are great, and even if weabsolutely do not like-like Brian anymore, we should still glean excellent behaviors from men like him.” Sniffing, I kick off the counter. “Anyway. Three hundred dollars, was it?”

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