Page 17 of Vicious
We set to work on a marinated lunch while Randolph took several swigs from his newly filled silver flask. No more hot sauce for him. Seeing him with his alcohol once again hollowed out my stomach. We'd leaned on each other so much these last few weeks, both of us fighting our addictions. Armed with just a few drops of hot sauce, together we could’ve taken on anything. Now that he’d imbibed, my teeth practically itched with a craving foriron.
While I spread the plates around our new table, the smell of tender beef and vegetables soaked in broth wafting from the kitchen, Mase wandered in with Ellison on his heels. Just his presence charged my heart into afrenzy.
He wore his coat draped over one shoulder, his chest bared with a thick bandage taped to his other shoulder. His serious case of bedhead made me grin. His mysterious eyes widened while they roamed across the girls my corset barely contained and down to my leather-clad legs. He prowled toward me, the tip of his tongue flashing across his upperlip.
"Wow," he growled. "This is…wow.”
“You’re vertical already?” I asked. “How are youfeeling?”
Ellison sighed. “Probably like he shouldn’t be vertical. He listens about as well as youdo.”
Mase held up the hand on his uninjured side, a devious grin curling his mouth. “I had to insist on seeing my fugitive collegegirl.”
Ellison stepped around him to stand next to me. “Well, if you want to see the rest of herbesidesher chest, her eyes are right up here.” She pointed, almost poking me in theface.
“Thanks, Ellison,” Imuttered.
“You’re welcome,” she said, her gray gaze narrowed atMase.
He chuckled and leaned against the wall. “I like those too. Really, the whole package walked out of my dreams. But still”—he gave me another appreciative once-over—“it’s nice to see my girlsailing.”
“Sailing?” Ellison shook her head at me, her long, dark braid wriggling over one shoulder, then turned her sharp gaze on Mase. “What are you talkingabout?”
“Don’t worry. I haven’t turned my back on humanity yet,” I said. “What Mase meant was that maybe we’re wrong about sail’s definition. Maybe when you say it into your ship’s telecom, it doesn’t mean you’re rejecting humanity, siding with the Saelis, and signaling for a space taxi from your boy toy,Josh.”
“Boy toy.” Ellison crossed her arms and closed her eyes. “This isfun.”
“Maybe it means letting the past stay there so you can be true to who you are for the future,” Icontinued.
“And you’ve accepted who you are?” she asked, her voice tight, likely because she couldn’t accept it. She’d pumped me full of parasites to addict me to iron and shield me from ghosts, afterall.
But I knew where those doubts of hers stemmed from, and most of them were completely unselfish. She’d always been fanatical about my safety, even going so far as to addict herself to iron by injecting herself with the same parasites to see if it was safe enough for me. I honestly didn’t know what she wouldn’t do for me, and that was a littleterrifying.
I nodded. “I’m not hiding anymore behind my iron wall.” If that was even still an option. I hadn’t told Ellison about the ghost on Orin I couldn’t pass through me, but Mase and I traded a quick glance. He’d seen the wholething.
But Ellison never missed anything when it came to me and likely caught that shared knowledge. Her face softened as she looked at me. “Just be careful, Absidy. I’ll give you two a minute—aminute—and then we’re heading back to the infirmary,Mase.”
As soon as she disappeared into the kitchen, Mase wrapped me closer to him with one arm, his hand sliding over my curves that had once been buried and tucked into baggy cotton instead ofleather.
“Rebel.” The word feathered across my ear, and I shuddered underneath his touch. His fingers crept under the waistband of my leather pants, and a low chuckle vibrated his chest. “A rebel without any underwear. My favoritekind.”
“In memory of you,” I reminded him. “But you didn’t answer myquestion.”
“Sorry.” He kissed the corner of my mouth. “Can you repeat it? I’m having a hard timefocusing.”
“Are you feelingokay?”
“Amazing,” he murmured and kissed the other corner of mymouth.
I pulled away slightly and pushed my thumb into the cleft on his chin so he’d look at me. “The truth,Mase.”
Randolph had already fallen back on his addictions with vigor; I hoped Mase didn’t feel the need to do the same. I knew the effects of alcohol addiction from Ellison’s medical books, but this drug She was a different animalaltogether.
Mase sighed. “It was rough, even just that little bit. It was like the devil had come for a visit inside my skin. The living and breathing devil. The captain’s a good shot, but some of it’s stillinside.”
I shook my head, hating every single word he’d just said, my chains and hair rubbing against hisarms.
“Your turn.” He took a few strands in his palm and let them glide absently through his fingers while his beautiful gaze searched mine. "What happened back there, Absidy? With theghost?"
