Page 43 of Run Like the Devil

“Want to take a walk?” As soon as I said that, I cursed at myself.

Take a walk? When the fuck had I turned into an idiot? We’d been walking for what felt like days already, so what sort of bullshit excuse was that?

If I could have kicked my own ass, I probably fucking would have…

Loch chuckled but didn’t call me out for my stupidity. “Sure.”

We headed off at an angle, remaining close enough to the Path to not lose sight of it but far enough to feel like we had some privacy.

“This feels like some shitty class camping trip,” Loch said as she tucked her hands into the large pocket at the front of her sweater. “We’re all wandering around and none of us really want to be here.”

“Not wanting to be here has been your whole afterlife, hasn’t it? Figured you’d be used to that.”

“Yeah, but before I at least had a comfy bed.”

“You want to try my sleeping bag? Might be comfier.”

She snorted softly, as though she saw right through my clumsy flirting.

If that could even be called flirting, since I was totally serious about her ending up in bed with me.

Loch curled in on herself slightly, which made me realize—yeah, the cold fucking sucked here. It was pervasive and relentless. The only time that sharp edge of it disappeared was when I sat next to a fire. The moment I wandered from that small sphere of heat, it was as if that chill stole every bit of warmth from my body.

Without thinking, I wrapped my arm around Loch’s shoulders and pulled her tighter against my side.

She didn’t fight it, which eased part of that frustration inside of me, the one that screamed for more.

“We shouldn’t go too far,” she said.

“Why? Miss the other guys already?”

She tilted her head up to look at me. “You normally don’t care about things like that.”

“Maybe I just don’t like being strung along.” I tightened my fingers on her arm without thinking about it. “Maybe I start wondering if this is all some game from you and you’re just laughing at us all?” My own words made some part of me question myself.

What the hell was I saying?

Yet, I couldn’t argue with it, either.

Loch was fucking Tyrus, Gorrin and—well, she wasn’t fucking Yazmor as far as I knew, since I couldn’t picture him having sex. Still, there was something between them, something more than friendship.

Which, from the outside looking in, felt a lot like her using me. Was she laughing at me behind my back for being such an idiot?

A sharp pain in my side made me look down to realize she’d elbowed me. It cleared the anger from my head a bit, enough to realize she was speaking and hear her words.

“You’re hurting me, you asshole.”

I pulled my arm back, the release enough for me to see that, yeah, I’d dug my fingers into her arm hard. I blinked slowly as she rubbed at the spot, cursing myself for my actions.

“Sorry,” I muttered, unsure what else to say. What the hell had come over me?

Whatever it was, I still felt it. This gnawing, angry part of me snarled inside me at the idea of anyone near me. It whispered that Loch was just like all the others, just as willing to fuck me over the moment it was useful to her.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” I jerked my gaze to the side, unable to stand the weight of her eyes on me.

Loch wasn’t a lightweight who folded at the first harsh word or sharp look, even from a man like me. She took a step closer to me, putting herself between me and the distance so I had to look at her or admit defeat by looking away again.

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