Page 80 of Break for Me

“Are you okay?” She asked, looking around the room. She smiled when her eyes landed on the duffel bag that had crashed into the wall, causing the commotion that brought her back out here to look for me.

“You thought I left,” she whispered to herself more than to me. I forced myself to breathe as deeply as I could when I realized that every muscle in my body had tensed and was trying to tear its way through my skin. I probably should’ve been embarrassed by what this meant. It should’ve bothered me that she was getting a good look at what kind of power she had over me, but the smile that stayed on her face when she looked back to me stuffed my rage cloak into a box and padlocked it shut. I’d had brief glimpses of that smile before this; tiny moments where she felt a glancing blow of genuine happiness and then immediately shut it down and plastered her regular hateful face back into place. Something else was happening here though, and it was remarkable. She was remarkable. She took the two extra wobbly steps between us before she let herself crash into my chest for me to hold both of us up.

She turned her face into my chest before she spoke to try to muffle the words. “You like me.”

I laughed and squished her against me.

“I don’t like anybody,” I said.

But that word sounded significantly less crazy than the one that was throwing itself at the inside of my skull like a caged animal.

Her arms came up around my waist to squeeze me too.

“Thank you, J.”

It was nearly impossible to hear, but she’d said it.

“Huh. You didn’t even choke on those words,” I said. I bent at the knees to get my arm under her legs to pick her up again. I carried her back to the bed to sit her on it.

“I’m going after Memphis tomorrow,” I said. “I need to get to her before anybody else does.”

“Just you?” She asked.

I couldn’t have prevented the smile that crossed my face if my life depended on it.

She wanted to go with me.

“We,” I corrected. “We’re going after Memphis tomorrow.”

“Careful. Those sound like the words of a man who does like at least a couple people.”

“Memphis and Persephone can’t be included with the general population. Their positions are unique,” I said quickly while I loosened my tie and removed my jacket, thinking maybe I’d be able to breathe a little better. The sight of Trista leaning back against the headboard with two perfect fucking legs escaping my shirt sucked all the oxygen right back out of the room though. Even with one thigh thoroughly bandaged, the view was perfect and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I’d get to do to her now that she was just mine and there was no deadline on delivering her back to someone else.

Mine?

Was she?

Had we decided that?

Well, one of us had.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said and laughed.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re coming over here to fuck me until I can’t breathe.”

“What if that’s exactly what I plan on doing?”

“Jersey.”

I was sitting next to her on the bed a second later, holding her face in both my hands to kiss her. She pulled away for just a second.

“You seriously think I want to have sex with you tonight after you tied me to a chair and left me in a building with three lunatics?” She asked, still smiling against my mouth.

“For fuck’s sake. I let one person stab you one time,” I said and rolled my eyes. “I think it’s time to grow up and let it go.”

“That just happened four hours ago, you dick.”

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