Page 82 of Tainted Gifts
Kellan
After babysitting Simone's blood fuck partner long enough to send her off, I finally try to find the others. The first person I see is the fucking commander, and I don't want to talk to him. I'm so ready for Aria to be over this bullshit fucking with her blood.
Aria isn't with him right this second, so I start looking for her, hoping to catch her without him for a change. I have to do something to make us work. I'm drowning right now. It's hard to make her love me if she's disgusted by my touch.
"Hey," the beautifully familiar voice says from behind me, and I turn to smile at the girl destined for me.
"Hey. I was just looking for you," I murmur softly, refraining from touching her because I don't want to see her grimace.
"I was looking for you too," she says, surprising me, making my heart actual shuffle in my chest.
"You were?"
I hate how pathetic that just sounded, but it feels so good. She's always looking for him, never me. For once, he's in view but she's at my side instead.
She smiles softly, looking around behind me as though she's searching for something. "Yeah, I wanted to find our full blood informant before she left."
The hope I foolishly let myself have starts to crumble to the ground. I should have known she wasn't just searching for me.
"Oh," I murmur softly, trying not to let my disappointment ring out. "She's already gone. Did you forget to ask her something?"
I don't really care if she forgot to ask anything, but I don't want to seem disengaging. I sure as hell don't want her to know how bad that just hurt.
"No, I forgot to warn her," she says while huffing out, kicking a rock to express her frustration.
"Warn her?" I ask, finding her attempt to be intimidating a little sexy.
"Yeah. I don't want her to tell anyone about Simone, and I was going to make it clear what would happen to her if she did."
One second she hates Simone, and the next she's defending her secret. I really don't understand women as well as I thought. In fact, I don't understand them at all. I'm starting to wonder if all the women I've known throughout the years were secretly laughing at me for thinking I knew the first damn thing about their confusing world.
"I took care of that," I murmur while sitting down on the tailgate of one of the trucks the United just arrived in.
Their swarming in, getting their instructions, and loading the place down with uniformed soldiers. For a guy who has spent a few years as a fugitive, it's weird. I keep thinking I'm supposed to run or hide, a reflex I've developed.
"You took care of it?" she asks, her beautiful smile returning as she joins me, just barely not touching me as she devotes her attention to me.
Finally. I've done something right.
"I gave her a glimpse of what I could do," I say casually, trying not to sound arrogant.
To be honest, the bitch laughed at me. She said she knew she was fucking Araya's niece and she was far more scared of what Araya would do to her than what I could do. I won't tell Aria that part though.
Her smile grows, and she pats my arm, keeping the contact light and brief. It's a sweet gesture though. Maybe it means she just wants to touch me.
"That's sweet," she says, smiling softly. "You seem pretty protective of her."
Her? She thinks I said something for Simone's sake? She's never going to get over that stupid kiss that I fell into during a moment of weakness.
"You're still upset about that kiss, aren't you?" I grumble, feeling as though the rug has just been ripped out from under me.
She forces a smile through tight lips, and then she shakes her head.
"I wasn't ever really mad. You're a hybrid. It's in your nature. I was hurt at Simone because she's like my sister."
She really thinks I'm that stupid?
"Aria, can I ask you something?"
