Page 135 of Endless Anger
I love you, I want to tell him.I love you, and I know you love me, and that scares me.
If my time at this school has taught me anything, it’s that life is unpredictable and you can’t really control most of it. Humans are stupid, make poor decisions, and are painfully mortal.
There’s no guarantee.
Love is a gamble, and I’ve never been very good with odds. My brain likes structure and sure things, and this has the potential to crush me.
But instead of saying any of that, I change the subject. He’s right anyway; there is no proving an apology with words. Actions are what matter, so all I can do is try to trust that he means it.
Twisting out of his grip, I take a second to collect myself, leaning against the wall next to him. “Are you still trying to join the Curators?”
His eyes cut to me. “On paper. I think Beckett knows some things, and I’m just trying to figure out what.”
“Well…” Sliding my hand up his arm, I squeeze his bicep, fluttering my eyelashes. “What if we both infiltrated and tried to get information from Beckett?”
“What sort of information do you want?”
I worry my bottom lip. “I think he was out there that night Celeste was killed. I think…no, IknowI heard him. Maybe we could try to?—”
“No.”
“You can’t just say no.”
“Just did. Stay away from him, pup. I mean it.”
“Okay,Daddy?—”
Spinning, he pushes me against the wall once more, this time hooking his hands under my ass and lifting me into his arms. His kisses make me dizzy, and when he glides along my jaw, tugging on the piercing in my earlobe before swooping to bite just beneath it, I cry out, heat scoring a path up my stomach.
“You start calling me Daddy, I’m going to ensure you make me one.”
My stomach flips over, and my legs turn to liquid, warmth spreading through me. “Big talk for someone who is afraid ofmydad.”
“Not afraid,” he says, grinding his knee against my clit, making me see stars and planets. The whole galaxy really. “I’m respectful of my elders.”
“This conversation isn’t over, you know. Making out isn’t always going to make me forget things,” I say between breaths, still in completeastonishment that we’re at this point. It feels so natural to have progressed to this, almost as if we didn’t lose any time at all.
I find that frightening.
It will hurt much more when it inevitably crumbles.
“What if I’m just making out with you because I want to?”
Poking his nose ring, I grin. “Then carry on.”
39
ASHER
“Hey,Anderson. Could I talk to you for a second?”
I look up from the list of things an RA is apparently supposed to be doing as Muna traipses over from the other side of the quarry. She tugs on the lapels of her plaid blazer, and I note that the emblem isn’t a Curator one but two torches and a key and wonder if that means she’s switched organizations.
Aurora said Visio Aternae doesn’t take new members mid-semester, but maybe that kid’s death really did leave a hole they wanted filled.
The question then iswhy.
“Speak.” I lean back on the rock I’ve designated as mine while I watch over Lucy and her little forest cleanup crew. Their orange vests are completely unflattering, yet as my girl bends down to pocket a shiny rock before turning to bark orders at the other students, I find myself wanting to fuck her in nothingbutit.
