Page 140 of Never Die for a Sinner
“I’m fine,” I wheeze, pulling back from his grasp and bending down for the duster. I don’t want to look at him because I know I look like I just climbed out of a sewer.
Besides . . . maybe I’m a little jaded from the way he acted the other day.
God, why is the room on a tilt-a-whirl today?
I pull out my inhaler, but it may as well be null and void when I take a puff.
“You’re not fine.”
“It’s just a cold,” I snap, jerking my arm away.
Wooziness washes over me, and to make things even better, I cough, sounding like an eighty-year-old woman who’s smoked three packs a day since she was two.
“Why are you working if you’re sick?”
He can’t honestly be serious, can he?
“I have bills to pay, Levi. Normal people do that.”
“You’re allowance—”
“Is being saved to buy a new car.”
His jaw tightens, and he looks away.
Oh, right. I forgot. We’re not allowed to have any human interactions.
I push out a breath through my teeth, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.
“I have work to do.”
“Go lie down, Ava. This shit will be here tomorrow.”
“I highly doubt I’ll feel any better tomorrow. It’s better for me to just do it now.”
I move to step back up the ladder, ignoring him completely when he catches me around the waist.
That’s when I make the mistake of looking up into his eyes. Two icy blue pools that seem to stretch on endlessly.
I could get lost in those eyes.
Then the asshole stoops down and picks me up.
All the air whooshes out of my lungs on a gasp, and I can’t help but cough from the impact.
“Breathe, baby girl.”
“I’ll get right on that,” I wheeze, my head spinning when he carries me through the halls and down to my room. The moment we enter, I’m acutely aware that the last time he was here, it was when we fought over his nightmare, and seeing him here in the daylight feels strange. Intimate in all the ways he and I are not.
Sitting me down on the side of my bed, he pushes the door shut.
“Take your shirt off.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re lying down. I’ll get you something to wear.”
“I can take care of myself.”Lie. I couldn’t even take care of Sam the Succulent.
