Page 20 of Yellow
“Such talent,” he said sarcastically.
I tilted my head with a forced smile. “Thank you, it has proven very useful and has made me millions. How about you, what talent do you have?”
Adam quietly observed me eating my cornflakes before he leaned over the table and spoke in his deep voice. “I’m a healer and a medicine man. People don’t come to me for light entertainment. They come for spiritual enlightenment and physical healing.”
I raised an eyebrow and gave a sarcastic reply: “So that explains your warm and fuzzy personality. You’re a people person.”
He pulled back, watching me silently with only his burning eyes and tight jaw to reveal that my remark bothered him.
“I can be warm,” he said after a while. “Normally I am.”
I narrowed my eyes skeptically. “Really?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “Listen, I’m sorry if I was a bit cranky yesterday when I arrived, but I had plans that I had to cancel to get here.”
“What plans?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter.Butsince we’re stuck in this cabin for the next few days, I might as well help you.”
“With what? Turning off the generator?” I asked and kept eating.
“I was thinking about my healing skills.”
“No thank you. I can wait for Onava to get back; she and I were onto something, I think.”
“Care to share what?”
“Not really.” I swallowed the last spoonful of cornflakes and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “I don’t mean to be ungrateful or rude, but I’m not stupid. It’s pretty obvious that you don’t want to be here, and that for some reason you don’t like me.”
When he didn’t say anything, I added, “It doesn’t matter, though. I’m just glad I don’t have to be out here alone.”
“You had Max,” he said matter-of-factly. “Isn’t it better to be alone than to be with a stranger? Especially if you think the stranger doesn’t like you.”
I gave a noncommittal shrug and it seemed to annoy him, because he raised his voice a bit.
“And what were you thinking inviting me to sleep next to you?”
I took a moment to look into his beautiful brown eyes full of blame. “It’s not like I offered you to have sex with me.” I defended myself with a dismissive laugh.
Adam didn’t laugh back at me. Instead he got up and looked down on me. “You’re being reckless with your body, Cleo. Inviting a stranger to sleep with you is dangerous and stupid.”
His scolding me like a small child provoked me to roll my eyes at him. “Oh, come on. I wasn’t in danger from you. You can hardly look at me, for god’s sake. There’s no way you would ever touch me.”
He gaped at me, like I had said the stupidest thing in the world.
Tired of being belittled, I got up too. My voice was a bit high-pitched when I asked, “What? Are you saying that I’m in danger from you?”
“No.”
“Good, because I trusted Onava and she said you were a good guy.”
“Iama good guy.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“That you’re painfully naïve.”
“Is that right?” I stepped back, my mind reeling to come up with a sassy comeback, but he wasn’t the first to tell me this. Faith had told me too and maybe they were right. Ihadbelieved Niko’s lies and been too gullible.What the hell is wrong with me?Tears prickled behind my eyes and shame filled me.
