Page 24 of Unhinged Cravings
“I’m thirty.” She crossed her arms and waited for my response.
Fifteen years younger. Not as much of a difference as my brother and his new wife, but it was still big enough.
“Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder again,” I grumbled.
“I’d like to see you try.” There was that challenge in her eyes again.
I shook my head and walked to her, throwing her over my shoulder before she could even complain.
“There’s that wildcat,” I said, smoothing my hand up her calf before I could stop myself. “Flirty and bold.”
“Well, you did say I shouldn’t stop.”
“That I did.”
On the last step into my room, I lowered Ava to the floor. She teetered for a moment and grabbed my arm to steady herself. I stood there frozen, looking down into her piercing eyes and drowning in them. The air in my lungs seemed non-existent, my pulse so slow I should have been comatose. I might have been for all I knew because, in that moment, nothing seemed to exist but the spirited woman in front of me.
“I dropped my book,” she said, finally breaking the intensity of the moment.
Frowning, I glanced behind me, not seeing it.
“Can’t you go without it? Where did you get a book, anyway?”
“I may have convinced Breaker to get me one.” She must have noticed my muscles go rigid. “Don’t say anything to him. I think I annoyed him so much he figured shutting me up was worth your wrath.”
Nothing was worth my wrath and my teeth were grinding. Prisoners didn’t need books. But Ava did. If I didn’t know how Ava was, I would have considered making Breaker pay for heeding her request.
“I’ll get it in the morning.”
Those arms crossed again with a roll of her eyes to emphasize her annoyance with my answer.
“Are you serious? It’s after midnight. Why are you even still awake?”
Her eyes crinkled with amusement. “I bartend at night. This is early for me.”
“Bartender?” That was an unexpected piece of information.
Shrugging, she explained, “It pays well and leaves me time during the day for class and studying.”
My head tipped to the side as I contemplated her words. “You’re a student?” Another unexpected admission.
She scratched her nose, her stance relaxing. “Grad school. I took a few years off to play, then took my uncle’s offerto get my master’s. He offered to pay for school and my apartment if I moved to Bridgeville and closer to him.”
So he could keep her safe. And it was likely my brother who had footed the bill for school. The thought conflicted with my hatred for him.
“Of course, now that you’ve derailed my life, I’ll have to plead forgiveness and hope they don’t throw me out.” The attitude was thick.
“My brother owns that city. They’ll look the other way, trust me.”
I didn’t give her time to answer. The book was on the floor in the hall, near where she’d started fighting our descent into the basement. I paused, looking at the basement door. She didn’t fear me, but she feared what was down there. Or maybe the basement itself. Granted, it was nightmarish, and the ghosts of my past deeds haunted it.
By the time I returned to my room, I found Ava standing in front of the floor to ceiling windows that lined the one side of the room. I threw the book on the bed and moved next to her.
“It’s so beautiful here,” she said with a slight melancholy. “Open and endless.”
I looked out at the view. The waves pounded the shore below. The tide was high and so they battered against the rocky alcove. A half-moon spread its golden light into a long stream over the ocean, highlighting the peaks and frothy curves.
“A silent predator,” I said. “Beautiful from the outside, but potentially deadly. Its rip currents could drag you under, its waves could break your bones and flood your lungs, and its creatures could devour you.”
