Page 87 of The Hero Within
She shook her head. Whispered, "Not at all. I was angry with you. Or not at you. Just angry. I don't know. And you've been pushing my buttons for days. I don't know what's going on in my head. With you."
Yeah, I get it.
Seemed to be the sum total of his feelings at the moment too.
"Good." He tilted her chin up. "It was angry, messy, exploding volcanoes of emotion sex, but it wasn't hate sex. And your buttons need to be pushed every now and then."
Eden gripped both of his wrists, her eyes lifting to his. "That's why you were shitty this morning, isn't it?"
"I wasn't shitty."
She arched a brow.
His breath exploded out of him. "Fine. I was a little pissed. Best night of my life, and you practically slapped me on the ass and said,thanks for the good times, but no thanks."
"Did you want me to say something else?" she asked slowly and lifted her gaze to his.
Johnny stopped breathing. It was one thing to be pissed with the way she'd used his body to scratch an itch, another to actually be the one to put his heart on the line.
But he was tired of playing the lone wolf.
"Yes," he said simply.
Her mouth parted, her eyes widening.
"Later, Eden," he murmured. "You and I have a lot to discuss, but I think we need to get our heads in the game. We're going to cross into confederacy territory today and go get your plague cure. You and I. Whatever it takes, Eden."
Eden looked like she was trying to read between the lines, but she finally nodded. "Whatever it takes."
Chapter Seventeen
No kissing.No touching. No sex.
The perfect set of rules to keep things strictly business between them as they made their way out of the Great Divide.
Why then, did Eden feel like the ground had just dropped out from under her feet?
She could no longer pretend Colton wasn't interested in her. They'd gone from mortal enemies to reluctant allies, to... something else... in the space of a week.
It was defining that "something else" that left her thoughts scrambling and made her feel breathless. Because she panicked every damned time she thought about it.
Even if he didn't push her, as he'd promised. No, she was the one pushing herself, going over everything that had happened in Shadow Rock, as if to try and make sense of it all. Colton's manners remained perfectly polite.
Just distant.
And if she was being honest with herself, she didn't like the space between them.
She kind of missed the way he'd point things out in the distance, and tell her where they were. Or capture a lizard scuttling through the rocks to show her, opening her eyes to a new world she'd never truly noticed. For all the not talking they'd done in the first couple of days, she was starting to realize he'd always been at her side as if some strange force drew them together even when she'd been holding him at a distance.
He was patient as he helped her up the escarpment. Didn't offer her a hand—as per her no touching rule, he'd pointed out with a grin—but he stayed with her every step of the cursed journey, calling a water stop every time her body started flagging. The mess he left her mind in was a great distraction for the climb, except she was no closer to solving the problem by the time they'd reached the top.
Maybe you need to stop thinking about this like a mathematical equation that has a solution,said a snide little voice inside her head.You like him. You're attracted to him. And it scares the hell out of you.
"Nearly there," Johnny muttered, as she paused near the top of the escarpment.
"You keep saying that," she panted, bending over to rest her hands on her thighs. "And every time we climb the next cliff, there's another one behind it."
"Here, let me take your pack," he said, reaching for the straps.
