Page 17 of Breakaway
A few people are gawking in our direction, but that could be because they know who I am, they heard the exchange between Zill and some guy, or they're curious about the cloud of black smoke that's freely flowing around me. Any of those is more than enough reason for people to have their eyes on us, plus there are still a dozen or so people with cameras, not even being stealthy, taking pictures of Zill and me.
"Nothing important," Zill says, as he shakes his head. "Just remembering that some people are awful."
"Oh, you have no idea. Though I'm sure it's worse for you since you're in their heads and everything," I tell him.
I reach up and wrap my hand around his bicep, the touch reminding me of what he said when I did it just a few minutes ago, how he called me love. It slipped easily from his lips, as if it were more natural than part of our ruse, but that could just be my wishful thinking.
Zill takes a deep breath. Something's bothering him more than the nothing he said it was. I decide that asking about him being hard and calling me love aren't among the top priorities. Besides, I should probably do some more research into Sombrans before just blurting out that he was hard and Ithought he could only be like that for his bonded mate. For all I know, it's involuntary, like when human guys sometimes just chub up. I could be sexually harassing him, and that's just a bad look. Yeah, I won't bring it up until I've done a bit more research.
"What's bothering you?" I ask him, squeezing his bicep.
He blows out a long breath before wrapping an arm back around me. "How would you feel about making a small detour?"
"Like before we go home?" I ask, unsure why asking to run an errand would be causing him so much distress.
"No, like right now," he says, giving me a sheepish look. "There's a woman down the beach who needs to go to a medical clinic. I don't feel right not telling her now that I know."
My eyes go wide, and I release his arm, pushing him as though I know which direction we need to be walking. "Go, go. I was going to tell you that I wanted to tell that guy's girlfriend before we left anyway. No one should have to put up with a cheater."
"I'll be quick," Zill says, linking our fingers together, leading me down the beach to where a group of college-aged kids is gathered.
He beelines it straight for a young woman sunbathing with a few other women. It's like she knows we're coming for her because she looks up at us and then over to some guy whose eyes are as round as saucers, his head already shaking.
"Hey man, none of us did anything!" he yells at Zill, who isn't dissuaded at all.
"Jaqueline?" Zill asks the young woman who's now pulling her cover-up on.
Her gaze shifts between us to where her boyfriend is still yelling at Zill that he did what he said. Zill kneels low enough to exchange some words with her, ones I can't hear, but can easily guess with the way tears start to prick her lower lashes. Red covers her face as she launches off the towel. Her girlfriendsstand and back her up. Either they're just ready to go to bat for her, or, having heard what Zill had to say, want blood as well.
"What the fuck, Tucker?" Jacqueline screams, bending down and grabbing handfuls of sand that she throws at the man. As far as retaliation goes, it's not the greatest, but since she's not really assaulting him, it's probably for the best.
"Okay, I'm done," Zill says, his mood much better now that he's gotten that out of the way. "Did you want to head back now or stay out here?"
"She's nothing, babe, I swear," Tucker pleads behind us.
"I think I want to stay out here a little longer," I tell Zill, leaning into his arm, wrapping my fingers around his forearm, and keeping him close.
We walk back down the coast, the sun beating down on us. My skin is in danger of burning if we stay out too long. I can't bring myself to care when being this close to Zill, being out in the open with him, is so nice.
"Will you tell me what he was going to do?" I ask after we've been walking in silence for a few minutes.
"I wasn't going to tell you," Zill says, his shadows tightening where they're wrapped around me before relaxing again. "But if you want to know, I won't keep it from you."
"On a scale from catcalling to jerking off on my bedspread, how bad was it?"
Zill looks down at me, something dangerous glowing in his eyes. "If it ever gets worse than catcalling, I have no plans of offering them any sort of compromise where they get to walk away."
My eyes widen at his declaration, and everything else from the day comes back in startling detail. All of his care, all of his reactions, the way things feel so easy with him. When I get home, I'm looking up Sombrans on my comm. I'm getting to thebottom of all of this, because how Zill is acting on our very first day of fake dating feels very much like he's not faking at all.
I twist around, wrapping his arm around me, his hand crossing my chest to keep our fingers interlocked. He doesn't do anything other than bite back his smile. As much as I want to go back to the apartment right that instant, I want to enjoy this moment more. So, I let Zill hold me close as we walk and walk and walk until we're both a little pink from the sun.
CHAPTER 8
ZILL
Breaking News! Sombrans! Everything you need to know to snag yourself a shadow daddy lover.
Once we finish at the beach, we reconvene at Mauve's office, going over the different articles that managed to be whipped up in the short amount of time Reese and I have been pretending to be with one another. I'm still slightly spiraling from how far I let the kiss get while we were on the beach, and when I see some of the images of it, well, it makes it clear to anyone who knows anything about Sombrans that Reese is mine.
