Page 80 of Distortion
He pulls away abruptly and I just stop myself from trying to follow his lips.
‘You’ve donethatbefore,’ he murmurs.
I nod a little shyly.
‘How many times?’
‘Like that? Once.’
Not all that long ago.
But I don’t say that part.
His eyebrows rise. ‘Come on. You knew what to do.’
I look away, feeling a little sad all of a sudden. ‘Only the things you did first. It’s mimicry. That’s all.’
He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. ‘Do you feel things? Emotions, I mean. Shade wasn’t sure, and your face doesn’t show much.’
‘You’ve talked about me?’ I ask, not liking that much.
He shrugs unapologetically. ‘Well?’
‘Yes,’ I say quietly. ‘I feel things.’
He regards me silently for a few seconds, as if he’s trying to figure something out.
‘When you get back to the house, come to my room,’ he says finally.
‘Tonight? But?—’
‘It’s not a request. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it. Besides, there’s a price to pay for this morning. Or did you think we were just gonna let the Pop Tarts burning in the toaster thing go? The kitchen was flooded to shit.’
And then he’s gone and I’m alone in the lab.
I stare at the door for a moment, the ghost of his touch making me shiver.
A price to pay? That sounds ominous.
But I walk across the room and I sit in front of the papers that are on the table. I sign the NDA as ordered and I begin to look at the rest of them, putting everything else out of my head for now. This is what’s important. When the memory of Blake’s kiss makes me touch my lips absently, I banish it ruthlessly and focus on the numbers, the things I understand. The patterns that relax me. Whatever Blake wants from me will be a blip, and whatever this price is that I have to pay won’t be anythingdeadly. If it keeps John from knowing that I’m circumventing whatever plans he has for me, then I’ll do what Blake wants until he inevitably gets bored.
I can control this. I have to.
Blake
I’m goingthrough lab data and doing my regular classwork until well past dark. When it gets to ten, I sit back and wonder if the pretty little idiot I’ve got on my string will actually come to me like I told her to.
I chuckle aloud. She’s probably still sitting in the lab trying to make heads or tails of the data and realizing how in over her head she is ... and how well and truly fucked.
I’m almost sympathetic. Almost. But this is all her own fault. She got out of that clinic and had a cushy thing going with the Novelles. But she got cocky and tried to fly too close to the sun. I just hope she comes in here trying to hide that she couldn’t do what we told her to and follows through with our deal before we send her packing.
My stomach rumbles and I send a message to the pledges to grab me a burger. Five minutes later, not one of the assholes has replied to me. The message hasn’t even been read.
‘Fuck my life.’
With a long-suffering sigh, I get up and leave my room. Neither Mav nor Shade are here. I assume Mav is in the gym, or maybe at the lab still, making sure the shut-in isn’t slacking. Shade is probably at the club. He likes to go there at night to unwind, I’ve noticed. More often now that hissisteris around.
I don’t get their relationship at all. She looks at him with something in her eyes sometimes, but I can’t work out what. And he definitely doesn’t look at her the way a brother is supposed to look at a sister.
