Rubbing my palm along my jaw, I met her gaze. “I promise I’ll behave.”
She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t believe you.”
“You really don’t have to.” Reaching into the pocket of my jeans, I pulled out my car keys. “Come on. I know what bookstore Carissa was talking about. If you want to see it, we’re going to have to leave now before it closes.”
Kat didn’t move.
“You’re gonna want to see it.” I jumped off the porch, landing nimbly in front of the steps. “They have like a bunch of books they sell for like fifty cents a piece.” Her eyes lit up like the faint glow around her.
I backed up toward my driveway. “If you’re lucky, the actual owner will be there.”
She uncurled her arms. “Why would that make me lucky?”
“Because he looks like Santa Claus.”
Kat blinked, and then a surprised laugh burst out of her. The sound did a weird thing to my chest, something I ignored as I opened the driver’s car door. “You’re coming, right?”
Finally, after what felt like forever, she got into the SUV and immediately turned up the radio, the universal sign that indicated “don’t talk.” The ride into town was quiet, and I kept my mouth shut as we walked into the tiny used bookstore that smelled like dust and old pages.
Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t working, but Kat didn’t seem to care. The moment she stepped inside, it was like Christmas morning to her. A smile appeared and it didn’t leave as she buzzed from one overstocked shelf to the next, oblivious to the clouds of dust she stirred up every time she pulled a book out of a pile. There was no one else in the narrow shop besides the older lady behind the register, who had her nose in a book.
I stood back, out of her way, and I’d pulled out my phone, opening up Candy Crush , but I wasn’t paying attention to the game. Hell, I was still on the damn candy trail. I was watching her. I couldn’t help it. Especially when she bent over, scanning the lower shelves.
Uncomfortable, I shifted my legs. Didn’t help. Images flooded me. Kat starred in all of them. The costar was the red bikini. Heat moved under my skin, and I ground my molars. I needed to think about something—anything else.
Kat stretched up, reaching for a book several shelves above her, and the shirt she wore rode up, revealing a thin slice of skin above her jeans.
Aw, hell…
She clutched a book to her chest, and I was really, really envious of that book.
I shifted again. Still didn’t help.
She spun around, heading for a wire bin full of small paperbacks covered with bare-chested men and women in fancy, old-school dresses. She dug around until she stacked a pile of them on the outside and then looked at me. “Can you help me?”
Slipping my phone in my pocket, my walk toward her was a bit…awkward. “What’s up?”
“Hold your arms out, please.”
I did what she asked.
And a few moments later, I was holding a pile of romance books.
I had no idea how my life veered so far off track that this was what I was doing on a Friday night, but a part of me wasn’t all that upset. Which of course upset me even more.
Kat ended up leaving the store with more books than any human needed, and the whole way home she smiled that…that beautiful smile I rarely ever saw. She chattered about the books, and even though I didn’t respond to anything she said, she kept going on.
She was actually happy.
I knew the moment I opened my mouth I was going to ruin that, like I always did. I thought about the fact that I knew none of this was her fault. And I thought about the fact that this whole time Dee had been careful around her and I hadn’t. In my attempts to keep Dee safe and Kat in the dark, I put Dee at risk and exposed what we were.
In reality, I was the problem.
And my attraction to Kat didn’t help the situation. Made it all the more dangerous.
Kat’s trace was going to fade soon, less than a week. After that, I needed to keep my space. For real this time. No more broken record shit.
No more shit .
Chapter 18
Days became shorter, and with each day that passed, the warm breeze swirling through the valley chilled. Leaves turned into bright shades of gold and red before sifting to the ground, announcing the arrival of autumn.
By mid-October, Kat’s trace had completely faded. It had done so four days after our trip to the used bookstore in town, and I’d done what I told myself I needed to do.
With the exception of seeing her in class and whenever Dee had her over at the house, I stayed away from her. Of course, I still annoyed the hell out of her when I had a chance. Because really, there were very few things that amused me as greatly as poking her with my pen in trig and watching her gray eyes turn stormy.
I was really beginning to wonder if the pen was subconsciously symbolic for something else. That “something else” didn’t amuse me. Oh no, it did something else.
I knew she was spending more time with the girls from our class. Therefore so was Dee, and while it irked me that my sister was becoming more and more involved with humans, there was nothing I could do to stop that.
The reality was, unless she eventually moved into one of the colonies, she would always be surrounded by humans. She would always grow close to one of them. Hell, if Adam and her didn’t work out, she could end up…falling for one.
Just thinking about that made me want to punch a hole through the ozone.
There was one other thing that made me want to do that.
Simon Cutters.
The over-touchy jackass was getting on my bad side, and I might have lost my cool just a tad bit when he started talking to Kat in trig class. His backpack took a trip to the floor, and being the good guy that I was, I tried to warn Kat about Simon. That conversation hadn’t ended well.