“Do you have the dress?” Hal asked. I nodded, and he released the gown. I heard him step away. My skin was instantly cold where his hands had been. “I’m going to turn around.”
I let the gown fall to a puddle at my feet, the metal clinking against the wooden floorboards. I stepped out of it before grabbing from my wardrobe the gray shirt and shorts I usually slept in.
“Moonlight,” Hal said, still facing my door.
His usual taunting demeanor was gone. His voice sounded tentative, almost shy. I halted everything at the sound. “Yes.”
“This might be an insult, but . . .” He hesitated and shifted from one foot to the other, clearing his throat. “The color looked beautiful on you.”
I clutched my gray shirt to my chest, where my heart ached. I stared at the wide breadth of his shoulders, tapering to a trim waist, and the muscled cords of his back, clear through the wet undershirt, the shade of blue identical to my gown. I couldn’t process what that sameness did to me. I didn’t want to.
“I’m going to shower.” I needed to step away. I was too raw, exposed. I needed distance to piece myself back together.
“Right, I’ll leave,” Hal said, reaching for the door handle. I nodded, letting him go when the resoundingthunkof the lock resonated, and the room plunged into darkness. The only light radiated from my golden wrist.
“Don’t,” I exclaimed, stretching out my arm, illuminating the room. “You can’t leave.”
Hal’s entire body went rigid. “I need to go.”
“You can’t,” I told him, quickly slipping on the gray shirt and shorts. “It’s curfew. My door is locked and the door to the entrance won’t let anyone in or out unless their MIND chip is authorized.”
Hal raked his hands through his wet hair. “Are you dressed?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Hal darted to my window, peering down before moving to the next window. He navigated the near dark easily.
“You aren’t seriously thinking about going out the window, are you?” I asked, trailing him to the window near the bed. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark.
“I can’t stay here. You’re in a contract.”
“That’s exactly why you have to stay, Hal. If you set off the door, I could be eliminated,” I hissed at him, although it was possible I might be eliminated after my performance tonight if my family reported to the Illum how badly I had stepped out of line. Then finally Vincent might be happy.
Hal whirled around, coming face-to-face with me. “And how do you think,” Hal shook his head, sending water droplets flying, “your Mate will feel about another man, a Major Defect, being in your room overnight?”
“I am hoping I never have to tell him,” I confessed. “Look, I shouldn’t have let you carry me up. I shouldn’t have . . .” I paused, searching for the right words.
“Shouldn’t have what?” Hal asked me, looking down at me. “Shouldn’t have been human? Should have been able to withstand whatever they threw at you?”
“You don’t know what happened tonight,” I said, flustered.
“It doesn’t take a genius to put it together. You were dressed in blue in High Town. I watched that Pod drop from the damn clouds.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, hating how easily he read what I’d endured. Because the details didn’t matter, did they? Someone had made my contract a mockery. Tears gathered beneath my lids, but I refused to fall apart. Hal stepped toward me.
I looked up at him. We were too close. Too close. I took a step back. “I’m in enough trouble as it is. I need you to stay,” I admitted.
“Need me to?” he asked, and I could just make out a smirk in the dark.
“That’s not what I meant.” I fumbled over my words, my cheeks warm. “I meant you can’t go. You are stuck here.”
“So I am stuck here—with you all night—in cold, wet clothes.” Each word set my heart careening. I gulped, and my eyes darted immediately to the bed.
Hal smirked at me. “I’ll sleep on the floor. You still going to shower?”
The sweat and rain had crusted to my skin, and I nodded. I took a step but stopped. All of Hal’s concerns were directed toward me. He hadn’t mentioned himself once, not his work or what the run had done to him. “Will you get in trouble? For missing your shift?”
Hal moved in the dark. “Let me worry about that, Moonlight.”
