None of the ferocity we’d left behind us in Paphos, but the nuclear reaction was the same.
The explosion of my senses.
The instant inferno in my nerves.
It was a cacophony of colour I thought I’d clearly recalled, but I was unprepared for the impact. A legitimate shiver rocked my whole body and I had to pull back before I did something crazy.
Decoy made a low sound in the back of his throat. “That’s what you wanted to test?”
“Pretty much. My memories are so wild it’s hard to believe they’re real.”
“It’s hard to believe they’re anything, half the time.” Decoy dropped his head to my shoulder, hiding his face for a long breath before he straightened again. “I should go home.”
I knew it.
Felt it.
I needed to leave too.
Ineededto kiss him again, but I controlled myself. Just. And I got my reward in the form of his hot palm skating over my hip, fingertips finding a sliver of bare skin before he stepped away and brought both hands to his head.
The sudden space between us screwed my head back on. I expelled a shaky sigh. Whatever I’d been trying to test, the results broke the scale, and I didn’t know what to do with that. Had I distracted him from the stress eating away at his soul?
Maybe.
But it was just as possible that all I’d done was give him something else to worry about.
Couldn’t bring myself to regret it, though.
“I should go,” Decoy murmured again, perhaps to himself more than me. He let his hands drop and scanned his surroundings, and I missed his expressive gaze as much as I missed his touch.
Stay.But for what? A quickie in the bin yard?
He glanced at me one more time before he began to drift away, a hesitance in his long stride that I felt in every fission of energy he was leaving behind. Decoy was usually a man with purpose, but he didn’t want to leave any more than I wanted him to go, and there was no fixing how wrong it felt.
The brick wall was warm from the generator running behind it. I closed my eyes and imagined it was Decoy’s body. His hard chest and solid arms. He’d never held me like that and I’d never held him, but picturing it was easy.
Too easy.
My eyes snapped open. Decoy was at his bike, fiddling with his helmet.
I called his name. His real name. “Hey, Seth?”
He glanced over his shoulder, turning slightly, the floodlight above him making his eyes gleam a softer shade. “Yeah?”
“Sometimes crazy things need to happen to set the world right.”
Decoy smiled wider than he had all night. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
4
DECOY
I didn’t take Ivy to school on Monday. When I got to Lauren’s house, they’d already left, and she gave me the run around for the rest of the week. Control.Coercion. Letting me know my damn place, as if I hadn’t spent my whole life knowing I was bottom of the pile.
It was Thursday afternoon by the time she relented and let me pick up Ivy from school without interference.
Lauren:It’s your turn to have her for the weekend. Please make sure you wash her school uniform this time.
