I scoffed, finally tearing my gaze away from Kyle’s retreating form to look down at her.
“He was going to hurt you. Right in front of me! What was I supposed to do? Watch him beat the shit out of you? Fuck that.”
She looked up at me with those pretty eyes surrounded by dark lashes, and for a moment, it looked like she might cry. Her dark hair was so thick and healthy that it reflected the warm orange flicker of the flames in the tiki torches that lit up the beach.
She really was gorgeous. In a different life, I would have chased her down in a heartbeat. As it was, even after putting three days of distance between us, I was still chasing Riddick.
“No one’s ever done something like that for me before,” she said softly, and I frowned.
“Then you need to hang out with better people, Quinn. That was fucked up. Is that the first time he tried to hurt you?”
She shook her head and dropped her gaze. Her shame was so great I could feel it roll across my skin like a living thing.
“Hey,” I said, tilting her head up so she would look at me again. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.Youdidn’t do anything wrong.”
“I basically called him a cockroach… and I spat on him.” She pointed out, and I burst out laughing.
It was the first time I’d laughed since I left the shack. It felt really good.
“True.But I mean, if the antennae fit.”
She giggled. “Did you see how he scuttled away after you beat his ass?”
I nodded in mock seriousness.
“Serious cockroach behavior.”
She giggled again, and I felt another surge of sadness that I wasn’t into her. She deserved someone to take care of her the way Riddick took care of me.
Or, I guess, the way hehadbeen taking care of me before I left him on that beach.
“I used to date him. Believe it or not, he was really nice to me at first. Charming. Then, after we were together for a while, he started to change. I broke up with him after he hit me the first time, but he’s been obsessed with me ever since.”
I was starting to understand why he’d seemed to hate me on sight. He thought I was after Quinn, who he seemed to think belonged to him.
I fuckinghateddudes like him. I should’vehit him harder.
“He’s not going to let this go, you know,” she said, gesturing to my now swollen and bleeding hand.
I snorted. “I’m not afraid of him, babe.”
“You should be. His dad’s the mayor, Finn. They could make your life here very complicated if they wanted to.”
I shrugged.
My life here wasalreadycomplicated, and it had nothing to do with bitch-ass Kyle Tully.
“I like it when you call me that, you know?”
“Huh?” I asked, shaking my head to snap myself out of my thoughts of Riddick.
“Babe,” shesaid, her cheeks blushing, and my chest flooded with guilt.
Ah fuck.
The last thing I wanted to do was lead her on. Riddick had done that to me for weeks, and it felt like shit. I wasn’t down to do that to someone else. Especially not someone as cool as Quinn.
“Listen, Quinn. I think you’re rad and all, but it’s not like that,” I said, and she frowned.
