“Yeah?” She whispered back, but what she wanted to say wasleave me alone, it’s time to sleep.
“Oh, you are awake.” He stopped whispering and continued, “Do you have a feeling that this assignment will be a lot harder than they even prepared us for?”
She groaned inwardly. She knew this could only be harder than she expected. The note she read before they were even out of sight of Quorath was enough to tell her that. Plus, hadn’t they already had this conversation? “Yes.”
“It’s weird, right? These towns, the conductor and Cory not staying to give us more instruction. Like what’s next?”
“Mhm,” she agreed, but truthfully, she was exhausted and fading quickly.
“Do you think sleeping in separate rooms is a good idea?” That jolted her fully awake–for multiple reasons. She sat all the way up as he kept talking without giving her a chance to argue, “If something else happens, I don’t want us to be separated.”
“We’re not sharing a bed. It’s in the rules.”
He shook his head harshly, “No, no, not share a bed. I’ll drag in one of the mattresses and sleep on the floor.”
“Really. You’re abandoning the comfort of sleeping in a bed, to take up a guard post at the foot of mine?”
“I’ll still be on a mattress. And I’m notguardingyou.”
“But you think I shouldn’t be left to sleep alone.”
He inhaled deeply, and she almost grinned at how well she could annoy him. “Are you going to continue to deliberately misinterpret my words?”
“Are you going to continue to bring me satisfaction by becoming annoyed?” She forced an overly sweet tone, and could’ve sworn he was trying not to launch himself at her. She could only imagine how many ways he wished to harm her at that moment.
“If worst comes to worst,” he gritted out carefully, “We should be together so we can finish the assignment. We will have more success together than apart. That is all I am saying.” He paused, dragging his hand across his face, his exhaustion seeping into his posture. “If you would prefer, you can drag a mattress and sleep on the floor of my room.”
Clara sat daintily on the foot of her bed. “I think I’m good here. But I willallowyou to sleep on the floor.”
“Brat,” he whispered as he turned but she caught it.
To further annoy him, she replied cheekily, “Throw terms of endearment like that around and we might end up having problems.”
20CARVER
For the sixteenth time, Carver rolled over, fluffed his pillow, and fell back into it. His body barely moved from exhaustion, but his mind was aware of everything. At the moment, it was fixated on Clara’s breathing. Not the fact that she was breathing, per say. More the fact that she was in bed, sound asleep, most likely looking adorable.
And instead of being asleep next to her, he was trying to get comfortable on the mattress he set up on the floor.
There was nothing wrong with it. Actually, it was very comfortable. Much better than the night before he spent on the train. But knowing she was there, so close, and yet, so far, made something inside him desperate for her. He was desperate for the one thing he could never have.
She hated him more now than she had when they first met almost 10 years ago. His dad passed when he was 14. Carver’s dad had served under Clara’s at the front lines for the attacks; they were soldiers, not operatives, and they had stayed close even after their terms ended. When his dad died, Carver and his mom had been invited to move in with the Richards.
Clara’s family had money, and behind their gorgeous house was a cottage-like building. Carver and his mom moved in there.From the beginning, Clara hated having another person around her. It was a bold case of only child syndrome, and when her dad was killed by an explosion only a few miles away from the base, she seemed to hate Carver even more. Somehow, he was the one she blamed for the loss of her father. It took him months to win her trust. Now he had completely lost it. Good.
He tossed and turned, his mind running rampant and refusing to calm down. After every decision he had made to protect her, would this assignment destroy her anyway?
It felt like only minutes had passed before a hand on his shoulder was shaking him awake. He launched himself up, and Clara swiftly moved herself back. “We need to start walking,” she said apologetically. If she was that apologetic, he must truly look awful.
He groaned, “You’re right.”
Guilt clouded her face, and he paused to ask, “You okay?”
She inhaled deeply, “Sorry for breaking the rules. It’s just I’ve been trying to wake you up for the past 5 minutes and you wouldn’t budge.”
He tried to smile, but it felt more like a grimace. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I looked through the kitchen for food, but there’s nothing left. They didn’t board windows here, but it seems they packed just as meticulously.”
