Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29593 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
She strokes my knuckles, and her fingers look miniscule against my hand. “After you left me here, I tried dating other people. I thought I’d move forward and forget the past, but there are some things I don’t want to forget. One of them is you. No one I dated compared to you. Now that you’re back here, I don’t see the point in wasting time.”
“You’re painting an image of me in your mind that I can’t possibly live up to. I’m not some heroic savior. Anyone would have done what I did.”
Melody just gives me a wry look, her fingertips continuing to trace circles on my hand. “Do you know how many people I saw come through that scrap yard on a regular basis? Day in and day out, people looked at me, looked at how I was being treated, and turned away. I wasn’t a person to them. I didn’t matter. I was someone else’s problem. You were the only one that looked at me and saw a person.”
She’s not listening to me. “You don’t know who I am, what I’ve done—”
“Is the thought of being with me so awful?” she asks suddenly. “Because you’re determined to somehow convince me that you’re a horrible person unworthy of affection.”
“You deserve better—”
Melody thumps my hand, hard, and gives me an annoyed look. “I’ll decide what I deserve, thank you.”
My ears get hot. That was the wrong thing to say. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just—”
“You’ve told me everything before. You’re a former criminal. You work construction jobs. Your family name is shit. Is there anything else I should know? Do you torture small animals in your downtime?”
I scowl. “No.”
“Ever owned or plan on owning another person?”
“Other than you? No.” The image of her as the collar came off of her is seared into my mind. The hope and yearning mixed with the terror on her face, the red marks and grooves on her neck from the painful collar…I remember all of it. I know some mesakkah think nothing of owning a human, but I could never.
“Murdering? Raping? Murdering and raping? Robbing the elderly?”
I scowl. “None of that, and you’ve made your point. Fine then. I would like to go home with you. I’d be crazy not to.”
The smile she flashes at me is brilliant. “You would, and we both know you’re not crazy.”
I should be excited, but something about our interaction isn’t sitting well with me. She’s beautiful, and I’m attracted to her. Why do I have such a problem with this? She’s offering me sex, nothing more. We can fuck and get it out of our systems and then I can go on with my life and she can go on with hers. It means nothing. I’ve had partners for a night in the past. This shouldn’t be any different. I tell myself this over and over as we exit the booth and leave the cantina.
Melody grabs my hand and leads me across the street, toward the large boarding house. A few humans glance at us as she pulls me along after her, but no one pays any attention.
She pauses at the side door to the boarding house, leaning against it. She gives me a bright, flirty smile that makes my heart ache and tilts her head back to gaze up at me. “Kiss me.”
“What?”
“Kiss me.”
I get flustered, my tail prickling along with the fine hairs on my neck. “Right here in the street?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
We barely know each other, I want to say, but we’ve moved past that, haven’t we? We’re heading to her room to have sex. A kiss is nothing, even if it’s not something my people normally practice. Melody tilts her head further back as I step forward, and I curl my fingers along her jaw, angling her face as I hunch down to press my mouth to hers. It’s awkward but her mouth is warm and sweet and so good. Her arms go around my neck and she kisses me with enthusiasm, her lips parting under mine, and her tongue darts out to touch my lips.
I jerk back in surprise.
She chuckles. “Was that bad?”
“No. I…no. Just surprised me. That’s all.” I press my mouth to hers again just to prove to her that kissing her is not a problem. If I could just relax, I could enjoy the wet slide of her tongue against mine. I could enjoy the soft press of her body to my larger one.
I could ignore the fact that this still feels like gratitude, because we’re still two strangers, and that’s the part I keep getting hung up on.
I pull away from her. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Melody flinches, her arms retreating back to her sides, only to cross them protectively over her chest. “Oh.”
“This…this doesn’t feel right. You, me, any of this.” I shake my head. “I’m sorry.”