“You think you’re tough, princess?” He was so close I could smell the musky scent of his deodorant. I glared at him. As if I needed someone else to show me I had no control today.
I’d show him how much control I had.
I looked down and then back up through my lashes. “I’m sorry. Thank you for Healing me. It’s just been a really bad day.” Step one: Seem vulnerable. Check. I wrung my hands together and then “accidentally” let them catch the bottom of his shirt. I pulled back when I realized, giving a little laugh. “Sorry.” I reached out and touched his chest with my apology, pretended to hesitate, then put my hand back and left it there. Step two: Contact. Check. “It was my dad.”
“What was your dad?” His breath came quick now, and I could feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath my hand.
“He stole the money. For suppressors.”
“Your dad stole your money?”
I nodded. Step three: Share something personal. Check. He leaned toward me. So the impenetrable Connor wasn’t as immune to me as I thought he was.
Step four: Draw his attention to my mouth. I bit my bottom lip. His eyes flicked to my lips and then back to my eyes. Check. And step five would normally be: Reel him in for a fun, forget-all-my-problems make-out session. But since I couldn’t do step six with him—Erase his memories—I had to stop there. His eyes again went to my lips, and this time my heart picked up speed. I took a deep breath to control it.
“What’s your dad’s ability?” he asked.
Crap. In my attempt to play him, I had told him something real.
I stretched up a little, toward his face. He leaned closer. His breath touched my cheeks. It smelled hot and sweet. I blinked and reminded myself that I was proving I had control over him, not the opposite.
If I knew one thing about Connor, it was that he had a lot of pride. If I wanted to assert my control and make sure he never, ever came this close to kissing me again, I just had to do one thing. Make him feel stupid.
“My dad didn’t steal my money.” I gave a single laugh. “But you should see your face right now. You totally bought that.”
I thought he’d jerk away, be angry, but the smugness in his eyes made me think that he was the one playing me.
“Can I ask you something?” Connor said, still not moving away from the space where our breath mingled.
I felt myself nod, even though I had meant to play stoic.
He moved a millimeter closer. His bottom lip brushed ever so softly against mine and sent a chill up my spine. “Can I have my shirt back so I can go?”
Horrified, I looked down at my hand. It held a tightly clutched fistful of his T-shirt. So had I been the one pulling him toward me the whole time? I let go and stepped back up into my truck, swallowing the bitter taste of humiliation.
“Laila,” he said, but I didn’t give him a chance to finish. I slammed the door and pressed my thumb against the starting pad.
CHAPTER 19
Addie: Can cardboard have blocking capabilities?
It took two days watching my dad every time he pulled out his phone to finally figure out his password. So that night, after giving him plenty of time to fall asleep, I retrieved his phone again and brought it back to my room. I sat cross-legged on my bed and entered in his code. The wallpaper on his phone was a picture of me sticking my tongue out at him. It almost made me feel bad about stealing his phone to get information. Almost.
I clicked on Contacts and held my breath. My name was first on his list, followed by several people I didn’t recognize. Probably coworkers. But just in case, I wrote down the name and address of any contact I didn’t know. Then there were some names I did recognize from back home, friends of my parents. My mom was in there, which shouldn’t have seemed weird, but it did. By the time I got to the end of his list, I had written down five people altogether. I could handle researching five people.
I zipped my hoodie higher against the chill in the air and looked up and down the street again for the bus. The schedule had said one stopped every fifteen minutes, but I’d been standing there for twenty and hadn’t seen a single bus pass. Considering it was the middle of winter, it could’ve been much colder. It was Dallas, after all. But standing outside in my light jacket with the wind blowing was causing a chill. I pulled out my phone and checked the map again. Maybe I could walk to one of the addresses from here. The little red dots on the map, indicating each location, assured me I couldn’t.
The sound of a car idling on the street made me look up. The passenger-side window rolled down, and Trevor leaned over. “Addison. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Do you need a ride somewhere?”
“No. I’m good.”
He looked at the pole next to me, and I did as well. A sign showing the bus schedule was posted there. “This is the downtown bus.”
I nodded. Two of the addresses were downtown, and I figured I should go there first.
“Are you going to the cemetery again?”
That’s right. The cemetery was downtown. Maybe Trevor could drop me off, and I could walk from there. “Yes.”
He moved his head once to the side, indicating I should get into his car.
I hesitated for one second, then opened the door. He moved a duffel bag from the passenger seat into the back, and I sat in its place. “Thanks.” I buckled and ran my hands over my thighs, trying to warm up.
“No problem.” He flipped his blinker on, then pulled onto the road.
A chill ran down my body. He reached forward, turned a knob on the dash, and then aimed one of the vents at me. Warm air hit my neck and cheeks.
I picked a subject before he had a chance. “How is your comic coming?”