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“You never didlike to listen, did you?” Isaiah said, taking a seat beside me with a drink in his hand.

I gave him no verbal response.

Just smirked.

Instead of following his demand, I’d set out for the resort's main area—More specifically, the bar.

There were several laid out across the property, and I chose what seemed to be the quiet one — no space for a dance floor or anything like that. Subdued music, couples sitting close at the tables that dotted the main floor space.

I’d chose a corner to myself, tucked away from everyone, and got a soda to sip on while I just… watched.

I’d known it wouldn’t take him long to show up.

“Nope. Not particularly,” I answered, finally, but not giving him any eye contact—partially because I didn’t want to chicken out on the attitude I was giving. Inexplicably, I couldn’t seem to shake this undercurrent of annoyance and anger I was feeling toward him—juxtaposed against the undeniable excitement in my chest at having him around.

Which contributed to theotherreason I was having trouble looking him in the face.

I was a little alarmed by how uncomfortable he made me feel.

Not like I was afraid of him, or thought he would do something to me. It was something else, something foreign and familiar at the same time.

“So what I’m hearing is, you will not make this easy for me?”

“Make what easy for you?” I asked. This time, I looked up, meeting his gaze.

A mistake.

The dark golden depths of his eyes were intoxicating, and made it even harder to sit still.

“Making up for lost time.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I took a gulp of my soda, shifting my attention to… anything else.

“Is that something that feels necessary to you?”

“Very much so, Dee.”

I scoffed, tamping down a fresh burst of that excited feeling with a shake of my head. I wasn’t about to let myself get too happy about the idea of his interest when the actual history between us was no sweet, tidy story.

“The last time we spoke—before I saw you the other day… you told me I was just a job to you. I was funny, and I was pretty, but you were only there, protecting me, because those were your orders. All the talks we had, the laughs we shared, the… the dreams, and fantasies about if we weren’t what we were… if we were something else. Somethingfree… you told me you were just humoring me. That none of that had meant anything to you.” I stopped, because it was hard not to, when saying those words—hiswords brought that whole thing back to me. When I looked to him, he looked somewhere else, draining the dark liquid from his glass into his mouth. “Did you think I forgot?”

“Did Ithinkso? No, not at all. Hoped, maybe.”

I shook my head. “Too bad. I rememberallthe bad stuff.” I blinked hard, trying to smother my impending tears. “Too much bad stuff, actually. I’m not the same girl anymore. So I’m not sure why you think you can just skip back into my life, and everything will be like it was again.”

“I don’t want things to be like they were,” Isaiah spoke, reaching to grab my hand. My heart jumped to somewhere in my throat as I watched his fingers weave together with mine. “If things were like they were before… we couldn’t even do something as simple as this. Me sitting here holding your hand, Dee… can you imagine the world of trouble?”

I pulled away, clasping my hands together so he wouldn’t attempt that again. “I can’t, actually. Because I can’t imagine a Thorn doing such a thing unless it was part of the assignment.Thorns only have feelings when they’re supposed to. Only when it applies to the task.Remember?”

“Dee…”

“Why did I never see you around the compound before?” I asked him, attempting to shift the subject. “You were really recruited just for me? How? How did she even get in touch with you?”

“Well… like I told you before, I’m a private contractor,” he answered, surprisingly playing along. “I loosely crossed paths with your sister earlier this year, so she knew the quality of my work. She had a mutual acquaintance get in touch with me, when she needed me.”

“Oh. So you’renotbecoming one of her Power Rangers then?” I inquired, making him laugh.

Another mistake.

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