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I frowned. “No idea. Sea trash. Throw it back.”
“Throw it back?” Shaking her head, she cracked it open and gasped. “It didn’t come from the sea.” Her eyes shot to mine. “I think...I think it fell out of your pocket.”
“What?” Standing my ground, I trembled as she padded toward me and held out the blue velvet box I’d stuffed in my pocket before Rita and Molly had accosted me outside the tent.
Her lips dared raise in a tentative smile. “Is this...is this my birthday present?” Darkness clouded her face as she recoiled. “Wait...did you buy it for someone else?” Glancing past me, she flinched. “Is it for her?”
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Kafami sikeyim.”
Her shoulders sagged. “It is, isn’t it? It’s for—”
“You’re going kill me. You saved my life only to make it a living hell.” Marching into her, I grabbed her rolled shoulders and shook her. Hard. “Ignore that. That’s not important. What is important is: what were you thinking? Running through a rainforest in the dead of night? Running into the sea where a million signs warn you about crocodiles and jellyfish?”
“I—” She struggled to get free, but I didn’t let her.
“Your father ordered me to keep you safe. How am I supposed to do that if you go running around letting any monster take a bite?”
“Any monster being...Joel?” She cocked her head, distracting me.
More temper flowed. “He definitely acts as one.”
“Does not. Joel’s nice.”
“Nice? He isn’t nice. He’s thinking with his cock and—”
“At least he’s willing to touch me! Unlike some.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means my father told you to enjoy yourself with me, yet I doubt that will ever happen.”
I blanched. So she’d heard the taboo invitation in Jack’s innocent remarks too. “He didn’t mean it like that, and you know it.”
“I know you look at me as if you want to.”
I reared back. “Like hell I do. You’re his daughter. You’re—”
“Right beneath your nose, and you’re too scared to do anything about it.”
“You’re fucking fifteen!”
“And you’re just some boy I plucked from the sea. I think you use my family as an excuse not to do what you want!”
“In case you forgot, I can’t do what I want. Any day, I might be found out and sent back home.”
“No one cares you live with us, Aslan. You’re free to do whatever you want with me. I would let you do whatever you wanted—”
“Fuck, Neri, I never thought you’d be so crude.”
“Well, being subtle hasn’t exactly gotten me very far, has it?”
“For the last time, Nerida—”
“If you say I’m fifteen again, I’m going to knee you in the balls.”
My fingers dug into her shoulders, I struggled to speak in English and not slip into Turkish. “Fine. I admit you’re not twelve anymore. Believe me, I’m highly aware of that after watching you drink and walk around half-naked—”
“I’m wearing the same exact bikini I wear onboard The Fluke.”
