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I walk into the bathroom, grab my robe, pull it around me, and then stare at myself in the mirror, sucking in a deep breath. I have to look at my neck. I mean he did, and clearly nothing was there. I just…I need to look. I open a drawer, grab a hand mirror, and turn to the vanity, lifting my hair. No mark. I have this odd dip in my belly that I can only call disappointment, which is insane. Why would I feel such a thing?
I drop my hair, shove the mirror back in the drawer, and finger my mussed-up hair. This is good news. The reality here is it gives me ammunition with my father. I won’t state it as personal but so far, no X2-positive soldier has created that mark on a woman’s neck. In reality, they could be the safest of the bunch. It’s something I think Creed needs to hear as well.
Hurrying out of the bathroom, I find my slippers, push my feet inside and pad out of the bedroom to the kitchen where I find Creed waiting by the microwave while scooping ice cream from a pint. I push myself onto a barstool, all too aware of his naked, sculpted torso, but I’m trying to focus on the man, not his incredible body.
“Tell me again,” I prod, “do all GTECHs need to eat as much as you do?”
“We eat a lot,” he says, opening the microwave and pulling out a dinner.
“As much as you?” I push.
He pulls the plastic back on a lasagna dinner and sticks another in the microwave. “I try not to concern myself with everyone else, but the further we travel, the more energy it takes.”
“And you traveled far tonight? And yes, I know not to ask details.”
“I traveled far. Are you hungry?”
“No. I’m not. How far can you travel without a break?” I realize then I might sound like a scientist right now when that isn’t my intent. I hold up my hands. “Sorry. You’re not a lab rat. I don’t mean to make you feel like one.”
He studies me a few unreadable moments and then leans in close. “I am a lab rat, but I also think it’s normal for you to want to know things about me, even if you weren’t who you are. I can travel just about anywhere around the world without a break. It’s more a matter of how much I do it in a span of hours.”
“It’s the same for all the GTECHs?”
“They all need to recharge.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You know I’m different.”
I decide a generic “how” gives him too much room to wiggle away from the question, so I go at this more directly. “The wind is more connected to you, right?”
“Something like that.”
“Does it talk to you?”
His eyes narrow on me. “Did it talk to you?”
I think back to those moments in the room right before I found him in the back of the house. “I’m not sure if it was you or the wind. Or both. Or maybe I’m crazy.”
“You’re not crazy, Addie.”
So he can talk to the wind. Or it talks to him. Or some combination. But I can sense I’m pushing too hard. “Okay, I have another question. One much more serious.”
I can feel the tension around him, the crackle of energy that tells me he’s intensely on edge, but I charge onward. “Are you off work this weekend?”
“Why?” he asks.
“Because I wondered if you might go somewhere with me?”
“Where?”
“I have to work in the morning. It’s a meeting with some of the team’s scientists, but after—well, it’s my mom’s birthday and I’m not really good at surviving that. I want to go to Vegas and visit her grave and go to her favorite restaurant. I just…alone is rough and my dad rejects the idea. He says she’s gone, and he can’t survive by pretending otherwise. So I thought—I don’t mean to corner you into something other than sex, but—”
He rounds the counter, turns my stool to face him, and cups my face. “There is no way I would let you do that alone. I would be honored to go with you, Addie.”
“You would?” I ask, and I’m trembling inside, the emotion attached to tomorrow, the idea of him going through that with me, just so much.
“Yes, I would. I am.”
I cover his hands with mine. “Do you think you might smile for me?”
“Not when you cry. Not ever when you cry. But if anyone can make me smile, Addie, it’s you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Talking or laughing isn’t what Creed has on his mind the rest of the night. We stay up late and naked until I fall asleep in his arms. I wake up to breakfast in bed, because he’s apparently gone to Vegas and brought us back a feast. It’s after we eat, and he showers with me, that he checks my neck again.
