Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Author:Wendy Higgins [Higgins, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / General
ISBN: 9780062085627
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2012-05-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

FIRST SACRIFICE

Across from the hotel was a tiny Laundromat with five washers and five dryers run by coin slots. I spent the afternoon doing laundry while Kaidan went to the hotel’s gym. He’d given me his phone in case the convent called. I sat alone in a small chair, thinking, while the dryer ran.

I’d asked Kaidan if he’d been listening to our conversation while he waited at the prison. He admitted that when he returned that afternoon, he listened for a moment to make sure I was okay, but that was it, and I believed him.

I told him every detail of what my father said. He had been a quiet listener, not saying much. Not even I told you so about the final part.

The clothes were finally dry, so I stood there pulling them out one at a time, folding them.

I jumped and let out an embarrassing squeak when two hands came around my waist.

“Just me, luv,” he said, close to my ear. “Aren’t you the picture of domestication? Do you cook as well?”

I put both hands on the edge of the dryer to steady myself. The machine was still hot.

“Kai,” I said. I could feel his nose and mouth move over my hair. Why was he doing this to me? Telling me not to romanticize him, and then nuzzling me from behind? “You shouldn’t...”

My knees were shaking. I was so confused. What I really wanted to do was close my eyes and lean back into him, pretending for just a moment that we were together. But I pressed on from a place inside of me that was stronger than my body. I couldn’t be one of his momentary girls.

“Unless you’re going to be my boyfriend, you shouldn’t touch me like this.”

He did not pull away, repulsed, as I had expected. Instead, he spoke into my hair.

“The Neph are not permitted to be in relationships, especially not with one another.”

“Nobody has to know,” I said into the air, closing my eyes. “Just us.”

“It can never happen.” His rejection was gentle, but firm.

Again, from the place of strength, I found myself taking his hands, untwining them from around my waist, and moving them away from me. A second later he was gone. Hot and then cold, over and over.

It can never happen. I had to lean on the dryer now, breathing deeply, feeling the heat. For once my eyes stayed dry.

I had known in my heart there was no chance. Of course there wasn’t. He hadn’t said he did not want to be with me, only that it wasn’t allowed. I tried to cling to that, but I knew I shouldn’t. Whatever the reason, there would never be an “us,” not even in secret, certainly not exclusive, and the sooner I got my head wrapped around that fact, the better.

I piled the clothes into my arms and headed to the room.

Kaidan was watching TV on his bed. He didn’t look at me. I set his clothes on the dresser and packed mine back into my bag.

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