Page 65 of Vera Stein Is Fine
I forgot my embarrassment for a moment, letting out a sharp guffaw. “Adept, you say?”
He leaned toward me with a dastardly smirk. “Quite.”
The shape his lips took as he spoke was mesmerizing, and I felt like an absolute pervert thinking about the things I would like to do to those lips or see them do to me.
“My eyes are up here, Vera.”
I threw myself back against my pillows. “I didn’t fake it with you, Eli. There. Are you happy?”
“Elated,” he crooned. “Smug, even.”
Everything was too hot. My skin felt like it was two sizes smaller than my body and even the soles of my feet ached. “Can you just leave so we can pretend this never happened?”
“That depends,” he said. “Is it going to be awkward now?”
“Well, if you won’t shut up, then I’ll have no other choice than for it to be awkward.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I don’t want it to be.”
“Good,” I said, willing myself to believe him because I certainly didn’t believe in my own ability to be at ease. “Fine.”
“Fine,” he echoed. “I better get ready for work.”
Fuck.
Work.
I had literally forgotten that time outside of this room even existed.
“I’ll be quick,” he said as he got up and strode out of the room. “Then the bathroom is all yours.”
“Thanks,” I told him, and finally pulled the blankets back over me as he stood up and began to walk away.
“My pleasure.”
I waited until he had crossed the threshold of my doorway before I decided to torture him with a fraction of what he’d just put me through.
“Eli?”
He paused, his hand gripping the top of the doorframe. “Yes, love.”
Oh god, the core temperature of my body could not currently handle a pet name, but somehow, I found it in me to push past the horny desperation raging inside of me. “I’m more of an evening girl. Helps me fall asleep.”
He froze for a moment, eyes wide and unsated, and then a placid doctor persona smoothed over his features. “I’ll take that under consideration.”
I listened as he walked down the hall and his door clicked shut. The moment he was out of earshot, I threw the blankets over my head again and let out a muffled scream into my pillow.
ELIAS BUCKLEY
SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO
PUBLIC DISTURBANCE
Vera marched with purpose into the casino. She wove through slot machines and poker tables, like she knew just what she was looking for.
Brody skipped behind her looking like some sort of disturbed sidekick.
Then she stopped abruptly and took a few deep breaths before turning back to us. “Be ready to run.”
