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Javier did have a point though Once he ca one but Caod – I decided to take everything out of anizing If we ever did return to America, I’d have to choose a new life to live, a new person to beco about it

Maybe, justti take stuff into s of license plates, boxes of falsified papers, IDs, checks This new life felt entirely dependent on one thing

Him

The motel room was a lot nicer than the one we stayed at before Sort of a Best Western, eckos on the wall Shit mattresses, I discovered as I pounded my fist on the bed, but I didn’t care

Camden had just put the final box on -induced euphoria, when I noticed Javier lingering at the doorway

"I’ Doh tiet ready?"

I frowned and he quickly added, "You know he’ll want you there, if this is going to get anywhere I figured you ht want to shower and look nice"

He rapped his fingers along the doorfra else, then he turned and walked off

Caht be kind of drunk, Cah the deternac

"I’ve never felt better," he said, enunciating each word His eyes,blue, even in the pallid light of the hotel roo shivers downwithin, slammed into my head

"Are you okay with that?" he asked

I suppressed the thought, the flare of heat between s, and smiled quickly "Yes, of course"

Meanwhile Violetta’s head flopped to the side, her ar lightly I motioned to her "Do you think it’s safe to leave her here?"

He watched her for a few , "I think she needs to sleep it off" He went and sat down on rabbed ht it into the bathrooriined – with the fli that had been in my trunk was musty and wrinkled, some even dirty I had a packet of unopened (and decidedly unsexy) Hanes underwear, a bra, another pair of jeans, a pair of gladiator sandals that I thought were dressy enough, a pair of Ti boots, a plain white tee shirt, a couple of wife-beaters, a coral-colored blouse, a plaid shirt, and a light blue tank dress that went to the ground I wasn’t exactly known forthe scars onme beauty that I didn’t have before, I didn’t seeup in my old clothes for Javier hadn’t exactly helped either

I slipped on the tank dress, opting to go co, and put on the sandals I looked at ain, I felt like a different person was staring back at me This me, this Ellie, was tired and hardened I rubbed the residue mascara away from under my eyes and applied a new coat My skin was brown from the sun now and I didn’t need much else

When I cahtened up on the bed I felt strangely shy in front of hith ofthe need to say so "I mean, if you can see me, that is"

He bit his lip and stared, a h his eyes, too fast for ht I saw lust in there – maybe that’s what I wanted to see

When he still didn’t say anything, I walked over to the dresser where I had ht at Travis’s and rifled through it for ht, laden with toothrough s I had to focus on, to worry about, fucking is, and yet I needed him to tellto hiet off the bed and walk toward ht with his bones, teased at h to touchfoolish, when he crouched down

"How is , one of the over the cherry blosso co wildly as his fingers ran along the ridges of the ink He touched ently over every vine, leaf and petal, until I had to supress a shaky moan that tried to escape from my lips

"It feels fine," I said softly when I found my voice

"It looks beautiful," he said

"I had a beautiful artist," I told hilowing in his tanned hand, his other one placed fir heat that sunk deep He was looking up at htly

I couldn’t take a second round, rabbed his face, his rough stubble pressing into my palms, and kissed him