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"Lucky I cairl"

I turnedit to the cold linoleuht

That felt like the worst thing about everything that had just happened

I would have hurt her

He tossed Astrid his pocketknife

"Here," he said "Why don’t you cut the booker free while I go let the kids out of the Train?"

I craned o

But he didn’t head for the Train

He headed for the Pharh the ropes, Astrid and I worked on repairing the wall

She and Jake had putcaulk to fill between them and to fill the holes where the rocks had crumbled

It wouldn’t keep anyone out, that was for sure But it would seal the air out

Astrid told ed the body away and then moved the palette loader so that it blocked most of the hole and it wasn’t too visible from outside She told me the palette loader had had its tires stripped off and was just rolling on its wheel rie outside?

Jake had also removed the battery froainst us

I nodded

That was good Whatever We would have to guard the hole, to h…

It was a mess

"We can board it up," Astrid said, as if she was reading ain"

I could hardly look at her

I knew she wanted to talk about Jake’s return but I felt wrung out and miserable

I had killed a man

I had killed a man

And I had nearly hurt Astrid

As for Jake … Well, I was not happy he was back Not at all

It was stupid to even think about my chances with Astrid But with him back, I knew they were down to nil

And did Isound

I looked at her She was grabbing her asped Her eyes ide and crazed--she was in soasping for air

I dragged her away from the wall, back into the store, into the Hoah--that we’d sealed the leak enough I rippedat my hair and skin "The air’s okay"

Astrid took off her ed breath "I’m sorry," she wheezed "I just started to think about Jake and I felt trapped and then I couldn’t breathe--"

"It’s okay," I said And before I’d even opened them for her, Astrid was in my arms

"Oh, Dean," she said, and she looked up at uy for me"

And God help me, I kissed her

Her lips on mine felt first as soft as rose petals Then her lips parted and her ed withI had ever felt

The thing is, it was in ettingstronger inas when I’d been outside, but I could feel the O gaining force Suddenly I felt certain that it was going to win and get me under its control, so I tried to push her away frorabbed ht my face to hers and kissed me

Her hands were all over

Buther Her back, her belly, her breasts

My bloodlust wanted her and her bloodlust wanted me just as bad

So there on the floor of the table linen aisle, we took each other

It was better than anything I had ever felt,inside each other I don’t kno to describe it Or if I even should

We were overcoether

I’m pretty sure Jake saw us

In any case, by the tiot our clothes back on and our ain--he was high<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>