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Stark gave , but I couldn’t figure out what it was for They’d spent every second since I’d openedto tell ed the backpack ontoan actual hug I didn’t kno he found it, or how he kneas mine, but I was so happy he’d instinctively kno ienius

"You kept one of my computers"

I jolted at the dry statement He was back with a black washcloth, a towel, and a bowl of water that had a plu from it He walked carefully across the roo he did was deliberate and careful

"You weren’t supposed to know that" I told hiood idea to keep so on the street

"Why didn’t you pawn it? Why didn’t you take the et yourself a place to stay? Hell, I know you don’t make fake IDs for the Hill kids for free You have the et yourself off the streets, so why don’t you? You can’t tellhomeless" He sounded incredulous and confused I couldn’t blame him Not many people, even people fros were so bad at ho was preferable

"People can find you when you have a fixed address" I set the backpack to the side and held out led noise low in his throat at the sight of the broken, swollen skin but didn’t say anything else "When you have a place, you tend to fill it with stuff, and when it’s tiets in the way I don’t want to be tied down to anyone or anything"

"So, sleeping on the streets is preferable to being tied down?" He wouldn’t understand, even though I could see the wheels in his head turning as he tried

I winced and tried to pull ahen the first sting of the water fell on my wound I blamed it on the pain when I blurted out, "It’s preferable to o back horoaned when he moved onto the other wrist and squeezed entler than a man his size should be able to "And I haven’t always slept on the street At one point, I slept in my car Sometimes, I crash with friends for a few days The Point has a couple of really well-funded woly safe and accessible I don’t like to be predictable, which you very well know That’s why you couldn’t find me when Nassir sent you after me"

He didn’t say anything but his fingers were light and his touch was delicate as he rubbed soainst the torn skin Our eyes met as he dipped the corner of the washcloth into the tepid water and brought it up to my face He swiped it over asp when I felt the rough pad of his thumb trace the daht I ined it, but then hethe tiny dip into ask" His tone was gruff, and his eyes were sharp on lasses Of course, he would ask He needed to understand just as much as I did "Why don’t you want your faerous thue ofway every place his fingers touched I’d never been so aware of each breath I took, each heartbeat that pounded in my ears I’d never been so acutelyevery line of gray and silver striation in his irises, like I was counting each of his dark eyelashes and all the swirls of ink that covered the side of his neck and hollow of his throat My nostrils flared when he leaned even closer, and I was assaulted with the faint hint of his cologne So fresh and clean with a hint of pine It was ly so

He asked about h to act as a bucket of cold water onlibido "Seems odd that a twenty-six-year-old woman should be scared shitless of her family, doesn’t it?"

One of his dark eyebrows lifted and the washcloth made its way down the side of my neck "You don’t look like you’re twenty-six You don’t look a day over eighteen"

I got that a lot It was a e and er than I actually was This benefitedthe runaways go easy on me and made everyone underesti for a groo out of sight easier if I wanted

"Old enough to know better about s up over and over again" His lips twitched in a reluctant grin, and it hed and turned so my back was to him when he asked me to do so Maybe because I didn’t have those intense eyes of his watching ed to choke out, "I was adopted"

The scratch of the washcloth on the back ofas his hand liftedseveral longer strands stuck todaughters in Asian countries is true My parents already had one girl, and when I made an appearance, they decided they were plenty happy with the little girl they already had and didn’t want to bother with another one I ended up in an orphanage for girls outside of Seoul That’s in South Korea"

Stark snorted fro behindhis daross hair "I knohere Seoul is, Noe"

I cleared my throat and crossed my arms over my chest "Yeah, you would Sometimes it feels like there isn’t anywhere else in the world besides the Point Like nothing outside of here is real Anyway, I was adopted by a falish, had never been anywhere besides the orphanage, had never really seen a white person before It was all terrifying I felt like a little doll they dressed up and toted around when they came to Korea to finalize the adoption I cried so hard on the plane to the States I ht were appalled and apologized for , but I could tell they were disappointed I was so sure they were going to turn the plane around and take e was overcrowded and underfunded It hat I knew, and everyone there looked just like I did"

I sighed and closed ood at that I’d like hi to pick chunks of dried blood out of hts June and Bradley They see for another kid for a long tiirl I’n adoptions, but they did and found ood life for a while They didn’t have a ton of ry or cold They put lish, and once I picked that up, it was clear I was pretty gifted They never balked at giving runted behind ainst the base of roan out of me and loosened solehold since I opened " It wasn’t a question He was sive up a sweet deal like that without a very good reason

"Went rong," I snorted and tried to fight back the way those memories made my skin crawl "June and Bradley had a son as four years older than erously behindyet "When I was little, he acted like I didn’t exist Classic only child syndrome He never liked that he had to share his parents, or their tiy, with hts always believed he would grow out of it when he was older He did, but what he grew into was sos up so I could hug them and rest my cheek on my knees "When I started to develop, when I started to look like a girl instead of an androgynous blob, people started tellingI was What they meant was how different I looked with in with, and as I got older, irlfriend and not his sister Itlike he really did own ed to him in some sort of twisted way"