One More Day Read Online Free Page B

Connor as he stepped further out of the shadows.
    “For the moment,” he said. “Did you miss me?”
    I shrugged, relieved that he couldn’t see my face. “Maybe.”
    “Maybe, huh?”
    “Maybe,” I repeated.
    “You were good and pissed when I talked to you yesterday,” he said.
    “Well, that’s because you were an asshole when I talked to you yesterday.” I crossed my arms, and he stepped closer.
    “Maybe I was.”
    “Hm.”
    He took another step toward me. “Since you’re bein’ a coy little thing, I’ll say it: I missed you. Even if you are mad at me.”
    “I’m mad at you because you were talking stupid yesterday. And because as far as I knew, you forgot I even existed.”
    He reached out and put his hand on my hip and drew me closer to him. “It’s impossible for me to forget that you exist. And as for talking stupid, all I can do is blame the fact that I missed you and I hated that he gets to spend every day with you and I can’t.”
    “You could have come back to see me. Alpha isn’t a problem anymore,” I said softly, feeling myself melt a little bit.
    “I know. I realized that soon after I visited you that day.”
    “Then why didn’t you come back?”
    He shrugged. “Something came up. And you were busy, as well.”
    “I’m not the only one,” I said. “CNN’s been all over you. They love it when you turn up somewhere.”
    He shook his head.
    “That fight in Britain was something else,” I said, looking up at him. “Six of those Wrecker assholes?”
    He stepped a tiny bit closer to me, the fronts of his thighs coming into contact with my legs. “Pretty sure it was eight,” he said.
    “CNN said six.”
    “And how accurate are they, usually?” he asked, and I could hear the humor in his voice. “How many of your captures have they reported as being a team effort?”
    “They were a team effort.”
    “Sure they were. You did all of the ass-kicking, and then your team comes in and cleans it up when you’re done.” There was something in his voice, the slightest hint of anger that made my spine tingle, just a little. “Well, yeah,” I said. “Like I said, a team effort.”
    “You need to stop telling them to hang back. All of them.”
    I looked up at him in surprise. “How did you know I tell them that?”
    “Because that’s how you are. You’ll take the hits to keep them safe, and you’re too stubborn to listen when they argue with you.”
    “It has nothing to do with keeping them safe,” I insisted, stepping back and crossing my arms.
    “No?”
    “No. I’m trying to get back in fighting form. I’m still too damn slow. All I can do is charge and hope I knock them out with the impact. Still can’t punch worth a shit, and kicking is even more pathetic. And to do it the way I have to, I need room and to not have to worry that one of them is in the damn way.”
    He stepped close again, raised his hands to my shoulders. His fingers brushed against my neck and I flinched back, remembering, in that one brief touch, the feel of Maddoc’s hands wrapped around my throat as I struggled to breathe, as my heart began to give out on me, as the world went black. I shivered, hating myself for being so stupidly weak.
    “Sorry,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.” He rested his face against the top of my head.
    “It’s okay,” I said. After a moment, I uncrossed my arms and leaned into him, resting my hands at his hips. “I do that every time someone touches my neck now. Jenson was trying to put this necklace my mom bought for me on, and I completely fucking freaked out,” I said angrily.
    He snaked his arms around my body and drew me close, and I held him as well. We must have been an interesting sight, him in his black body armor, me in my StrikeForce uniform, holding one another in the pouring rain.
    “We should get out of the rain,” he said.
    I thought for a second, running through the options in my head. I still had the crappy apartment I’d rented after Mama