Run (The Tesla Effect #2) Read Online Free

funny.”
    Finn watched her with more interest than he had in a long time, and it made Tesla edgy as she took another step back, maintaining the space between them.
    “Has it occurred to you,” he said, his head tilted just slightly to the side as he considered her, “that those spatial-relationship skills of yours have gotten better—a whole lot better, and all of a sudden?”
    “No,” she said quickly, then changed her strategy. “I don’t know what you mean.” She deliberately avoided his eyes.
    “Yes you do,” he said quietly as he continued to advance. “You know my London trainer medaled in 2004 in Beijing, so I know good when I see it. You took up fencing a couple months ago, and you got the touch on Gregor with a disengage that looked Olympic-quality to me.”
    “No I didn’t.” Tesla’s back was against the wall of lockers now, and she had nowhere else to go. Finn placed one hand against the wall beside her head and leaned in.
    “Yes, you did,” he said again, his eyes on her mouth.
    “Look, I really should go,” she said, her voice maddeningly shaky.
    “What’s the rush, Danger Girl? Aren’t you going to parry?” His voice was pitched low in invitation.
    “Maybe,” she evaded, surprised to hear his nickname for her again. He hadn’t used it since—well, in a while. “I’ve got to consider my options.”
    “Hmm. Too late. I think this touch is mine.” He leaned down toward her until his lower lip brushed across both of hers, just barely.
    “Maybe I threw the match,” Tesla murmured before he pressed in close, the sound of their thick canvas jackets meeting like sails snapping in the wind.
    Tesla could taste the salt on his skin and felt their combined heat from the two hours of fencing. Only a moment ago all she had wanted was a shower, but not anymore. The warmth of the room, the demands of his mouth, that strange pulling sensation she’d first experienced last summer, the bead of sweat she felt trickle down between her shoulder blades, her thigh muscles that trembled from the intense workout suggested something else entirely. She had forgotten this—forgotten the heat, the taste of him—
    Finn put his hands on either side of her face for the briefest of moments—a surprisingly gentle gesture—and then broke away and stepped back, his hands falling reluctantly to his sides. His eyes were intense, molten gold-brown with desire, but when he spoke, it was with a studied nonchalance.
    “Good session,” he said lightly as he gathered his things and headed for the stairs. “You’re formidable, Abbott.”
    What the hell ? Tesla thought when he was gone. I thought he’d decided we were just friends now—he needs to make up his mind. She shoved her jacket into her gym bag with more force than necessary and started for the stairs, remembering only when she was halfway home that despite Finn’s unexpected kiss, and the maelstrom of confusion it had whipped up for her, it was Sam she had a date with that night.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
     
     
     
    “You’re in trouble,” said Max as Tesla walked in the front door. His smirk gave his tousled red hair and wire-framed glasses a more impish look than usual.
    “Why?” Tesla asked her little brother as she put her gym bag down by the door. “What did I do?”
    Max shrugged and returned his attention to the book in his hands. Chaucer, Tesla could see by the gilt letters embossed on the spine. She grinned, despite herself. The little geek .
    “You should have been home an hour ago,” Max said, his eyes on the page.
    “Don’t tell me what to do, Max,” she warned.
    “Dad said it, not me.”
    “Well, you can tell Dad that I have a job, and part of my job is training. Both of which he already knows,” Tesla said, her jaw now tight and uncomfortable. When Aunt Jane had offered her the job back in August her dad had protested at first, but Aunt Jane had gotten him to agree eventually. Tesla hadn’t been privy to their