Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 7.5) Read Online Free Page B

drive my sisters to the mall.
    “I thought you girls were off at camp.” I say, eyeing Melissa in the back seat like a hawk. After that stunt where she hacked off my sister’s tresses, I’ve been monitoring her in the event she decides to rain down anymore of her homicidal tendencies on us Messengers. Not that she would. She looks rather benign sitting back there with her baseball cap, a smattering of freckles on her nose from the one day the sun decided to show this summer.
    “It was stupid,” Mia is quick to report. “Mom signed us up for an overnight trip to the museum like we’re twelve.”
    “You’re thirteen,” I point out the flaw in her argument.
    “Exactly,” Melissa pipes up from the back. “So where you going to stay?” She twitches her cheek with indifference and looks decidedly like Drake.
    “Mr. Dudley’s. He’s got a spare room—in the stable.” Shit. They are so going to think we’re getting it on.
    “I knew you were getting it on with that teacher!” Mia chirps. She turns and hacks out a laugh with Melissa as they pretend to gag while making disgusting kissing noises.
    “That’s ’cause he’s cute!” Melissa barks, attesting to the fact she’s in possession of some serious overactive hormones.
    “I know, right? He’s like a freak!” Mia shrills.
    No wonder they’re fighting over boys, Marshall has them worked up in a frenzy.
    Well they can’t have him. He’s mine.
    What did I just say?   
    I slide into the curb outside the ice skating rink at the distal end of the mall and they charge out of the Mustang like it were on fire. I listen as they go on and on about Marshall as they charge up the steps. 
    Perfect. They’re both fantastically disgusted and excited beyond reason at the prospect of me “getting it on with that teacher.” And they sure didn’t bother hiding the fact they think Marshall is “cute.” Marshall is a lot of things but cute isn’t one of them—more like smoldering, intoxicatingly good looking, a sexual god of alien descent. 
    The wind picks up as I maneuver down the road to Marshall’s palatial estate.
    Just the thought of shacking up with Marshall is a bit unnerving. Although, if he wanted, he can practically gift me an entire wing. It’s not like we really need to see each other.
    I pull into his driveway and park off to the side. I’d like to surprise him, make it sound like this was his idea in the event he decides to get sexually self-righteous—although, that’s sort of inevitable.  
    I cinch my backpack over my shoulder with my overnight things, as I give a quick brisk knock at the door.
    It takes several minutes before Marshall appears, clean-shaven and vexingly hot.
    “My betrothed.” He waves me in, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He’s still sporting his younger self which ever so slightly freaks me out. “You’ll be staying three days and eleven minutes before you so rudely leave.” A devilish smile rides low on his lips.
    “And you know this because?” Figures, Marshall probably has a crystal ball hidden in his pants—a pair of them. That would explain the oversized bulge, which has distracted many a female student from finishing his mind-numbing exams.
    “It’s true?” He straightens as though he had simply guessed the aforementioned details.
    “No, I’ll be living here until graduation to be exact.” I slump my backpack onto the floor.
    “Do pick it up, dear. I tend to dwell on the tidy side of hygienic living. I’ve a space for you in my chambers. An entire closet has been cleared.” He purrs out that last part as if it were the very nexus of spousal sacrifice.
    “No thanks. I don’t want to sleep in your chambers. I’ll take another bedroom.”
    His lips twitch as he tries to hide a naughty smile. “I’m afraid they’re all indisposed at the moment.” He no sooner gets the words out then a series of doors slam in quick succession.
    “Let me guess, you’re bolting them shut as we