A Touch Morbid by Leah Clifford Page B

have faith in him.”
    His laugh sent ice down her spine. “You’re better than blind faith. I can help you. Let me take care of you.”
    She kept her head held high, looked him dead in the eye. “Never.”
    “We’ll see about that,” he said, gathering his boots as he opened the door. He blew her a kiss from the threshold.
    “Never,” Kristen whispered to the empty room.

CHAPTER 14

    J udging by the girl scowling on the matching twin bed beside him, Jarrod would be in for a long night. He glanced at the cracked clock radio on the nightstand between them. Three hours ago he’d thumbed the volume all the way down on his phone, turning off even the vibrate. First he’d fix this, get Sullivan through the dose, and then they’d go to Eden. It’d be better to face her wrath than show up with a mortal on Touch.
    It’d been four hours. From what he knew, it should have taken effect by now. The real reason he hadn’t called Eden, he didn’t even want to admit to himself. He wouldn’t screw up again. Not like he had with trusting Libby. If Sullivan was a spy and he brought her to Eden, he’d never forgive himself. He had to be sure.
    He snuck a quick once-over of her.
    “Like what ya see, Tiger?” she asked, her eyes never straying from the television screen.
    He felt himself flush. “You feel anything yet?”
    “Yeah,” she said, rolling over toward him on her pillow. “I feel bored as hell.”
    He crossed his legs Indian style on the bed. Bored wasn’t good. Bored was a first-class ticket to contemplating life, and contemplating life, especially from the few hints he’d picked up from Sullivan about her past, would be a one-way ticket out the window. Quite handy since they were on the goddamned fifth floor. He’d already closed the curtains, unplugged the hair dryer in the bathroom and hid it in the closet, and made her give him her half-full bottle of aspirin.
    “So, we’ll get unbored. What do you do? Like, for fun?”
    She smirked. “I steal Touch from strangers. If it’s a super-stellar night, I somehow end up getting babysat by said stranger in my shitty hotel room.” After clicking through a few more fuzzy channels, she bounded off the other bed. “I can’t sit here all night.”
    “Where are you going?” he asked as she pulled on her coat.
    She reached for his hand like she was going to drag him with her. He had gloves on, not trusting her enough to take them off, but she stopped herself shy and turned away. “Come with me if you want, but I’m going for a walk.”
    He stared at her. “It’s freezing out. And last I checked it was still snowing.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Never mind. Stay here if you’re going to whine.”
    “I’m not whining,” he said. “I’m stating facts.”
    “So am I. It is a fact that you asked me what I like to do.” Her tone shifted, drifting further from sarcasm with each word until it was almost a dreamy slur. “I like to walk. I like snow.”
    “Sullivan?” Jarrod uncrossed his legs, standing. She turned to him, the apples of her cheeks blushed pink. Her eyes danced over his, her smile blossoming so bright it seemed to infuse her whole body instead of staying on her lips.
    “You care what happens to me.” She spun like a ballerina through the center of the room, her gasp full of wonder. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
    Jarrod stalled with a half smile, not sure how to answer. Sullivan twirled away the space between them. Her hand curled across the back of his neck.
    Jarrod didn’t move.
    She mirrored him, holding perfectly still, the grin frozen on her lips—lips close enough to his that he should have been worried, should have been jerking away.
    “You.” Her fingers flexed against his skin, the word a single breathy exhale. “I want to see beautiful things with you.”
    He didn’t say anything. It was like his brain suddenly decided it wanted to opt out of this one. He barely knew the girl, and she was high on Touch. Plus, it wasn’t