Chapter 20
“JUNO” BY SAbrINA CARPENTER
True corruption began with a subtle, and minorly invasive, procedure to convince someone what they were feeling was true, or not, with the intentions of strengthening the morals of our dark father. Not my papa. No, he was more of a devil type and less of the true power.
I’d been trapped in a cycle, trying to figure out how I was going to handle the Spy Kid Execution before Valentine’s Day. It was mid-October now, and I felt like I stared at the calendar, counting down the days, more than I was taking this seriously.
Mustang had a routine. I didn’t need to be like all these other men, depending on a tracker to know my target.
She was brilliant about keeping herself together.
Quinntessa ran when she was stressed, read when she wanted a break, and went to the coffee shop so she wasn’t alone in that big empty manor while her father worked.
So, when something suddenly changed, it was the perfect opportunity for me to wiggle my way into her life.
Quinntessa was standing in the middle of the ice cream place downtown. She looked like she had run there, her face glistening with sweat. Her joggers complimented her legs so perfectly.
She looked over her shoulder with raised brows when the door jingled upon my entrance.
“What? Surprised to see me?” I asked.
“No, no.” Quinntessa turned back to the glass and bit back a smile. “I thought I smelled someone’s ego.”
“Wooow.” I turned and leaned my back against the display case with a playful smirk. “And here I was, ready to tell you how beautiful you look today.”
“I never said you couldn’t.” Quinntessa cheekily grinned, brushing the loose hair framing her face behind her ear. “I just didn’t expect you to like ice cream. You look like some veggie junkie.”
“Junkie maybe.” I laughed. “A junkie for hot girls with thick thighs and pretty smiles.”
“You’re so full of it,” she muttered, shaking her head and pretending to look at the flavors in the opposite direction to put distance between us.
I glided down the display case slowly as she examined every flavor. I took my time taking in every feature I could, biting back a moan when she dropped her card and kneeled to get it.
Attraction was such a dangerous thing. I knew I needed to do something with her, but the questions were, what?
How could I get rid of my problem without whining about losing someone like this in my life?
We weren’t friends. We weren’t hooking up.
It should have been easy to work past this attraction.
And attraction was only that: something I liked to look at. That was all. I’d find something new I enjoyed indulging myself in once I accepted she was gone.
Quinntessa stood, and the same moment, I stepped forward. She paused, her eyes widening slightly at our proximity.
I was finally close enough to see every freckle on her face. The heart drawn beside her eye was lightly faded, and the gold laced through her honey eyes left my head spinning.
My combat boot slid forward. I fought the urge to pin her to the cabinet and take what I wanted from her.
What did I want from her? Her body or her life? Her heart or her soul? Those were questions I’d yet to come to terms with.
“What kind of ice cream do you like?” I breathed out, keeping my eyes off the way sweat glistened over her collarbones. “I’ll buy.”
“No thanks.” Quinntessa stepped around me.
“What? It’s free ice cream!” I rounded around to follow her.
“I doubt anything coming from you—” I froze when Quinntessa’s finger jabbed my stomach, “is free.”
“Now why on Earth would you say that?” I playfully batted my lashes with a pout. “Can’t I buy my friend a cone?”
“We’re not friends,” she scoffed.
“I think we are.”
“I think you’re delusional.”
“And I think you’re punch-me-in-the-face beautiful, but we all can’t be dreamers you’d actually do it.” I arched a brow and waited for Quinntessa to give into my advances. Everyone gave in, usually much sooner than this.
She was a stubborn one.
“I’m not into it.” Quinntessa shook her head and shot me a scowl. “I just want to enjoy my ice cream without being showered in compliments until I agree to do something you want. You don’t care about anything past the shell you can touch and stare at—I’m no Barbie princess.”
I leaned my head back and muffled a groan when she walked up to the cashier and pointed out the ice cream she wanted. I quirked a brow in surprise when she accepted the cotton candy flavor in a classic cone.
“I took you as more of a chocolate and peanut butter kind of girl,” I confessed.
“I usually like cookies and cream.” Quinntessa paused, blushing. “But, uh, I read something somewhere and I need to divorce it for a while until I forget it.”
“Oh.” She stared at me like she wanted me to understand something I didn’t. “What did it say about the flavor? Is there something wrong with the ingredients?”
Her eyes juggled her amusement. “Sorta.”
“I take it you’re not going to tell me?” I rolled my eyes. “Way to keep a girl wondering.”
“It’s just a book thing. If you don’t get it, I’m not explaining it.” Quinntessa shrugged and turned to the exit. “I should go. I have to walk home before it gets dark.”
I jumped at the chance to spend a second longer with her.
“Let me walk with you!” I shouted way too loudly after her in this closed space. My face flushed when she eyed me skeptically, a bit embarrassed by my eagerness, if I was being honest. “I just—you’re right. It’s getting late and no one should be out alone in the dark. It’s dangerous.”
“In this small town?” Quinntessa scoffed. “I’m more concerned you’re a serial killer than anyone else here. You look the type.”
My heart fluttered. It wasn’t a compliment, but it sure felt like it.
“Not everything is what it seems, Mustang.” I winked at her irritation, enjoying the way her jaw ticked. “Let me walk you.”
I stepped forward, expecting her to give in like any normal human being. Instead of Quinntessa blushing and treating me like the knight escorting her home, she laughed and walked out the ice cream parlor.
“I’m good, but thanks. I don’t need anyone to protect me from the scary crickets in Coven.” She licked her ice cream with a sheepish shrug before disappearing out the doorway.
I cocked a brow at her words. She took another glance back at me as she walked down the sidewalk past the parlor’s windows, her chest vibrating lightly with laughter, no doubt at my dumbfounded look.
“What the fuck?” I asked myself.
She was so fucking stubborn. I’d have to find a different way to get into her world.