Page 54 of Light the Fire

“He’s an asshole, but he doesn’t lie.” Rix sat down beside me on the bed, close enough that our thighs touched. He reached over and gently tucked a strand of wayward hair behind my ear, but he didn’t pull his hand away. His fingers lingered and cupped my jaw. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Cat. We all know it. We all see it.” His thumb stroked my cheek, and I leaned into his touch and, my eyes fluttered closed.

“Rix?”

“Hmm?”

“I hate being so … naive. So unaware of what is out there and how the world works.” I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me with something so deep swirling in his soft brown irises, it made my chest tighten and my body explode with heat. “Will you help me?”

“I thought I was. We’re helping you compartmentalize. Teaching you not to poison yourself with death cap mushrooms and—”

“I mean withotherthings.”

His eyes flared. “Meaning?”

I licked my lips, took his hand that was cupping my face, and brought it to the top of my pants. “I want to know what it feels like … all the things you guys have described. Zane was going to show me, but then we were interrupted by the chopper and—”

“Zane was going to show you?” he asked, a sharp edge to his tone. It was dark outside now, and light from the half-moon outside leaked into the bunk through the porthole window, staining Rix’s face with silver, highlighting the rugged shape of his jaw and the darkness of the stubble that traced his skin. My breath snagged at how utterly beautiful he was and how badly I wanted to just push his hand beneath the waistband of my pants and have him show me all that he’d learned at the compound in Sector Eight.

But the stormy expression on his face said that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. He pulled his hand away and stood up from the bed.

“Excuse me,” he said, stalking out of the bunk and through the boat, to climb the ladder and disappear. A second later, I heard the distinct sound of a fist meeting a face, followed by a groan.