Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Then family members toss dirt on the casket.
Once it’s all done, people begin to slowly, gradually, leave the gravesite. Luna and I aren’t in a hurry to walk out with everyone. We face the polished headstone, and the air is somber and silent as family, friends, and bodyguards all depart for their cars.
Eyes veer back at me, then at Luna. As if we’re a new stain on some royal bedsheets.
My brows knot, my arm snugger around her hips. More territorial than maybe I should be, but after all we’ve been through, I can’t let her go because someone else thinks I should.
That’s just where I’m at.
“You really don’t like each other, do you?” Luna whispers, and I follow her gaze to fucking O’Malley. He’s giving me the stink-eye, and I’m wondering if Luna is recollecting the fistfight between me and him at the bowling alley.
“He’s never been a friend of mine, no,” I mutter. She hasn’t asked me too much about him, but I can see the confusion and interest all over her face now. All the shit he said to her at the bowling alley is fuel beneath my burning skin. How he said I’m lying to her, how I’m manipulating her to be with me. How he said he knows her better than I do.
Her frown deepens. “I wasn’t friends with him?” She’s questioned this before, but I have a feeling she just wants the answer from her past self. It’d be easier if she could consult her diary, but she still hasn’t chosen her “memory guardian” to help with that.
“No,” I say stiffly. “Not that I know of.”
“I just don’t understand why he’s so protective of me.”
It roils my stomach. “Probably ‘cause he thinks I’m a piece of shit who’s capable of…” I grit down on my molars, unable to even say rape. O’Malley accusing me of hurting Luna like that is a festering wound that’ll never fully heal.
Luna wraps both arms around my waist, clinging to me. I hold her against my chest and look down at her. She looks up at me, no questions in her amber eyes this time. “He’s wrong,” she says.
I smile. “Now you’re speaking dirty to me.”
Her lips rise. “Dirty talk is well-taught on my planet.”
“Mine too.” I look her over while she openly checks me out, but her smile vanishes before our talk can edge into something more sexual.
“He should know he’s wrong,” she says quietly, but she sends O’Malley those very words through her pinpointed gaze. I love my space babe.
His eyes flame. I hate my co-worker.
I glare. “Pretty certain he believes I’m the Anti-Christ corrupting you.”
“I think I’m more likely to corrupt you,” she says even more hushed, and when our eyes catch, her cheeks redden. “Just a thought I’ve been having.” It’s the first time post-amnesia she’s concluded that she’s the bad influence. And she adds, “I’m the one who asked you to sneak out with me.”
I warm her cheek with my hand. “You can’t corrupt me, space babe.”
Her lungs expand. “Are you sure?”
Am I sure that she’s not toxic for me? That I’m not toxic for her? That we’re not toxic together? Yeah. Because loving Luna has made me happier than I’ve ever been. On the outside looking in, we might appear like a weird mess, but inside looking out, we’re the rulers of our own universe.
And I don’t care what anyone has to say about us.
Except…maybe her mom.
“I wanted to go out with you,” I assure her. “If you led me to do something I didn’t wanna do…” I would tell you. I hesitate. I know I’m not that great at saying no, but I’ve set boundaries before and I’ve learned to redirect her instead of outright deny her. “…I’d guide us elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere,” she says softly, and her smile reignites. I fall into the brightness of it. “We balance each other out?” It’s a question that I’d rather be a fact.
“Yeah. We do.” I pinch the green kyber crystal around her neck. The balance of the Force. It’s within all living things. “I’ve never feared being pulled to the dark side when I’m with you, Luna. If anyone was going to corrupt me, it would’ve never been you.”
Her smile grows tenfold. “We are Jedi together.”
“Are you my master or my apprentice?”
“Master.”
I grin. “Knew you were teaching me the ways, all this time.” I pull her closer and plant a kiss against her cheek, then I nip her earlobe.
She melts against my side, her smile unrestrained, but when she takes a second glance at O’Malley, I’d love nothing more than to chuck him into a black hole inside her galaxy, so he ceases to exist.
Luckily for me, his back is turned to us, but I watch him lead Beckett Cobalt to a vehicle.
Beckett.
I thought I dreamed up the text thread between us, but I double-checked and I’m not delusional. He did text me a heads-up before the funeral. So I wasn’t shell-shocked that the entire family knew Lily walked in on Luna and me.