“Thanks,” I say to Kellan, because he did sort of save me from falling over. “Where’s Gil?”
I get a crooked smile. “Breakfast bar.” He goes back to watching the goldminers.
When I rush into the kitchen, I find both O and Gil there. O actually seems to be done with work, and when I look outside, I figure it’s later than I thought. Gil has his back to me, having a conversation about some kind of car with O. This won’t do, I’ve got more pressing matters than boy talk about cars.
I put a hand on his shoulder, making him look at me. I probably look like some deranged cave woman, because I’m a bit frantic. “Get me book two, now.”
Gil roars with laughter. “That good, huh?”
“Please stop teasing me, and get it for me,” I stick my e-reader into his direction and my hand is slightly trembling.
“What have you done to her?” O asks, curiously.
“Gave her a book rec,” Gil answers as he starts tapping on my e-reader. “It’s bought and ready for you to read. Now, fair warning, the ending of part two is way more brutal than this one.”
“Why? Why are you doing this to me? Is this the sadistic part of your BDSM persona?”
Both boys laugh as I try to grab my e-reader that Gil is sticking out to me. “Wait,” O says before I can take it.
“You’d better have a damn good reason to not let me grab that book,” I snap at him.
“What if instead of disappearing in a world of books, I take you out into the real world for a bit? Let me distract you with something real instead of something fictional.” That’s probably some kind of sneer, but I’m so sick of being stuck at home that I let him get away with it.
“What are we doing?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“I hate surprises.”
“You’ll like this one,” he says, and his hazel eyes have me hypnotized. My arm is still outstretched, waiting to grab my book again, but curiosity gets the better of me and I let it fall down.
“Okay,” I admit. “But this better be a good surprise.”
His eyes get an evil gleam. Whoo boy.
We end up two towns over in a fancy lingerie store. I’ve never been here, because it’s nuts to spend so much money on something that’ll get hidden beneath my clothes most of the time. I’m holding one of the price tags in my hand for a tiny scrap of lace that costs more than it reasonably should, so I quickly let it drop again. Just holding it like that feels too expensive.
“What are we doing here?” I ask O. I’ve nagged him the whole way over here to tell me what we were going to do, but he just gave me the silent treatment, turning up the music every time I asked. It was actually really loud by the time we got here.
“Shopping,” he answers.
“Uh, no way, this is way above my budget.”
He holds up a black lace bra, feeling the fabric before showing it to me. “Do you like this?”
My eyes flick to the bra. It’s exquisite, and I look awesome in black as well. “It’s gorgeous, but way above my budget. I just told you that.”
He ignores me again and bends over to get a matching hipster and thong.
“What colors do you like?” he asks me as he starts walking through the isles filled with underwear. Pretty, pretty underwear.
“Green,” I answer petulantly. “And I like it to stay in my bank.”
“Fine, then I’ll just pick which colors I like. Won’t be green though, I don’t think green goes that well with your hair. Navy would be better.”
He walks through the isles, grabbing lingerie left, right and center. I keep my mouth shut. I’m not buying all that underwear. I don’t need it and I can’t afford it. I especially have no need for bustiers or hold up stockings.
When he’s grabbed a substantial pile, he shoos me to make way and walks to the dressing rooms, where he hangs all the sets he picked out.