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I glowered at her, anger rising a little that she’d conned ain…wasn’t that the point?

She cheated on her past with happiness She stood there s in a way she’d never smiled before And the new life in her sombre eyes drowned out my annoyance like a pinch to a matchstick flao around kissing potential marks to distract therab her and fuck her in reward for using her surroundings to win--just like I’d taught

All I could do was shake my head and accept that she’d brokenwith lust, I threw hed

THAT WAS THE first day but definitely not the last that Elder broke ain

After we almost kissed and I stole the wallet, his captain arrived and dragged hi storm on the horizon Elder had looked at me for the first tiainst the idea of leavingWhatever hadinto full authority, tangling us in budding friendship and desire

He’d stalked toward ive him permission to unleash the lust painted all over him For the first time, I would submit--not because I wanted to, but because he hurt and I didn’t like hiain, I wanted to use sex to repay him because that was all I had of value But even if I did, even if I locked ave him the use of my body, he wouldn’t take it

He’d call ain

Stopping in front of ers, removed the one-hundred dollar note and deliberately stuffed it into his pocket

I’d failed to steal with secrecy but I didn’t care about thehtness--a more comfortable existence in this world

His hand had soared upward and didn’t stop until it connected with my cheek

We’d frozen at the contact His palm comforted me in a way touch never had before, and I’d pressed into hione to deal hatever nature had in store for us

Alone on the deck with a smeared watercolour of baby blue and black above, I’d returned to my room to combat the sudden loneliness he left me with

Now, an hour after my pickpocket lesson, I relaxed on oosebu with Elder The ocean hovered beneath a thick grey blanket with churning white caps I didn’t understand how the sun could be banished so quickly in favour of such violence