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But Rosie was a brat

“You don’t have anything fro the records back on the shelf and ht source on the jammer

He was chehen she turned He didn’t hurry to respond Took his ti her playact a squir froood”

“We have to let the notion that we’reis corruption Everything in front of us is fresh and new”

“But you kept these Aren’t they corruption as well?”

He sighed and put his silverware down “I’ back is profoundly bad for us, I soer than you did I know more of its pleasures and more of its pain”

Oh, he was good Showing vulnerability Pulling e her to comfort him Nicely done but no dice

She leaned on the shelf “You don’t have any Michael Jackson or Madonna or Rihanna I can live without Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, but no Pink, no Adele, no Beyoncé?”

He didn’t react, other than to pick up his fork He must want to paddle her for that slap in the face of his manipulation He had those records because they were valuable, just like he’d kept everything valuable everyone living here had given up

“Any chance I could have just one piece of my tech back?”

He broke a hunk of bread off a crunchy dinner roll The sound of it tearing wasin the silence She let it drift and his scrutiny of her intensified He was undressing her Touring her body, inch by inch, planning where to put his hands, how to hold andwhat her skin tasted like

When a lover did this it was thrilling, a burner lit under a well of desire When a predator did it, it was like being loofahed with poison ivy It scratched you so deeply inside you kneould take a long time for the itch to protect yourself to wear off

Orrin doing it was a confusing stir of feelings It made Rory want to call him out Leap onto the table and kick him in the throat, stab his hand with his fork And it e that rose because her body reacted, her nipples tightening, her insides fluttering She couldn’t have stopped her blush if she’d tried, it was the outward effect of her inner battle

At last, he got up fro a key fro another lover until I say you can”

“You can’t—”