Author: Zoe Chant
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/36647_9
“You wouldn’t.”
“Sure I would,” Hal replied as he led her to an elevator. “When I got through SERE training, I was so exhausted, I slept for three days straight. That’s Survival, Evasion—”
“Resistance and Escape,” Ellie finished, then grinned at his startled look. “My brother Ethan is a Recon Marine. But he wouldn’t tell me anything about SERE training, except that they teach you to resist torture and live off the land. He said he ate a bug at one point, but I’m not sure if that was part of the wilderness survival or part of the torture.”
Hal laughed. “Wilderness survival. Probably. Where’s your brother now?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere classified. I guess it’s just as well. It would drive him crazy knowing that I’m in danger and he can’t protect me. Hopefully it’ll all be over by the time we can get in touch.”
Whispers: Interactive StoriesMake your own choices and decide what happens next!
They got into the elevator. Instead of buttons, it had a code pad. Hal punched in another code, and the doors slid shut.
“You weren’t kidding when you said your building was secure,” Ellie remarked.
“Yeah. It’s completely safe. You can stay as long as you like, you know. You could stay till the trial’s over.”
It was a ridiculously generous offer. “I can’t just invade your home for who knows how long— months, maybe!”
“Sure you can.” Hal’s intense gaze dropped, and he actually shuffled his feet. For the first time since she had met him, he seemed awkward and uncertain of himself. “I mean— it would be more convenient for me, if you lived with me instead of me living with you. Since we’re going to be joined at the hip anyway.”
The elevator stopped. Ellie started to step forward as the door slid open, but Hal put out a hand to stop her, scanning the corridor until, she supposed, he was satisfied that there were no lurking hit men.
“Okay, clear.” He led her to his door.
As he punched in yet another code to open his apartment, the reality of the situation sank in for Ellie. He was going to be living at her house! For months, probably. His guys were probably inspecting her home right now. She wished she’d made the bed and washed the dirty dishes from last night’s dinner. Her face heated again as she realized that she couldn’t go in alone and clean it up before Hal saw it.
Not to mention that she didn’t have a spare room. Where would Hal sleep? Her sofa was more like a loveseat. He was way too tall to stretch out on it. But they could hardly share the bed.
A wash of heat surged through her at the thought of them doing exactly that. She could just imagine cuddling up next to Hal’s naked body. It would be even better than cuddling up against him clothed, like she was practically doing right now.
Hal opened the door for her and led her inside. “Home sweet home.”
She looked around the apartment. After all the security and coded touchpads, she’d expected something sterile and sleek, filled with high-tech gadgets and hard, uncomfortable furniture, with the homiest touch consisting of a rack of guns. Instead, it really did radiate home sweet home.
The brown leather sofa and armchairs wer
e worn and softened by use, and the moss-colored carpet was soft and thick beneath her feet. The brown-and-green color scheme made the apartment seem like it was part of a forest. A cozy forest. Bookcases filled with beat-up paperbacks lined the walls, along with pictures of people and huge trees. There was no television.
Hal apparently hadn’t been expecting visitors either. The counters of the open kitchen were cluttered, there were books piled on the sofa, and a pair of boots lay in the middle of the floor. But the lack of spick-and-span neatness only made his apartment seem lived-in and welcoming. If it had been perfectly tidy, Ellie would have been afraid to sit down in case she wrinkled the sofa.
“Sorry about the mess.” Hal hastily kicked the boots under the sofa.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ellie replied. “Now I’m less embarrassed about you seeing the mess at my place.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad. Anyway, I don’t have a leg to stand on.” He made a grab for the books on the sofa, but Ellie got to them first. She was curious about what he liked to read.
The first one was about what she’d have expected, a Dick Francis thriller called Odds Against. It didn’t surprise her a bit that Hal would like reading about tough guys fighting against the odds.
The second one, Code Name Verity, was also unsurprising at first glance: a historical adventure about a British spy captured by Nazis. Then Ellie read more of the back cover. She could hear the surprise in her own voice as she read aloud, “‘An exciting and moving tale of female power and female friendship?’”
Hal’s eyebrows lifted. “What, you think I wouldn’t read a great adventure story just because it’s about women?”
“Lots of men wouldn’t,” Ellie pointed out.
The same men who don’t give me or Catalina half the respect they’d give a male paramedic, she thought. The same men who would never date a woman with a dangerous job.
“I’m not lots of men,” replied Hal.
His tone conveyed more meaning than his simple words, as if he’d read her mind: I’m not one of those assholes.