Read Online Genesis Girl by Jennifer Bardsley - Free Book Online

Seth’s arm, and we link fingertips. “So what was it like growing up in McNeal Manor?”
    “Ordinary,” Seth answers.
    Like I’m supposed to understand what “ordinary” means. But it’s a good opportunity to keep Seth talking.
    “From those pictures it seems like you had the perfect family,” I say.
    “Until he ruined it.”
    “But you’re better than that,” I whisper. “You’re a man who moves on, who fights for the truth.” I lean in for a kiss.
    I never thought I’d be this involved with a Virus. Seth slides his hand down my back and pulls me snugly against his body. I let him, because that might be what it takes to hook him.
    But first I need to get Seth talking. He needs to remember the good things about Cal and start thinking about making things right, all on his own.
    I put some space between us by tracing one of his tattoos. “What’s this one for?” I touch a Celtic knot.
    “Family trip to Scotland when I was fifteen.” Seth breathes hard. “I snuck out when my parents were at a pub. Boy, did my mom roar when I came back after midnight. You should have heard her.” Seth smiles a bit, but then the happiness fades from his expression. “That was our last big trip together before her diagnosis.”
    I slide my gaze down his chest. Another tattoo peeks out from under Seth’s shirt.
    “What’s this one?” I point to something that looks Egyptian. “Is that … is that an aardvark?” I’ll never understand tattoos, ever. Blank skin makes me feel safe from bad decisions. Why would Seth want to spend the next eighty years with an aardvark?
    But Seth’s not embarrassed at all. He pulls his shirt off so I can see it better—or maybe to see him better. And I have to admit, Seth has a fine physique to display. “That’s the Egyptian god Seth. He’s always shown with the head of an animal.”
    “So you think you’re a god, do you?” I say, teasing. I rub my hands across a wall of pectoral muscles and ignore the fluttering in my stomach.
    “What do you think?”
    My hands freeze. “I think you took a totally perfect body and ruined it with tattoos,” I answer truthfully.
    “Everyone gets tattoos, Blanca. Blank skin is really alternative.”
    “That’s not true!” I say. “Your dad doesn’t have any.”
    Seth hoots. “Whoa! Well that answers that question once and for all.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “My dad does too have a tattoo. But it’s not someplace people can normally see. It’s practically the only part of him that wasn’t visible in that video.”
    I feel my cheeks burn. Cal’s surreptitious tattoo is not something I want to know about.
    “Don’t you want to know what it is?”
    “No,” I say. “I’d rather not.” Of course, as soon as I say that I immediately begin wondering. It’s like something you wish you could un-know.
    “My mom had the same one.” Seth nibbles behind my ears, trying to pique my interest. When I lay my head on his chest and don’t respond, he kisses my hair. “What do Vestals have against tattoos anyway?”
    “They’re inauthentic,” I say. “They get in the way of who you really are. When people see you, they don’t see you anymore. All they see are your tattoos.”
    “But my tattoos are exactly who I am. Every last one!”
    “Truly?” I lift my head. “There aren’t any you regret? Not even this one?” I tap an elaborate angel, right next to a sun, on his inside biceps.
    “I got that one when my mom died,” Seth murmurs. He wants me to feel pity, I know it. But I’m tougher than that.
    “What about this one?” I point to a scribble on his abdomen. “Who’s Tiffany?”
    “First girl I ever, you know … ” Seth grins. He rubs his hand down the pristine skin of my arm.
    I smile like I think it’s funny. “I hope you’re not expecting to tattoo myname on your butt any time soon.”
    “Maybe not today, but the future is ripe with possibility.” Seth leaves the unspoken question hanging in the air.