Read Online Wicked Lies: A Dark Mission Novella by Karina Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

Jonas bent over that couch, the skin of his back warm and damp after his shower.
    His cheek pressed to the cushion, fingers tight in the fabric as Danny licked a path down his spine.
    That sweet, angelic voice moaning his name.
    His body clenched, cheeks heating so fast, he half expected to see steam rising from his own skin. Clearing his throat, Danny leaned against the only available counter. He could stay right here. Forever, if he had to. “Good,” he managed. “Thanks. I should be ready to go anytime.”
    Jonas’s lips curved into an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but you’re stuck here until the furor dies down.”
    “Furor?”
    “Your loss won’t go unnoticed. As the only link to the ghost and her rebellion, you’re too important to just let vanish.” He raised the mug to his lips, pursed them and blew.
    A groan fisted in Danny’s chest.
    “Just stay here and get lots of rest. I’ll keep in touch with the right people.” Jonas’s eyes flicked to his. “Relax, kid. You’ll be back to your old life in no time.”
    But as Danny stared into those mottled green eyes, his pulse loud and too fast in his veins, he read the truth. Knew it as obviously as if God himself had sent down a neon sign.
    His old life would never be the same. Not now that he’d met Jonas.
    Son of a bitch.
    J ONAS WAS GOING crazy.
    The safe house was too damned small for the both of them. Everywhere he turned, there was Danny. Four hours of avoiding him wasn’t working. Four hours of concentrating on what minimal information the feeds gave him, four hours of flipping through entertainment garbage, four hours of what scrap amounts of work he could do on his portable—none of it helped.
    He couldn’t avoid the kid any more than he could avoid breathing.
    For the third time in fifteen minutes, Danny sat up, elbowed his pillow to within an inch of submission, and flopped back.
    Jonas glanced over his shoulder, his fingers pausing on the small keyboard in front of him. “You should be sleeping.”
    “I’m beyond ever wanting to sleep again.” Practically a growl.
    Because his eyes were tightly closed, Jonas allowed the helpless smile to pull at his mouth. There was something insidiously charming about Danny Granger. Something that made Jonas want to get up, scoot over, and lean against that couch to stare at the individual lashes fanning his cheeks.
    And that was the dumbest thing he’d ever thought.
    Jerking back around, flinching as the motion twisted pain up his spine, he glared at the monitor and couldn’t remember what he’d been doing. The cursor blinked at him, taunting from the end of a line of code.
    Another frustrated sound, the now-familiar rustle of a pillow shoved into place, and he sighed. It took some effort to get to his feet, but with the help of the small, scarred wood coffee table, he managed. “Okay,” he said, forcing himself to sound as good-natured as he didn’t actually feel. “I’ll make you something to drink.”
    “I don’t want something to drink.” Danny’s eyes opened as Jonas limped by. Pinned on him with bad-tempered annoyance clear in their near-black depths. “I’m going crazy over here.”
    Jonas’s heart leapt into his mouth. Stumbling over nothing on the carpet, his adrenaline levels shot through the roof as his body jerked itself into an awkward kind of balance.
    “Jonas?”
    His head snapped around. Danny hesitated at the end of the couch, his dark eyebrows knotted. Concern?
    Pity.
    He swallowed, teeth gritted, and forced a smile. “Don’t sweat it, kid. You need to stay hydrated.” No problems here. Everything was exactly what it needed to be. In a day, two at the most, Danny wouldn’t need a touchstone anymore.
    And Jonas could be free.
    “Fine.” Not the most gracious of capitulations, but he’d take it. “What about you?”
    “What about me?” He bent, gripping the refrigerator door handle, and fished out one of the energy boosters he’d picked up at the corner store