Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

was a battle, she realized fairly quickly, that she couldn’t win. She was too upset, in too much turmoil. She’d crossed the boundary of self-control. All she could hope for was to keep from spiraling completely out of control. A knot the size of her fist seemed to have formed in her throat. She swallowed convulsively a couple of times and finally cleared her throat, trying to dislodge it so she could speak. “I should be getting back,” she said shakily. “I was … I was just going to deliver some treats anyway.

I’m sure I’m in the way and I really need to get back.”

“I took the paddler back to your place,” Ian said.

Anna sent him a look of dismay.

“I’ll take her,” Simon said, his voice sounding strange even to her in her current state.

“No!” She hadn’t meant to shout, but she was desperate to escape him. She knew she couldn’t hang on to her self-control long enough to get back. All she wanted was to get out of the sub as fast as she could. “I can swim. It isn’t that far.”

Ian set his food aside. “I’ll take her.”

She wanted to argue with him, as well, but as desperate as she was to be alone, she really didn’t think she could swim so far without help. Fortunately, he took control and ushered her into the tube. He didn’t try to kiss her again, thankfully. She pushed free of him as soon they surfaced and struck off toward the city.

He didn’t try to stop her or to help until she’d thoroughly exhausted herself and paused to tread water and catch her breath. He caught her against his side then and carried her the remainder of the way, helping her onto the edge of the platform. It took all she could do to gain her feet. She didn’t thank him or even look back, although it rattled through her mind that she should have, that she should have mouthed all sorts of polite platitudes, to try to save face if nothing else and salve her wounded pride.

It was a relief to get back inside her home, her safe harbor. Shivering from the cold, she pushed away from the door and locked it and then rushed around her house checking it a little mindlessly to assure herself she was alone. She almost made it to her room before she broke down. She’d thought she’d actually mastered the urge, but it crashed back over her unexpectedly, drawing a harsh sob from her that hurt her throat.

She clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to stem the tide but it was hopeless at that point. She was sobbing so hard by the time she reached her bathroom and closed the door that she could hardly catch her breath. The hot water in her shower chased the chill from her fairly quickly, but it took a lot longer to calm her.

She was so exhausted by the time she got out of the shower, she could hardly stand long enough to dry off. Dragging herself to the bed, thankfully too exhausted even to think anymore, she collapsed face first on the mattress, dropping to sleep almost instantly.

* * * *

Ian was still so furious when he got back to the sub that he debated whether he should actually go inside. He was sorry when he did. Anna’s wracking sobs filled the small area, making his gut clench and the anger he thought he’d gotten under control flare up all over again. Balling his fist, he slugged Simon in the jaw even as he turned from the porthole he’d been staring out.

Either it didn’t catch him by complete surprise, or the swim to and from Anna’s had tired him more than he’d thought it had. The blow whipped Simon’s head around, but he didn’t budge otherwise.

Simon turned to scowl at him. “I suppose I deserved that, but one shot is all you get,” he growled.

“One was all I needed,” Ian said tightly, turning away and stalking toward the chair he’d vacated earlier.

Simon studied him angrily for a few moments after he’d flung himself into the chair and finally moved to another seat and sprawled in it, testing his jaw surreptitiously with one hand. The pain wasn’t altogether a bad thing. It gave him something to focus on. By the time he’d checked his loosened teeth and the cut on the inside of his mouth from his teeth, and the throbbing from his chin all the way up to his temple had subsided, Anna had stopped crying.

“I just want to know one thing,” Ian growled after a while. “Why did you do it?”

Simon felt his face heating. “Want with one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first!” he snarled. “It’s none of your god damned business.”

“It is when it affects me—otherwise I don’t give a fuck! Why did you even bother to tell me you wanted in if you were going to … humiliate her like that?”

“I wasn’t trying to embarrass her!” Simon snarled.

“Well, what the fuck were you trying to do?”

If he knew that he wouldn’t be feeling like hell right now, Simon thought angrily!

“I don’t know,” he muttered, then added lamely, “I guess I just wanted to know if she hates mutants.”

“I’m betting she does now!” Ian growled. “One of them, anyway!”

Simon swallowed a little sickly. He wouldn’t be surprised. He supposed he deserved it, too. He honestly didn’t know what the fuck had been going through his head … except that he’d more than half expected, regardless of what Caleb had said, that she would show her true feelings the moment he got too close.