Cheating Time by T. R. Graves Read Free Book Online

it, did you?"
I snapped, color draining from my face.
    "That wouldn't have been the gentlemanly
thing to do. Now would it?" Jayden teased.
    I refused to look up at him, but the smirk
in his voice was unmistakable. His mischievousness had always been
relentless. All I could do at that moment was hope and pray his
taunts were nothing more than his attempts at rekindling our
bickering… that he'd not gone through the backpack and found proof
that I'd missed him terribly.
    I decided the only way to stop this line of
bluffing was hard and fast. "Then you'll know the backpack is
filled with pads and tampons. I'm going to need them since I'm
about to start," I replied with a haughtiness that didn't come
naturally to me.
    The bands holding Jayden's smug grin in
place snapped. His face fell and his cheeks turned pink. He'd
definitely not expected that.
    That'll teach
you.
    Deciding not to dwell anymore on what was or
was not in my backpack, I took off running, dashing past Jayden and
toward the barn that was about a mile away from where we stood. By
the time I'd gone a few dozen feet, he caught up to me, slowing his
pace so we could run together.
    "You don't have to wait on me," I spat,
nodding my forehead in the direction he could run while I followed
behind him.
    I knew he'd recovered from the zinger I'd
gotten in on him when he said, "Do you exercise at all? It never
occurred to me that I could walk faster than you could run. It
looks like I'll be getting those back rubs after all."
    The fact that he wasn't even winded reminded
me that Surrogates could run for miles before their bodies showed
even the first sign of stress.
    Again, I rolled my eyes. " I can't help it
if your legs are freakishly long and mine aren't. I run five miles
every day. I'm faster and stronger than I was the day you let us
leave without you. You'll be reading Tawney's book to me. I won't
be giving you back rubs. That much I can promise you," I swore.
    Jayden chuckled. "Now that I can see them, I
have to agree. Your legs are pretty short. Do you want me to carry
you like I offered earlier? We'd get to the barn quicker."
    "Only if you're up for a throat punch," I
murmured, biting back the rest of the hateful words I wanted to
fling out at him.
    He's a bigger ass than I
remember.
    He laughed again. This time, it was louder
and more sincere. "So you do remember some of the things I taught
you… just not the importance of running every day and keeping up
your stamina."
    "Yes, asshat. I remember perfectly the day
you told me the only way a five-and-a-half-foot girl would ever get
in the first hit on a six-foot trained soldier would be to land a
throat punch and run," I snapped. "And I'm completely prepared to
test your theory."
    Squabbling with Jayden brought to light for
me the reality that he really was back with me, that he was fine.
The relief hit me with an abruptness so unexpected that I couldn't
put one more foot in front of another. I came to an immediate stop,
and like before, it took Jayden a second or two to realize I was no
longer running beside him. When he cursed and turned back, I wished
I'd never stopped.
    Because we were no longer hidden within the
shadows of darkness, this was the first time in months we'd come
face to face with each other, that we'd really, truly seen the
other without the filter of shades and shadows. At the sight of him
and his magnificence, I took a long, loud gulp.
    Jesus! I forgot how
beautiful he is.
    He may still be an ass, but I'm not sure
there'd ever been a more perfect Surrogate Soldier created within
Aspect's labs. Like me, he used the light from the moon and his
unnatural green eyes—the most distinguishing feature of a Surrogate
Soldier—to size me up. His Adam's apple moved up and down with his
own gulp.
    Finally, he broke the silence. "What the
hell are you doing? Do you think this is a joke?" he growled
hoarsely with little sprays of his spit sprinkling my forehead.
    In any other situation, I'd have made a