Run (The Tesla Effect #2) by Julie Drew Read Free Book Online

have been there, of course. She’d told him she was seeing Sam, and he either should have waited to talk to her tomorrow, or been prepared for the sight of…well, of that . Finn told himself he hadn’t been spying, not really, he’d been waiting for Sam to pack it in, for Tesla to finally be alone so he could talk to her, tell her about this thing, this entanglement of theirs. It was too important to wait, right? Of course it was. Despite what she’d said, she and Sam weren’t together, not really—how could they be? Sam was such a stiff—a prig , as Joley would call him—with no sense of humor, especially about himself, and Tesla was too alive somehow, too changeable and complicated for it to make any sense to him.
    Of course, Sam was also smart, and good-looking, and he treated Tesla like she was made of glass, which set Finn’s teeth on edge, but maybe Tes liked it. Liked being somebody’s princess or something—and right on the heels of that thought Finn remembered that he himself had been a jerk to Tesla that very afternoon when he’d kissed her after fencing and then walked away from her like it was nothing, tossing off a joke of some kind to cover the way he’d felt, the heat and the light that had engulfed him when he’d touched her, her body caught between his own and the unyielding wall behind her, her mouth anything but unyielding, returning every bit of his own intensity.
    He shook off the memory as he walked into the Victorian house and closed the door behind him, but the conviction that it was clearly his own fault if Tesla was interested in someone else remained.
    Finn entered the kitchen, unaware that he was scowling. He barely registered the fact that two of his roommates were already there, lights blazing despite the late hour, and remained oblivious, even when Beckett asked him a question—twice.
    “What is your problem, Finn?”
    Beckett’s tone of complete exasperation finally got through to him.
    “Which problem would that be?” Finn asked, though he didn’t really care.
    “The one where I talk and you ignore me?” she asked, one eyebrow raised pointedly, a cold slice of veggie pizza poised midway to her mouth.
    “This is a phenomenon you’re only now noticing?” Joley asked, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.
    “Who’s noticing what?” Bizzy walked into the room as she tried to stifle a yawn.
    Becket jumped lightly down from the counter where she’d been sitting, tossed the uneaten pizza back on the plate that had sat beside her, and stretched like a cat, her tiny, cropped T-shirt riding up on her ribs, her drawstring pajama pants barely hanging on. This of course gave everyone in the room ample time to admire her flat stomach and the tight little muscles that ran across her hip bones and disappeared beneath the plaid waistband.
    “Becket was noticing that Finn doesn’t really listen when she talks,” said Joley, the oldest in the house except for Jane Doane, their boss and landlord, which meant he felt entitled to be amused by everyone else. “Weren’t you paying attention, Biz? It was scintillating.”
    “Old news,” said Bizzy. “Besides, I just came in for a glass of water. I was falling asleep over quadratic equations—which actually are scintillating. I’m going to bed.”
    “Whatever,” said Beckett. “I’m off, too. Any of you wannabe-agents care to join me at the range in the morning? I was trying to ask Finn if Tesla’s anti-gun weirdness was fading at all. You guys are no competition whatsoever, but I’d love to go head to head with her in marksmanship. Her aim is—well, you know. Annoyingly perfect.”
    Finn looked up from the spot on the floor he’d been staring at, a blank look on his face. “What?”
    Beckett rolled her eyes and left the room.
    “I do see Beckett’s point,” said Joley. “Care to explain?”
    Finn looked back at his best friend, then looked at Bizzy, who merely raised her eyebrows and