Free Fury: Book One of the Cure (Omnibus Edition) by Charlotte McConaghy Page A

getting cold, I climb out and look around for a towel. There’s not one in sight, not even Luke’s towel.
    Opening the door a crack, I peer out. “Luke?”
    “Towels are in the cupboard, Josi,” he calls from the kitchen.
    “Which cupboard? I can’t see any …”
    “It’s just inside the door there.”
    “There are no cupboards—trust me, I’m looking.”
    Luke jogs to the bathroom and I jerk back inside. “There’s a cupboard right in front of you. You just have to press the wall and it swings open.”
    I start pressing the wall in random places but nothing happens. “It’s not working!”
    “Smartest chick I know and she can’t even open a cupboard. I’m coming in.”
    “No!” I shriek. “Don’t you dare!”
    “Do you want a towel or not?”
    “Not that badly! I’ll stand here until I drip dry.”
    I hear him laugh and the door starts to open. “Stay to the left and I won’t look, I promise.”
    “If you do, I’ll kill you.” I stand to the left and he walks straight into me. “Luke!” I scream in hot shame. He jerks around so that his back is to me, but I did not miss the moment of wide-eyed shock as he walked straight into my naked body. He bursts out laughing.
    “You said left !” I hiss.
    “I meant my left, not your left.”
    “You’re an asshole. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
    “No!” he protests, but he can’t stop laughing.
    No one has seen me naked before. I mean, I can only assume people saw me naked as a baby, but not since then. I’ve barely seen me naked, since looking at my body makes me kind of ashamed.
    My gut feels heavy. “Are you laughing because … because my body is … funny or stupid or something?”
    “What?” Luke freezes, laughter cut off immediately. He looks like he’s itching to turn around and look at me, but I’m so mortified that I can only shrink back against the wall, as far from him as possible. “Josi, no ,” he says firmly. “I caught a half-second look, and I didn’t see much, but what I did see was … You’re … I mean, you look …”
    “Okay, don’t say it!” I interrupt. “Just get me the damn towel.”
    He places a finger on a completely unremarkable piece of marble wall and a door swings open. He holds the towel out behind him and I grab it awkwardly. I wait for him to leave, but he pauses another moment and admits, “I was only laughing because I think I was nervous.”
    Once he’s gone, I contemplate how pathetic my life is—that awkward, accidental moment was probably one of the most intimate of my life.
Luke
    After the bathroom debacle, she stands outside on the balcony. I consider joining her, but decide to give her a few moments alone. That balcony is cathartic, and she may need that after today.
    I concentrate on cooking, but for once it’s not enough to stop my mind from wandering. Specifically to Josephine’s naked body. I actually believe that I will think about that body for the rest of my goddamn life. I mean, she’s thin and covered in bruises, but … Christ. I can’t think straight. I should be ashamed—she’s a child , for god’s sake. She didn’t look like one though. And she doesn’t act like one.
    I turn off the stove and open the door to the balcony. Outside it’s a calm night. An inky black sky is splashed through with stars that are dim compared to the brilliant lights of the thousands of buildings around us. She was in the tub for so long that she missed the sunset.
    “What are we having for dinner?” she asks softly. She smells like soap and something prettier, something that is just her.
    “Poison.”
    “Again? Jeez, use your imagination.” After a moment she says, “It’s nice out here.”
    “Does that mean you’ll move in?” I don’t know why I’m pressing this—she clearly doesn’t want to, and I would probably go crazy thinking about her in the bath every day, but I just can’t stand the thought of her going back to that bubonic plague-infested