Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 86515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
I’m at her place.
In her bed.
I slide a hand her way and find cool sheets, no Juno. The room is quiet, dark in the predawn hour, the city lights that never shut off muted by the curtains.
For a moment, I lie there, listening.
No footsteps. No movement.
Wherever she is, she’s settled. Juno doesn’t strike me as someone who slips out without reason—or without saying something. If she’d wanted distance she wouldn’t have invited me over in the first place, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have encouraged me to stay the night after we fucked.
I roll onto my back, one arm flung over the empty pillow, and let my mind drift to how the night unfolded. Before I left the performance facility, I’d tracked her down as she was still filming in the rehab unit. I flagged her attention and she quietly stepped away as Evan filmed one of the rookies getting dry needled in his lower back.
The interaction had been short and I didn’t waste time. “Dinner tonight?”
Juno didn’t have to think about it either, presenting efficiency above all else. “I’ll cook. Be at my place at seven.”
And so I was.
Dinner turned into easy conversation. Conversation moved to the couch with a glass of wine, and that turned into quiet. Quiet turned into her hand sliding into mine like it belonged there.
Bed came later and in a way that felt natural and unrushed. We both knew that’s why I was there, but we were both okay waiting for it.
It hadn’t felt like a hookup. It hadn’t felt temporary either and I expect the truth of what we are lies somewhere in between. It was the kind of night you don’t label because the labeling feels like it would cheapen it.
I consider my limited options. I can either go back to sleep or I can go find Juno. Given the choice of an empty bed or a beautiful woman, the decision is easy. I roll out of bed, not bothering with clothes.
Following the faint glow coming from the living room, I find Juno curled up on the couch, knees tucked in, a blanket thrown loosely over her legs. The TV is on low—some late-night show I don’t recognize—casting a soft blue light across her face. Her gaze is focused, attention rapt with whatever she’s watching.
I lean against the doorframe for a second, taking her in. She looks smaller like this. Not weak but unguarded. I smile as I note she’s wearing my T-shirt. Not sure what it says that I like that very much.
I cross the room and the movement causes her to jolt, but then her eyes run up and down my body with bold appraisal. My cock twitches but I ignore it for now, instead settling beside her on the couch. I flip the blanket over my lap, not out of modesty but so I can snake my hand under to rest it against her bare thigh.
Juno angles toward me, lips curving faintly. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t,” I say, giving her leg a squeeze. “Everything okay?”
She nods, eyes clear of any worry or angst. “Yeah. Couldn’t sleep.” I wait, adding no pressure to divulge. “TV usually helps. Gives my brain a distraction so it stops running at full steam.”
I study her profile. The way her fingers pluck at the edge of the blanket. “What keeps it busy?”
Her shoulders lift in a small shrug. “Everything. Nothing. Work mostly, but sometimes it can be a travesty happening somewhere in the world. I stopped trying to figure out my brain long ago.”
The honesty in that answer is so fucking refreshing I want to hear more. “Has it always been like that?” I ask.
She turns her head and really looks at me this time. “When I was young, I saw too much. Things that didn’t make sense. Things that shouldn’t have been allowed.” She shrugs nonchalantly. “My brain would spin at night, trying to figure out how to stop it. How to fix it. How to keep it from happening again.” A faint, humorless smile. “Turns out you don’t outgrow that kind of wiring.”
“I can’t even imagine what that was like, and yet you come across as it not being a big deal.” I had read up on the church that Juno belonged to. I read all the news articles, watched news videos, and I even saw a follow-up story where her parents were interviewed, maintaining to the end that nothing was wrong with what was going on. It left me sick that someone could abandon their kid that way. “But I know it was a big deal, and I can’t wrap my own brain around it sometimes. It’s not the way ‘church’ is typically portrayed.”
Juno chuckles. “Yeah… it definitely was not an institution that was looking out for the best interests of the children. So I never think of it as a church. It was a cult, plain and simple. Everything was rigid and controlled. You were only praised for obedience, not curiosity. For compliance, not questions.”