Afterglow: An Apocalypse Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

like the kind of person who’s afraid of trouble?”
    Nina was glad it was relatively dark in the basement so he couldn’t see her blush. Because no, he didn’t look like the kind of person who was afraid of trouble. He was big and hard, sporting muscles that looked perfect for fighting—or running her hands over. He filled out a pair of jeans like no guy she’d ever seen before, his thick and defined thighs hard to look away from. And his face? Handsome didn’t describe it, with those dark brown eyes and hard, square jaw, scruffy and messy (because who cared about shaving regularly during an apocalypse?). Strong nose, full lips.
    He hardly ever smiled—in fact he looked almost downright mean—but when he did, it made Nina feel like she’d earned it, or like it was a special gift he was giving to her and nobody else. OK, so there wasn’t anybody else around, making her the only person for him to smile at. But she liked the way he looked at her. Of course, this was the exact worst time in the history of worst times to get involved with someone, but clearly her body hadn’t gotten that message.
    Shaking her head as if to clear it, she followed him back up the stairs and into her kitchen.
    “So,” she said when they were upstairs, sitting at the kitchen table. “How long will it take for me to learn how to ride a motorcycle?”
    “Not long with the right teacher.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
    “Well, all I’ve got is you,” she retorted. “How long?”
    He shrugged. “You got a bike to learn on?”
    Why was he being so difficult? “I thought we had a deal!”
    “What? This basement for my bike? What makes you think I don’t have somewhere to be?”
    “Nothing. I don’t know. I guess because if you did, you wouldn’t be hanging around here anymore.”
    “Yeah. Well. I’ve been sick.”
    “Sick?” she sputtered. “What kind of sick?” Please let him not say he’d had the horribly contagious and deadly virus! Nina pushed her chair back from the table and stared at Creed, anger and fear pulsing through her.
    He shrugged again. “Some virus.”
    “ The virus? No, it can’t be,” she muttered. “It has almost a 100% death rate.” At least that’s what the news was last reporting, before the power went out and CNN became nonexistent.
    “I don’t know what I had. We all got sick, in my house. Leslie and Kaylee, uh, didn’t make it.” A shadow passed over his face, and Nina could see the agony, hidden but still evident.
    “I’m sorry,” she muttered.
    He grunted and ran a hand over his face.
    “But shit, Creed, you should have told me! What if you’re still contagious?”
    “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight when you broke into my fucking house , Nina. Did you expect me to give you a warning before you cut me?”
    “No. You’re right.” She sighed. Letting fear overtake her wasn’t going to solve anything, and pissing Creed off wasn’t going to help her get what she wanted.
    “Anyway, I’m not sick anymore. Just weak as hell. Besides, last I heard the incubation period is really short, and people stop being contagious a few days after they get sick. It’s unstable, the virus. Easily killed on surfaces and lasts no longer than a few minutes outside the body anyway.”
    “How do you know that? And why did so many people get sick and die?”
    Creed shrugged. “I have—had—sources. And people got sick and died so fast because it’s highly contagious and deadly if you get it, and it spread fast before anyone even knew what it was.”
    “So how come you didn’t die?”
    “Luck? I don’t think there’s any virus that’s 100% fatal. Anyway, last I heard it had a 95% death rate, so I guess I was in the fortunate 5%.”
    Nina’s body calmed a bit, but the fear was there and real. So many people had died. Almost everyone, really. Was what Creed said about the virus being unstable true? Had scientists even had a chance to research this particular illness?
    For a split