Never Been Kissed Read Online Free PDF Page B

Four?
    “Ashley.” Just that word, full of concern, and she blinked. Right. Not Africa. New York.
    “Thank you,” she said and took what he offered.
    She sipped the orange juice, icy cold and bright, a revelation of tangy sweetness.
    Orange juice was going on the credo. Orange juice every day.
    She tore into the bagel like a starving woman, which, she realized, she actually was.
    The pirates had fed her well, but half the time she’d been unable to eat. The lingering stomach bug she’d gotten in Kenya had roared back in Somalia. And off and on for three weeks, she and Kate had taken turns helping each other to the third-world privy.
    Kate.
    The thought of her friend, of the last time she’d seen her, being dragged off by Aferi, her lip bleeding from the smack Yeri had given her, put her stomach back in knots. Ashley had screamed and fought as best she could but Yeri, who for three weeks had watched her with ownership and hate, hit her on the head with the butt of his AK-47.
    Ashley touched the bandage, the stitches small bumps beneath it. The world had gone black until she’d woken up in that plane with Brody.
    “Brody?” Ashley asked and in the front passenger seat of the car he turned toward her. “Have you heard anything from Harrison about Kate?”
    “Nothing new.”
    He was watching her, his eyes unreadable.
    Her belly was full of being watched by men, so she stuck out her tongue and pushed the button to roll up the glass. Brody turned away as it started to rise, but not before she saw him smile.
    The limo slowed and then finally stopped and Ashley looked out the window to the familiar pre-war apartment building on 82nd Street in the glamorous Upper East Side. Nonnie’s apartment. Exhausted, worn to the bone, Ashley felt tears prick the back of her eyes again.
    Her mom’s eccentric mother had died years ago, butthe apartment, filled with Nonnie’s beautiful odd things, was the next best thing.
    The limo door opened and there was Brody, helping her out, his hands careful and fleeting as he touched her shoulder, her hand.
    “Thank you,” she said for the thousandth time.
    He dipped his head in a small nod. He’d told her to stop thanking him and she’d told him she couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
    Being thankful was a state of being for her. And after all that had happened, she was more thankful than ever.
    The doorman, a new one since she’d last been here, opened the door to the apartment building, trying hard not to stare at her face.
    “You should see the other guy,” she joked as she passed and his eyes narrowed.
    “Is he the other guy?” He pointed a thick finger at Brody.
    “No,” she assured the doorman, comforted by his concern. His white knight efforts.
New Yorkers,
she thought with fondness,
so tribal.
“He’s taking care of me.”
    “Looks like he’s doing a bang-up job.” The sarcasm was unmistakable and Ashley smiled to convince him.
    Admittedly her smile was sort of hideous with all the bruising and she wasn’t surprised when it didn’t do the job.
    Brody shook his head and hit the button for the elevator, dismissing the doorman. She remembered that about Brody, he was impossible to goad. Impossible to infuriate into action.
    Calm, always so calm.
    “I’m Ashley,” she said to the doorman. “I live on the top.”
    “Nice to meet you, Ashley.” He touched her shoulder since her arm was in a sling and she supposed she lookedlike a handshake might actually break her. “I’m Darnell. You need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”
    “I will, Darnell, thank you. It seems … maybe I’ve misplaced my key.” As well as her passport, wallet, ID, and cell phone. All the things that tied her to the twenty-first century. The world was suddenly overwhelming and as if he knew, as if he could tell, Brody was there. A solid presence behind her.
    “I got you covered,” Darnell said and slipped behind the front desk. He pulled out a thick envelope and handed it to her. “From your