Winter Read Online Free PDF Page B

cascade of lint off her shoulders.
    Kai brushed some of the larger chunks from her hair. “Where did you learn to do all this, anyway?”
    “What, that ? Anyone can clean an oxygen filter.”
    “Trust me, they can’t.” He settled his elbows on his knees and let his attention wander around the engine room. “You know what all this does?”
    She followed the look—every wire, every manifold, every compression coil—and shrugged. “Pretty much. Except for that big, rotating thing in the corner. Can’t figure it out. But how important could it be?”
    Kai rolled his eyes.
    Grasping a pipe, Cinder hauled herself to her feet and shoved the wrench back into her pocket. “I didn’t learn it anywhere. I just look at things and figure out how they work. Once you know how something works, you can figure out how to fix it.”
    She tried to shake the last bits of dust from her hair, but there seemed to be an endless supply.
    “Oh, you just look at something and figure out how it works,” Kai deadpanned, standing beside her. “Is that all?”
    Cinder fixed her ponytail and shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. “It’s just mechanics.”
    Kai scooped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. “No, it’s impressive,” he said, using the pad of his thumb to brush something off Cinder’s cheek. “Not to mention, weirdly attractive,” he said, before capturing her lips.
    Cinder tensed briefly, before melting into the kiss. The rush was the same every time, coupled with surprise and a wave of giddiness. It was their seventeenth kiss (her brain interface was keeping a tally, somewhat against her will), and she wondered if she would ever get used to this feeling. Being desired , when she’d spent her life believing no one would ever see her as anything but a bizarre science experiment.
    Especially not a boy.
    Especially not Kai , who was smart and honorable and kind, and could have had any girl he wanted. Any girl.
    She sighed against him, leaning into the embrace. Kai reached for an overhead pipe and pressed Cinder against the main computer console. She offered no resistance. Though her body wouldn’t allow her to blush, there was an unfamiliar heat that flooded every inch of her when he was this close. Every nerve ending sparked and thrummed, and she knew he could kiss her another seventeen thousand times and she would never grow tired of it.
    She tied her arms around his neck, molding their bodies together. The warmth of his chest seeped into her clothes. It felt nothing but right. Nothing but perfect.
    But then there was the feeling, always lurking, always ready to cloud her contentment. The knowledge that this couldn’t last.
    Not so long as Kai was engaged to Levana.
    Angry at the thought’s invasion, she kissed Kai harder, but her thoughts continued to rebel. Even if they succeeded and Cinder was able to reclaim her throne, she would be expected to stay on Luna as their new queen. She was no expert, but it seemed problematic to carry on a relationship on two different planets—
    Er, a planet and a moon.
    Or whatever.
    The point was, there would be 384,000 kilometers of space between her and Kai, which was a lot of space, and—
    Kai smiled, breaking the kiss. “What’s wrong?” he murmured against her mouth.
    Cinder leaned back to look at him. His hair was getting longer, bordering on unkempt. As a prince, he’d always been groomed to near perfection. But then he became an emperor. The weeks since his coronation had been spent trying to stop a war, hunt down a wanted fugitive, avoid getting married, and endure his own kidnapping. As a result, haircuts became a dispensable luxury.
    She hesitated before asking, “Do you ever think about the future?”
    His expression turned wary. “Of course I do.”
    “And … does it include me?”
    His gaze softened. Releasing the overhead pipe, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “That depends on whether I’m thinking about the good future or the bad