Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series Hayley Lawson (ebook reader play store .TXT) 📖

Carter grinned devilishly. “Why would I do that? We’ll shower together.”

Leandro wondered if something had happened between them after he’d run back to town, but Ryder elbowed Carter in the ribs, which made it clear to him that nothing had happened.

“Did one of the Mad hit you over the head?” Ryder shook her head. “I’d rather lick the floor of the Old Dog than shower with you.”

Carter winked at Ryder as he left the bathroom.

“So, you two aren’t a couple?” Leandro asked, trying to make the question sound casual.

“Me and him?” Ryder snorted. Her hand flew to her face, and her cheeks flushed red. God! I sounded just like a pig.

Leandro smiled and stared at Ryder. There was an awkward silence between them.

Why the fuck is he staring at me with that goofy grin on his face? He’d better not think he can get in the shower with me!

“Anything else?” she asked.

Leandro shook his head. “Sorry, long day. Let me get some clothes for you. I’m not sure I have anything in your size, but we’ll make something work.”

Ryder followed Leandro through the house to a room off another bathroom. There was a bed in it with drawers, pictures on the walls, and books on shelves like in the front room.

“How many people sleep in this room?” Ryder could only see one bed, but the room was huge.

“Just me,” Leandro said as he looked through the drawers for some smaller clothes for Ryder. Luckily, he’d kept some from when he was a kid.

He held up a pair of khaki pants, a white tank top, and a shirt. “I think these will fit you. I may need to give them a wash first. They’re clean, but they’ve been in the drawers for years.”

Maybe these were really the clothes he wore every day. It would explain his current outfit.

Ryder took the clothes from Leandro. She’d never seen such a clean white shirt before. The only clothes she had were the ones she was wearing, plus one more set. That had been it for as long as she could remember.

Ryder could smell the old musty scent on them, but she didn’t care. Part of her felt that if Leandro took them away from her, she might not get them back.

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

“Just bring your dirty ones down with you when you’re done, it’s laundry night anyway.” Leandro hurried to the other side of the room and then held his hand out to Ryder. “A fresh bar of soap.”

Ryder eyed it warily. “What the fuck is soap?”

Leandro peeled back part of the wrapping and gave it to Ryder. “It’s to clean yourself with.”

She held the soap to her nose and inhaled the strong scent of lavender. It smelled like the outdoors. Leandro had been keeping that bar of soap for years. It was different than the ones he got for himself and his dad. Theirs had a manly, musky smell to them.

“Where did you get it?” she asked.

“The abandoned mall.”

Ryder looked at Leandro, confused again, but this time she wasn’t embarrassed. She wanted to get to this mall. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was filled with treasure.

“It’s a place where you can find everything you need, and lots of stuff you don’t need but think you do. Before the wars, there were loads of malls, and people would spend their free time there buying things. I hit the jackpot, you could say, one day. I found a completely abandoned mall. No one else had been there. It is like a treasure trove of things from the past.” Leandro spoke in a rush, partly because he was excited and partly because he’d never had a girl in his room before.

“It sounds like an interesting place. I wish I could see it one day.”

Leandro thought she sounded somber, like she thought she’d never get the chance. He wanted to cheer her up. “Why don’t you take a shower and get all that blood off you? You’ll feel like a new woman.” Leandro shook his head at his mistake. He wasn’t supposed to know she was a woman.

Part of Ryder had forgotten she was covered in blood, but that wasn’t what gave her pause. It was the fact that he called her a woman. How did he know? Maybe it was the comments Carter had been making? That had to be it. And she didn’t need to hide the fact that she was a woman anymore, anyway.

“Sounds like a good idea,” she said.

Leandro let out a breath.

Was he holding his breath, waiting for me to answer?

Ryder did feel like a new woman after the shower. She’d never felt anything quite like the hot water cascading onto her breasts, which were no longer tightly wrapped. It felt like tiny fingers were massaging her naked body, peeling away the layers of blood and filth that had accumulated during her escape from the bunker.

The soap smelled beautiful, and it lathered up into an almost cream-like texture with which she covered her body. She had stolen one of the razors from the cabinet. Normally, the men used them on their beards, but she had always wanted to get the hair off her legs like the other women in the bunker, and now she could.

It was a shame she was going to cover them in pants afterward.

Leandro had given Ryder a towel. It was soft, almost like Fluffy. I hope I’ll see Fluffy again. The towels in the bunker were more like stiff, dirty rags that scratched the skin of whoever used them—and she hated using them. Ryder would have tried to keep one, but in the bunker, everyone stole your shit, and you ended up in more fights when you had belongings. It was better to have nothing.

Ryder could hear the boys talking in the living room and music playing in the background. She was hungry and tired, but Leandro hadn’t told her where she was