Chapter 6 · Appendix C, Read Aloud

"Read it out loud." Torin's voice hadn't cooled from what we'd just done. Mine hadn't either. That was the problem.

My hands shook so bad the paper rattled against the pipe at my back. Pump room. Condensation ticking somewhere in the dark, a compressor cycling on two floors down. My shirt still hung open at the collar where his mouth had been ten minutes ago, and my skin kept reporting every second of it whether I wanted the report or not.

"June." He didn't touch me. He didn't have to. "Out loud. Or I do it for you."

I found the line again. Appendix C. Spousal Residency. "The undersigned wife shall reside on the premises for the duration of this Agreement." My voice cracked on *duration*. "No termination date is specified. No game-count ceiling applies. Section effective immediately upon execution of Section Four."

I looked up. "You backdated it to the pump room."

"I backdated it to twenty minutes ago." He said it like a man reading a final score, no heat left in it at all.