Page 347 of Unexpected Ever After

“You’re beautiful,” I stated. “A whirlwind. And like I said that night, Ciarra orchestrated this. I trust her. Do you?”

Nissa released a heavy exhale, her expression soothing once more. “Yes?”

“You don’t sound sure.”

She shrugged.

“Tell me about your childhood together.”

“You really want to know about life on a homestead out in the middle of nowhere? How we had to use an outhouse, often ran out of toilet paper, and collected rainwater to shower once a week even during summer when we sweated and stank like rotten onions?”

I chuckled at the half-disgusted grimace on her gorgeous face. “Your voice and your…bluntness turns me on—so talk.”

“End of the rainbow,” she muttered, her lips pursed, but before I could ask what she’d meant, she dove into her story.

Ciarra had already told me her view of growing up in the wilderness, and while Nissa’s aligned with her twin’s for the most part, bitterness bled in her tone, more than hinting at a wish her childhood had been different.

The waiter interrupted, and the second he walked off with our order, I asked Nissa to continue. I sat enraptured as she spoke, her face full of expression, her voice inflections full of emotion. Her stark words about hunting to survive, learning how to skin wild game in order to fill their bellies, didn’t bother my usual sensitivities when it came to animals.

Man—and woman—had to do what they needed to live.

Nissa had been sheltered from the real world, which made coming into society six years earlier difficult for her. Ciarra had adjusted well while Nissa had floundered. As she filled me in on getting her GED and working for Midnight Sun Charter as their secretary for a year, I got clued in on how much she compared herself to her sister.

Fraternal and opposites in every way, they lacked the twin bond I’d heard and read about. They didn’t complete each other’s sentences, never dressed the same unintentionally, and rarely did they agree on what choices one ought to make in going forward with their lives.

Ciarra hoped for a family, the house and picket fence, and she was well on her way to obtaining those things.

“I mean, I know I’ll want that someday,” Nissa said, her thumb rubbing absently on the stem of her wine glass, her eyebrows once more pulled into a frown, “but I haven’t ever met someone who I felt strongly enough about to make an attempt.

“My brother Roan knew Annie was meant to be his back when they were kids. Mom and Dad…” She trailed off, her frown deepening. “Strange tale, to be honest. Mom was originally married to my grandfather. He disappeared out into the wilderness never to be seen again, and she ended up with my dad. Her first husband’s son. She’s only a couple years older than him though, and they never shared too many details about that time of their lives, but whatever. Close proximity out in the middle of nowhere and all that.”

Nissa shrugged while I stared, enthralled with every micro-expression on her face. She was beyond gorgeous. Refreshing. She might be on the wild, dangerous side but far from the drama I’d expected.

“They’re still sickeningly in love like a fairy tale,” she continued. “Same as Roan and now Ciarra, but they’re all good people and haven’t fucked up nearly as much as I have.”

I hated the self-disappointment lacing her tone. “Everybody fucks up, and every sunrise is a new beginning.”

Nissa’s stare heated my face and sent some of my blood back to my dick that I’d finally gotten settled down.

“While that may be true, doing the right thing after a backlog of shit is tough.”

“So make the next decision the proper one to get you where you want to be.”

Silence settled over us for a few seconds as we studied one another in the restaurant’s dim light, almost like…that bubble that had encased Gideon and Addilyn. Nissa and I had connected in some strange way, more than lust, but only time would tell if I could have her for a longer period.

The waiter arrived with our food, and our conversation moved onto the mundane bullshit of my life. While I didn’t focus on or even mention the loneliness I’d been dealing with, she got it. She understood, even reaching across the table to grasp my hand when I told her about my ex, the final in a line of many to set me aside for being a “nice guy” rather than the alpha assholes all the women seemed to go crazy for.

“Their loss,” she whispered. “I think you’re an amazing man—”

“You don’t even know me.”

“I’m starting to and have plans aplenty,” she stated with a flash in her eyes like she’d shown me at the reception.

I raised an eyebrow, the suggestion in her tone twitching life back to my dick. “Is that a fact?”

Her lips pursed in a sassy smirk as she twirled the last bit of pasta on her fork. Still, she held my gaze, tension rising to a crackling level between us.

Like a freight train, Nissa Kelly had smashed into my life, but I had zero intentions of bailing. Getting a taste, a chance to touch her warm skin and breathe her exhales, to swallow her cries while coming would be worth the fall.

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