Page 14 of Voyage with the Reclusive Billionaire

“You also said you didn’t pay attention to groundbreaking news back then. And Ryker and Sylvie did, and they recognized me.”

“But not enough to actually know who you are.”

“And the person following me? What about them?”

Her eyes widen. “I’m sorry—someone’s following you?”

I nod. “So it would seem.”

“And you think it’s because of your secret?”

“I don’t know. Probably.” There was little else they could be after. Little else someone could want from me after my first appearance back in polite society. “And I wanted to tell you before someone else did. I wanted to explain in hopes that it meant you wouldn’t fear me, and that you wouldn’t feel betrayed.” I swallow. “In hopes that you’ll still like me after you know.”

“Why wouldn’t I like you?”

I force myself to meet her eyes as I say the words. To stop stalling, and to just spit it the fuck out.

But I can’t.

I can’t because I’m unwilling to risk losing her. Not when what I feel for her is real, dammit, and she’s already planning on leaving what we have between us on the boat when the cruise is over.

So I lie a little, instead. I stick as close as possible to the truth, but… avoid everything that might hint toward me being a shifter.

Hesitantly, I sit down beside Eliza on the bed.

“When I was younger, back when I first started Thorn Enterprises, there was Jade.”

Eliza raises an eyebrow at me when I don’t explain further. “Your secret is that you have a girlfriend?”

“Had,” I quickly clarify. “Not anymore.” Like it’ll matter if Eliza is clear on me being single, anyway. She’s too good for me. Has been since the moment she tripped her way on board. She’ll see that, too, as soon as she knows about my blood. My heritage.

“But she was there, through everything, you know? And she knew… everything there was to know about me. I thought that what we had, the love, the bond, our past and our present and our future, would mean more to her than money ever could. I thought I could trust her with my whole life.

But Jade sold my secrets. I could have given her everything, if she’d just stayed with me. I would have given her anything she asked for. And maybe she was afraid, or maybe she just finally saw a way out of a relationship she no longer cared to have. I never really cared to figure out why she sold my secrets. But she did sell them, and it’s…”

“You’re not the same person anymore,” Eliza fills in for me. “It changed you.”

I give her a grateful smile. She understands me. Maybe better than I even understand myself. And maybe… maybe that means she feels what I feel, too.

Eliza says, “Those secrets don’t matter to me, you know. I see who you are, at your core. Whatever it is that you’re not telling me… it won’t change this. Us.”

She says us like we’re more than just our circumstances. Like there’s a possibility that something might come of this.

But I don’t think she’d feel the same if she did know those secrets. Secret, really. It’s easier to say that something won’t matter when you have no idea what that something is. When you might not have even known that something could even possibly exist.

Gently, Eliza lays a hand over mine. “Listen,” she says. “I do want to know about you. But I want to know the things that you’re willing to tell me when you’re willing to tell me.” She gives me a smile that is so sweet, so caring, so honest and wholesome that it tangles itself around my heart, threads its way through it. Begins suturing every wound Jade ever inflicted on me until they’re closed. “Wait until you’re ready to tell me, Cor. Don’t do it because you feel like you have to. That person who’s following you? I don’t care about them. I don’t want to hear your secrets from their mouth. So if someone tries to talk to me about you, I’ll walk away. Okay?”

I swallow down every emotion that washes over me. She doesn’t want to know—or rather, she does want to know—but not until I want to tell her.

She doesn’t need to know I’m a raven shifter today. Not today, not yet.

But soon. It’s not like I have time to waste. If I want Eliza to know me—all of me, then I’ll have to tell her before the cruise is over.

I’m just praying like hell she’ll be able to handle it.

Chapter seven

Eliza

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