Page 25 of Spirit Island

“Freeze, Belle.You aren’t getting out of here.”

“I was justtrying to get more comfortable. My skin is sticking to yours.”

He blinked.“Oh.” He chuckled and adjusted her position. He held up the firstbun and tore it to pieces with his fingers. “Deno mentioned thatyou considered this a dessert bun.” Xo smiled and held out thefirst bite.

She bit down,and the sweet meat of the barbeque pork bun made her toes curl.

He laughed. “Hesaid you spent some time in Asia.”

“Yeah. We didstunts for a number of North American studios. We ate everything.”She mumbled. “You have been talking to my brother?”

“Yes. He growlsa lot.”

“You must havebeen getting between him and Serin. He’s newly mated. I hear itmakes alphas cranky.”

He chuckled.“That is one way of putting it.”

“At least hewill stop complaining about not having a mate. The fates were atwork for him. Serin will be a great partner for him.”

“I believe hewas growling on your behalf.”

“What?”

“I was frankabout our encounter and taken to task by Serin as well. Shereminded me of a few things that the rut forgot.”

“Yeah, I wouldnever recommend a rut as a first date.” She shuddered. “Frankly, Ithought it would take longer.”

“I was on thetail end of it, so to speak.”

“Oh, thatsucks.” She took the next bite. She spoke. “The rut itself, not theending. I remember what cycles felt like, and I wasn’t a fan.”

“You hadcancer?”

“Yes, it wasstage two, and I was healthy, but treatment was aggressive and leftme depleted. I had visits from friends, but a lot of peoplecouldn’t look at the face of mortality.”

“Can you havechildren?”

She sighed andlooked at him. “How much does it matter?”

“Not much. Idon’t have a business to inherit. My parents might be disappointed,but they will get over it.” He smiled. “If we do, we do; if wedon’t, we don’t. I am fairly sure that Serin and Deno are going tohave some that we can spoil if you like.”

She blinked.“Terro already likes me. I guess we can start there. I mean, wedon’t have to, but we can.”

“Whatever youare comfortable with.”

“Well, my firsttransformation took care of the contaminated cells. So, this bodyis all sparkling clean.”

He paused.“What?”

“Oh, I did aclear-out in Dorian’s pool. Cancer out, and island water in. Thisbody is mostly water if the rack and ass don’t give it away.”

He paused andfed her the last of the bun before cupping one of the breasts inquestion. “There is more in there than water.”

Belle looked athis hand and then up at his calm face. “Well, my body is filling inthe blanks. I got my outline back, and the chemically injured cellsare gone.”

“Injured?”

“Yeah, in theearly days, I was on a film shoot and exposed to some contaminantsduring an explosion. I was the last one alive when I got ill.Everybody else on that scene was already dead. They blew up astrong carcinogen. Lots of lawsuits.”

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