Page 169 of Mama Si's Paradise

“I couldn’t find too many books in English so far, only ninety-one,” he said, waving his hand back at the left corner, the shelf by the wall near the lounger and armchairs.

Only ninety-one,he said. Books in English.

This vampire had seriously gotten me books in English.

Wait a minute…

“Books,” I whispered, the smile wiped from my face, and I finally moved forward. “The…the books.”

“All fiction. Most romance. It’s not much,” he said in a rush, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the shelf—not me.

He was embarrassed. He wasshy.

“Grey, are those the books you went so close to the borders for?” They’d all laughed at him for it, that he’d put himself at risk for somestupid books.

“Yes.”

I shook my head, unable to find words. Nothing was making sense, and at the same time,everythingwas. The books, the birds, the way he was always watching me, always listening…

“You shouldn’t have,” I ended up saying. He shouldn’t have risked himself like that to get me books.

“I wanted to. Our collection in other languages is so limited—and not just here, unfortunately. It’s the same on most Isles,” he said. “It wasn’t a bother.”

“You almost died.” I remembered the blood and the cuts on his arm just fine.

“But I didn’t.” And still he avoided my eyes.

“Grey, look at me.”

He stopped moving instantly as he did, and only then did I realize how much he’d been fidgeting where he stood.

“This is too much,” I whispered, waving my hands at the absolutelyperfectuse of this beautiful room that was making me want to cry or laugh or even throw up.

“It’s what you wanted,” he said, straightening his shoulders. “I heard you. The instruments in your school when yousnuck in at night. And the paintings your grandmother sometimes worked on—you always wanted to try, right?”

I could have been looking at a different person. “Yes,” I finally said. “I always wanted to try.” Missy never let me touch her brushes when she was awake, but I still painted a few times when she passed out from drinking too much. I’d always wanted to have my own brushes, though. My own canvases.

Grey nodded, a touch of a smile curling up one corner of his lips. “It’s all yours. Do with it what you will.”

Birds and books and colors and instruments.Everything I’d ever wanted inside one room.

“I…I should go.” Because once more, Ishould have wantedto go. Because he was a stranger. Despite everything, I didn’t know him, and I should have wanted to get the hell out of there fast.

Except…

“Please stay.”

Grey closed his eyes for a second, as if the words had slipped out of him involuntarily.

And I was definitely out of my fucking mind because… “Okay.”

That’s all I said, just like that.

Grey gave me another of those almost-smiles. “Come closer.” He waved toward the cage, to the other side where there were three recliners right in front of it. “You can sit and watch them if you want.”

Oh, I definitely want…

Slowly, I walked closer and closer, keeping my eyes on the birds, and it was easy. So easy to take in their colorful feathers, to let the sound of them fill my head.

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