Page 57 of Bearing Secrets
“A few,” she said, laughing at the joke. “I’m not sure they’re your type though.”
Truthfully, she wasn’t sure how Loren would adjust to the idea that they were shapeshifters and to the levels of violence in their culture. Her mind was a little bit more rigid, and Natalia felt that having her worldview shattered the way Kirell had done would be too much.
“Whatever, give me a night, I’ll have some fun.” Loren bobbed her eyebrows up and down.
“You’re impossible!” she drank some more, and told Loren everything that had happened, while leaving out the bits about shifters and the threat to her life from multiple sources.
“Why are you back here if everything is going alright then?”
“He omitted a few truths, and I got mad at him.” She held up a hand to forestall the questions. “I don’t want to talk about what.”
“Okay.” Loren smiled and dropped it. That’s why she was such a good friend. She knew when to push and when not to. “What about the wholehusbandthing? Is he going to get you a Green Card so you can stay?”
“Yes.”I think so.
For that to happen though, she would have to go back to him.
“And after that, you’re done? You two just go your separate ways and that’s that?”
She nodded slowly. That was the plan. Leave Kirell and the shapeshifters all behind, like a wild dream in her past. Their agreement would be complete, and they would no longer need to interact with one another. Simple as that.
Isn’t it?
Why did it feel like that would be the end, instead of the beginning of the rest of her life here in the United States? Shouldn’t she see it as the key to her freedom, to be able to live the life she wanted to live?
With her anger spiking, Natalia reached out and grabbed the glass of wine, downing a healthy mouthful. She was supposed to be furious at Kirell for dragging her into his madhouse of a world, not sad at the prospect of not seeing him again. Why was her brain betraying her like this? Latching on to that fresh anger, even if it was directed at herself, she took another drink.
Loren was looking at her with concern. “Natalia? Everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” She hoped the lie wasn’t as obvious as it felt.
“Tell me.”
Apparently, it was obvious.
“Ugh. You know, he’s actually a decent guy, Lore. Yes, he had some secrets he should have told me about earlier, but he’s always treated me really well. I think I enjoyed his company.”
“You have a crush on him?” Loren was leaning forward now, far more eagerly than Natalia was comfortable seeing.
“I don’t think I’d go that far. But…I don’t know. It’s like I guess I don’t like the idea of never seeing him again.”
Within the next five seconds, both the doorbell and her phone rang. Loren got up to answer it while Natalia glanced at her screen. One missed phone call from Kirell. There was also a text. Just one, saying that he was going to give her some time, but to please call him when she was ready.
“Fuck you,” she muttered.
“Excuse me?” Loren paused in the archway to the living room from the front hall.
“Nothing,” she said, sitting up and helping spread out the various dishes her friend had ordered. “I was talking to myself.”
And to Kirell. How dare he be polite and understanding right now?
It bothered her that he was being rational and decent. He was supposed to be a dick about it all, to help enable her own anger. How was she supposed to be mad at him when he was acting like he actually cared about her? That certainly made things more difficult.
“Are you going to call him?” Loren asked through a mouthful of noodles.
“What?” She blinked, returning to the present.
“Kirell. You’re fidgeting with your phone. You want to call him.”
