Page 106 of Beautiful Secrets

She quickly straightens in her chair and watches me warily when I take the seat beside her.

I could have sat opposite her—but I love making her uneasy. Watching her squirm. Making her wonder if I plan on pulling a move.

Too many things I love about this woman.

Maybe I was saving up all my loving for someone like her all along.

I stand again. “We have to go.”

She turns her face up to me, but she doesn’t stand. “We wait for storm.”

“It can’t go on like this for long,” I say, cocking my head. “Come on. Don’t make me drag you out here by your hair.”

But instead of snapping at me, or becoming timid, Mika takes hold of my wrist.

She glances at the tea tray. “Eat. Drink.” Flicks a hand. “We be merry.”

I let out half a chuckle, but I sink back down again.

That’s the problem right there. She makes it so fucking easy to be with her. Any other person would be spitting mad at me for just a fraction of the shit I’ve pulled these past couple of days.

Mika?

She wants to have a cup of tea with me.

It boggles my fucking mind.

And, again, makes me wonder just how fucked her life was before we met.

A life I’m forcing her to go back to, because she might think the alternative—Cole fucking Hendry—is the better alternative. The greener grass on the other side of her barbed wire fence.

“You won’t be happy with me,” I tell her.

She was reaching for one of the chocolate digestives, but drapes her arm over the table instead. “Oh?” she says. “You can read fortunes?”

“’Course not, but I know me.”

Mika cocks a pale eyebrow at me, pursing her lips for extra effect. “If you flee from wolf, you will run into bear.”

I laugh before I can stop myself. “What?”

There’s that defiant blaze in her eyes again. “It is true.”

“Mika, Iamthe fucking bear.” I inhale deep, and snatch up the hand lying so close to mine on the table. She resists a little at first, but her hand goes limp when I mesh our fingers together. “That’s what I keep trying to tell you.”

“You are no bear,” she murmurs.

Gone is every single trace of humor on her face. She stares at me, dead serious, her eyes searching my face. “I have met bears. You are not one.” She shrugs. “Maybe a wolf. But that we can debate.”

I sit back in my seat, biting down on my bottom lip as I look her over. “Girl, you must have a death wish.”

She should have fluttered her eyelashes at me or something—that’s what I expect, anyway—but instead she drops her gaze and squeezes my hand. After the shit we did in the back of my car, such a simple gesture shouldn’t do jack shit to me…but it’s somehow more intimate than when I was inches deep inside her.

“Stop lying,” she says.

My throat tightens. “About what?” I ask, suddenly hoarse. The urge to get up and walk away is back, but I’m anchored by her grip.

My heart starts pounding against my ribs.