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“I don’t know. It’s like I know him, but I don’t. It’s like I’ve seen him, but I haven’t. It’s like he’s here, but he shouldn’t be.”
“He seems alright to me…so far, anyway. Maybe he’s just shy and you’re not used to shy people around you.”
He grinned. “You’re shy,” he said.
“You think?”
“I do.”
“Who was it who kissed who at the swamp today?” she asked.
“Yeah, but that just because I’m so irresistible,” he said.
They were lying on their backs looking at the moonlight shining through the thin material of his tent. Their bodies were touching, and the heat was already burning up her core. She was starting to believe that spontaneous human combustion was a real thing.
She rolled up onto one elbow and looked at his eyes as they sparkled in the dim light. When he lifted his head up off the bed, she bent forward and kissed him. He was ready to dive in for more when she pulled away. “Still think I’m shy?” she asked.
“You’ll have to do more than that to prove me wrong,” he said.
“That’s all you’re getting tonight,” she said.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” she replied. “You know we’ve got to give Mack his bike back.”
“Yeah…so?”
“We’ll be riding on yours tomorrow. You’ll get lots of cuddles all day.”
“I need more than cuddles,” he said.
“OK, so…I’m…um…” He waited. “Maybe I am just a little bit shy, OK? It’s our first night…I’m not an easy girl…”
“Hey, I don’t like easy girls,” he said.
“What do you like?” she asked.
“Girls like you. Mystery and imagination. Secrets but no lies.”
She swallowed. She hoped he hadn’t seen that. She had secrets…the worst kind. Guilt and shame. Those were the darkest secrets that tortured the soul.I haven’t told any lies…yet. I hope I don’t have to…I really do.“I think you’ve got secrets of your own,” she said.
“Everyone’s got secrets,” he said. “Some big, some small. Some they will share…eventually…and some they will take to their graves. It’s not for us to know them all.”
“Mmm…true.”
She was ready to change the conversation when he said, “Sometimes the biggest secret is who we really are. The secret person in our own selves, that even we really don’t quite know.”
She let out a breath. She didn’t really know herself anymore. By living her life for someone else, she’d lost herself along the way. And then when the Eden she thought her husband loved became someone he couldn’t even bear to look at, even she felt disgusted with herself.
“You know what your biggest secret is? The one that I’d really love to know?” Cruz asked.
She had a worried look on her face. She didn’t want to know what he wanted to know. She’d had counseling…and she’d come on this ride to get away from all of that.
He lifted his hand and brushed aside the strands of hair that had fallen across her face, only to see sadness in her eyes again.
She could tell he wasn’t going to ask her without permission, so she said, “What?”
She flinched when he touched the tip of his finger between her breasts, but relaxed when he said, “The secret to this woman’s heart.” And then he kissed her, and all the talk melted away and she felt loved...even if it was for just a while.
