Page 50 of Wild Life

I giggled. “You’re a regular Aphrodite, then.”

He studied my face like he was gazing into my soul. “You’re very pretty.”

Heat flushed my cheeks, and nerves fired through me. “Was that one of the tips in the article? Compliment your partner?”

“Yes, but that’s not why I said it.” He tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, hungrily eyeing my lips for more.

We kissed again, with the stars bearing witness to two lonely souls joining together as one.

Chapter 23

Love with the Power of the Ancestors

Maris

“I still can’t believe you were keeping all these books from me.” I skimmed my fingers over countless spines, all neatly stacked together inside of the richly colored wooden trunk. I was still stunned that it hadn’t sunk to the bottom of the sea with how sturdy it was.

I was like a kid in a candy store, as I searched the stash. The boys were all here. Dickens. Vernes. Hemmingway. I even spotted the beat-up dictionary that Aleki must have studied every day to widen his vocabulary and fight boredom.

“It was there, in p-plain sight. You could have open-ed it.”

“Yeah, but it was your private belongings.”

Aleki shot me a smirk. “When has that ever s-stopped you before?”

I pointed my finger at him. “Are you calling me a snoop?”

Sure, I wasn’t above prying. Hell, I had learned to hack phones to find dirt on the guys I was sleeping with while they were snoring right next to me. The FBI was no competition for my skills. I’d been raised on Matlock and Carmen Sandiego.Investigationwas my unofficial middle name. Still, Aleki hadn’t had to call me out like that.

He brought my digit to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to the pad. “I would never if I value my l-life.”

His gravelly voice still disarmed me and had a way of melting my insides, even if I was still annoyed that he’d withheld it for so long.

There were a few covers with shirtless men and busty women in flowy dresses.

“You were really holding out on me. Look at all these romance novels!” Though I was a Mafia girl, I loved all romance books so much that a part of me wanted to strangle Aleki for keeping them a secret.

He avoided my gaze. “They were Ma’s.”

I could tell from the wear and tear of the pages that she hadn’t been the only one to read them.

My attention was disrupted by the big fat letters on the cover of a magazine.Playboy. “Man, your dad’s tastes were…diverse,” I said, eyeing a copy of Chaucer’sThe Canterbury Talesright next to the image of a blonde with huge round breasts. I flipped through the pages—for the articles, of course.

“The sea is a l-lonely place.” For a change, it was Aleki’s tan cheeks that turned cherry red. As a serial blusher, it was amusing to witness it happen to someone else.

“Are you nervous I’ll hurt your magazine?”

“Why would I c-care when I have the real thing?”

Now, it was my face that turned crimson.

“Which rem-inds me…” Aleki grabbed something from between the nightstand and the bed. A white plastic bag, which was tied at the top.

Droplets of water flew as I undid the knot that bound the handles. The thick material swished as I opened it to peer inside. “Jane Eyre!” I squealed, pulling out the weathered paperback. It had seen better days, but the binding was still intact, and the pages were remarkably free of water damage. “This is my favorite book!”

I had read it over ten times and never tired of the love between Jane and Mr. Rochester.

“What’s it about?” he asked, cocking his head to examine the book over my shoulder.

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