Page 321 of Primal Bonds

“I guess.” She listlessly eyed the fruit bowl in the kitchenette before helping herself to an apple.

“So,” Isa said. “The beach, it was nice?”

“Sim. Hardly any humans. I even went for a swim.” At night and to hide her tracks from the fae, but Isa didn’t need to know that.

Isa set her hands on her ample hips. “And?”

Rosana took a bite of apple. “And what?”

“That’s not all you did. You were with him, weren’t you?”

“Yeah?” Rosana clenched the apple. “Well, if I was, that’s my business, not yours, isn’t it?”

The older woman’s eyes flickered with hurt.

Rosana sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Isa clucked disapprovingly—and then shocked her by saying, “You’re a woman now, bonita. Your choices are your own. I just don’t want you to be hurt.”

A raw ache stung Rosana’s throat. She set the half-eaten apple on the counter, hunger gone. “Isa.” She reached out her arms, wanting a hug so bad, and then checked herself.

Isa crossed the room to gently rub Rosana’s back over the tank top. She knew not to touch Rosana’s bare skin. “Was it so bad? He was cruel to you?” Her dark brows snapped together. “I’ll carve out his heart with a spoon.”

“No, no. He was…sweet.”

Isa snorted. “That one?”

“He was,” Rosana insisted. “And it wasn’t bad at all. It was…amazing.”

Her cheeks heated, because after all, this was the woman who was like a second mother to her.

“Then perhaps I like him after all,” Isa decided.

“It’s just…” Rosana blinked back tears. “Me and him? It’s never going to happen. He told me straight out.”

“Sit.” Isa’s dark eyes were sympathetic. “I’ll braid your hair. You went to bed with it wet, didn’t you?”

Rosana ran a hand over her head. It felt like a bush had sprung up on her scalp.

“Thanks,” she said with a sniff and allowed the other woman to guide her to the couch.

Isa shut the door between their apartment and Dion’s, and then got a brush and sat on the couch next to Rosana. “Tell me,” she said as she set to work on the tangles.

Rosana gave a small shake of her head. Once, she’d come running to Isa with every bruise and scrape, but this was one problem her former nurse couldn’t solve.

“Obrigada, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It might help. And hold still.” The tangles gone, Isa switched to long, soothing strokes.

Rosana let her head fall forward, eyes half-closed. How many times had Isa brushed her hair just like this? Nostalgia tugged at her, sharp and bittersweet, as if already, this was something she’d left behind along with her girlhood.

They fell silent, the older woman drawing the brush through her hair. When it was free of tangles, she began to plait one side into a braid. “Tell me,” she repeated. “Perhaps I can help.”

“I don’t think so.” Rosana’s mouth twisted. “Unless you can turn me into an earth fada.”

“Ah, bonita.” Isa braided the other side. “Is that what you think it will take?”

“He won’t have me any other way. And let’s face it, Dion would disown me if I mated with a Baltimore fada. Especially Adric.”

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