Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Naomi gave a blasé shrug. “Fine.”
“Just fine?” Tia prodded as she began pushing the chairs closer to the table.
“Just fine.”
“Huh. Must be something else that has you looking so content. The resting bitch face has gone. You’re a woman who is quite clearly satisfied with her life—I can tell. That man is doing something right. Maybe you should let this one stick around.”
Naomi felt her brows slide together. “What do you mean ‘let’?”
“I mean that you have a habit of cutting men loose as soon as things get serious.” Tia reached across the table to snatch up the pile of angel cards sitting near the crystal ball. “You avoid emotional intimacy. Yes, you have secrets to guard. But that isn’t the only reason you do it.”
Feeling a little defensive, Naomi folded her arms. “Oh, it’s not?” she asked, snippy.
“No. Throughout your life, no matter your age, you’ve been bombarded with male attention. All sirens have that problem. There are enough sickos in this world that grown men are attracted to us when we’re children. We have to deal with them trying to stroke our hair, lure us closer, or watch us play in the park. It makes our skin crawl. Makes us feel preyed on. Makes us feel dirty and objectified.”
Naomi ground her teeth, recalling those occasions. Recalling the greedy gleam in the eyes of those men. “It must have been harder for you. You must have picked up some of what they were thinking, even seen flashes of what they were imagining.”
Tia swallowed, slipping the angel cards into a velvet pouch. “I did, but it doesn’t make my experiences worse than yours. Things get no better for sirens as we grow. It affects all our interpersonal relationships. Your friends distanced themselves from you when you were teenagers. One did it because it creeped her out that her dad would stare at you. Another did it because her boyfriend was so affected by your song. A third did it to please the jealous little bitches who bullied you simply because they didn’t like that you took away the male attention they sought.”
Naomi shoved back the memories that tried surfacing. Memories of how her friends had turned on or away from her. Memories of those previous friends laughing at what the bullies said or did.
“All of that impacts a person’s growth,” Tia went on. “Even when you were a kid, it made you try to fade into the background. You didn’t want to be seen. Which hasn’t changed. You won’t even claim credit for your work because you don’t want the publicity.”
“Yeah, well.”
“Hey, I’m not giving you grief here, honey. I get it.” Tia placed the pouch of cards in her storage chest. “We reach a point where we loathe attention so much that we feel uncomfortable whenever we have it. Especially since it’s mostly sexual. So when a guy comes along who, unlike those who came before him, has a genuine interest in us as a person . . . we don’t know what to do with it.
“I had not one clue how to deal with Alfie seeing past me being a siren. I’d come to expect betrayal, resentment, and abandonment. I expected it from him as well, and I almost pushed him away because of it.”
Naomi frowned. “I didn’t know that.”
“Thankfully he’s a patient and perseverant man who doesn’t give up on those he cares for. The point is that I was like you once upon a time—I walked into every relationship expecting it to go south. Expect more, Naomi. You deserve more. Reach for it.”
“You act like Luka’s offered me more and I threw the offer back in his face. He hasn’t.”
“But he might. I’ve been assured by multiple people that you have his focus in a way no other woman has.”
Naomi’s pulse spiked. “What people?”
“I don’t name my sources.” Tia’s gaze briefly lowered to Naomi’s throat. “You’ve worn that brand for weeks now. It hasn’t faded the tiniest bit. And my guess is that it’s not the only one on your body. Ah, I’m right.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to—your expression answered for you. If there comes a point where he suggests taking things up a notch, don’t reflexively back away.”
Her mother talked as if it would be a natural thing for him to make such an offer. Talked like Luka would easily grow to want something permanent, but could he really give so much of himself to another person? Naomi wasn’t sure. She didn’t know if someone like him could ever really belong to anyone.
Her demon had the same doubts. Luka was just so solitary, so self-contained. And his mental walls were pure steel. There’d be no sneaking past them, chipping at them, or poking holes in them. He’d have to willingly lower them for her, and she wasn’t certain he ever deliberately would.