Twice a Wish (GODDESS ISLES Book 2) by Pepper Winters

Author:Pepper Winters [Winters, Pepper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

SULLY SWITCHED FROM RABID to frozen.

His lips still glistened from our kiss and his chest still rose and fell with tattered breath, but all hint of carnal connection vanished the moment his gaze locked on the tiny bird that’d chosen that moment to claim me as its own.

Little feathers bristled by my ear. A tune of disgruntled chirps fell quietly from its beak. It reminded me of a disapproving relative—slightly afraid, mostly disturbed, but defiantly protective.

Sully swallowed and shook his head, his eyebrows tugging low over his blistering blue gaze. Ever so slowly, he zipped up his trousers, buckled his belt, and dragged both hands through his hair.

His motions were meticulous and refined, his moods mercurial in their swiftness.

Why did he care that a parrot had befriended me? He had one. He loved Pika more than he was capable of loving someone of his own species. Why couldn’t I have a confidant like him?

I braced my shoulders, nudging my cheek against the feathered creature. The parrot puffed up, covering my cheek with beak kisses.

Sully actually groaned with dismay.

My heart flip-flopped. My stomach turned gooey. I’d gone from fighting my dangerous emotions toward Sully to falling madly in love with a bird.

Sully pinched the bridge of his nose as if warding off a headache. When he finally dropped his hand, a thin veneer of composure covered him, but something behind it ached with pain. His sea gaze snatched mine. “Care to tell me why you stole my caique?”

I balled my hands, activating blisters from rowing. He could take away my freedom. He could steal away my heart. But he couldn’t accuse me of theft when I hadn’t done so. “It followed me when I left in the kayak.”

“It?” He cleared his throat. “It’s a she.” A softness glimmered in his stare. “She came from the same clutch as Pika.”

I tasted something I hadn’t had before. Conversation. A glimpse behind the curtain that made up the man before me. “They’re siblings?”

“I suppose you could call them that.”

“Where did they come from?”

His lips pressed together, refusing to reply, but Skittles squeaked and flew around Sully’s head. She didn’t land on him, though. She returned to me, settling lightly on my shoulder as if she’d always been welcome there.

He sighed heavily as if pissed by this change of events, hurting by the fact I’d earned affection from something he believed was his own. “Fourteen years ago, I found her in a wire bottom cage.” His temper flickered, threading with his sudden gentleness. “I stole the eggs and hatched them. They’ve been with me ever since.”

I turned to stare at the tiny parrot. Her wing speared upright as she nibbled at the feathers underneath. She seemed perfectly content and trusting, when only yesterday she’d still watched me warily—almost as if she’d been judging me, examining me for any sign that I wasn’t worthy before deciding I was hers.

I’d never had a pet before—never had that bond between creature and human—but it wasn’t from lack of trying.

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