Secret Santa Surprise: Book 29 in the Kindred Tales Series - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,10

had to begin with.

“It…was painful, yes,” she admitted breathlessly. “The worst part of it was that I found out my ex-husband had been cheating on me for years. He—” She stopped abruptly.

Way to overshare and scare the poor guy away, Melanie! whispered a little voice in her brain.

“He what?” Clear asked, still concerned.

“He was a jerk.” Melanie shrugged. “But what can you do? It’s over and I’m getting over it.”

This was another phrase her therapist had taught her and it really helped to say it out loud once in a while.

“I just don’t understand it,” Clear murmured, releasing her chin but still looking into her eyes. “I don’t understand how humans can leave their mates and go looking for someone else. Even less understandable is the idea that a male would ‘cheat’ as you put it, on a lovely female like you.”

Melanie looked away, breaking eye-contact at last.

“Men cheat all the time. Are you telling me that the Kindred are really that different?”

“Yes, of course.” Clear sounded shocked that she would even ask. “We are bonded to our mates in the most permanent way and on the most basic level. The idea of seeking sexual or emotional satisfaction from another female would be…” He shook his head, as though looking for an analogy that fit. “It would be like me cutting off my hand and trying to find another I liked better to sew in its place. Do you see?”

“I suppose…” Melanie tried to smile. “I guess we humans must seem pretty strange to you, huh? Between our weird Christmas traditions and the alligator wrestling and the cheating…”

“I have a much easier time understanding Christmas and wrestling with deadly reptiles than I do the concept of divorce and cheating,” Clear admitted.

“But, well…” Melanie started, then shook her head. “No, never mind.”

“What is it?” Clear said, frowning.

“Well, it’s just…on the subject of cheating…” Melanie took a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t opening a can of worms. “Since Twin Kindred share a mate, doesn’t it feel like…like she’s cheating on you when you, uh, see her with your brother? Your twin?”

“Well first, a Twin Kindred cannot touch a female sexually unless his twin is also touching her—not without pain,” Clear said. “And second, no, it doesn’t feel like cheating because she is bound to both twins and the bond they share is between all three of them.”

“So…if you were, uh, bonded to a woman and you saw your brother kissing her or…or touching her, it wouldn’t bother you at all?” Melanie raised an eyebrow at him. “I mean, that’s hard to believe. Maybe because human men are usually so unwilling to, er, share the way you guys do.”

Clear shrugged, his big shoulders rolling under the plain green t-shirt he was wearing.

“My brother’s pleasure is mine. And my pleasure is his. We feel it all through our link and share it as we do all things in life.”

“That’s fascinating.” Melanie nodded. “I’m going to put that into the docu-vid I’m making, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d love for you to,” Clear told her. “Actually, I was discussing your vid with my brother and he had some suggestions you might want to consider adding in as well.”

“Come tell me about it while you show me how to work the wave,” Melanie suggested. She gave a little laugh. “We’ve just been standing here talking since you got here.”

“Do you mind?” Clear asked, following her into the kitchen.

“Oh, no!” Melanie shook her head. “It’s nice to meet a guy who’s willing to have a conversation. My ex was so taciturn, there at the end that half the time I felt like I was just talking to myself when we—” She stopped herself. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring him up again.”

“You can if you want to,” Clear offered. “I don’t mind hearing about your former mate. I consider it a cautionary tale—a list of things that human women dislike. Or at least, things that you dislike.”

“Oh, no…” Melanie said, frowning. “You’re never supposed to talk about past relationships during a date. Er…” She stopped abruptly. “I mean, not that this is a date, or anything. You’re just helping me learn to use my crazy Kindred appliances…” She tried to laugh and it came out sounding false and embarrassed. God, why had she said that? She felt like a fool.

“Do you want this to be a date? Part of a courtship ritual?”

The sound of Clear’s deep voice was so hopeful that she couldn’t help looking up to see the