Secret Santa Surprise: Book 29 in the Kindred Tales Series - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,9

her divorce, she’d paid for several therapy sessions to try and put the broken pieces of her self-esteem back together. Finding out, from the Private Eye she’d hired, that Steve had been cheating on her for years, had wounded her deeply. And her ex-husband’s constant verbal abuse hadn’t helped either. Now she used some of the techniques her therapist had taught her to deal with the traumatic effects that lingered from her failed marriage.

The first thing to do, was to stop the negative self-talk and push the ugly things her ex, Steve, had said to her out of her mind.

Closing her eyes, Melanie imagined shoving the awful, depressing ideas out the front door of her “mind house” as her therapist had called it. Then she shut the door firmly and locked it. Bad thoughts outside—you can’t bother me anymore.

Opening her eyes, she looked at herself in the 3-D viewer again.

“I look good,” she said aloud, very decisively. “I might be closer to forty than twenty, but I’m in good health and happy with my new job. I’m satisfied with my life choices.”

Personal affirmation done, she was about to go back to the kitchen or “food-prep area” as the Kindred called it, when a soft chime sounded from her front door.

That must be Clear!

Quickly, she fluffed up her hair and smoothed down her shirt—wiping her suddenly damp palms on her jeans—and ran for the door.

At the touch of a button, the door to her suite whooshed open and there was Clear, towering over her like…well, like a tall, sexy, muscular tower, Melanie thought, her breath suddenly getting caught in her throat as she looked up into his smoky green eyes. He was dressed in casual human clothes—jeans and a green shirt that made his eyes even more intense.

“Hello, Melanie,” he rumbled in that soft, deep voice of his. “I hope I am not late?”

“Oh, no—no of course not. Come in!” She stepped aside quickly and made a motion with one hand, ushering him into the room.

“Is there someone else here?” Clear asked, frowning curiously as he stepped into her living area.

“Someone else here?” Melanie repeated. “Uh, no—why would you think that?”

“I thought I heard talking right before I rang,” he explained. “It sounded like a conversation.”

Melanie felt her cheeks get hot. Oh God, he must have heard her self-affirmation! How horribly embarrassing!

“That…that was just me talking to my Aunt Marge,” she said quickly, hoping he hadn’t been able to hear exactly what she’d been saying. “She was asking about when I’m coming for Christmas this year.”

“Oh? Where does she live on Earth?” Clear asked.

“Down in Lutz—it’s a little town on the outskirts of Tampa, Florida,” she explained.

“Oh—one of the American states in the North American continent,” Clear said, snapping his fingers. “Of course! I have heard of that place—don’t you have huge carnivorous reptiles called dinosaurs that roam around in your area?”

“Close…” Melanie smothered a smile. “The dinosaurs have actually been extinct for something like eighty million years. But we do still have alligators in Florida and they can get pretty big and scary.”

“That’s too bad,” Clear said, looking disappointed. “I wanted to see some dinosaurs. Especially the Tyrannosaurus Rex.”

“Well, we could take a trip to Gator Land,” Melanie offered. “There are no T-rexes, but they do have gator wrestling.”

Clear frowned.

“I never said I wanted to wrestle with a dinosaur—just see one. There are humans who actually do that?”

“Sure.” Melanie shrugged. “People do all kinds of weird things. That’s humans for you.”

“I suppose. I’m still learning about human culture but it’s so complex…” Clear shook his head. “So are you going to spend the holiday with your mother’s sister?”

“Aunt Marge? Yeah, I am. She’s the only family I’ve got left now that—” She stopped abruptly.

“Now that what?” Clear asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, since my divorce.” Melanie made a shooing gesture, as though to push the unhappy memory aside. “It’s nothing,” she added. “I don’t even think about it anymore.”

“But it is something…” Clear stepped forward and lifted her chin so that their gazes met. “I can see it in your eyes,” he murmured. “This…di-vorce hurt you, didn’t it?”

He pronounced “divorce” like it was a strange and foreign word he didn’t completely understand and his eyes searched hers curiously.

Melanie could feel her heart thudding against her ribs. The big Kindred’s touch was so soft and gentle on her chin and his eyes were so kind and concerned. She couldn’t remember the last time Steve had looked at her like that—if he ever