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. I’d constantly begged my parents for any sort of animal to adore. A squirrel, hamster, cricket, frog, even a cow, goat, and pig. I’d already asked for the standard dog, cat, and rabbit only to be refused any of them. To me, they all deserved love and kindness—not just the ones sold in a pet shop but also the ones born for slaughter. That was probably why I’d become a vegetarian. I couldn’t separate the pets from the consumed. They were all the same.
I was exceedingly aware I stood naked before Sully, adorned by a single bird and his tie around my throat, but I ignored my vulnerability in favour of talking. If I could figure out what had caused him to become the way he was, maybe I had a chance of undoing the tangles around his heart. “Why doesn’t she hang out with you and Pika?”
Sully sighed again. “She doesn’t like people. She prefers the wild.”
Stepping carefully toward him, I asked, “Then why did she land in my kayak and travel with me?” I reached up, testing the incredible new connection with a feathered flyer and waited until she hopped onto my finger. She did so without hesitation. Her talons wrapping tight, her eyes inquisitive and smart.
Sully scowled as I brought my hand closer to him. I offered Skittles as a peace offering, a reminder I hadn’t stolen her, she’d stolen me. He looked as if he’d back away, but at the last second, he raised his own hand, our fingertips touching.
A zing of power shot from his blood into mine, making our breath catch. Skittles permitted him to stroke her head, but she refused to transfer to his offered perch. Skipping up my arm, she snuggled back into the dip of my shoulder and neck.
Sully dropped his hand with a guarded, black look. “It appears she has chosen you.”
“Does that bother you?”
“She’s free to make up her own mind. For some idiotic reason, she’s picked you.”
“Why?”
His eyebrows tugged together. “Why? Who knows.” His gaze skimmed over my nakedness. “Perhaps she feels sorry for you. Maybe she thought you would die and decided to chase suicide beside you.”
I ignored his deliberate barbs. Too much had passed between us not to see through his rage. He felt something. Something he couldn’t control.
And he didn’t want it. He didn’t trust it. He was determined to kill it before it could grow any deeper. Which was fine by me because I also didn’t want it, trust it, or was strong enough to endure it. By allowing him to find me, I’d sentenced myself to four years.
Four years of sleeping with a stranger once a week.
That would be all I could handle.
I couldn’t cope falling in love with the monster who served me to those strangers too.
“Maybe…or maybe she found her person, just like Pika found you.”
He froze. “You’re claiming my parrot now?”
“She claimed me first.”
“She’ll soon realise it was a mistake.”
I stiffened. “Are we still talking about a bird, Sully? Or—”
A crash sounded behind me. Sully’s head snapped up. His eyes shuttered, hiding any hint of connection we’d shared.
“Stay where you are!” His hand swooped up as I turned to look over my shoulder. A man appeared. Local to Indonesia, lean and lanky, running toward us. The guy heard Sully’s shout, skidding to a stop, his face animated and impatient.
Where the hell did he come from?
I blushed as the guy’s eyes zeroed in on my nakedness, blatantly drinking me in as his mouth fell open in shock.