Bird Song by S. L. Naeole Read Free Book Online

told me, but it didn’t seem right.   Why would Graham come to my room in the middle of the night?
    I told you, he wanted to talk about Lark.
    I couldn’t stop the small smile that formed on my face.   I tucked my lips between my teeth to fight them from pulling into a full blown grin, and focused on what it was that Graham might have thought after seeing Robert asleep with me in my room.
    You know what he was thinking.
    I stared at him, my lids still heavy with sleep, and shook my head.   I didn’t know.   I might know Graham better than anyone else, but if there was one thing these past few months have proven it’s that I didn’t know him as well as I had thought.
    He thinks that you and I…
    “What?   He thinks that you and I what?” I managed to croak out.
    He thinks that we’re having sex.
    I looked at Robert and felt the laughter start to ripple through me.   It was soft, nearly silent, but it was there, and it was irking Robert, which suited me just fine.   I wasn’t interested in making him feel better about what had just happened, and what Graham had assumed was going on between the two of us.
    What did it matter?
    It matters to me.   It’s insulting to think that we’d behave in such a manner.   You, and everything about you is paramount to me, Grace, and that includes your reputation.
    I rolled my eyes at that.   “What do you think he’s going to do?   Run around school and tell everyone that I’m sleeping with you?   It’s already difficult for most people to believe that you’re even interested in me, let alone sleeping with me.
    And that’s all this is between us, anyway.   Just sleeping, because it takes a feat of superhuman strength just to get you to kiss me.”   I rolled over and turned my back to him, the conversation and the fact that he felt so insulted by the thought of people thinking that he wanted to be with me turning the blood in my veins to ice.
    Grace, please stop jumping to conclusions.   This is difficult for me to talk about.   I’ve never had to before.
    I snorted at that.   “You’ve been around for over a thousand years, and you’ve never had to talk about your sex life?   Give me a little credit, please, Robert.”
    I felt a swift movement behind me and fell onto my back, suddenly finding myself pinned beneath a very angry angel.
    I give you all the credit in the world, Grace, but sometimes you have no idea how foolish you can be.   I’ve never had to discuss this before because there’s never been anything to discuss.   I cannot believe that I have to discuss this with you now, like this, but so be it.
    I have had many, many women and girls in my life.   But I have never, ever been with them in the way that I hope to someday be with you.   I have never felt this way about anyone, in fifteen hundred years of existing among your kind.   I have never wanted anyone as much as I want you.   But I have waited this long, and I can wait just as long for it to be right between us, to be safe between us.
    There are some things in life you expect to hear, know that you’ll hear, and know exactly how you’ll feel when you do.   Then there are moments like this, where what you hear is exactly the opposite of what you expected, and exactly the opposite of what you’re prepared for.
    “I…don’t understand.   Ameila said-”
    My mother told you something that was only half true.   I have been with many women and girls.   But not in the way that you think.   I’ve shared … thoughts with them, dreams of desires.   But it has never been … physical, and never anything near as desperate as what I want with you.
    The soft glow of light that surrounded Robert had changed from a muted black to a nearly brilliant blue as he saw the thought process in my mind run through the logical conclusions that were left to be made.
    “So you’re…”
    A virgin?   Yes.   Just as you are.
    I knew my mouth was hanging open in surprise; I knew that my eyes