Romance MF: A Suspense Story With A Dark Hidden Secret (romance short story, suspense romance, romantic short stories, adult romance Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

any pretense. She said what was on her mind and there was nothing more or less to it than that. She just was , and he found himself transfixed as their conversation turned from politics to philosophy to stranger topics like gardening and even what the best beers were. According to Lily, it was imperative, absolutely imperative that Shane make a trip to Portland, the independent brewery capital of the world.
                  Eventually the topics started to become more personal as the wine bottle emptied, and he found himself telling her about his job and how recently he had started to question it.
                  “I can’t really relate,” she said, finally, and there was a note of finality in her tone, but also one of sympathy. “I mean, I’ve never really… lived that kind of life. But I can understand your feelings about it.”
                  “Maybe when you turn thirty you’ll suddenly realize you want to become an accountant,” he joked, and found himself grinning again. I haven’t really smiled or laughed like this in ages , he realized again.
                  “ That I doubt! I think for my thirtieth I want to do something special. Something memorable, y’know? What about you? What are you going to do for your thirtieth? You’ve only got a week to figure it out.”
                  “I don’t really know. I hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted.
                  She pursed her lips again and leaned on her elbows on the table and made a fish face at him. “Welllll, I think you should….”
                  “What?”
                  She shook her head and giggled. “Nothing. Nevermind.”
                  “That’s not fair,” Shane said, pouring the last dregs of the wine bottle in her glass as she mouthed the words thank you . He rubbed at his chin again. “Seriously, I need some ideas.”
                  “What do you want to do?” she asked.
                  He leaned back on his hands. It was a valid question, and one he was afraid to answer truthfully, even though he could feel the ambivalence of the wine’s effects on him threatening to say it out loud. He couldn’t accept it, though. It went contrary to everything he had ever known about himself. It would mean sacrificing too much, and he realized with a bit of sadness that he wasn’t as brave as Lily when it came to making decisions about his life.
                  “I don’t really want to say,” he said.
                  “Now you’re being unfair,” she said, and stood up and took his plate.
                  He watched her go and set the dishes in the sink, the sound of running water. He rubbed his face. “I want to just… go ,” he said, “what was that quote of yours, something Latin?”
                  “Solvitur ambulando.”
                  “That’s it,” he said, and finished off his wine. “Enough about me, I want to hear more about your travels. Where did you go after you left San Francisco?”
                  She scrunched her and sat down on the couch with her feet pulled up and shivered. He sighed and stood up to toss another log onto the fire and sat down beside her. She lifted her feet and then set them back down on his lap. She seemed hesitant to continue and shook her head.
                  “I don’t really want to talk about San Francisco,” she said.
                  “Uhm…”
                  “Let’s just say I was glad to get out of there and I’m not going back. Can we leave it at that?”
                  He nodded, suddenly taken aback by her seriousness and resistance to the subject. It was a side to her he had only seen a glimpse of since meeting her earlier that day. She carried it like a badge of silence, something that if she uttered too