Page 15 of March 5

Her friend shrugged. "You're leaving outhowhe asked you to spend the night."

She stabbed a sweet and sour chicken with her fork. "Well, he never asked."

"Skye."

"Okay. Okay." She set down her loaded fork and wiped her hands on one of the napkins from Ying's.

One of the reasons she had never confided in Mariah about her feelings toward Dio was that her best friend was always suspicious of why she wanted to hang around him all the time. Ever since she was eight or nine years old, she could tell Mariah thought it was weird how she was close to Dio. Mariah judged Dio because of some preconceived idea that men, especially older men, were creeps.

Because of that, she avoided talking about her feelings toward Dio. She would never want Mariah to think Dio was a pervert.

"He fell asleep during the massage, and I worried he'd get up during the night and hurt himself. So, I stayed over there," she said.

"Where did you sleep?"

She shoved the piece of chicken in her mouth. "Mm-his-bed-mm."

"What?" Mariah gawked at her. "You slept with him?"

"No." She wiped her mouth with the napkin and swallowed. "He was hurt. I slept next to him in bed. Don't read anything more into it."

Mariah kept staring at her. "But you wanted tosleep with him."

Skye choked on the food and coughed. The more she tried to stop, the more violent her coughing fit became.

Mariah retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge and handed it to her. She drank and caught her breath. Were her true feelings showing on her face?

"Truth." Mariah's gaze intensified.

She would never lie when asked for the truth. That trust between her and Mariah made them best friends. She never had anyone in her life who accepted her so openly. But her feelings toward Dio weren't normal. They were private, complicated, and wonderful.

"I hate talking about it because you wouldn't understand," she whispered. "He's not...whatever you think he is. He's been there for me forever."

"That makes it even worse, Skye." Mariah rounded the island. "It's not healthy. It's like...he planned it."

"Planned what? Nothing happened. I slept at his house. I didn't sleepwithhim." She inhaled deeply, knowing if he had asked her, she would've had sex with him. "I chose to stay at his house, and yes, in his bed. He wasn't even aware of what I'd done until he woke up this morning."

"Then, what did he do?"

She exhaled in defeat. "He sent me away."

Mariah studied her. She shrugged. It was hard to explain her feelings. No one would understand.

Mariah hugged her. "I love you, but you never answered me."

She closed her eyes. It would be so nice tohave someone to talk to about her feelings toward Dio. Some days, it felt like she was going to explode.

"I swear, he doesn't know how I feel about him." She pulled back and looked into Mariah's eyes. "It'll sound crazy, but I've always loved him. It's just different now. I see him as someone I want to be with in every way possible. Like, whenever I'm with him, I want to touch him. I stand there hoping he can see how I feel because it's too difficult to explain how I went from loving him one way to wanting to love him a different way. He doesn't view me as a woman open to being with him."

"He'd have to be blind not to see how beautiful you are," whispered Mariah. "And, I know for a fact, he's not blind. I've seen the way he looks at you."

Hope filled her. "You have?"

"Why do you think I've had such an attitude toward him?" Mariah blew out her breath. "Whenever you talked about him, I worried he was grooming you."

"Grooming?" She laughed. "Dio? Are you serious? He would never hurt me."

"Admit it. Your relationship with him—that you've always had with him— is strange because he's acted like an...an uncle to you."