Page 101 of Suncatcher

“You smell like her.”

Fuck. Pearl definitely should have led with that. How was she supposed to explain now?

“I like her,” Driz added, still sounding sad. “I am glad she is your friend.”

Double fuck. Driz was far too sweet. “She’s the best. And she’s only a friend, nothing more. But I should tell you—we’ve mated before. Before you and I met. But we don’t now. I don’t desire anyone but you.” Pearl held her breath, heart in her throat.

Driz just stared at her, and then nodded.

“Are you angry about that?”

“Why would I be angry about that?”

“I thought you might be jealous.”

“You just said you do not desire her. Was that a lie? Should I be jealous?”

“No, but…” Pearl couldn’t help the small laugh. “I’m not used to people with hearts like yours.”

“How long have you known about my birth mother?”

Pearl swallowed, dismayed by the terrible change of subject. She hated to answer, but she wouldn’t lie. “My mother told me about it when she saw the necklace you gave me. It was hers. That’s how you had it. You got it the night you met. The night it all happened.”

“Why did you not tell me?”

“Because I thought you might get angry. At me. Or at my mother. I’m pissed at her, but I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to her.”

“You still do not trust me.”

“I do trust you. But it’s not a nice thing to learn.”

“No. It is not.” Driz had her arms wrapped around her own torso. Not used to having anyone else to hug her, she must have learned to hug herself.

Pearl’s eyes stung. “I wanted so much to hold you that night. I hate you had to be alone, for all of it. Will you let me hold you now? Please?”

Pearl held her breath, the fear of Driz refusing making her ill again.

Driz nodded, and Pearl walked the five paces to her. Driz uncrossed her arms and Pearl climbed into her lap, folding around Driz’s neck and shoulders. Simply hugging her.

They were still partially undressed from Pearl’s desperate attempts earlier, and Driz’s shirt gaped open, revealing the new bullet-wound scar that her body had healed but not fully erased. Pearl traced it lightly with her fingers.

“I was trying to stop this,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”

“I do not know what I know anymore.”

Those words hurt. But Pearl couldn’t be mad at them. “I’m so sorry, Driz. I’m so, so sorry. I know it’s not enough. But d’you think you can forgive me? Again?”

She pressed their foreheads together, drinking in the severe lines of Driz’s face and the regrowing hair on her left half where the fire had burned it away, the new growth already long enough for Pearl to run her fingers through.

“Does it matter?” Driz finally asked. “Your people will never accept me, will they?”

Pearl swallowed. “I don’t know if they will,” she answered honestly. “But I do. Please know that I’ll always accept you.”

Driz was everything Pearl had never dreamed of. Every part of Driz, from her giant heart to her fierce features, was beautiful. And Pearl, who didn’t care about anything, loved her.

That terrifying, world-breaking realization didn’t send her running as it should have. How could she run when Driz held her so gently? When she kissed her so tenderly, even now?

“I cannot quite remember what I am meant to forgive you for,” Driz whispered against her lips.