he answered gruffly and looked up to me. “She left the bird there once when she went to come after me. I went back to the cave after some time and saw that she had abandoned it. She’s never tried to take it back since.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll be honest, you deserve that. I never brought it up before because there was never a reason to, but she would find me and I would pretend with her sometimes.” “Pretend what?” I asked and it came out shrill. I cleared my throat. “Pretend to be what she wanted,” he confessed. I tensed and his arms around me tightened a bit to keep me there. “But you told me you were never with her,” I accused. “I wasn’t. Never. I would never lie to you. She’d show up and there was no way to leave unless I bolted and she’d be too close behind. I had to distract her so I could catch her off guard and get a head start. So, sometimes…I would act like I was surrendering. I’d let her kiss me. She was so gullible, she believed that I had caved.
