She stopped.
The word had slipped out before she could slap a muzzle on it.
Phei's ears twitched. He heard it. We both love. Present tense. Inclusive.
A word she would have amputated from the sentence if she'd had one more second to think.
He didn't press her to repeat it. Didn't give her the chance to claw it back.
Instead he said, "You might not believe this. But you'd be surprised at how easy and accepting Elena would be."
She pulled back just enough to look at him. Those dark eyes—sceptical, sharp, the particular expression of a mother who had just been fed something absurd about her own child and was deciding whether to be offended or darkly amused.
The look that screamed you're saying bullshit just to make me feel better.
He shook his head, a lazy smirk tugging at his mouth. "Actually—Elena Ashford is more mature and more open-minded than you or all other people in Paradise think."
