Sexy Beast. Vivi Anna

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      The skies over San Francisco were a clear blue when their plane landed at San Francisco International Airport. Xandi chattered on about the sailboats on the bay and the heavy traffic along Nineteenth Avenue, but Keisha barely heard her friend’s voice. There was a lump in Keisha’s throat as their cab pulled up in front of her townhouse late in the afternoon.

      She stared at the freshly painted exterior for a moment, then stepped out of the cab and grabbed her bags. Xandi paid the cabbie and the two women climbed the stairs to the front door. Keisha took a deep breath before she stuck her key in the lock and opened the door.

      Keisha peered into the dim interior and inhaled a lungful of musty air before finally stepping inside the foyer. She heard a soft thump when Xandi set the bags down on the wooden floor behind her. The hollow sound emphasized the lonely sense of abandonment. There was an uncomfortable chill in the air and a thin layer of dust covered the once beloved, still beautiful antique furnishings Keisha had spent so much time collecting.

      She’d found peace here before the assault, but it hadn’t truly felt like sanctuary to her since, even less so, now that Carl Burns knew where she lived. No, that peace was strongest in the deep forests of Montana when she ran with her packmates.

      Feeling a gentle sense of loss over her once treasured home, Keisha reached for the thermostat and turned the heat up a notch. She sensed Xandi’s concern and her shoulders slumped.

      “You okay?”

      “Yeah.” Keisha turned and leaned back against the wall. “It just feels really weird, coming back here. It’s not home anymore.” She swept her fingers slowly across the textured wallpaper. “I decorated every inch of this place, made it into exactly the space I wanted. Now I realize it’s not what I want at all.”

      Xandi nodded as if she understood completely. “Maybe it’s time to sell. Move on. It was a positive step for me when I resigned my job, gave up the apartment…gave myself to Stefan without any ties holding me anywhere else.”

      Keisha stared at her friend for a long moment. Xandi had never seemed happier, more content than she was now that she’d permanently moved with Stefan to Anton’s Montana home.

      Keisha wanted that same feeling—the solid foundation of Anton’s love—but what of her hard-won independence? Her need to control the direction of her own future? Would Xandi understand?

      Would she have any answers?

      “Xandi, do you ever feel as if Alexandria Olanet has become lost in Stefan Aragat? Do you worry about losing you in him? Losing your identity, your sense of self?” She held her hand up, giggled and shook her head. “Now I sound like my shrink!”

      “No you don’t. You sound like a very serious-minded woman who is still a bit unsure of this whole life-changing set of events.” Xandi drew Keisha into a brief but loving hug. “I finally decided, just like Popeye, I yam what I yam. I’m not merely human. I am Chanku. I’ve had to reevaluate my feelings about a lot of things. Being mated to a hard-headed shape-shifter is only one of many adjustments.” She laughed. “Try not to worry. You will always be Keisha Rialto, even though you are Anton Cheval’s mate. It works. Trust me.”

      Trust. That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?

      Xandi nodded, smiling. Exactly. C’mon. Let’s unpack and go eat. I’m starving.