Kulti’s head jerked to look at me directly.

“What?” I asked, surprised by his expression.

“Have you kept in contact with him?”

I shrugged. “He calls me between girlfriends, but that’s it.”

“To get back together?” Why his voice was so low I couldn’t understand, and I gave him a weird look.

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t happen. He’s slept around a lot since we split. I’m not one of these girls that think men who have slept with hundreds of women are sexy. That’s gross. I don’t loan my body out to just anyone, and I don’t like the idea of a bunch of girls knowing what someone I love’s penis looks like, you know?”

A muscle in Kulti’s jaw ticked and I swear his eye twitched. Then I realized what had just come out of my mouth.

“No offense to you. It’s your business whatever you decide to do with yourself. I’m not going to judge. I’m just old-fashioned and picky. That’s probably why I haven’t been in a relationship since him, huh?”

His eye definitely twitched that time, and I felt bad for pretty much calling him an unattractive man-whore.

“Look, I’m sorry. Just because I can’t imagine being intimate with someone I don’t love doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It’s not for me. Different strokes for different folks.”

Kulti’s eye twitched again. I didn’t miss the way he was biting down hard and making his cheek flex either.

“What?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.

Nothing.

The German tipped his head back and closed his eyes, his fingers going for the bridge of his nose. One inhale, one exhale. Another inhale, one more exhale. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Rey, are you okay?”

One eye opened as his chest puffed. “Stop talking about sex.”

Jeez. “Okay. Sorry. I didn’t take you to be a prude.”

He choked, his other eye opening. But did he say a word? No, he didn’t.

I sat there waiting for him to make another comment, but nothing came out of his mouth. I really hadn’t taken him as a person who would get offended so easily. The ‘s’ word hadn’t even come out of my mouth, much less anything raunchier. So I didn’t completely understand why he was getting so bent out of shape.

When he continued to say nothing and he kept looking at the support for the bottom of the top bunk bed, I fidgeted. “Can I see your tattoo now?” He’d been a little too secretive about it, and I’d been wondering what the hell he was hiding all day.

Mr. Secret’s chin moved just a tiny bit to the side before he nodded almost belligerently. Setting his tablet flat on the bed, he arranged his body to the side and carefully pulled the sleeve of his undershirt up. Where less than forty-eight hours ago there had been a tattoo nearly as old as me, a cross, it had been covered as if by magic with the outline of a bird. It was a beautiful, regal-looking bird.

“A Phoenix,” Kulti explained like he could read my mind.

“I can’t even see your old one at all,” I told him, still inspecting the great, beautiful wings and the eccentric-looking crest on its head. “This is amazing, Rey.” I wanted to touch it but the skin was still a little irritated, and I didn’t want to be the one to accidentally scratch it and mess it up before it was healed. “Seriously, way better than that cross you had before. What made you decide to get that?”

The German eyed me as he scooted back into place and tugged his shirtsleeve back down. “Someone told me I can’t take back what I’ve done, but what I do from now on is what matters. It seemed fitting.”