Free Freedom's Price by Suzanne Brockmann Page B

or not Lauren Stuart and I have a sexual relationship is none of your business.”
    Lauren Stuart. Liam’s “lady friend’s” full name was Lauren Stuart. She sounded like a real New England WASP, tall and blonde and elegant—everything Marisala was not. Marisala couldn’t squelch her jealousy. “Your life’s not my business? Forgive me, I thought we were friends.”
    “We
are
friends. But even with friends, you have to learn not to blurt out any old question that pops into your mind.”
    “That wasn’t ‘any old question.’ It was a specific question for which I wanted to know the answer. I wouldn’t have asked you something so personal if I hadn’t spent more weeks than
you
can remember changing your bedpan, amigo.”
    “I’m not so sure of that.”
    “Believe me, it
was
weeks.”
    “I’m not talking about the bedpans, I’m talking about you saying whatever you want,
when
ever you want.
That’s
what you need to work on, and I want you to start by practicing with me.”
    “But in the jungle—”
    “Our friendship is different here than it was in the jungle. Back then, Mara, we shared everything, even after I stopped needing bedpan service. Clothes, blankets—the food we ate.” He looked at her over the tops of his sunglasses and tried to get her to smile. “Sometimes we shared the food we ate long after we ate it. Remember Rafe’s famous beans? Living in such close quarters, we shared more than we should have.”
    They
had
shared just about everything—except for what she truly wanted. They hadn’t shared their need for physical comfort, for physical love. As they’d spent night after night in that tiny shelter, Marisala had ached for him to kiss and touch her. She had longed for him to temporarily transport her away from the death and destruction they lived with, day in and day out.
    But he never had.
    It was true, she had been only seventeen and still inexperienced when Liam had left the island. She hadn’t known what love could be between a man and a woman. If she had, she would have convinced him—somehow—to share such a miracle with her.
    “Is she beautiful, this Lauren? May I ask that?”
    “Yes, and yes. She’s a very beautiful woman.”
    Woman. Lauren was a woman, while Marisala was not—at least not in Liam’s eyes. He still thought of her as a child.
    And it was only a matter of time before she woke up in the night to hear the soft sounds of female laughter as Liam brought this beautiful Lauren Stuart up to his room. It was only a matter of time before Marisala came face-to-face with Liam’s lover over the breakfast table.
    She glanced at her watch. If they didn’t hurry, they were going to be late for her appointment. And suddenly her search for an apartment of her own seemed imperative—moving out of Liam’s condo was of the utmost urgency.
             
    “I’m sorry,” Liam said to the goatee-wearing young man who’d shown them into an extremely cluttered living room. Dan. He’d introduced himself as Dan. “I think maybe I’ve misunderstood. You’re
not
moving out of this place?”
    “He’s renting out only
one
of the rooms,” Marisala explained. “See, this house has four bedrooms—”
    “Five,” Dan interjected.
    “And one of them is empty. For only two hundred and fifty dollars a month, I could become a housemate. I’d have to share the kitchen and living areas, but—”
    “Hey, we’re friendly.” Dan smiled at Marisala. His teeth were straight and white. “No one bites—at least not too hard. Come on, you want to see the room?”
    “Are you a student, Dan?” Liam followed them. He hated this. Marisala moving into a house with strange people—one of them being this man—was a bad idea.
    “I’m in law school. Northeastern.” Dan answered him politely, but then turned back to Marisala as he led the way up a flight of stairs. “I hope you like the room. You’re exactly what we’ve been looking for. You’ll have to meet the