There’s a faint glow from a lamp, throwing light across the walls and catching on the worn leather of a chair.
And the scent hits me the second the door clicks shut behind us.
Phantom. Ivory soap and smoke. A hint of mint. The warmth of his cologne that clings to the back of my memory.
I almost laugh at how much I feared coming in here to find remnants from current lovers who took my place. But I see nothing that doesn’t belong to Phantom.
Except…
I walk over to the nightstand and pick up a heavy silver frame. Inside the glass is a picture of us the day before he proposed. I’m all smiles and he’s looking at me like I am the stars in his universe. I place it back on the nightstand and slowly turn to face him. My heart is pounding so hard it feels loud in the quiet room.
He watches me like prey and as if I am an answered prayer all at once.
I pull back a fraction more and he moves to take one of my hands in his. He brings it to his lips. Small kisses send jolts of electricity to parts of me that have been numb for a long time.
A light of hope flashes across his face. It’s buried under years of pain, angst, and loneliness, but I see it. And I am responsible for putting both inside this man’s heart.
But I know the arousal I see in the way he’s visually caressing my curves can’t happen until he knows why I left.
“I like the ideas you have floating around in your head, Phantom. But they’ll have to wait a minute.”
The tip of his lip curls into a half grin. “You can see my thoughts, can you?”
I shuffle forward until I have my fingers sliding through his hair. I rise to the tips of my toes and don’t stop until I have my lips on his. Our breath mingles and the way he holds me to him says weare going to have a meeting of the bodies before we have one of the mind and heart if I stay in his arms much longer.
I physically watch my one-time lover’s chest expand and his eyes flicker with dark intentions when I pull away.
“Everly,” he groans in a husky voice that says his patience is running thin.
Goosebumps erupt over my skin from the guttural rumble in his chest.
I twine our fingers together and lead him to a small sofa pushed up against the far wall and sit. When he finally takes the seat beside me I spill my heart out for him to either accept or reject.
“You said you know about Shawn, right? The night he died?”
Phantom nods. “It was the night you left me. Actually, if memory serves, I proposed, you said yes and then you left me before noon. Shawn was discovered later that night. I couldn’t find you for hours. You didn’t answer your phone. Nothing. And then news traveled fast through the underground about Shawn. It took everything the men could find to keep me from approaching your father. They didn’t want a war, and I didn’t have proof you didn’t leave me on your own, so I begged Chloe to help me.”
The rough edges of his voice cause my heart to clench.
“She never told me you came looking.”
“Every day for the first year and then every month in the next and by the third year I lost hope. I didn’t know if you were dead with your brother or what.” Wisps of pain whip across his dark expression.
My heart races, but I push through the doubt of saying so much. Phantom deserves to know everything. I slowly nod. “My father murdered him and brought me and Micah into his office still wearing the shirt he wore when he shot him. Specks of blood are hard to miss on a crisp white shirt.” I drag my eyes off Phantom and pin them to the floor so I can see the sympathy in his eyes for my pain. I need to get through this without crying.
Phantom quietly strokes his thumb over the back of my hand and gives me the time I need. Heartbeat after heartbeat, I gather the rest of my strength from the deepest parts of my soul and push on.
“Shawn loved the family business and was glued to our father’s every word for years. Only thing is, our younger brother suffered from two of our father’s shortcomings–an abundance of ego and arrogance.”
“What did he do that got him killed?”
“Shawn was a people person and had the gift for words. He sweet-talked my father’s first suppliers for some hardcore drugs into selling to him first so he could then turn and up the price to my father. He told my father the suppliers upped the price when in reality it was his price my father was paying.”
Phantom stays silent as I continue.
“My father found out and ended him on the spot in a dirty warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Like he was not his own flesh and blood.”
Phantom watches me as I speak. This is the first time I’ve actually put the horror story into words for another person and they hurt as deeply as I imagined.
