“Yes, sorry about the alarm, but this downpour makes me nervous,” Bel said.
“No need to explain. It’s why I gave it to you. Now climb into the back seat so I can drive,” he ordered. “Olivia, Ewan dropped me off. Do you want to ride with him since he’s headed in your direction?”
“No,” she spoke so fast that the words smacked Eamon in the face.
“Okay… so I guess I can’t drive naked. Sorry, my love.” He lunged forward and pressed a sloppy wet kiss on Bel’s lips. “I’ll have to soak your seat.”
“As long as you clean it up when we get home.” Bel gave him a bigger, sloppier kiss and then climbed into the back with her damp dog.
“When have I ever made you clean or service this car?” He waved Ewan off and then eased onto the road.
“Can you really drive in this weather?” Olivia asked, the wall of water thickening as the SUV picked up speed.
“It’s fun.” Eamon reached behind his seat, fingers searching the air until Bel accepted his invitation. “Few things are a challenge for me.”
“Shouldn’t you have both hands on the wheel?” Olivia looked seconds away from climbing out of the SUV and chasing down her ex-boyfriend, the drive home in hostile territory preferable to Eamon’s recklessness.
“I should.” Eamon squeezed Bel’s hand, and she braced for the acceleration. “But where’s the fun in that?”
“Your roses.”Bel scanned the storm-mauled garden, the carnage harsh beneath the soft tones of the sunrise.
“I don’t know how many bushes I can salvage. I may have to start over with new plants,” the shirtless and dirt-streaked Eamon said as he strode through the disaster with a broken bush in one fist and a football in the other. “That storm ripped through here without a care, and I think we lost some shingles too.” He tossed the damaged plant onto the garbage pile and then launched the football deep into the garden.
“I had trouble sleeping through it.” Bel handed him her coffee cup, and he took a long sip before returning it to her with a kiss on the cheek.
“You were restless all night.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt you, but it sounded like war out here. I’m glad I called you to drive us home. I would’ve ended up in a ditch.”
“Hey.” Eamon paused halfway through shoving a leaning tree’s roots back into the dirt. “Don’t say that. Don’t make me picture that.”
“Hence why I called you… Do you need help?”
“What? You gonna shove a tree back into the ground?”
“I meant in a supervisor capacity.” She crossed the damp grass and leaned in for a kiss.
“Sure.” He smirked against her mouth as he deposited the small tree with a grunt. “Watch me all you want.”
“Oh, I will. It’s such a glorious sight.” She trailed a finger down his filthy biceps, dirt be damned, because no matter how many times she saw Eamon Stone without a shirt, it felt like the first, and she prayed they never stopped seeing the magic in each other.
“Well then, feast your eyes,” Eamon teased, flexing his muscles in a mock display of masculinity, but for all his teasing, it didn’t change the fact that he was a Greek god carved immaculately from stone.
Bel rolled her eyes as Cerberus returned with the half-deflated ball, and she launched it into the broken foliage, her distance an embarrassing shadow of her boyfriend’s reach.
“I should drive you to work.” The serious Eamon Stone assumed control of her boyfriend. “If trees are down in my yard, they’re undoubtedly down on the main roads. It’ll take emergency services hours to head out this way, so I’ll take you.”
“Fine by me.” She offered him another sip of her coffee. “I’ll go make us a quick breakfast.”
“Sounds good, Detective.” He leaned down as he returned her mug and dragged his lips over her scars. “Just don’t shower without me.”
An hour later, Eamon eased Bel’s SUV onto the winding, tree-lined road that bridged the divide between Bajka and the Reale Estate, the asphalt more war zone than highway. Debrislittered their path with such violence that if anyone other than Eamon had been behind the wheel, the trip would’ve ended in tragedy… for the car at least.
“I can’t believe that.” Bel rolled down her window and leaned out to get a better look at the monster of a tree blocking the road. “I actually think I heard that fall last night.”
“I did,” Eamon said. “And you flinched in your sleep, so you probably did too.”
“I can’t believe how loud that was. We aren’t that close to home.”
