Elise turned and frowned. The excitement that he’d hoped she’d have was glaringly missing. “About that. I don’t have any money. Well, I’ll get paid for the last article, but I’m independent and not employed by a paper. My articles barely pay my rent and bills. I charged my trip to Hungary and the hotel room to my credit card. It’s almost maxed out. I won’t be able to pay you for these. At least not until I get to Paris. Étienne left me somemoney, or the letter he sent me said he did.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “You should probably return them.” She stroked a soft pink sweater. “Thank you, though.”
Blake closed the space between them and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. “I have more than enough money for both of us.”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he put his finger over her mouth. “No.” He shook his head. “There is no repayment needed. I’m going to take care of you until you tell me to stop. I’ve told you that. Until you tell me to leave, I’m here.” He dropped for a kiss.
She backed away and asked, “Why would I tell you to leave?”
“I’m not an easy person to be with. I know it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Who told you that? A woman?”
He nodded. “A long time ago.”
“She was wrong.” Her hands lifted to his chest, and she grabbed his jacket’s lapels. “She was dead wrong. I’ve never been so comfortable with anyone in my life. I can sit with you and not feel the need to say anything. You get me.” She smiled. “And the sex is really, really, good.”
“Just good?” Blake lifted an eyebrow, challenging her.
She shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to try a bit harder to get to great or maybe excellent.”
He laughed. It seemed he was the one being challenged. He picked her up and walked to the bed, where he laid her on the bedspread. As he took off his jacket, he smiled and growled, “Challenge accepted.”
CHAPTER 22
The road to Blake’s lake house narrowed to a ribbon through pines, the gravel crackling under the truck’s tires as afternoon light thinned into gold. The house appeared last, shouldered up to the water as if listening. Elise rolled her window down and breathed in damp leaves and the crisp, cool bite that meant winter had put down roots.
He parked beneath the ancient, long-armed spruce and listened for the small, familiar sounds that always settled his instincts. The flick of birds in the trees, squirrels busily gathering nuts for the impending snow, and the absence of any humans.
“This place is beautiful,” Elise said as she looked around. “And isolated.” She turned to him. “Looks like we’ll have to amuse each other.”
He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “I can think of one or two things to pass the time.”
“Only one or two? We need to work on your imagination.”
He took her bags and let her take the first step inside. The door opened on cool wood and dark leather furniture. Windows framed the lake, not unlike the cottage in Hungary. The fireplace waited, clean and stacked with dried wood. Elise crossed thethreshold, slow, as if the floor might crack with her step. She touched the back of a chair, the edge of a shelf, which was marked with a smooth scar that had split and been stitched back with iron. It was beautiful. “Did you make it?” She turned around to look at him.
“I did. The grain was too unique to let rot.”
Her mouth curved, soft and surprised. “This place feels … safe,” she said.
He tilted his head. “You mean the cabin?”
“Yeah,” she said, then laughed at herself and shook her head. “Maybe I’m projecting my feelings onto this place.”
After unloading his SUV of their luggage and the food they’d bought on the way, they spent that first evening on the porch, wrapped in blankets and sipping mugs of spiced cider that warmed their hands. The moon lifted, clear and round, and sent a narrow beam of light across the lake. Elise read a chapter aloud from a battered mystery she’d found on his shelf and stumbled over the villain’s accent until she dissolved into laughter. “Do you like books like this?”
He smiled. “I needed something to read, and it was in a sale bin by the door of one of those warehouse bulk buy stores. Call it an impulse buy.”
“Impulse? You’re the least impulsive person on the planet!”
“It happens occasionally. Usually with you.” He winked at her.
She shook her head. “Did you laugh at it when you read it?” She wiped her eyes and tucked her fingers back in the blanket.
“I didn’t make it past page four,” he admitted.
“Oh, I skipped the first part of the book to get to the good stuff.” She leaned forward and went back to page four and read for a moment before laughing again. “I bet it was when the hero took out the gang of ninjas without breaking a sweat.”
“Yeah, that was it.” He dropped his arm over her shoulders when she leaned back and watched the small lines at the corners of her eyes deepen when she smiled. She’d been uprooted from everything she knew, yet she was still smiling.
