Her lips brushed over my skin as she spoke and sent a zing along my nerve endings, but the words kept me from focusing on that sensation. I wanted to move her up onto the pillows so I could see her eyes, but if she needed that distance to speak without getting anxious, I would happily give her that.
“Eden…that’s a really sweet offer, but are you sure? I don’t want to intrude on your space.”
She drew a shaky breath and whispered, “I don’t mind. I don’t need that much space most of the time, and…”
“And what, doll?”
“It’d be safer. You’d be safer.”
My arms tightened around her. “Eden, we’re safe.”
“Yeah,” she replied, but the word was hesitant.
“If it will give you some peace of mind, then I’ll talk to Liv and we’ll give it a try this week, okay? Even if it’s just until the cops catch the person responsible for smashing the window. Sound good?”
“Yeah,” she said again, stronger this time.
“Good, that’s settled. Now, I’m going to go feed my cat so it’s not me who gets killed in my sleep, then I’m going to bring you breakfast in bed. We’ll eat, have some coffee, fool around some more, and have a nice, relaxing day.”
I shifted out from under her, tucking the blanket tightly enough that no cold would seep in while I was gone. When Eden smiled up at me, my heart clenched like a fist in my chest before it loosened into something warm and profound. I pulled on a pair of flannel pants and leaned down to drop a soft kiss on her forehead.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“For the kiss? Any time.”
“No, for everything. I mean, and the kiss, too. But mostly for being awesome.”
Cupping her cheek in my hand, I gazed at her, noting each and every difference that had come over her in our time apart. The little nicks in her skin had faded enough to be almost indistinguishable. Even though her stitches had been removed this week, the gash across her hand was still a vivid pink.
But she was here. She was healing.
“I love you,” I said softly, stroking my thumb over her cheek.
Eden didn’t return the words, not aloud, but she nuzzled her cheek into my palm. I felt the slow curve of her lips just before she kissed my hand. Her expression was open, those hazel eyes unguarded. It felt like a gift, being trusted with the soft center of her without a single barrier in sight.
I would move heaven and earth for this woman.
“Stay right where you are. I’ll be back with coffee,” I told her instead.
After all, we had to start somewhere.
Whenitcametimefor me to head into work on Monday afternoon, I convinced Eden to come in with me. Since our reunion, any mention of Dueling Dragons had garnered a certain reaction that concerned me. She’d go utterly still, her muscles tensed like she was preparing to flee.
We needed to overcome her fear of the store itself, and fast.
I held her hand as I let us in the back door, then slipped my arm around her waist to guide her inside. “Deep breaths, doll,” I encouraged as we moved along the hallway.
“I’d settle for any breaths,” she muttered.
If she could joke, she could handle this. As I greeted Rafael, Eden’s gaze shot straight to the front window, now repaired with a shiny new piece of glass, custom cut to fit the frame and paid for—thankfully—by my insurance. She stared for a good minute as we stood behind the counter, then I squeezed her hip and pointed toward the far wall.
Carter usually painted small canvases, but he’d risen to the challenge of working with the larger surface of the plywood sheet. Two dragons, one blue and one purple, each with metallic accents that made their scales shimmer, curled together around the base of a stone lighthouse, gazing lovingly at one another.
The blue dragon had slate gray eyes with silver edges, while the purple dragon’s were the perfect mixture of bronze and gold.
“Oh my god,” Eden whispered, moving around the counter to get closer to the painting. “That’s us.”
“Good catch. I didn’t even realize what he was doing until the very end, when he finished the eyes. He modeled it after the Spruce Hill Lighthouse up on the lake. Have you been there yet?”
