“Dax…I won’t let you fall.”
She’s so certain. So confident, that I take a step. Then another.
“Go slow,” she urges. “There’s a big flagstone three feet in front of you.”
When I find it, and I’m steady again, Evianna guides my hand forward until my fingers brush velvet. The sweet scent surrounds us, and I can almost see them. The flowers. So thick the color goes on for miles.
“These…are white,” Evianna whispers. “The inner buds are a pale yellow. The color of…fresh-churned butter. Or…what I imagine pure sunshine looks like.” She moves my hand, and the texture of the petals changes. “There’s one—just one spray—that’s deep purple. Like…grape juice. Each petal is identical. And…not.”
Evianna bends down, and a moment later, lays a single bloom in my palm. “This one’s…broken. Damaged. But it’s still beautiful.” Raising my hand until the petals touch my nose, she steps closer. “It fell, but…it still smells just as sweet as the rest.”
A tear burns my eye, and when it hits my cheek, I crush the flower in my fist, and haul Evianna against me. How can I tell her what she’s given me? A piece of myself I thought long lost. Color to brighten my world of gray. Light in all my shadows.
The words tumble around inside my head. So many words. Gratitude. Need. Joy. Sorrow. And strongest of all…love. I can’t say it. If I do…will I wake up to find this has all been a dream? A perfect dream when I’m still trapped in Hell? In that cold, dark cave. Alone.
“Dax? Talk to me.” Evianna kisses my neck, along my jaw, all the way to my lips, and she tastes like home. Sliding her fingers into my hair, she sweeps her tongue along mine, as if she knows she has to ground me. To prove we’re real.
Time and time again, I try to speak. To say anything. But emotions I haven’t let myself feel in six years clog my throat, and all I can manage is a hoarse, choking sound until I kiss her again.
Sinking down to the ground, I pull her into my lap, needing to feel her weight to confirm she’s real. “I…you…”
Evianna traces the path of my tears with her thumbs, then kisses them away. “Maybe…for now, it’s enough that we’re…us,” she whispers.
Evianna
Clive hands us off to Ronan as the sun dips below the horizon. The last rays paint the arboretum in deep purple and indigo, and I wish I knew how to describe it to him.
The lilac bloom is still crushed in Dax’s palm as we head for a dark gray SUV. I’m almost afraid to touch him. This strong man just broke in front of me, over…a flower. But when I turn for one last look out over the landscape, I understand. He’ll never see it as I do.
“Evianna?” Dax trails a hand down my arm, and I startle, but don’t turn to face him. “Come on, darlin’. Let’s get back to the hotel. I’ll show you what Wren and I found today, and you can check out that answering machine.”
With a wink, the sun disappears, breaking the spell. Our moment, the one I could have used to tell him I’m falling for him, is over, and now…it’s time to go back to reality.
I scan the room service menu. “What do you want?”
“They have a club sandwich or a steak?” Dax sits on the small couch in the main room, setting up his laptop, phone, and Kyle’s notebooks in precise order. The vulnerability he displayed earlier is gone, replaced by determination and the hard exterior I suspect he’s so used to, he doesn’t even know it’s there.
“Both. I’ll order one of each. Medium-rare okay for the steak?”
Something clatters to the floor, and his Bluetooth earbud rolls out from under the low coffee table towards my bare toes. He stares at me, mouth slightly open, for a brief second. “It’s perfect.” Almost as an after thought, he says, “You’re perfect,” under his breath.
“I’m far from perfect, babe.” The term of endearment slips out as I press the earbud into his hand. “But I like my steak medium-rare and my whiskey neat.”
Wandering into the bedroom with the menu and the suite’s cordless phone, I order the food, adding a bottle of red wine and a piece of flourless chocolate cake for dessert. They say it’ll be forty-five minutes, and the tension in my shoulders is about to crack me in half. I can’t concentrate like this.
With a quick glance at the deep tub, I smile, and I wonder…could I convince Dax to join me?
Challenge accepted.
It takes me only a couple of minutes to set the temperature and start the tub filling, and I strip off my blouse, black slacks, and camisole, tossing them in one of the drawers, before Dax’s frame fills the bathroom doorway.
“We should—” I stop him by pressing my half-naked body to his, and he groans. “Evianna, fuck. Your body…” He traces my curves, his hands molding to my breasts, down to my waist, over my hips, until he cups my ass. “Perfect.” Hooking his fingers into the waistband of my panties, he lowers them slowly. “And…mine.”
His deep, possessive timbre sends arousal flooding my core, and on his knees, Dax presses his lips to my mound, inhaling deeply. A low growl rumbles through his chest as he rises and backs me up against the counter. Feeling around behind me, he gives a quick, short nod, then wraps his arms around my thighs and lifts me, depositing my ass on the cold marble.
“Dax? What are you—?”
“Lean back and brace yourself, darlin’. I need to taste you.” He sinks to his knees, guides my legs wide, and then his tongue is doing…oh God…things no one’s ever done with such…skill.
