Caught red-handed.
“Did you mean it?”
He rolls on his side, tucking his arm under the pillow as he faces me. “You know the answer to that.”
“Humor me.”
His hand drifts along my side, wrapping around my hip. “I always mean what I say.”
That statement, that simple, beautiful statement, rips open the floodgates.
“What did I do?” Eddie asks, confusion creasing his brow at the tears rolling down my face.
“Nothing,” I say, wiping my cheeks. Everything, really, but nothing is a far safer answer.
He grasps my chin, stealing a soft kiss. “What’s wrong?”
“Why couldn’t I have met you first?”
If I’d met Eddie before Drake, then I’d be happy, healthy, and beloved. The demons in my nightmares wouldn’t be given grace in my world.
A smirk quirks his lips as he rolls onto his back again. “I think I would have been eighteen or so. I mean, I was a good-looking kid, but?—”
The son of a bitch.
I groan, smacking him with the pillow, which only makes him laugh harder. “Thanks for reminding me how freaking young you are.”
He grabs my wrist and wrestles the pillow from my grasp before easing himself on top of me. “You weren’t complaining a few minutes ago.”
“You’re very lucky you’re so talented. Otherwise, I’d?—”
Eddie nuzzles his nose against mine, his smile widening. “You’d what?”
“Drive you as crazy as you’re driving me.” I nip his lip, giving as good as I get, and this timeneitherof us is moving in slow motion.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet, baby,” he growls in my ear as his fingers glide along my slick skin. “I told you this was going to take all night.”
I whimper against his mouth as he buries himself inside me. “What happens when I wake up and this is just another hot Eddie Landry dream?”
He threads my legs around his waist, his hands gripping my hips. “Keep dreaming, sweetheart. I’ll keep proving I’m better than anything your imagination could come up with.”
For once, I’m awake before Eddie, but that’s likely because I barely slept. There are too many thoughts rattling around my brain, each one dragging chains behind it and making a god-awful cacophony of sound.
Thoughts that won’t stay dead, thoughts that won’t stay hidden. Sparkwood and its endless whispers. Drake and his damn demand. Deirdre and the hatred blazing in her eyes. The idea of staying away from a little boy I adore. And maybe worst of all, being too afraid to tell his father I love him back.
I desperately want to believe Eddie when he says he loves me. God, I need that love more than I ever thought possible. But I’m terrified of what loving him is going to cost.
Not for me. I’ve already lost everything that mattered.
But Eddie… he’s got this big, beautiful future stretched out in front of him. At the tender age of thirty, he’s built the kind of business most people don’t manage by fifty. He has a rock-solid reputation, both professionally and personally. Clients who trust him. People who respect him. A son who adores him. He is taking an awful risk just by being near me.
And yet he’s the most beautiful thing in my world.
I lie there for another minute, watching him sleep. Then I smooth a hand through his thick dark hair, press a soft kiss to his cheek, and slip out of bed to start the coffee.
A few minutes later, he wanders into the kitchen, a pair of gray sweats slung low on his hips, drawn in by the smell. He wraps his arms around me from behind with a sleepy sigh and presses a kiss to my hair. “Thank you so much for making coffee.”
Despite the clamor in my head, I lean into his embrace. “Who says romance is dead?”
