“You’re beautiful,” he said.
“I’m filthy, thanks to you,” she replied.
“I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“And you won’t next time either.” She bent to kiss his forehead and danced back when he tried to grab her. “I’m going to take a shower.”
“Minx!” he called after her.
“You’re incorrigible!” she shot back as she strolled from the room.
“You wouldn’t have me any other way!”
No, she wouldn’t. Leaving the wood floors Killean had laid down in what she’d come to consider their room, she entered the foyer. The marble was cold beneath her bare feet as she padded across to the hall on the other side. They’d been here for a month now, but she still experienced a chill every time she entered a shadowed corridor. Simone swore she felt the eyes of those long gone from this residence staring at her from the shadows as she walked, but when she spun to face them, she never saw anything.
“You're an idiot. There’s no such thing as ghosts,” she muttered. And though she believed this to be true and had yet to experience any sign of the paranormal within the old building, the hair on her neck rose.
She’d learned enough history to know when this place was functioning it hadn’t been one of joy for those residing here. The residents had suffered here, and not just from whatever ailment landed them here, but also at the hands of those seeking to cure them. Maybe those with the supposed cure meant well, but in some cases, they’d done more harm than good, and she felt that lingering suffering in these corridors.
Thankfully, the one remodeled bathroom was the second door off the hall, and she didn’t have to be in the shadows for long. Stepping into the bathroom Killean remodeled, she flicked on the switch to illuminate the crème walls, black marble counters around the sink, and the tan tiles of the shower stall. She stepped into the shower, slid the door closed, and scrubbed the paint from her skin before exiting.
Opening the cabinets beneath the sink, she removed two towels and wrapped one around her hair and the other around herself before emerging from the bathroom. A cloud of steam followed her out the door.
When she walked back into their temporary bedroom, she discovered Killean standing by the nearly floor-to-ceiling windows he recently installed. The original windows had been much smaller, but Killean had knocked out more wall space to make room for these. Now that it was dark out, he’d thrown open the heavy drapes to welcome the night.
In the glass, his reflection was almost serene. She stopped to savor his lean, well-muscled body splattered with paint and bathed in moonlight. She’d come to love this brazen, harsh, powerful, tender man more than she ever believed it was possible to love someone.
The scar on his face and the one on his chest had faded a little, something he attributed to their bond, but they would never disappear entirely. He received them too early in life for them to vanish entirely, but unlike his outer scars, Simone knew Killean’s emotional scars healed with every passing day.
Killean’s head turned toward her, and he smiled. Once so rare, those smiles were becoming a daily occurrence that brightened her life far more than the sun could.
Eventually, his old life with Ronan and the others would resume, but she hated the idea of anything intruding on the reprieve from the real world they’d been granted in this lonely place. And she wouldn’t let him return until he was ready. She didn’t want to risk him returning to the war too soon and losing all the progress he’d made in coming to terms with his past and the actions he’d taken to save her.
“It’s a good night for a walk,” he said as he stepped away from the window.
“It is,” she agreed.
She dressed while he went to shower, and when he returned, he pulled on some clothes, looped his arm through hers, and led her out the door. They wandered into the gardens that had become a labor of love for her. Before being taken, she was learning to grow food that could be harvested for her husband’s dinner. Now she worked in the garden because she enjoyed plunging her hands into the earth and getting them dirty.
When he discovered her growing love of plants and her interest in learning more about them, Killean ordered her books on plant ID and care. She was enjoying studying those books to learn more about the different species and the proper way to prune and care for them. She had a talent for bringing plants on the edge of death back to life, and she took pride in her developing skill. Under her hands, the garden was flourishing again.
Simone rested her head on Killean’s shoulder while they strolled the path she’d cleared this week. Orange daylilies and red roses lined it. Behind them, and staggered throughout the landscape, was a various assortment of plants, some of which were in bloom. The full moon illuminated the cracked and uneven bricks beneath their feet and the owl watching them from the branches of an oak tree.
“It looks amazing,” Killean said. “You’ve done wonders here.”
“I think I’ll be able to save the magnolia tree and those azaleas,” she replied as she pointed to the struggling bushes that had been buried beneath vines until today. “I’m not sure about that cluster of rhododendrons, the bittersweet was deeply entangled in them.”
“If anyone can bring them back to life, it’s you,” Killean murmured as he kissed her temple.
Pleased by his confidence in her, Simone squeezed his arm. “I know our time here is only temporary, but I don’t want it to end.”
“Neither do I,” Killean admitted, but the end would come.
Chapter Forty-Two
“I’ve brought more blood,”Declan announced when Killean opened the door for him. He hefted two cotton bags in the air to show he meant what he said.
Killean scowled at him as he remained behind the door, hidden in the shadows while the early morning sun streamed across the foyer. “Do you know what time it is?”
