His. Every maddening, infuriating, fascinating, courageous inch of her. His.
And he’d change not one thing.
“It seems you had time for that.” His throat felt as if he’d swallowed fire—and he’d have given a million for the wine on his workstation—or the strength to stand and get it.
He barely managed to lift his head to look down at her. All flushed, all soft, all long, glinted whiskey-colored eyes.
“It was pretty quick.”
He smiled at that, and at the touch of her hand on his cheek after she spoke. He pressed his lips to her cheek in turn.
Now, with the anger and lust washed away, the love beneath stood solid and strong.
“I’m not jittery. Think of another word. I like your family, you know I do. It’s just … right now, with everything, all of them, it’s …”
“A bit overwhelming.”
She thought about it. “That’s okay. Overwhelming’s okay. When we went there last summer, it was mostly—well, except for the brief pause for the dead body that was not my case—hanging out, drinking some beer.”
“I understand that perfectly well.”
“I guess, maybe. And add on Nixie. It’s not fair, it’s not right, but every time I see or talk to the kid I get twisted inside. It eases off, but it always starts out that way. I just see her the way she was when I found her, after she’d crawled through her parents’ blood and hidden. I can’t get why she wants to see me, talk to me. I must remind her of that, what she went through, what she lost. It messes with my head, and I can’t afford that right now.”
“If you brought her pain, Richard and Elizabeth wouldn’t allow her to see or talk to you.”
“I guess not.”
“Take this friends and family business as it comes for the next couple days. You give what you can, when you can. And as they are friends and family, every one of them understands what you are, what you do, and what it means.”
“Summerset.” She sneered it.
“And Summerset as well.” Roarke flicked a finger down the dent in her chin. “He enjoys drilling you, just as you do him.”
“Maybe.”
She closed her eyes a minute. “I was too late. And I see them in my head, see what he did to them because I was just too late.”
“Eve.” He pressed his lips to her brow. “You know better than to blame yourself.”
“Knowing better doesn’t always stop it. Everything I turn up says his parents were good people, did their best to be good parents, and because he didn’t get his way, he slaughtered them. He annihilated them. Lori Nuccio, just an ordinary girl, a good waitress, responsible, who went out of her way twice to help him get work. He debases her, ends her because she wouldn’t let him live with her after he stole from her, after he hit her.”
She curled to him when he wrapped around her, and found such comfort.
“And Farnsworth—a good teacher, the kind students remember, a woman who loved her ugly little dog and offered to make soup for her neighbors. He tormented her for hours, and he killed her because he was too lazy to do his goddamn schoolwork.”
“You know him. You’ll stop him.”
“I have to find the worthless bastard first.”
“And you will,” he repeated.
She let out a long breath. “I will.” Let it go, she ordered herself. Just let it go. “Anyway, sorry. Sort of.”
He smiled down at her. “Considering where we ended up, it’s hard to say the same.”
And she found she could smile back. “Now I’m hungry.”
“Is that so?”