CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I’m going to build a shrine right here. I’m going to need a naked picture of you, just like this,” Donovan announced.
Eva laughed. She was sprawled on top of him on the floor behind his desk. Round two had seen the removal of her bra and his pants and shoes. She’d been too busy orgasming to take notes, but she was sure she would remember the highlights forever seeing as how they were branded into her brain.
“Tonight has been one surprise after another.”
She traced a heart shape over the warm skin of his shoulder.
“Tell me about your night,” Donovan said, tugging her fingers to his mouth to kiss them.
“Well, you were there for the best part of it.”
“Both best parts,” he reminded her in pure male conceit. “But I’m hoping to distract you from getting up and putting your clothes on. So, tell me about your meeting?”
“My legs aren’t going to work for at least another ten minutes,” she teased and then started at the top, filling him in on the meeting. “The B.C. is basically one never-ending head game,” Eva said.
“Are you surprised? You’ve seen them in action.”
“Nothing about this town should surprise me. Did I mention that Bobby caught us dragging Ellery out of the air duct?”
Donovan gave her a playful pinch. “No, you didn’t mention that.”
“I thought the jig was up,” Eva said. “But it looks like Bobby is Team Ellery, so at least we’ve got three of us to stand up to any harebrained schemes the rest of them come up with.”
“I appreciate you keeping an eye on them for me. It’s one less group I need to worry about.”
“I’m using it as writer’s research. That committee is going to end up in a book someday,” she predicted.
“I like your books,” Donovan admitted.
“Books as in plural? As in you’ve read more than one?”
He grinned and Eva felt like the world got more beautiful.
“I had to order this one online since Fitz sold out of them.”
“Really?” Eva grinned. “I have to admit. I’m surprised at how respectful Blue Moon is being. No one’s approached me on the street or accosted me in my house, except for Joey who climbed up a drainpipe to demand autographs.”
“Blue Moon’s never dealt with a real celebrity before.”
“So, what do you think of the books?” Eva prodded him in the chest.
“I think you’re very good at what you do, and like the fans in your reader’s group on Facebook, I think Shelly and Brandt deserve their own book.”
“You take being supportive to a whole new level,” Eva told him.
They fell into satisfied silence, and she listened to the steady beat of his heart under her ear. She felt the sting of well-earned carpet burns on her knees and back, saw the dim glow of the town’s street lights through the blinds covering the window.
“What are you thinking?” Donovan asked, stroking his hand through her hair.
“I’m trying not to ask you about your orgasm-induced proclamations or what all this means. I’m also choreographing this as a scene for my book, and trying to decide what I’m going to eat as a snack tonight.”
“Your brain is a wonder.”
“Did you mean it?” she asked, raising up to look at him.
“Every word, every time,” he vowed. “And before you ask me how I can be so sure, ask yourself if you’ve ever felt this way with any man before. You were meant for me. So, you might as well start getting used to it.”
“I think it’s a lot to take in,” Eva sighed.
“That’s what she said.”
“Donovan!”
“Sorry. I left my maturity in my pants.”
“You’re cute when you’re not being Mr. Authority Figure.”
“I’m cute then, too. Cute and bossy,” he argued.
“I’m crazy about you, Sheriff Sexy.”
“I know you are, Evangelina. And soon you’re going to figure out that you’re desperately in love with me.”
“You’re awfully confident for someone who imprisoned a tuba player.”
“Right is right. There are rules that everyone needs to follow. Honesty, decency, not destroying public property. And then there are laws of nature. That’s you and me. We’re right, and you’ll see.”
“So, what do we do now?” Eva asked.
“Now? I take you home to my place, and we spend the night together. And if my phone rings before morning, I’m locking the bastard up without bail.”
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If sex with Donovan was Eva’s just dessert, his home was the icing on top. He lived a mile south of Blue Moon. Tucked into the woods by way of a long gravel drive, the house appeared in Donovan’s headlights through a clearing. Cedar shingles covered the exterior of the two-story house. It had the rustic charm of a cabin but with a little more space and a lot more windows. The wide front porch glowed under the light of a single lantern next to the front door. The trees surrounding the house were a riot of autumnal colors of rusts and golds.
He ushered her in through the front door and flicked light switches on his way through to the kitchen. It was a bachelor’s cabin, Eva thought, with its wood tones and stone fireplace. Few knickknacks to clutter up the space. There was a loft that overlooked the living room. A pristine dining room table occupied the space in front of a wall of windows overlooking the back of the property.
The kitchen. Oh, the kitchen. Eva trailed a finger over the white quartz that topped gray cabinets. She could cook here with a glass of wine and a view of the woods.
Donovan grabbed two bottles of water out of his refrigerator and handed one over. “I don’t know about you, but I’m weak with dehydration and hunger.”
“Do you cook?” Eva asked as her stomach growled.
“I cook all the time. Leftovers go in the microwave. I push important buttons and the food comes out hot.”
“So, no then.”
“You’re welcome to these appliances that I don’t know how to use anytime you want,” Donovan offered grandly.
“Let’s start with what leftovers you have,” Eva suggested. He let her snoop through his cabinets and fridge, and she considered it a jackpot when she stumbled on containers of day-old Chinese food.
Donovan produced forks and paper towels, but when she made a move toward the table he guided her down a hallway and into the master. “Sorry in advance, but I should warn you we’re going to be living out every fantasy I’ve ever had about you for the next few years.”
Eva laughed as he took the containers from her and pulled her sweater over her head. “First up, naked leftover picnic,” he insisted.
Donovan lit a fire in the gas fireplace, and they ate General Tso’s and sweet and sour pork on the flannel quilt of his sleigh bed and watched the waxing moon through the windows. The room was comfortable and, like him, oh so masculine.
“This is quite the place you have here,” Eva said, pointing with the fork.
“I’m glad you like it,” Donovan said, stealing a forkful from her container. “It’s not finished, yet, but it’s home. Upstairs is two more bedrooms that need to be relieved of their popcorn ceilings and wood paneling. And I haven’t done anything with the loft yet.”
“I like your place,” Eva said, admiring the thick beams in the cathedral ceiling. It wasn’t a huge room, but it didn’t need to be. The space was efficiently used, cozy even.
“I do, too. I have a shower I can stand up in,” he bragged.
She laughed. “I can’t believe I’m here having a naked midnight picnic with Donovan Cardona,” Eva said. She was certain that no matter how long she spent staring at his naked body, eternity wouldn’t be long enough to appreciate every millimeter of his fine male form.
He put a warm hand over her foot. “Neither can I. I’m glad you finally came to your senses.”
“You’re ridiculous. You spring this whole ‘we’re destined to be together’ thing on me and expect me to jump right into bed with you—”
“Permanently,” he cut in.
Incredulous, Eva shook her head. “I wish I could have your confidence. Even just for a day.”
“Maybe your lack of confidence is a result of those abandonment issues the Beautification Committee accused you of having.”
She pointed at him with her fork. “Not nice, Cardona.”
He shrugged his massive shoulders. “You went through something traumatic with one of your parents while the other one had to pick up the pieces. It’s bound to make you stop and think.”
“It is, isn’t it?” she nodded.
“It must be interesting in your head, crafting these romantic stories of true love and then struggling with the reality of relationships in your life.”
“Are you using sneaky cop interrogation skills on me?” Eva asked, nudging him with her foot.
He grinned, and again she was struck by the boyish joy she saw in his gorgeous face.
“I’m just empathizing with you. My parents? After my dad wore down my mother, they were a team. Nothing could come between them, and that’s what I grew up wanting.”
“Not everyone’s that lucky,” Eva pointed out. “My parents were happy once. But people can change and in unexpected ways.”
“How do you think your mother changed?” he asked, hefting a forkful of chicken.
Eva shrugged one shoulder and paid special attention to the carton of sweet and sour pork in her lap.
“We’re having a romantic naked picnic, Eva. There can’t be anything between us.” His eyes, the color of worn denim, seemed to delve beneath the surface and into her.
“Drugs,” she said. Letting loose a secret she’d kept for years made her feel panicky and maybe just a little relieved.
“Your mom was on drugs?”
“She’d had bouts of depression for as long as I can remember,” Eva sighed, committing to the telling. “I didn’t know until years later that it may have been post-partum depression. But after I came along, she started trying to find ways to feel something, anything. I was so young I didn’t understand that when we visited her ‘friend’s’ house she was taking me to see her dealer. It was prescription meds mostly. And once they got a hold on her, it was like I didn’t have a mother anymore. Dad was at the restaurant trying to scratch out a living, and my sisters were in school. So, it was just her and me.”
He took the Chinese food from her and stacked the containers on the nightstand before pulling her into his arms.
She rested the side of her face against his chest. “She’d wait until my sisters got on the bus, and then she’d go dig out her pills from whatever hiding place she’d stashed them in. She’d just lay there on the couch. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if she was still alive. She called it naptime. It was such a relief to me when I was old enough to go to school, too.”
It didn’t hurt as much to tell it as she thought it would. But Donovan hadn’t been there, hadn’t missed the signs, hadn’t assumed that Eva was safe at home with her mother. Eva knew her father and sisters wouldn’t forgive themselves for not knowing. They also might not forgive her for choosing to carry the burden alone.
Donovan swore quietly against her hair. “Your sisters don’t know. Do they?” he asked, reading her mind.
Eva shrugged again. “I never said anything to them about it. They were so upset when she left. To them, it seemed out of the blue. But for me? I was relieved.”
“And you felt guilty for feeling relieved,” Donovan guessed.
She nodded letting his hands soothe her. “I feel guilty for everything. It was my fault that she left. At least, that’s what she told me.”
Donovan’s hands stilled on her skin and then began to move again. “When did she tell you that?” he asked. And Eva realized her mistake.
“It was just something she always said. That her life was so different after I came along. Worse,” she said, correcting herself.
He wanted to ask more. She could feel him holding back the questions. She was done talking. Done facing the shadows. She wanted the light again, and Donovan could take her there.
Eva turned in his arms and brought her mouth to the rough texture of his jaw. “Show me again what you feel,” she breathed against his hot skin. And then he was rolling over her, shielding her from the world with his body.