by Fable Gray
“It’s unfortunate I don’t have the ability to read minds,” Declan said in a silky voice. “I’d love to know what you’re thinking right now.”
My lips curved. “I’m sure you can guess.”
“It’s the leather ninja outfit, right?”
I laughed out loud. “You wish.”
“Ah, Royal… It’s never going to be a dull moment with you, is it?”
My heart twisted with sweetness. “I hope not. I’ll let Davis know that I’m ready to go.”
“I look forward to seeing you soon.”
He ended the call, and I set my phone back in my purse. I opened the door to tell Davis that I was ready to go, and he instantly hopped in and headed in the correct direction. In my anticipation to see Declan, the drive seemed to take forever. The clouds had gotten heavier, lowering over the mountains and obscuring my view of the peaks. By the time we reached the cabin, it was misty and dim, the sun long since vanished behind those mysterious peaks.
We headed down the long driveway, and the moment the house came into view, I saw Declan exiting the front door to wait on the porch for us.
As always, he looked delectable. He made jeans and a T-shirt look expensive, and a day’s worth of stubble insanely sexy.
He was right, we probably didn’t need many clothes this weekend. I could think of little else I wanted to do besides learn more about him and be as intimate as possible.
Declan stepped off the porch and waited for the car to come to a complete stop before he opened the back door and offered his hand to help me out.
“Thank you, Davis,” he said, keeping his eyes on me.
Davis nodded and got inside the car again.
The mist coated my hair as I walked with Declan to the porch. The moment we were inside, he spun me to face him and his mouth was on mine.
I lost myself in his kiss, realizing it was exactly what I needed after today. Actually, it was always exactly what I needed. Being in Declan’s arms felt like being home.
“Something smells good,” I murmured between kisses, the smell of garlic reaching my nose.
“I was about to say the same thing.”
My lips curved. “I was about to ask how you got all this done so fast, but you seem to get everything done quickly.”
He chuckled and kissed my cheek. “I picked up the lasagna and I’m just reheating it. The rest I did make, though. And quickly, as you mentioned. I want as much time with you as possible this weekend.”
When he moved to kiss my other cheek, I said, “I need a shower.”
“That can be arranged.” He nibbled on my ear. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. Do you want to eat first or after?”
Because I’d been hoping he’d share a shower with me, and I doubted it would be done in twenty minutes, I smiled at him and said, “Dinner first please.”
He knelt in front of me, surprising me. “A woman who knows her own mind.”
Then he proceeded to pull off my shoes, making me moan quietly. It felt so good to be out of them.
He smiled up at me, running his hand along the back of one of my legs and kissing my knee. Then he rose and took my hand, guiding me to the kitchen. “Wine?”
I nodded at his offer and watched as he poured two glasses of red wine. I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t care. I felt carefree, happy to be somewhere safe and away from work and the stresses that it was bringing lately.
I knew my dad was safe. Then I thought about Xander.
“Did Xander stay with you at work until you left?” I asked.
Declan walked over and handed me my glass. He smoothed the back of his fingers on my cheek. “Yes. We left together and he spoke with your father on the way. Your dad said something about salmon and then they got talking and Xander decided to go stay with him for the night. There are two of my men outside.”
I grinned. “Two grown men having a sleepover.” I brought his hand to my lips and kissed the palm. “Thank you.”
“Of course. I want to make sure they’re safe as much as you do.”
“You’re good at this. All of this.”
His eyes danced with amusement. “All of this? Making sure people are safe?”
I nodded. “That, yes. Being an attentive and caring boyfriend.”
His eyes warmed and he leaned in to press his lips against mine. “I like that you said that. Boyfriend. I hope that means we’re on the same page.”
It hit me then that he’d bared his soul to me and told me how he felt, and I hadn’t given much in return. I hadn’t promised to be in a committed relationship with him or to not see other people. All I had promised to do was give this a try and get to know him.
I winced. “I’m sorry.”
His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned at the expression on my face. “What for? Royal—” He grabbed my hand and lead me through the kitchen to a dining room that held a long wooden table decorated completely with candles and fine china.
I stopped when I saw all of it, my heart filling with love for him. “I take that back,” I whispered. “You’re great at this.”
“And yet you’ve got that look on your face,” he said, watching me. “Like you’re about ready to tell me that this is over.”
I whipped to face him, my heart jumping into my throat. “No. No, not at all. I was thinking that you’re wonderful and you're attentive, and you’ve been so open with me. And I haven’t been able to give you much.”
He shook his head. “I’m not looking to rush you, Royal. You know that, right?”
“Of course I do. But I feel bad. What have I done for you? I haven’t—”
“Excuse me?”
I paused at his abrupt change in tone.
His jaw shifted and he set his wine glass on the table. Then he took mine and placed it in front of another chair before he pulled it out and gestured to the seat.
I sat, watching him carefully. He didn’t look angry, but there was a subtle hint of frustration in the clench of his jaw.
“You want to know what you’ve done for me?” he asked. He turned one way to start pacing, reminding me so much of my father it gave me a jolt. “Since the beginning, you’ve given me a new perspective.”
“That day in the elevator?” I asked, thinking back to anything I had done differently. I’d been pretending to be Samantha then, and I knew for sure I wasn’t acting like myself.
Declan spared me a brief glance. “From the beginning. The first time I saw you. You were with your dad and you were sitting next to his hospital bed. It was the day after his accident, after he’d gone through surgery and they’d finally let you in to see him. I’d started to walk into the room, and then I saw you and froze. You looked so heartbroken and small. Fragile. But you didn’t let any of that show to your father. Your voice was strong, and you were telling him that everything would be okay. You didn’t even cry until you came out of the room like you didn't want him to see what a horrible situation it was.”
I watched his face as he spoke, watched him remembering a time when I hadn’t even known he was there.
“That was months ago,” I told him.
He paced the other way and nodded. “It was. I’d wanted to check on your dad and see his status, hear it from the doctors. And I’d come to see if we could move him into another room where would be easier to place somebody to keep an eye on him. But then I saw you there and I was floored. Every time I came back after that, it was for you. It was to see you, to hear you talk. I know I should have said something.” Declan glanced at me, looking almost embarrassed. “Maybe been a little bit less stalkerish. But it wasn’t about that. It was just about seeing the world through your eyes, listening to the stories of you and your dad and your mom. You opened up a new world for me, made me see that there was more than work. I pictured finally telling someone my secret, and that someone was you.”
Declan turned abruptly and moved to the table, crouching in front of me so he could see my face more fully. He wrapped his hands
around mine, and I stared at his face in wonder as the firelight flickered across the angled planes.
“You changed me, Royal. If you hadn't come into my office that day, it only would have been a matter of time before I came after you.”
I shivered at the intensity in his voice. Declan was a man who knew what he wanted, and he was capable of getting it. But I’d done the same thing—taken on a completely new persona to get what I wanted. We were similar in that way, and for some reason that gave me comfort.
“I understand if your feelings aren’t on the same level as mine,” Declan said. “But please don’t think you haven't done anything for me.”
I opened my mouth, the words once again on the tip of my tongue. I love you. Just three words and I felt them with my whole heart.
Then we heard a buzz from the kitchen.
Declan smiled, snapping out of his intense mood and switching back to his carefree one. “Dinner’s ready. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
I downed half my glass of wine as I heard him removing our dinner from the oven. All the noises became muddled, and I almost had to peek in there and see what he was doing. Or rather, how fast he was doing it. His ability still amazed me and I kind of wanted to show him off. He was a miracle of modern medicine, something more amazing than anyone had ever seen. At the minimum, I wanted to show my father so I could share it with someone else who would appreciate it as much as I did.
Declan appeared again after another moment and set a plate in front of me, with delicious looking lasagna right in the center. Then he vanished in the blink of an eye and returned once more with plates of salad and warm garlic bread in a basket. The candles flickered at the speed of his movement.
“Tell me you’re not sitting all the way over there.” I just gestured to the head of the table.
He arranged the plates and then shifted a chair so it was sitting right next to me. “No, that’s not quite close enough for me.”
“Thank you. I know I said it before, but I mean it. And it’s for everything. I never thanked you for looking out for my father before, but I’m so grateful that you did.”
Declan nodded and reached down to take my hand. He lifted it for a kiss. “I would have done it even if you weren’t involved. I owed it to him. But I’m glad I could do it for you too. More wine?”
“Yes, please.”
He vanished again, disappearing so fast my breath caught. And then he was back, filling both of our wine glasses to the brim and giving me a brilliant smile.
He finally sat with his chair close enough to mine that we could both barely move our elbows.
Then he looked at me with that same dazzling smile and said, “Let’s eat.”
Chapter 29
I was still digesting all the information Declan had given me, but dinner was wonderful and Declan was in such a carefree mood that I couldn’t dwell on it for too long.
“How did you first find out about your powers or abilities?” I asked Declan.
He set down his piece of garlic bread and dusted his hands together, thinking. “Well, it was gradual at first. Several years, as I told you before. Initially, I just felt better in general. More energy, less…heavy, I guess. Like my body was in the best shape of its life.”
I ran my gaze over that body, knowing he might naturally feel good but he still had to work hard to look good. When my eyes lifted to his face again, I saw the slow curve of his lips and that he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“And then, I started sleeping less at night,” he continued. “First it was just an hour less and then two and then three—to the point that I started to get concerned. I made an appointment with my doctor but on the way there, I passed by this park I’d driven by dozens of times before. There’s playground equipment right by the street, which wasn't the smartest way to build it and I’ve actually thought of having that place torn down since then. Anyway, there was this girl, probably no more than two or three, who had wandered close to the street. She was about to step out into traffic, and I panicked. I jerked my car to the side of the road and ran over to grab her. A completely normal sequence of events, but it happened so fast, fast enough I could feel the world blurring around me. Like my brain hadn’t quite caught up with my body. I carried the girl to the grass as her mother ran up. She was shaking and babbling about how she had no idea how I’d gotten to her daughter so fast and she kept thanking me over and over again. I could barely even focus on her because I knew something had happened, something I’d never done before.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “You saved that little girl’s life. Did her mother suspect anything? Or anyone else?”
“She just kept saying she had no idea how I got there so fast and thanking me over and over again. I figured she didn’t see the whole thing, so I was safe. Besides, how could she prove it? There was no one else around besides the other moms at the park and I felt relatively certain that none of them had seen exactly what had happened either. Needless to say, I didn’t go to the doctor. I went straight home to think through what had happened. It took me a little while to get a handle on everything. My super-fast reflexes had been in a serious situation when my adrenaline had been at its peak. I had to learn how to channel that. So, over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time in the mountains, kind of close to that trail we hiked this week.”
I smiled at the memory, one I would never forget.
“Now I have a new favorite trail,” Declan said, reaching out to set his hand on my thigh. “But back then, I would just try to find somewhere that no one else was. And then I would try to run as fast as possible. Eventually, I got the hang of it. Then I started to discover other things, like how strong I was. How I never got sick. I had no clue what my dad put in that serum, but I started to get an idea.”
“So, let me get this straight.” I ticked things off on my fingers. “You don’t need to sleep, you never get sick, you’re faster than a cheetah and stronger than a… I have no idea. Stronger than a regular human by far, though.”
His finger moved in circles on my thigh, the heat coming through my slacks. “I don’t know about a cheetah. But yes, very fast.”
“Very fast,” I agreed. “Remember, I timed you. No human can run that fast.”
“And yet,” he said, his eyes locked on mine. “I am human. I even age like a human.”
“How do you know?” I peered at his face. “Do you have wrinkles? Bad knees? Any evidence at all that you’re aging?”
He considered this, making my heart start to race with the wonder of the idea that I might actually be right. That he didn’t age at all. But he shook his head. “I can see it when I look in the mirror. Or when I see pictures of myself in a magazine or on that Dark Enterprises website. My face has matured. And little things, like this.” He took my hand and brought it to his face, rubbing my fingers over his stubble. “I still function like a normal human being in small ways. I still need to eat, I can go a beard, I can get hurt.”
“But you heal fast,” I reminded him and added that to the list of things he could do differently. “I forgot that one.”
“Funny,” he murmured, “since that was how you discovered my secrets.”
I blushed a little. “About that…”
He grinned. “Oh, please don’t tell me you’re going to apologize now. I think it’s a little late for that.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I didn’t know who you really were then. If you had been honest with me upfront, then I wouldn’t have had to try to trick you into showing me what you could do. Which, in case you forgot, wasn’t the reason why I pretended to be Stephanie Thompson in the first place.”
“Ah. I see. So, it’s my fault.”
I took another sip of my wine and considered this. “Maybe 50% yours and 50% mine. We’ll share equal fault.”
“Then you don't blame me for listening in on your conversations? Or not telling you I knew who you were in the first place.”
Some of my humor faded, but I told hi
m the truth. “No, I don’t blame you and I’m not mad. I should be, though. That was an invasion of privacy, you know. But I also know your heart.” I reached out and set my hand on his chest, still amazed by how perfectly sculpted he was and what he could do. “You weren’t being malicious. And it all worked out, didn’t?”
“It did.” He leaned in and ran his tongue along my lower lip. When my mouth parted, he shifted so he was facing me. In one smooth movement, he turned my chair and slid me closer so my legs were between his. “And it’s still working, isn’t it?”
I swallowed and angled my head when he kissed my cheek. “It’s working very well for me.”
“Are you finished eating?”
“For now.”
“You still want that shower?”
“Only if you take one with me.”
His reflexes were swift but gentle. I was in his arms and halfway across the living room before I could blink. And in the next moment, we were in the bathroom and Declan was lowering me to my feet again.
He reached into the shower to turn on the water before turning back and watching me unbutton my shirt.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” he murmured, his eyes full of heat.
“Me too. I’m going to need you to take off your clothes now.”
With a laugh, he obeyed. After a moment, we were both naked and wet under the warm spray of water.
Declan massaged my shoulders, his hands nearly as warm as the water. “You’re tense,” he murmured, his lips touching my ear.
“I don’t feel tense. I feel…”
“What?”
I turned to face him, trying to find words that didn’t seem to fit the situation. They weren’t big enough or strong enough. “Happy,” I said simply, putting my arms around his shoulders. “Like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
He pushed a wet lock of hair off my cheek. “Really?”
The wonder and hope in his eyes elevated my happiness. “Really. It’s been a long time and I never would have expected something like this. To care so much about someone in such a short time and not feel completely terrified about what that means.”