Page 109 of Lost in the Moonlight

“Myself. My demons.”

I heard Sienna’s snort from behind me, but didn’t acknowledge her.

“Go back to sleep.”

“It’s almost time for me to get up anyway.”

I kissed her with force and heat and intensity. I kissed her because I was afraid that for some reason, somehow, I wouldn’t be able to continue kissing her for much longer, even when my heart knew she was mine and I was hers. And maybe I was kissing her to prove to Sienna I knew what I was doing, so she could just scurry back off into the ether. But mostly, I kissed Willow because I didn’t have another choice. She was too tempting. Too beautiful. Too everything I needed and wanted in my life.

Willow smiled against my lips and then pushed on my chest. “I need to get to work.”

She didn’tneedto work because I could take care of us both, but I couldn’t imagine Willow ever not working. She enjoyed what she did too much. Her baking was as much a part of her as my painting was a part of me. So instead of spending another hour convincing her to stay in bed, I let her go with reluctance.

We got ready for our day together, and then I walked with her to the car and drove with the Marshals and Axel’s team to The Tea Spot. When the team gave the all clear, I went inside with her.

“I’ll see you after work,” I told her, placing a kiss on her temple.

“At some point, you’ll need to stop doing this,” she said.

“What?”

“Following me along everywhere.”

“I’m not doing it because I think I can protect you more than the men I’ve hired.” When she rolled her eyes in challenge, I huffed out a laugh and said, “Okay, I’m not doing it completely for that reason. I’m doing it because I’m awake and I love spending every moment I can with you before our day pulls us apart.”

It wasn’t the I love you she deserved yet. But I felt like if I told her now, when it was too soon, she’d toss that word ridiculous at me again, and blame it on my need to protect the women in my life. She wasn’t wrong. But those weren’t the only reasons. So I’d hold on to the words a bit longer. Until the timing was better. Until the shadows weren’t lingering over us.

It gave me one more incentive to end this quickly.

“I don’t know how to respond when you say things like that,” she said honestly. “Your words are beautiful and breathtaking and—”

“Don’t say it, Sweetness. Don’t say the R word because there are too many people who might catch us in the middle of me issuing a penalty for saying it.”

She snorted. “Go paint something.”

I chuckled and taunted back, “Go bake something.”

And then I left with the music of her laughter following me.

When I got to the gallery, I sketched out the lotus image and words for the gallery sign, until the contractor’s team showed up. Then, I boxed up most of the supplies I’d just uncrated in the last week, and wrangled Axel’s men into taking it and all my uncompleted projects to my house.

I’d just finished resetting everything up in one of the guest rooms, when Axel walked in with a grim expression on his face.

“Some college kid was paid by some guy to bring a note to Willow at the café. We intercepted it before it got to her, and we’re working with the kid to identify him. So far all we know is that he was an average height man with brown hair, a beanie, and sunglasses.”

He handed me a note that read,Your part in this fairy-tale is to die.

A growl escaped me as my rage grew. “Fucking Felicity!”

“She’s still in LA,” he said. “And we haven’t identified any payments from her to another source.”

I yanked my phone from my pocket, found the unknown number from the day before, and hit dial.

When she greeted me with a snippy “What?” I almost lost it.

“Call them off. Call them off or I swear to God, I’ll find you and pull you apart limb by limb.”

“I told you, Lincoln, I have nothing to do with whatever is going on with you.” But I heard the hesitation. Heard the spike of something close to fear.

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