Page 36 of Cursed

Chapter Thirteen

Edeena’s eyes drifted open as a bright shaft of sunlight lanced across the room, and it was only by squinting that she realized it was coming through a slit in the heavy drape of blackout curtains.

Behind her, his arms still curled around her, Vince groaned. “If I don’t shut them exactly right, I pay for it every morning around this time.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. Slipping out of his arms she pushed off the covers and stepped onto the thick rug. In the chair next to the bed, a plush robe rested, and she glanced back to Vince.

“When did this arrive?” she asked.

He rose to one elbow, his eyes glittering as he watched her slip into the soft confection. “You sleep heavily. I had it in one of the guest bathrooms, thought you might want it when you woke up.”

“Well, thank you.” She kept her words light, but she quickly turned away to focus on the window, annoyed with the ridiculous sensation that she might start crying. What a stupid thing to cry about! It was a robe. Nothing more than a robe.

A robe that Vince had thought about putting where she could easily find it, maybe worried that she might feel self-conscious after waking up in the bed of a man she barely knew. A robe that Vince had gone to retrieve silently in the night while she slumbered, taking care not to wake her or disturb her in anyway. A robe she hadn’t asked for, hadn’t even realized she’d want, yet there it was, just in case.

Edeena thinned her lips as she moved toward the window. She was so going to cry over the stupid robe if she didn’t watch it.

She pulled the curtains open with a quick shake, then realized she’d need to walk them all the way back, as if she was raising a curtain on a theatrical production. “These are heavy!” she gasped, laughing.

“Loud, too, or I would have fixed them more completely last night.”

She looked back at him. Vince was sitting up in bed now, his face rough with his morning beard. She realized she’d never seen him unshaven, not even one day’s worth, and she smiled, smoothing a hand down her robe. “I’ll probably need to take you up on that shopping trip before we return to Heron’s Point. The girls have no idea what I wore last night, but Cousin Prudence does. I’d feel awkward if she noticed how creased the clothes were.”

“Already on it,” Vince said. “There’s a ladies’ shop around the corner that opens at ten, if you don’t mind the wait. I figured you could dress in yesterday’s clothes and we could walk around the harbor area. There’s several fantastic breakfast restaurants, if you’re hungry.”

Edeena nodded. She was hungry, and a little nervous, too, if she was honest. She didn’t know how to think about what had happened between her and Vince. He wasn’t a stranger to her, and she did trust him—had trusted him instinctively since the moment she’d met him. And now she’d simply had vindication of that trust. She had the memory of his arms around her, steady and sure, the strength of his body at her command, the knowledge that she had caused him to stare at her wide-eyed with want, with need. It was a heady, almost dangerous memory, and it was hers. Nothing that happened from this point on could take that away from her.

They breakfasted at a sidewalk café and stopped in the first store they found on the walk around the harbor area, Edeena quickly choosing a linen sundress in a bright sea blue, almost the color of the Aegean on a perfect day. She didn’t bother trying it on until she got back to Vince’s, and he insisted on helping her change into it, which somehow resulted in a long, lingering shower in his unreasonably large bathroom, their hands and bodies intertwined as a pounding waterfall of spray kept the world at bay for another hour . . . then two.

When they finally crossed the bridge back to Sea Haven, Edeena felt almost ridiculously happy, like a teenager giving in to her first vacation crush, savoring it all the more because it wouldn’t last, couldn’t last. She smiled, looking out the window, imagining what it would have been like if she’d met Vince when she was still a teen and he was some cocky boy on a South Carolina island. They’d have shared stolen kisses and maybe more behind the dunes, staring into each other’s eyes and making ridiculous promises that neither one of them believed. They’d have promised to email each other, to visit again, no matter how impossible it was.

“Do I want to know what you’re thinking?” Vince rumbled and she glanced over to him. He looked as cool and confident as ever, but he had the same deeply contented look that she suspected she did, and she cocked a brow at him.

“I was thinking that you’d better wipe that smirk off your face before we reach Heron’s Point. Cousin Prudence isn’t that old, and my sisters aren’t idiots.”

“Hey, I’m not the one you should be worried about,” he said, his words a chiding rumble. “You’re the one who looks like you’ve been pleasured by a master.”

Edeena burst into laughter, and they drove like that for the remaining twenty minutes it took to reach the big old house, her chuckles subsiding only as they approached the mansion. Even Vince seemed to be driving more slowly now, lengthening the time that remained for the two of them, together.

“It really is a pretty house,” she said, gazing up at Heron’s Point. “I’m not sure how we’re going to keep from selling it, with father so eager to finalize all of mom’s financials now that he’s remarried. But I hope, for Prudence’s sake, that the market stays soft.”

“She’s done a fine job with it,” Vince said noncommittally, and Edeena felt the first layer of distance build between them. Her selling the house was perhaps the clearest indication she could give that she had no intention of returning to Sea Haven, and that there was certainly no reason to see him again. She wanted to take back the words, to offer reassurances, but what could she say?

Nothing. It was enough that they would have the next few days together.

“Do you . . . do you think we could travel a bit more tomorrow?” she asked almost shyly, aware of Vince’s sharp glance. He cruised the SUV to the edge of the parking circle and slowed to a stop. “I was thinking we could go down to Savannah, if you’re free?”

She glanced back to him and found him staring her, an expression she’d never seen before in his eyes. “If you don’t have time, that’s fine. I completely under—”

“No,” he said, cutting her off. “I have plenty of time.” He worked his face into a smile, but it was still almost too fierce for comfort. “We can definitely go. You should see Savannah. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the South, even if it is in Georgia.”

His light words didn’t account for the intensity of his gaze, but Edeena nodded quickly.

“We’ll bring your sisters, I think,” Vince continued.

She was so startled, she couldn’t stop her response. “But why?”

Instantly, she regretted her words. Of course they should bring her sisters. They’d love Savannah, love the idea of a road trip, love traveling with Vince. How could she be so selfish as to keep him all to herself?

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