The Mirror (The Lost Bride Trilogy #2)

His heartbeat quickened against hers, hers against his. Answering that pulse, she moved over him, rose up. Silhouetted in the firelight, she took him in, took him, on a sigh, deep.

And she joined them together in a rhythm as sweet and dreamy as the dance they’d shared hours before.

For this dance, they glided up together, rose and fell together, rose and fell with her surrounding, him filling. As she moved, his hands slid up her sides, down again, matching her lazy morning pace.

When she sighed again, it sounded to him like music.

In those moments, their needs, like the sea’s drumming, found a rhythm more steady than urgent. Pleasure, and the desire to hold on to that pleasure, beat by beat, drew those moments out, and out.

Moments where, in the soft, silky light, their eyes met, their eyes held. When release came at the top of that glide, it swept through them in a long, slow, rising wave.

One they floated on when she lowered to him with her head cupped in the curve of his shoulder.

“I wish it were Sunday,” she murmured.

“Why Sunday?”

“Then we could stay just like this for another hour. I love my work. I love having work that needs to be done. But right now, I wish it were Sunday.”

“Why don’t we make a date for Sunday morning—right back here?”

She crossed her arms over his chest, lifted her head to look down at him. More light trickled in the windows, the terrace doors, as day passed the edge of dawn to start its blooming.

“I’d like that. I like waking up with you when everyone else, ghosts included, are sleeping.”

He brushed at her hair. “You think ghosts sleep?”

“I hope they do, or can. I hope they can dream. Well, I hope a certain one has regular nightmares, but the rest? I hope they can dream.”

Turning her head, she looked through the glass doors at the bright blooming of day. “Waking up to that every morning? It’s nothing I ever imagined for myself. Now it’s hard to imagine anything else.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d stay. Even though I could see you’d fallen for the manor, staying here? Big step, big change. I gave it about fifty-fifty.”

“Probably better odds than I gave myself. It’s strange, but I think your father knocking on my door that day came at exactly the right time. And then… the sketches my father had done of the manor made it impossible for me to not at least try.”

With some reluctance, she rolled away and got up. “Then I saw this house.” As she pulled out workout gear, she shook her head.

“Sunk. And of course the very sexy, incredibly patient lawyer son of the lawyer, who gave me my first tour of Lost Bride Manor.”

She turned to him as she dressed. “I’ll addunflappable, because you were, and nearly always are. You and your family made this tremendous change in my life easy. I didn’t imagine the easy either.”

“You took care of a lot of that yourself. And you don’t flap easily. Since you’re putting on the sexy fitness gear, I’m guessing you’re going to work out.”

“Coffee first, but it’s a hit-the-gym day for me. You’re welcome to join.”

“I need to head straight into the office from here. Shower and change there. But I’ll take the coffee.”

Understanding, she nodded. “I know Marlo’s situation preys on your mind. I wish I could help with more than flyers for a yard sale.”

“You did. You pushed me to air it out. One of my least favorite things, so it takes a push.”

“It does? Check out my surprised face!”

He did, and laughed. “Yeah, and you figured out just how to push.”

“You’re involved with a woman who insists on equal ground. I dump on you, you dump on me. Get used to it.”

“May take a little while,” he said as they started downstairs with the dogs, then the cat.