no make-believe grump ever looked this good or cared this much about some random girl missing her marbles.
I take a step forward but say it anyway. “I feel pretty guilty.”
“Don’t.”
I want to tell him it’s a big bed, like I had the very first night, but my reasons would be different tonight. Maybe my memory hasn’t returned, but I know myself, and I know what I’d want to do once he was in that bed next to me.
“Okay. Fine. Good night,” I say, heading off to the bedroom before I reveal anything else about myself that I’m not totally prepared to deal with right now.
In the bedroom, I find my pj’s and then take a shower.
Walking out of the bathroom, I stare at the bed.
It’s freaking huge. King-sized. Six full-grown adults could sleep in it without so much as touching.
“Stop it,” I hiss to myself, tossing back the covers so I can climb in.
I click off the bedside lamp and stare at the ceiling, marveling at how the moonlight shining off the ocean reflects through the glass. The shadows it casts through the French doors dance across the ceiling like fairies fluttering around.
An odd thing to think of. Fairies.
Yet, I do, and that makes me feel lonely.
This whole thing feels like some screwed up fairy tale, honestly.
That’s why I’d asked Flint to sleep in the same bed with me before. I didn’t want to be lonely.
It seems like a feeling I know too well.
Folding my hands together, I fidget with that halo I keep obsessing over. Flint’s ring, still on my hand, all shiny black pearl and promises never meant to be.
It’s pathetic, isn’t it?
I haven’t taken it off since the swim earlier, when I’d left it on the lanai table and promptly put it back on after he carried me to safety. Still haven’t asked him for the box, either, so I can put it back where it belongs and then have him bury it in his safe.
He said the ring was mine, but it’s not, it’s his.
Yet, lying here, twisting it around my finger, my sense of loneliness fades.
It’s a stunning ring. The most beautiful I’ve ever seen. A rare pearl, too much like the hulking, brave SEAL who’s already saved me several times over.
Go ahead and tell me how sappy that is. I don’t care.
A sigh leaves my chest as I remember our bodies being pressed together. Whatever hell I’m in, that was a slip of heaven.
No amnesia in the world could ever make me forget it.
10
Change of Scenery (Flint)
I have to start taking my own advice.
Hitting the shower the second I’m alone is a step in the right direction. Not because I’m worried about sea water, I’d rinsed that off while the chicken was wrapping up.
This time, it’s because I have a fucking hard-on that might drill a hole through the wall if I don’t get some ice on it like yesterday. It’s so many shades of wrong.
I haven’t been so hot and bothered by a chick in eons.
All of this shit would be a lot easier if she was homely and dull and, hell, I don’t know, a screaming bitch on wheels?
But Valerie’s none of those things.
She just has to be lethally gorgeous, bubbly, kind, intelligent, and scared.
Yeah. Time to start writing my dick’s last words.
The only thing that reins me from the urge to show her what this Flint can kindle is the last thing on that list. She’s scared out of her wits.
All thanks to her brother, the stinging fuck-Ray.
My rage nearly boiled over seeing him at the shop in Aiea.
Everything I’ve uncovered, everything my guys are working on, points to him being guilty as hell.
Val has nothing to do with the darker side of the family business. I couldn’t be more certain.
Whatever she found out that got her into this mess can’t be her doing.
Once I know she’s snoozing away, I sneak back to my room and collect a set of clothes out of the closet, then grab a pillow and blanket from the linen closet in the laundry room before finding a good place to flop down.
I glance into Bryce’s room as I’m walking past. Val’s right. There’s no way in hell I could sleep on the top bunk without wanting to saw my own legs off. They’d be hanging over the footrail from the knees down.
The couch will be fine. It’s just for a little while.
Now that this fake marriage shit is done, I don’t have to worry about slipping