The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,37

she didn’t have to work until the following day. She stretched, and a yawn split her mouth wide. “Think I’ll sleep ‘til about noon,” she said aloud. “Maybe even later.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” The familiar voice buzzed through her, and she opened her eyes again. She hadn’t heard him come in, but there Eddie stood in the doorway, smiling at her. Her heart jumped a little, sending shots of adrenaline into all the wrong places. She’d managed to avoid being alone with him for most of the night, not trusting the tingling in her hands and toes after their dance. But now it sounded like Jen had made her way into the spare bedroom, and nothing stood between Ash and Eddie but a few feet of hardwood.

“Thanks for taking everything downstairs.”

“No problem.” He sat on the arm of the loveseat. “You need anything else?”

She pretended not to hear the double meaning in his words. Instead, she lifted a hand toward the roof. “Still have to take down the tables and chairs out there. But I guess that can wait until tomorrow.”

“I’ll do it. Only take a few minutes.”

“No, Eddie, really. It can wait.”

But he’d already crossed the room and crawled through the window. Ash sighed and followed. She’d much rather wait until she had about ten or twelve hours of sleep, but if he was going to tackle the last of the cleanup, she couldn’t very well sit there and watch him.

By the time she made it outside, he’d already collapsed most of the chairs and folded them into stacks of three and four. Two tables still stood, and as Eddie yanked on the legs of one, she found herself watching the way his shirt pulled across his back, the way his hair fell into his eyes, the way his arms flexed and deft hands put things back where they belonged.

Ash made herself look away. Struggling with a few of the chairs, she pulled them toward the window. But the effort exhausted her, and after a minute she leaned against the side of the house to catch her breath.

“You okay?” Eddie glanced over his shoulder.

“Yeah. Just resting.” She reached for another chair, but this one sprung open when she touched it, and the next thing she knew, it had pinched her finger in its hinge. Hard.

“Ow! Dammit.” Yanking the finger free, she blinked back tears. “That hurt.” A blood blister welled up immediately, and she put it to her mouth to try and suck away the pain.

In an instant Eddie was there. He reached for her hand and held it under the weak light that shone out from the kitchen. “Ouch. That’s gonna sting for a while.”

“No kidding.”

He looked at her, concern in his eyes, and suddenly Ash knew she was in trouble. Big, huge, complicated trouble. She felt as if someone had pushed her out of a plane from about a million miles up, and in that moment on the roof, when Eddie held her hand in his, she fell and kept falling, past the point where she knew whether it was right or wrong, to some bottomless, buoyant space where all she wanted to do was stay in his gaze forever.

“Ash? You okay? You want some ice?”

God, she loved the way the words sounded in his mouth. She loved the way he took her nickname and made it sound like no one else ever had. Even the pinpricks of desire Colin had once stirred now seemed like long-dead embers.

“No, I think it’s—” She couldn’t finish the thought, not with his eyes on her like that. She wanted to pull her hand away, to run the finger under cold water and make the sting go away. But she couldn’t move. Eddie’s gaze traveled from her hand to her face, and in the next instant there was no more space between them: no floor, no rooftop, barely any air at all.

* * *

Eddie gave up. He couldn’t stand there any longer, holding onto Ash’s hand and pretending not to notice the desire that rippled back and forth between them like a damn tidal wave. One arm slipped around her, meaning to comfort, but before he knew it, his lips sought out hers. He needed to taste her, to feel her, to fill her with half of what swept through him. For an instant, she hesitated. Then her lips parted, with a sigh that turned into a purr, filling his mouth with want and the promise of things he had