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“Harper, look at me, please,” she whispered to his back.
He turned, peering down at her.
Her hands brushed over his scars, his tats, as if she could wash away all the worry and stress, all the pain and guilt he felt. She felt as though all the years of his service had come crashing down, and he was regretting everything he did. Second-guessing all his decisions of the past. He’d set the bar so high for himself he didn’t allow for unusual circumstances to force a mission onto a different path, to accept the forward motion evil takes as it pulls the web closer toward them both. However, he’d get it in his sights, get it just close enough to quash the energy and negative lifeforce it held. He had a powerful connection to Dr. Death. She remembered they’d talked about it before.
Then she remembered something else. There was that day when he told her about his mother’s suicide and how it made him feel. He was overseas when it happened. He couldn’t save her. That was always what he feared most, not getting home in time, not being there. Letting people down.
It was not a memory she thought he’d appreciate, but the memories were coming back now. Maybe the stress and pressure was bringing them on. Whatever the cause, she’d be grateful for it, but she wouldn’t force anything.
“Harper, I didn’t forget everything. Little things keep coming back to me. You bring something out in me that was missing before. I remember the first kiss we had at the hospital. Do you?”
It was a complete pattern interrupt for him. He nearly shook his head, thinking about it. Then he smiled, placing his palm against her cheek.
“How could I forget?”
“What I saw in you that day, when you were dealing with your dad, was a man of steel who still believed in love, in second chances. I saw a man who was tender with a father who probably made a lot of mistakes, a father who was dealing with his wife’s death. He was losing his grip on life, but you didn’t abandon him. You could have.”
“Dad. That’s been a trip to deal with him.”
“I remember giving him a puzzle. He squealed like a ten-year-old, didn’t he?”
“I’d forgotten.”
“See, I’m not the only one with a terrible memory,” she teased.
She turned off the water, which was starting to go lukewarm. “Let me dry you off. Come, sit.”
She brought him out of the shower, sat him down on the padded chair at the vanity, and put oil on his scalp, running her fingers through and massaging his temples. She dabbed his body with the fluffy white towels she loved. She laced her fingers through his hair and kissed his ears, running her thumbs up his neck and squeezing his shoulder muscles gently. She kissed the base of his neck. “I used to do this, didn’t I?”
He quickly turned and looked up at her in amazement.
“Youareremembering, aren’t you?”
“There was something about your face, something about your silver hair the moment I spotted you in Italy. It was familiar. I didn’t know you, but I saw you as friend, not foe. And when you touched me, I wasn’t afraid. It excited me, Harper, and it still does. Even without the complete memories. We’ve built that back. Our castle is coming back, brick by brick,” she said as she kissed his neck again and smoothed over his chest with her palms, pressing her chest against his back.
“You’re so tender. I never told you this, but when we first made love, in the beginning, I used to go to bed crying. I’d been so moved. I knew I was inexplicably caught, snagged. I was forever yours, Lydia. I would and still would die for you.”
“Yes, I know this, my love.”
She sat across his lap, straddling him. He held her waist in his powerful hands.
“So I’m going to ask you something. You said you would die for me, Harper. But what about this. Would you ever give up on us? Give up this life?”
“Never.”
“Me neither. Hear my logic here. Let’s not die for each other. I want you to live for me. I want to live for you. We signed on for better or for worse with each other. Sickness and in health, right?”
He waited.
“Nothing could ever make me stop loving you, Harper. I will never go away. I will always be here. There was something about cutting the flowers in Italy that was like going home, like I knew something else was out there. The more beauty I could take in gave me the reassurance that I was healing, that I would find that something else. And I did. You came for me. You knew even before you knew where I was. You followed your heart. Not your head.”
“I was lucky. It was a lucky guess.”
“Oh no. I believe that now. There wasn’t anything that could separate us. No amount of evil. No tragedy too great. We made a choice, a promise to each other. That promise stuck with me, even though I didn’t know that’s what it was. You were always there, Harper. That’s what I’m saying.”
He pulled her mouth down to his and kissed her hungrily.
She whispered in his ear. “Come back to me, Harper. Let’s do this together. We’re a team. Nothing can stop us. We do this, and we fight this fight for all the innocent people who cannot. We open the doors and show them how good roots out evil. Whatever it takes.”
