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“I used to think of it as my secret garden,” Twilight said. “Like that book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.”
“Yeah? I loved that book when I was a kid.” We shared a you-too? smile.
“It’s interesting how the walls keep the garden so much warmer, isn’t it?” I glanced around at the wet leaves littering the ground. “Most of the trees still had leaves until that storm the other day.”
“I know, right?” She lifted her face to the fat, hazy moon, and I flashed back to how she used to do that with the sun. “D’you smell it?” She inhaled like she was drawing the whole island into her lungs.
“Smell what?”
“The ocean.”
“Well, yeah.” I’d grown up with its sharp, salty scent.
“I love the way it mixes with those pines down the hill.”
My brows climbed. The pines were a half mile away. “I can’t smell them.”
“No?” She gave a wondering smile. “I’m still getting used to how intense everything is.”
I nodded. Why was she telling me this? Actually, why was she here at all?
A thick cloud blotted out the moon, and a sudden gust of wind rattled the tree branches. I shivered and huddled into my puffer jacket.
“You’re cold,” Twilight said. “Come inside—I ordered you a hot chocolate. Just the way you like it—I asked Rio.”
She had? I eyed her suspiciously. “Umm—thanks?”
Inside my suite, a steaming mug of chocolate waited on the wet bar next to a split of blood-wine. Hanging up the jacket, I took one of the stools and Twilight took another, leaving an open seat between us.
She poured herself a glass of wine and we faced each other on the stools like two gunslingers in a Hollywood Western.
I wrapped my fingers around the mug to warm them. “You’re not going to tell Talon, are you?”
“Tell him what? That you were walking in the garden?”
I blinked, then nodded. “Thank you,” I said and took a sip of the hot chocolate. It was delicious—dark, sweet, and topped with whipped cream and a dash of nutmeg. I gave a little hum of pleasure. “Damn, that’s good,” I said, taking another sip. “It might even be better than Rio’s, but if you tell him I said that I’ll say you lied.”
“You’re welcome.” She took a drink of her wine. “You know there’s a camera in the garden, don’t you? Near the French door.”
“Yeah,” I said with a shrug. I knew where all the cameras were.
“Although they probably wouldn’t have seen you back there,” she added. “Not in the dark.”
Exactly. I wasn’t dumb enough to say that aloud, though.
Twilight fingered her wine glass. “You like the garden suite?”
“I do, yes.” She seemed to expect more, so I added, “It’s very pretty. Were you the one who told them to put me in here?”
“No, that was Talon. He wanted you to be able to get outside whenever you wanted to.”
“Yeah?” I smiled, liking that he’d thought of that.
She considered me. “He was messed up after you left. He wouldn’t stop looking for you. The man was obsessed.”
My smile faded. “Because I ran.”
“No. Because he missed you. We all saw it—me, Brien, Cain.”
