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I glared at him, but Finn just pouted a little more when Owen didn't answer him.
I shut and locked the front door behind Finn, then went back into the den, where Owen was. I turned off the lights, and we walked up the stairs to the second floor.
I headed for my bedroom door, but Owen didn't follow me. I looked over my shoulder at him.
"Maybe I should sleep in a different room tonight," he said. "Since Eva's right down the hall. "
It wasn't an unreasonable request, but his words pricked my heart like tiny thorns. Eva was nineteen. She knew exactly what Owen and I did when we were alone together. Still, maybe it was for the best. We'd all been put through the wringer in some way tonight. Eva had witnessed a murder; Owen had dredged up memories of how he'd loved and lost his fiancee; and I'd realized that my lover had more of a past and more secrets than I'd ever dreamed of.
"Sure," I said.
I could hear Eva moving around in the bedroom next to mine, so I led Owen to the one at the end of the hall. I flipped the light
on and showed him where the extra blankets and pillows were stacked up in the closet. When that was done, we stood beside the bed, neither one of us knowing quite what to say to the other about everything that had come out into the open tonight.
"I'm sorry, Gin," Owen finally said in a soft voice, "for blindsiding you with all this. I never thought Salina would come back to Ashland, or that Phillip would drag you into the middle. "
I shrugged. "It's my fault too for not telling you about Kincaid's so-called catering job in the first place. I would have, if I'd known you had any kind of connection to him. So let's just forgive and forget, okay?"
He nodded. "And what about Salina?"
"What about Salina?" I asked, careful to keep my voice neutral once more.
He hesitated again. "I'd like to talk to her - about a lot of things. I need to talk to her. At the very least, I need to apologize for not finishing off Kincaid when I had the chance. I owed her that much, but I failed her. "
I suspected Owen hadn't failed Salina so much as she'd outright lied to him, but that was neither here nor there. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't say no. Not too long ago, Owen had given me the time and space I'd needed to come to terms with my lingering feelings for Donovan. The least I could do was let him speak to Salina - even if I thought she was far more devious and dangerous than she appeared to be.
"Of course," I murmured. "We'll talk more about that and everything else tomorrow. Right now, we both need to get some rest. It's been a long day. "
"Thank you, Gin," Owen said in a soft voice. "For believing me. For trusting me. "
I looked at him, at his black hair, his violet eyes, his rough, rugged features that were so appealing to me. All these emotions roared up in my chest. All my love for him, all my caring, all my worry - and all my fear of losing him.
It was that horrible thought, that terrible fear, that spurred me forward. I pressed my body flush again Owen's, drew his lips down to mine, and kissed him for all I was worth, trying to put everything I was thinking, everything I was feeling, into that one single kiss. Trying to make it perfect, trying to make it everything he'd had with Salina - and more.
The fierceness of my kiss seemed to startle him, but Owen's arms snaked around me, pulling me even closer. I kept right on kissing him, trying to tell him I understood the things he'd done and the decisions he'd made, even if I didn't like everything I'd learned tonight about how much he'd once loved Salina.
Sometime later, we broke apart, both of us breathless and aching - for each other and for answers we weren't quite sure of.
"I love you, Gin," Owen whispered in my ear, still holding me in his arms.
For the first time since he'd said those words to me, I doubted them - and him - but I kept my troubling thoughts to myself.
"I know," I whispered back. "And I love you too. We'll figure this out, just like we always do - together. "
He nodded, dropped his arms from around me, and stepped back. I walked over and paused in the doorway.
"If you need anything tonight, I'm just right down the hall. "
"I know. Sleep well. "
Try as I might, I couldn't quite make myself smile. "You too. "
I shut the door behind me, but I didn't go to my room. Instead, I stood there, my hand still on the knob, brooding. I knew Owen loved me, that he loved me just as much as I did him.
But I couldn't help but wonder if he still loved Salina as well - and if she'd always had more of a hold on his heart than I could ever hope to have.
Chapter 15
