“What do you see?” She heard the smile in her own voice and wondered if he did.
“This bed is large enough for the two of us, so long as we double up.”
It took her a moment to absorb his meaning, then she laughed.
And he laughed.
And all was more right in her world than she could ever have imagined.
***
“Annabelle, wake up!”
She came awake with a gasp. Heart racing, she took in her surroundings. The smooth, stone walls of the chamber, the frost-covered window, the night sky beyond.
A bedchamber. Not a boat.
She sagged back onto the pillows.
At some point following their lovemaking, they’d made their way under the covers. She still wore her simple gown, but herhusband appeared to have removed his clothing, from what she could see.
Propped on one elbow, he loomed over her, brushing her hair back from her forehead with a gentle stroke of his hand, his features etched in worry in the dim light from the stuttering wall sconces. “Bad dream?”
She nodded.
“Do you have those often?”
“Why? Are you afraid I’ll disturb your beauty sleep?”
He arched a thick brow and one corner of his mouth crooked upward. “Of course.”
“You,” she admonished, swatting him.
He caught her hand and drew it to his lips, his expression turning serious. “What had you so frightened you were wrestling the sheets? I thought I heard you call a name.” By his tone, it was a name he recognized.
She shook her head, not wanting to dredge up more of the memory.
“Tell me,” he said, his tone brooking no denial.
“It’s a nightmare I had as a young girl. It’s resurrected itself recently, I think, because we’re surrounded by the sea. And that dreadful cruise we took on that horrid fishing boat.”
“I would’ve gone in after you,” he said, so softly she almost missed the words.
She hadn’t, though. But she wanted to hear them again. “What was that?”
“I will keep you safe, Annabelle. Nothing and no one will take you from me.” Crooking a finger under her chin, he tilted her head back until their eyes met. A sardonic grin curved his mouth. “Is that what you wanted to hear?” he drawled.
Yes.She sniffed. “I have no idea what you mean.”
Tracing his fingers over her jaw, he said, “Go on, tell me of this resurrected dream.”
He meant it. He wanted to know. She could read the sincerity in his dark gaze. Had anyone ever wanted to know her deepest, darkest secrets?
She swallowed and tucked her head under his shadow-dusted jaw. “I’m on a boat. I’m…like I was before.”
“Before. You’ve used that phrase repeatedly.Like I was before.What does that even mean?”
It was always going to come out, she realized. “I know this is going to be hard to fathom, but I was not always pretty.”
