Page 226

The next day was hilariously ornate and elaborate. All of the things that she had ordered came in at once, and it looked like they were having a massive event rather than just something for the two of them.

She’d heard this sort of thing called the grand gesture before. And often it was the man making it. Usually after he had done something to mess up.

She hadn’t messed anything up.

Maybe it wasn’t really a grand gesture.

It was just wanting to do something for him. To fix something. Because God knew he wasn’t going to do it for himself. He was the most stubborn man on the face of the planet.

And he didn’t seem to have any idea what he was missing.

Maybe he really didn’t care.

But she just thought…there was so much inside of him. She had seen glimpses of it. She could access his passion in the bedroom. Well, in any room, pretty much, but it was a hint of what else was inside of him. All the things he seemed reluctant to show.

She had a good sense now for when he was turning off his emotions.

For when he was avoiding feeling something that he found too challenging. Or that he was afraid would challenge her.

But she wanted…more. All of him.

She had a feeling it was going to be an uphill battle to get it.

But she was starting with this.

Once everything was set up, and it was just the two of them, she went to find Adonis.

“Esme,” he said. “This is…”

“Are you really surprised?”

It was such a funny thing. She felt like partly, this was her heart laid bare in front of him, and yet it was also just her, in many ways.

The way that she loved this job had to do with the fact that she’d had access to nothing but her own resourcefulness back when they had been kids. Now she had her resourcefulness plus assets, and that created the opportunity for magic. She wanted to make magic for him. With him.

“You’re doing too much.”

“I’m not doing nearly enough,” she said. “We can be happy,” she said, aware that there was a fervency in her voice that sounded just slightly desperate.

“Of course we can,” he said, putting his hand on the back of her head, looking deep into her eyes. “We are.”

She felt disquiet in the base of her stomach. But she chose to ignore it.

“Of course we are. But we just get to have some time off today.”

He sighed, heavily. “Yes, you seem very happy,” she said.

“I, but I don’t need all of this to—”

“What would you like to do first?”

“Do you have an itinerary?”

He was asking that very dryly, but she obviously did. She dropped it to his phone with the push of a button, and he looked at the list of activities, his brows inching slightly higher with each moment he looked at his screen. “This is a lot.”

“Archery?”

“Archery,” he said. “You think that my leisure time is missing weapons?”