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She tilted her head to the side to study him. His eyes were as compelling as ever, and, before they could befuddle her senses, she said, “I have seen nothing to indicate that.”
“And if that was the case, it is well that you don’t.” His finger pressed against her lips as soon as she opened them to respond. “Leave it be. And let this arrangement serve us well for now.”
Bliss shrugged and pushed his hand away. “There is no harm in that. After all, how meaningful are vows when they are yet to be consummated?”
He rested his lips near her temple, and whispered, “I can rectify that very easily.”
“Why?”
The simple question brought a smile to his lips. “Need I explain?”
“Aye, please do,” she said.
“You’re serious?”
“Of course I am. Why consummate vows you never plan to honor?”
His expression darkened. “I would honor my vows.”
“Because you consummated them, not because of love?”
He shook his head. “You’re complicating things.”
“Love does that; it complicates.”
“No it doesn’t,” he argued. “Love is simple.”
She laughed. “You are a fool if you believe that.”
“I not only believe it, I lived it,” he said with a thump to his chest. “I once loved deeply, and it was not complicated. She loved me, and I loved her. There was no question about it. No need for concern. Love was there in our hearts, in our actions, in our words. Nothing could take it from us, nothing but—death.”
He moved her gently aside, stood and walked around to the other side of the campfire, and sat.
“I am sorry for your loss,” she said, “though I know those words bring little comfort. I truly am sorry. I cannot imagine your pain.”
“There is no healing it,” he said, stretching out on the blanket and pillowing his arms beneath his head. “A wound to the body heals given time. The pain fades and returns no more. Not so when you lose someone you love. You think the pain gone, then it surfaces once more and hurts all over again.”
She could not stand to see the suffering in his eyes, and so she said what she sensed. “Your pain will go away and never will you feel it again.”
He turned on his side, his eyes locking with hers. “Promise.”
“Aye, that I can promise you.”
“How can that be?”
“I do not know,” she said. “I cannot explain it. I can only tell you that it will come to pass.”
“Soon?”
“Aye, soon,” she said, and felt a stabbing pain to her heart.
“I wish I could believe you, but the only way for my pain to go away is for Leora to return to me, and she can’t. She’s dead.” He dropped back on the blanket. “Sleep and rest so that we can get an early start in the morning.”
Bliss eased herself down on the blanket, her arm paining her. She lay there trying to heal her wound, but found it difficult to concentrate. Her thoughts continued to return to Trey and what she had sensed. How could his pain ever heal when the woman he loved was dead? Of course he could find love again, but would that heal his old wound or simply make it easier to live with?
An icy shiver ran through her, and she shuddered as another vision assaulted her. This time she saw only the blond woman. She was reaching out, calling for Trey, tears streaming down her cheeks, begging him to help her.
She heard herself whimper and felt her body shudder again, but try as she might, she could not escape the vision. She was trapped, just like the woman.
