I can feel him watching me at the sink. “Monday. Do you have a job here?”
“Not yet. I only got to town a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been…busy with other things.”
“Tracking me down.”
Water runs over my hands as I still. I watch it cascade from me to the plate to the bottom of the bright stainless steel basin, my head going hazy in a way I recognize. I set down the dish and lower myself to the floor before I can drop. I hear Lee’s voice, asking if I’m all right, but it’s already too far away. He’s a blur, and the water is running, but…
But I’m…
I…
“Over here.”
I follow the voice into the cavernous overhang, water running down the rocks to either side of me. The air is humid here, salt in my lungs as I breathe in deeply. He’s up ahead, the netin his hand holding a rather small treasure. The grin on his face has me smiling in response.
“Have you become a fisherman?” I tease, the tiny crawfish in the net trying to free itself.
He scoffs, but I can tell he’s pleased to have caught it. “I am a man of many talents. Come, my love. Let me show you.”
I take a step back, and his expression flickers. Amusement. Excitement.
He steps toward me. “Do you plan to run?”
“Do you fancy yourself a hunter, as well? First a fisherman. Now this?”
“If you run, I will catch you.”
I hum, taking another step back, my pulse pounding as the water falls like rain beside my ears. “Do your worst.”
I’ve barely turned when his arms come around me, hefting me into the air. The heat of him at my back, the familiar scent of him, have my muscles going lax in an instant. The net falls to the water as he turns my chin in his grip, his lips a feather pressed to my cheek, his voice a low rumble.
“Kiss me, my love. I have caught you. And I shall have my prize.”
I arch my neck back, finding his eyes with my own, honey-brown and the scorching promise of a forever just like this. I offer him my lips, my own promise spoken in return.
“I am yours, my warrior.”
My eyes whip open, my inhale sharp.
Lee’s wide, frantic gaze is on me. “Caspian.”
“Fine,” I croak, wiping away the tears that are running down my cheeks. I heave myself into a sitting position, the cupboard below the sink at my back.
Lee’s hands are outstretched, not quite touchingme. “Was that…”
His question hangs, but I nod, pulling in a few breaths, one after another, to steady myself.
“Was it bad?” He finally settles a hand on my arm, helping me to stand. Shelly weaves around my feet, meowing loudly and looking up at me with green eyes as concerned as her owner’s.
“No,” I manage, my smile an aching, trembling thing. “No, it wasn’t bad at all.”
“What was it?”
How do I even explain it to him?
I wipe away the remainder of my tears, my chest pulled tight, as if still in the past, tethered to a point long since gone.
“It was…the very start.”
