Page 49

Liquid fire doused my veins. I shifted in my seat, thighs rubbing together.

“You’re—you’re not fibbing. About Trenton?”

“No. I’m in Trenton, about to have a dinner meeting.”

“Oh.”

“Why?” he snapped.

“Because, for a second there, I thought you were outside,” I breathed, anticipation fizzling out of me.

His voice turned granite. “What makes you say that?”

I shook myself. “Just seeing things. Goodnight, monster.”

“Rose!” he barked, and I jumped.

“What?”

“Are the doors locked?” he insisted.

Cold instantly replaced the rushing, sizzling lust.

“Yeah, of course they are.” I stood, my legs shaking from too much wine. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, but some friends of mine are going to come over and sit on the porch tonight. Nothing will happen to your family here.”

“That’s weird,” I clipped out.

“Get used to being taken care of, carina. I’ve got to go.”

“Okay, well, thanks for calling,” I said quickly and ended the call before I said anything else. I didn’t want to admit that I did miss him. That I was getting used to having him around, even if it hadn’t been that long. And that if anything could soothe the scars on my heart, it was his respect for me.

Going to the window, I looked outside.

There was nothing in the shadows. I couldn’t sense any danger. Maybe it was the bottle of wine, but I was relaxed enough to go to bed. I was too tired to even grab one of my toys and think of the masked man. My dreams, however, were filled with monsters. It didn’t matter if they were werewolves or goblin kings. They all had the masked man’s voice.

Oversleeping didn’t happen often, but when a small voice broke through the shadowy haze, I rolled over to see two faces peeking through my cracked bedroom door.

“See, she’s awake,” Oli hissed.

Mat grinned at me as I held out my arms for the double balls of chaos. They bolted across the room as one and tumbled into bed.

“The elves want to bake cookies with us!” Mat squealed as I smothered him with a kiss.

Oli giggled and burrowed into the crook of my arm to avoid a smooch. So, I tickled him.

“Please, Mom! Can we go bake some cookies?” he gasped and squealed.

“You want to bake with me today?” I swiped a lock of hair out of my face.

Their cherub faces were the picture of innocence as they gazed up at me.

“Yes!” the cheered in unison.

I cocked my head to the side and set myself up for heartache. But I had to know. “You’d rather do that than play video games?”

“We want to do what the elves said,” Oli insisted.