Chapter Ten
252 Words
Rain fell softly against the inn windows while Elena balanced receipts across the dining room table.
Numbers blurred together.
Expenses climbed higher every week.
The inn was surviving.
Barely.
A knock sounded at the door.
Rowan entered carrying takeout containers.
“You looked stressed earlier.”
Elena stared at him.
“You brought emergency food?”
“Yes.”
“That’s disturbingly attractive.”
His smile appeared slowly.
“There’s the honesty.”
They ate together beside the fireplace while thunder rolled outside.
Conversation came easily now.
Comfortably.
Dangerously.
At some point Elena stopped talking and simply looked at him.
Rowan noticed immediately.
“What?”
“I think I’m in trouble.”
His expression softened.
“Yeah?”
She nodded once.
“Because every time you look at me like that, I forget every reason this is supposed to be a bad idea.”
Rowan set down his fork.
Then he crossed the space between them.
His hand slid along her jaw gently.
“You want to know a secret?” he asked quietly.
Elena’s pulse thundered.
“What?”
“I stopped thinking this was a bad idea the second you came home.”
Then he kissed her.
Deep enough to steal thought.
Tender enough to steal breath.
The storm raged outside while warmth gathered between them inside the glow of the fire.
And when Rowan eventually carried her upstairs with a quiet laugh against her mouth, the bedroom door closed softly behind them while rain whispered across the roof.
- Writer
