Chapter 6
Despite Eve’s assurances, Aspen was on high alert as she followed Eve to the front door. She could empathize with Eve feeling like she needed to do this, but she seriously hated that she had to. That panic attack had been no joke.
She’d been so afraid that she wouldn’t be able to help guide Eve back from it. Had been fucking terrified by the way Eve was clawing at her sweatshirt, her breaths falling so sharp and fast that she nearly spiraled into an attack of her own because of how much they sounded like machine gun fire.
Her own pulse had skyrocketed as she tried to get through to her, and she’d never felt more relief than she had when Eve began to respond to her leading questions. She knew the touchstones worked for her, but she honestly hadn’t known if they’d work for Eve.
But they had.
Until they didn’t, anyway.
She still didn’t know what had sent Eve reeling back into her attack, but it’d been the plaintive, panicked way Eve gasped her name that had leaning in on impulse—a frantic, fuck it all, instinct—that had her pulling Eve in for a kiss.
As impulsive as it was, the kiss itself was tentative. It was no more than a chaste laying of her lips against the gasping, desperate whimpers that were falling from Eve’s mouth. When the whimpers slowed, giving her hope, she’d pressed a little harder, pouring everything she had into the touch, willing Eve to feel her and respond.
And when Eve did…
Aspen’s stomach fluttered as she recalled the way Eve had softened against her in stages until the kiss was no longer frozen, but soft. Desperate, but gentler. A real kiss that accepted Aspen’s offer to become a tether. An anchor. It should have felt wrong to kiss Eve like that, but as Eve’s mouth opened beneath hers and their tongues stroked lightly together, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Like, somehow, it was the only thing she’d ever been meant to do.
“Are you ready?”
Aspen snapped out of her thoughts and forced a smile as she looked at Eve, who was regarding her carefully with her hand hovering over the doorbell. Aspen’s first instinct was to ask why Eve wasn’t using a key, but she swallowed back the question to reply, “When you are,” instead.
Eve’s jaw flexed with determination, and she nodded as she pressed her thumb to the doorbell. She scrubbed her hand on the thigh of her jeans as an elaborate chime rippled through the home’s interior.
Aspen reached out and took Eve’s hand to draw her into her side as they waited for the massive, twelve-foot wooden door to be answered. “You know, if it weren’t for the snow and stuff, I’d say I feel like we’re about to enter a haunted mansion,” she quipped, pleased that none of the tension tickling the back of her neck crept into her wry tone.
Eve’s dry chuckle wasn’t quite the reaction she was going for, nor was her droll, “Not gonna lie, a haunted mansion would be a lot less scary.” Eve stiffened as the lock audibly tumbled over, and Aspen gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as the door opened to reveal a man who looked to be in his mid-fifties in an immaculate black suit.
“Ah, Miss Eve,” the man greeted Eve with a smile that was genuine enough, if professionally reserved, as he stepped aside to usher them in. “Welcome. Your parents are expecting you.”
“Hello, Richard,” Eve replied woodenly, her hand tightening to an almost painful degree around Aspen’s as she stepped over the threshold.
Aspen’s hackles rose as Eve’s tone brought every protective instinct in her body roaring to life, but she restrained herself to an unimpressed look directed at the butler as she followed Eve inside.
“Did you have a nice flight?” Richard asked as they entered.
Aspen stroked her thumb along the side of Eve’s hand in a bid to soothe away some of her worry as Richard closed the front door behind them. She could feel his curiosity burning a hole in the back of her head, but she didn’t like the way Eve reacted to him, so she didn’t deign to satisfy it. If she’d learned anything in the military, it was to shut the fuck up and project an air of confidence while being silently judged. She hiked her chin by a fraction and plastered on a politely disinterested half-smile as she appraised her surroundings. The floors were a rustic wide plank hardwood, the exposed beam ceilings had to be over thirty-feet tall to match the roofline of the house’s towering entryway, and the space led directly into what looked like a formal living room with equally expansive windows that overlooked the valley below.
She was no stranger to old money or the trappings it provided—hell, the West family estate in the Berkshires where she’d grown up had been featured in Architectural Digest on a handful of occasions over the last fifty years—but this was gauche and reeked of new money trying to assert itself.
“And who is your guest?” Richard asked when neither of them addressed Aspen’s presence. “We were under the impression that Mister Collier would be accompanying you this weekend.”
And so it begins, Aspen thought as Eve glanced at her before replying, “Oh, right. I guess I never updated my parents on the change. This is my girlfriend, Aspen.”
Good girl .
“Excellent. Welcome, Miss…”
“Collier-West,” Aspen supplied.
“A pleasure,” Richard replied, briefly dipping his chin in a small nod before turning his attention back to Eve. “Do you require assistance with your bags?”
“No, thank you, Richard.” Eve shook her head. “We’ll be fine.”
“Very good, Miss. Your mother has given you your usual suite. Shall I show you to your room, or…”
“No, thank you. That’s not necessary,” Eve replied politely.
This is like walking into some bad daytime soap opera or some bullshit , Aspen thought as she nodded in agreement with Eve’s decision.
“Excellent.” Richard snapped his feet together and straightened into what could only be described as full attention. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Myself or someone else on the staff will take care of it. Dinner will be served at eight.”
Aspen glanced at her watch. They had twenty minutes to change and present themselves.
“Perfect. Thank you.” Eve’s smile was sharp enough to cut glass as she turned to Aspen and gestured down the hall that branched off the right side of the foyer. “Our room is this way.”
Aspen gave Richard a short nod of polite dismissal as she gathered the handles of hers and Eve’s suitcases in her right hand. It would have been easier to manage the large bags with two hands, but she’d be damned if she let go of Eve until they were safely ensconced in their room and away from prying eyes. And then, because she wanted Eve’s parents to know that she was two thousand percent on Eve’s side in case Richard reported details of the encounter to his employers, said, “Lead the way, beautiful.”
She’d meant the line more as a kind of unspoken fuck this guy , but when Eve’s cheeks pinked prettily at the endearment, she made a mental note to use it more often.
The hallway was wide enough that they could walk side-by-side, and Aspen lowered her guard as Eve’s grip on her hand relaxed the further they walked. Neither of them spoke as they wandered deeper into the sprawling manor, their progress marked instead by the quiet fall of their feet and the low hum of their suitcase wheels on the wood floor. For as large as the house appeared from the exterior, it was a near-monstrosity on the inside, and after they’d passed not one, but two separate staircases and an elevator, they finally reached the end of the hall.
“This is us,” Eve said as she pushed open an otherwise nondescript stained wood door to reveal a nice, but not overly large guest room.
Aspen took note of the space as she followed Eve inside. The hardwood from the rest of the house continued into the space, and the walls that weren’t glass were painted the same austere, perfectly impersonal white as the hallway. There was a queen-sized bed centered on the wall facing a pair of french doors that opened to a balcony that overlooked the valley below. The bed was draped in crisp, white, hotel-styled linens and centered on a plush steel gray rug. At the foot of the bed were a pair of matching armchairs and a small table.
“Bathroom and the walk-in closet are through there,” Eve said, gesturing to an open door on the far side of the room. “And…” Her voice trailed off as she turned to Aspen with a fragile half-smile that broke Aspen’s heart. “I don’t know. I mean, this is just kind of it.”
“It’s fine,” Aspen assured her. And it was. It was a perfectly fine guest room. But even though Richard had said it was Eve’s usual room, there was nothing even remotely personal about the space. It was an unimaginative copy of a suite that would have been perfectly acceptable in a hotel but was, in her opinion, completely out of place in a private residence. “Should I put our bags in the closet, or would you prefer I set them somewhere else to unpack?”
“The closet’s fine.” Eve sucked her lower lip between her teeth and, with obvious reluctance, extracted her hand from Aspen’s. “There’s an upholstered ottoman in there that I usually put the bag on to make it easier.”
Aspen felt the loss acutely, but resisted the urge to reach out and retake Eve’s hand. After everything she’d already done, the last thing she wanted was to misread anything and make Eve uncomfortable. Besides, they just didn’t have time for the conversation that would go along with something like that right now.
She fisted her hand and shoved it into her pocket with a bright “Sounds good,” as she left her bag where it was and pushed Eve’s toward the attached en suite. She’d purposefully packed her clothes for the night at the top of her suitcase, so she could just get to the rest of it in the morning. The ottoman Eve mentioned was pushed against the back wall of the closet, so she used the toe of her boot to drag it out far enough for her to lay the suitcase on it, and then she turned the luggage so the ottoman would support both halves once it’d been opened.
Her heart ached when she turned to see Eve watching her from the doorway with her arms wrapped around her middle. She held out her hands to Eve as she made her way over to where she stood, and was relieved when Eve immediately took them. She rubbed her thumbs over Eve’s soothingly and asked in a gentle voice, “What else can I do to help?”
Eve blinked slowly and shook her head. “Are you okay?”
I’m fine. But I’m worried about you, Aspen thought, even as she assured Eve, “Totally. Are you?”
Eve answered flatly, “Yeah.”
Aspen squeezed Eve’s hands. Eve’s tone wasn’t at all reassuring, but she was clearly determined to do this, so it was up to Aspen to make the ordeal as easy as possible. “Okay. Well, then we should probably get ready for dinner.” She hiked her chin toward the bedroom. “I’ll change out there while you’re getting ready to stun in here.”
“Stun,” Eve echoed with a droll chuckle. “Hardly.”
Oh, that just won’t do, Aspen thought. She lifted Eve’s hands to her lips and held her gaze as she vowed, “You, Eve Morrison, are the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met.” She punctuated that truth with a gentle kiss to Eve’s fingers, and her heart fluttered as she watched a delicate smile spread across Eve’s lips. God, she’s so beautiful.
“Aspen…” Eve murmured.
She didn’t sound displeased, so Aspen brushed another smile of a kiss over her fingers before letting their hands drop as she asked, “What do you need?”
Aspen’s pulse stuttered as Eve’s gaze dipped to her mouth and lingered there for what felt like an eternity. The air seemed to thicken around them as blue eyes lifted to meet her own, and her breath caught as Eve pulled one hand away to caress her cheek.
“Thank you,” Eve breathed.
“I didn’t do anything,” Aspen deflected, her voice husky as the words scraped their way past the lump in her throat.
“You have,” Eve argued, a small, soft smile lit Eve’s face as she trailed her thumb over the corner of Aspen’s lips. “You are,” she amended in a warm rustle of a whisper that was lush with promise.
Aspen’s heart skipped a beat as Eve’s thumb drifted to tug ever so lightly at her lower lip, and her eyes fluttered as she swayed after the touch when it fell away. When she blinked them back open, it was to find Eve watching her with an expression of such open longing that it stole the breath from her lungs. “Eve…” she exhaled.
Eve hummed low in the back of her throat as those enchanting eyes of hers dipped back to Aspen’s lips. For a long moment Aspen was convinced Eve was going to kiss her, but then Eve pulled away with an apologetic shake of her head. “Dinner.”
Aspen swallowed back the ‘fuck dinner’ that was on the tip of her tongue as she nodded and forced herself to take a step backward. And then another. And another. It spoke to both of their restraint that neither succumbed to the tension that pulled taut between them as she left the closet, and she blew out a rough breath when she was alone in the bedroom.
Eve Morrison just might be the death of her.