CHAPTER 5
EDWARD
The disgust and disappoint ment Edward had waited for when someone found out his family’s deepest darkest secrets: that the roses contained no ability to make one more beautiful, they never had.
The rare breed of flower glowed so brightly because of a luminous insect that left its residue behind, his family’s business of making others happy with them selves was a scam. A lie.
When he’d found out? His parents had shrugged and said, “No one has ever figured it out, Edward. They make you see what you wish, the beauty they desire. They want to believe it. We’re giving them confidence,” his mother had assured.
“They were making money off other people’s insecurities,” Edward said, rubbing at his chin, eyes burning. “I was so ashamed, I couldn’t even look at them. I told them I was going to tell, that I was going to tell you.”
He still remem bered the morning they had packed him off to school; he’d argued, and refused. The panic at leaving his home, at leaving… Leanna, it destroyed him. What would she do without him here to look after her? What would he do not having her look after him?
But then his father had threatened her. “I’d hate for Leanna to end up alone if you don’t comply.”
“What?” he’d asked, freezing in place.
“How could your father possibly hurt me? He was a gentleman,” Leanna said in astonishment, drifting close enough for him to smell a freshness from her skin like lilacs.
“He threatened to reveal your father’s gambling debts and expose your mother’s affair.
” Shutting his eyes tight, he reached in his pocket and squeezed the object that had kept him company these twelve lonely years.
“I should’ve stayed anyway, but he’d written a letter saying how happy you were.
How your life got better after I left. I suppose I was weak-minded enough to believe it.
” With a humorless laugh, he ran a hand through his hair.
“In any case, those roses aren’t worth a thing and if they’re taken to a professional examiner they’ll find out the truth.
It matters not if my family secret is revealed, but it does matter if you’re hurt in the process. ”
He stopped and tried to read her thoughts on her face, but she’d never been one to wear her emotions that way.
Now, for example, her face was blank, her eyes only slightly widened when she stepped closer, and closer still.
He waited, his breath hitching when she was close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her brown eyes. “Close your eyes, Edward.”
Wonderful. She was going to punch him. That would make him feel much better.
Shutting his eyes tight, he turned his cheek toward her, giving Leanna an open shot, and waited.
Waited for the blow, but it never came. Soft lips pressed against the side of his face and he felt it everywhere, every part of his body awakening at the innocent contact; hitting him would’ve been better.
Less aggressive than this onslaught.
When her mouth left his cheek, he felt the loss just as deeply as the gain, until she wrapped her arms around him, leaning up on her toes and clasping the back of his neck in an embrace that warmed him down to his worthless heart. “I’m so sorry, Edward.”
With an anguished sigh he wrapped his arms around her, his hand finding the back of her head and cradling her closer than he could stand. “I shouldn’t have left you. I didn’t want to.”
“I believe you,” she mumbled into his shoulder.
“You were my best friend, Leanna,” he said raggedly, saying everything he’d wanted to, everything he should have told her back then.
“You were mine too,” Leanna said, her hand on his cheek when they separated; the gentle side to her that so few got to see was there, as she brushed a thumb that ignited desire in him so hot and fast it scared him.
He saw it scare her too because she stumbled back, searching for the black dog by her legs.
“The past is over. We’ve both moved on with our lives.
I apologize for dredging all this up for you.
Thorn and I will find another means to pay off my father’s debt,” she said, shakily, picking up the basket filled with fraudulent flowers and a few bright daisies and making for the way out of the wood.
Before he could object, before he could tell her he didn’t want to be away from her again. That he— Thorn began growling fiercely, bolting deeper into the trees. “Thorn!” Leanna screamed, running after the pup without thought for herself.
Someone had to.
Edward tailed her, stumbling over insects with fangs the size of knitting needles, and plants that snapped at his ankles, diving over rocks and fighting off the darkness in the opaque forest with the gnarled trees.
“Where is she?” Edward asked, breathing heavily when he finally caught up to them, shaking Leanna’s shoulder. “The dog?”
Leanna’s eyes were watering when she looked up at Edward and it ravaged him. “She fell down the shaft.”
Indeed, when Edward looked down a hidden tunnel, he saw a hunter’s trap that had taken the dog to posies knew where. “OK. Stay calm. We can track where it leads— Leanna, are you fucking mad?”
She was. She had to be. The girl he’d been in love with since he first laid eyes on her as a boy dove after her dog without thought for herself.
He sighed to himself, shaking his head… before diving in after her.