CHAPTER 7
EDWARD
The prospect of moving from that spot was a punishment he couldn’t understand. “We could live here,” he suggested, stroking a possessive hand over her naked hip, pulling her close enough to bury his face in her hair.
She laughed and he swallowed the sound with his mouth.
He was drunk on her. He could live off her for the rest of his life happily.
“I think Thorn would take opposition to that,” she replied when he finally found it within himself to tear his lips away; the dog in the corner had such a face of contempt it was unlike anything Edward had ever seen.
“She is prepared to fight for your honor, I think,” Edward mused aloud.
“I stole roses from your yard. What honor?” She chuckled and Edward didn’t like it.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. I would have given them to you. I would have paid off the debt myself if you’d let me. My family stole their money. Why should you not steal it back?”
She ran a hand over his cheek, and he turned his head to lay a kiss to her palm, feeling such tenderness for the girl he’d loved all his life. “My father’s debt is too high a price, Edward. I cannot do that to you. Perhaps I could become an indentured servant until it’s paid off.”
“The interest would keep you as one for the rest of your life,” he grumbled, the protective instincts to shield her from anyone who might use her so strong he felt them tug him under. “Let me do this for you. Please Leanna.”
She didn’t answer, just smiled sadly as she kissed his cheek, rose from the bed, then dressed quickly before going over to the map. “We must make haste. It’s nearing sunset and I have a creditor to face.”
The memory of the bruising on her neck charged him to his feet, shoving a leg into his pants before fastening them and donning his boots.
“He will not get within a mile of you!” Her corset was in the process of being refastened when she turned around and he glared at it like it offended him. “That is a travesty.”
Slapping his head away from her she grinned, grabbing the map and her cloak, heading out toward the grove of plants. But unlike the rest of the forest, this was a grove of white roses. Real ones.
“Edward. These… White roses…?” White roses were rare, Edward’s family in all their years breeding different colors had never gotten a flower as pure white as the ones in the large grove before them.
Leanna walked toward these, Thorn whining behind, sensing some thing off about the plants. “Don’t white roses create joy?” Reaching out a finger to touch one, she gasped as the rose moved, creeping closer. “Is that why they’re valuable?”
Thorn barked, and Edward snapped into action, grabbing Leanna’s hand before she could snatch for the flower. “We can’t touch them, remember? The fox said bad things would happen.”
Leanna’s face twisted in confusion and a tenderness pierced at his chest. “But the fox said the greedy. I want to take them to pay off my father’s debt. And… for you. That’s not greedy, is it?”
Edward was certain she wasn’t greedy, but he didn’t trust this wood not to be tricky. Yet he was willing to face whatever wrath imaginable to keep her unguarded and hopeful. “Go on,” he urged.
She ripped out a fistful.
“Damn it, Leanna!” Edward grabbed her and pulled her behind him, waiting for some horrid consequence to occur…
but nothing did, only the sounds of birds chirping overhead and the sunset from the outside shooting burnished oranges and golds against their skin.
They walked toward it slowly until they’d broken free of the tree line.
Grinning from ear to ear, Leanna shot him a wink.
“We did it.” She beamed so wide. It was a smile he’d seen many times over the years, always aimed at another, but this one was for him and for a moment everything was perfect.
And then Leanna was ripped away.