Same/Difference (The Depth of Emotion #4) (28 page)

“I think we need food.” Paige’s smile of contentment filled his heart. He kissed her on the forehead.

“Good thinking. I’ll be right back.”

He felt her eyes on him as he exited the bedroom and came back with a tray filled with cheeses, bread, and fruit.

“How did you do that so fast?” She sat up cross-legged and pulled her hair back.

“I had him make it before he left. It was in the fridge.”

The sheet fell around her waist. He sat the tray between them on the bed. When he leaned in to her, she grabbed his chin and gave him a light kiss.

“I love a man with a plan.”

“Lucky for you I always have one.”

He placed a small piece of cheese in her mouth and noticed that she was unconsciously moving the bedding to hide her scars. His brow creased.

“I’ve seen every inch of you. Why are you trying to hide yourself?”

“I don’t know.” She cast her gaze down to the tray. “Habit, I guess.”

“Uh huh.” He tilted her chin up. “I want you to understand something; those marks mean nothing to me,
but
I know they mean something to you.” He ran his thumb along her jaw and she turned her face into his palm. “I have another gift for you. It’s one that may make you feel less conscious about the scars. But you have to keep an open mind.”

“What is it? Tell me.” Her puzzled expression accompanied a cute smirk.

“No.” He held a piece of cheese for her to bite into. “I’ll show you instead. Tomorrow. And once I show you, you can decide if you’d like to have it.”

All through the night, no matter how she pried, he refused to offer any more details. She was a determined little spitfire, he would give her that, but there was no way he was giving in and telling her what it was ahead of time. This could be a game changer. His lips were sealed. Finally, she gave up. She wasn’t happy but after they ate he smoothed her ruffled feathers with a hot shower. When they were done he wrapped her in a soft white robe taking the belt away so he’d have easy access to her body. He put one on as well and took her by the hand into the living room and sat down in an oversized chair, positioning it in front of the window. Pulling her onto his lap, he curled his fingers around her nape.

“I love you, Paige. You’re everything I want, and more than I deserve. I want to make your dreams come true.”

Just then, as if he’d planned it, the fountains came to life before her eyes.

A
s I walked down the strip to meet Liz, I realized that for the first time in my life that I was truly happy. Last night had been magical. I was so glad that Falcon had a meeting this morning because I needed the walk down the Strip. It gave me some time to reflect.

For someone like me who was so methodical about everything, being spontaneous was unchartered territory. If I was to be truthful with myself, I didn’t know what I was missing. I’d always adopted the
‘it is what it is’
attitude. That mindset kept me going for years. Although I would never say my happiness depended on Falcon, I had been much, much happier since I met him. From that first walk in the woods, he had changed my perspective. He was also changing my view of my childhood accident. I wasn’t a religious person. For as much as I believed in a god, I didn’t believe that he cared for me. I humored my parent’s faith, and never disrespected it. My mother used to tell me there was a reason for everything. That God’s timing was perfect, never early, never late. I listened but I didn’t really hear. When I became an adult, I remembered her words but never understood the meaning. Even though I was too young to understand faith, the accident compromised my future beliefs. My mom told me that God was always with me, but then I wondered where was He when I was burned? It was so much easier to believe that I was a peon in his kingdom of souls and I escaped his notice because he didn’t love me. When I had this discussion with Falcon, he asked me to consider that I might be wrong.

I would never have considered my husband to be a man of faith. To look at him he didn’t look like a Christian; he was rough talking and tough looking, and he was covered with tattoos. But his faith was much deeper than I knew. He had a good argument. He talked about when he was deployed to Afghanistan and he told me how much he had to rely on his faith. He said that when you’re on the front lines you have no choice except to rely on God and your fellow soldiers. In the battlefield that statement could be taken literally, but in life your front line could be any situation that tested your faith because that was when it grew the strongest. It sounded good, and I was happy that he found someone he could rely on. I still couldn’t relate to his conviction, but he asked me to consider if the accident hadn’t made me who I was. I said that it made me strong, and the bullying refined my personality. So he asked me, to just once, look at everything I’d gone through from a different perspective;
what if God didn’t put me through it, but he walked me through it?
The concept was speculative at best, but certainly worth exploring.

Interesting conversation was just one thing about him that I loved, and I was thankful that my friends were growing to care for him too. Elizabeth really liked him. She had asked us to go to lunch. I was meeting her now and Falcon would be joining us when he was finished. Now that our secret was out, she was anxious to see us both. I caught her up on the details of everything by telephone, but this was the first time I had seen her since my life had unraveled. Now that my marriage wasn’t considered a Vegas mistake, Falcon was certainly helping me to stitch it back together with colorful thread.

I
t was gorgeous Las Vegas morning, as sunny as my new outlook and as warm as my introspection. Although Jorge was more than willing to drive me wherever I wanted to go, I chose to walk today instead. It was too lovely to do otherwise. The streets were a little less crowded in the morning, but certainly no less interesting. Most people were so focused on getting to their destination that they never paid attention to anything but themselves, but I wasn’t one of them. I was enjoying my walk down the Strip when a commotion from the side street diverted my attention. I wasn’t too far away to see what it was, but was shocked at what I saw. Blake was leaning against the corner of a building. It looked like he had kicked a trashcan over and was most likely the source of the noise Now he was as relaxed as I’d ever seen him. His head was tilted back while he blew rings of smoke from his cigarette. Anger quickly sparked within me. Why was he here, now? Was he following me? It felt like more than a coincidence, and it was the last thing I expected.

I silently fumed and was quickly escalating from irritation to irate. Suddenly, everything came back to me with a blinding double punch—the attack in Vegas
and
his presumptive attitude. Rationale was something I had in short supply as I started toward him. He was so into himself that he didn’t even notice I was coming. I was running a race with sanity; I was much too close to back down and not far away to use common sense. He was an unpredictable douchebag and I was alone—and I didn’t care.

“BLAKE!”

My hands curled into fists as I shouted at him. He jumped to an upright position and jolted out of his stupor. It was obvious from the look on his face that he was shocked to see me, so I dismissed the thought that he was following me. Still, I wanted to set him straight once and for all, and when I was done with him he would
never
want to come near me again.

He looked to the left and right before he noticed me. I was waiting for his cocky attitude to surface, but instead he looked agitated.

“Get out of here, Paige.” He wore a scowl. I presumed it was because Falcon nearly kicked his ass.

“No! I’m not leaving until we get a few things straight.”

I was foolish.

This was ridiculous.

He was crazy.

I stopped right in front of him, my hands on my hips. “Why are you in Vegas? Are you following me? Because if you are, you’re going to stop!”

“What?” He looked at his watch, and to the left and right again. Then he focused on me and became irate. “No! I’m not following you. Now, get the hell out of here!”

He started to walk away from me, but he wasn’t getting away that fast. I grabbed his arm. He spun around and gave me a deadly look. His eyes were empty, black, and cold. An unwelcome shiver went down my spine, threatening my vigilante frame of mind. He looked down at my fingers as if he couldn’t believe I touched him. Without missing a beat, he wrenched his arm free and pushed me. I stumbled.

“I said get the hell out of here! I’m not telling you again!” His chest heaved furiously as he took breaths of anger and indignation. I concentrated on regaining my balance’

“Who the fuck is this, Matthews? I told you to come alone.”

My head spun in the direction of the bastardizing voice. I could barely see the shadow of a man who jumped back into the building’s concrete shade. By the look on his face I could tell that Blake recognized the man, and that the two were supposed to meet.

“I did come alone. She’s leaving.” He spat the words to the hidden man, and the air grew thick with tension. I couldn’t see the man’s face but I saw his gun and Blake’s head flew between us.

“She just showed up!” He shrieked his explanation and I knew something devastating was about to happen. The man turned in my direction but all I saw was his hand.

“That’s too bad for her.”

His voice was an eruption of evil. In the span of a breath I was looking down at the barrel, the click of the trigger detonating in my ears.

His unforgiving bullet annihilated my happiness and massacred the bliss I’d just begun living. I jumped but something hit my face and my mind exploded into jagged grains of pain as the cement walkway cradled my fall. Everything disappeared around me.

“Oh my God!” Blake screamed. “Why did you do that?”

His voice had the sound of another discharging bullet, and I felt something fall at my feet. I remembered the breathing that calmed my panic attacks and I shallowly inhaled and closed my eyes. Someone came near me and kicked my foot and, for the first time in my life, I was thankful to the girls that hurt me. I learned to lay limp as they kicked and hit me because if I knew if I didn’t move they would lose interest. I prayed the same would happen with this assassin.

“PAIGE!”

I heard an angel speaking through Falcon’s voice but I didn’t dare move. Adrenaline fueled my terror filled thoughts and every one of them was about him. If I was dead, then I prayed God would take me quickly so I could plead with Him for my husband’s life. The last thing I heard was my soon to be widowed husband calling my name as I spiraled into blackness.

F
alcon could see the unmistakable flow of blood on the concrete as he ran toward the devastation. Whoever pulled the trigger was running away but all he could think of was reaching the woman who had his heart. His eyes burned, his jaw clenched, and his heart thundered out of his chest. A mantra looped in his head.

She’s okay.

She’s okay.