“Taking care of you.”
“Mm.” He stroked her hair, brushing it back from her face. “Me, too. I could get used to you living here, too.”
“Are you asking me to be your roommate?”
“Would I sound crazy if I asked you to be my wife?”
She sat up to look at him. He was serious. Her heart tripped. “My definition of crazy has changed since I met you.” She arched an eyebrow. “Are you asking me to be your wife?”
He sat up, too, the bandage still on his head. “I hadn’t actually planned to ask like this. But yes, I am. I don’t want you to leave.”
“Are you sure it’s not your head injury talking?” She leaned forward and kissed him. “Just so I know it’s not, wait and ask me again when you’re feeling better. Until then, I’m here, and the answer will be yes, absolutely, you bet. By the way, you know that trip to Wimberly you’re sending me on? You’re coming, too.”
“I am?”
“Owen helped me make the arrangements. After all, you’re not supposed to go back to work for another few days. So why not make those days in that sacred cave you told me about?”
He grinned. “Why not, indeed.”
Owen had decided to come out, as it were. Unsure what Dale Soza might do while he awaited trial, the three had come up with an offense: integrate Owen’s story with the one Adrian and Kristy were writing about the Kiss and Kill Cupid incident. They were going to leave out some details, such as the psychic abilities and the fact that Kristy had suspected Owen of being the killer. The experience had helped Owen to come to terms with his past, and he was working through it with the help of a good therapist.
Kristy cuddled against Adrian again. The trip out of town would do them both good. The reporters were still hanging around trying to get their story. Dale, of course, had become the story he’d wanted to be, though not quite in the way he’d imagined. One of the neighbors had taken a picture with his cell phone and sent it to CNN, so a chocolate-covered screaming Dale was all over the news and Internet. Though the police hadn’t yet been able to tie him to the previous Kiss and Kill Cupid murders, they’d found an eyewitness who put him at the scene of the murder on Valentine’s Day morning, before the murder. They were building their case, and Kristy was their star witness. The district attorney was trying to keep her ability to hear people’s thoughts out of the whole thing. Luckily, Adrian’s ability was kept out of the reports altogether.
Adrian took her hand and slid his fingers between hers. “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow afternoon. Your friend Lance is looking forward to seeing you. He’s made the cave into a kind of spiritual attraction, now, letting various groups use it for healing circles and meditation.” But she’d asked if she and Adrian could have the cave all to themselves.
Three days later, she and Adrian walked up the stone pathway, past a labyrinth, to the entrance of the cave. The moon was nearly full, hanging bright and bold in the sky. She held his hand as they ducked beneath the low entrance and stepped into the belly of the cave. Dim, colored lights did give the place a cathedral feel, as though a light was shining through a piece of stained glass.
They walked down an incline, and she readied herself to feel the chill she’d expect in a cave. Instead, warm, moist heat enveloped her. She looked at Adrian, who had a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “I didn’t tell you the water flowing into this cave comes from a hot spring?”
“No, you didn’t.”
They stepped up to the pool, and she sucked in a breath at the beauty of it. Lights strategically hidden among the stalactites and stalagmites washed a splash of colors over the cave walls and the spiky formations growing down from the ceiling and up from the floor. The water was moving slightly, casting undulating reflections across the cave walls.
“Wow, this place is amazing,” she whispered.
“Yes, amazing.” He was looking at her.
He stepped up to her and unbuttoned her coat, lifting it off her. Then he ran his fingers along the bottom hem of her sweater and pulled that up and over her head. All the while he looked at her face, and what she saw took her breath away as much as the cave had: love. He reached around and unclasped her bra.
He hadn’t worn a coat, obviously knowing how warm the cave would be. She pulled at his sweater, tugging it off him. He unbuttoned her pants, unzipped them, and pushed them down, where he knelt at her feet. He placed one of her hands on his back and lifted her foot, pulling off her boot. He did the same for the other boot, then pulled her pants all the way off, folding them and setting them on a stone bench. She undid his pants and realized he’d already taken off his shoes.