Voyeur - Lacey Alexander [108]
“It’s cut from the secret garden,” he said.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
Sloane took her free hand in his, lifting it to his mouth for a gentle, lingering kiss. “I know the garden turned out not to be ours alone, Riley, but when we were there, it felt like it belonged only to us.”
She nodded, a bit numb and trying not to cry. She knew this was it, that he was leaving, even before he leaned in to kiss her forehead, then her lips, and said, “Good-bye, Riley Wainscott. I won’t forget you.”
Riley stood at the door, peering blankly out at the stone path and lush green lawn long after Sloane had walked away. She girded herself with what Aunt Mimsey had taught her: We all have desires we can’t push down—but life goes on.
Sloane had opened Riley to parts of herself she’d never known. And he’d made her a better detective, too. Her heart was a little broken right now, but life would go on. And she’d be a happier, more complete person for having known him.
Laura sighed, having written the last words of the book she’d decided to call Dirty Little Secrets. The title had struck her on the plane, and it seemed perfect. The book was filled with secrets—Aunt Mimsey’s, Edna’s, her own with Sloane, and even the Dorchesters had their secret garden.
It also seemed the perfect title to sum up her memories of what had happened on the mountain. She’d told Monica she’d slept with her cousin, but she’d given her friend none of the naughty details—not about the webcam or about Tommy, not about every other new experience Braden had opened to her, and she never would. Those secrets would belong to Laura alone. Well, and Braden, too, of course.
She’d handled their good-bye like a pro—a few tender kisses at the door, and out she’d gone, a brave new woman, ready to face the world now changed and emboldened because of him. And she’d remained strong since then—but also a little torn inside, if she was honest with herself.
A sensual exhilaration still echoed through her when she remembered the things she’d shared with him—Braden had given her ultimate thrills, and he hadn’t judged her for her decisions; he’d truly wanted only to give her pleasure. She knew she would cherish the memories they’d created in the mountainside house together for the rest of her life, even if they were so outside her normal world that they almost seemed dreamy and unreal now.
But at the same time, she couldn’t deny the sadness still lurking inside her from missing him. Missing the intimacy they’d shared, and even just his company. She feared she’d never experience that much intimacy with a man again. No other guy could ever open her up like that, get to those parts of her, make her so comfortable with things that had started out seeming so forbidden. How on earth did a girl just say good-bye to that kind of trust, that kind of sharing?
Hard to believe, she thought, still staring at her computer screen, that it had all started with a secret camera, and the man behind it. One more dirty little secret, she thought with a melancholy sigh.
Two weeks after turning in the book, Laura sat down at her computer in her snowflake-print flannel pajamas and lowered her coffee mug to the coaster on her desk. After a brief glance out the window at the morning quiet of her Capitol Hill neighborhood, she hit the button to retrieve her mail. She clicked to open one from her editor, Karen, sporting the subject line: DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS INDEED!
Love it! Love Sloane! About time Riley had a real love life! I feel as if you’ve tapped into a whole new part of Riley’s personality. Will we see Sloane again in the next book? Karen
Laura sat before her computer, stunned. She couldn’t have been more thrilled with her editor’s response to a book she’d truly fallen in love with as she’d written it—but her editor wanted Sloane back in Riley’s life? She hadn’t even considered such a move. And though she immediately understood the appeal of such an idea, she was more than