Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

dumping his armful of wine and roses onto the chair by the
door. “People are still coming home from work.” He watched her face fall a bit
and her hands move to cover her chest as if she felt suddenly vulnerable. He
didn’t let the moment escalate but reached for her and pulled her to him,
feeling the flimsy material in his hands give way as if it would dissolve on
contact. He was already hard as he pressed her to him, his hands going
instinctively to cup her bottom and lift her to him. She sucked in a small
breath and wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her full breasts up. He
boosted her further up onto his hips until his mouth met the tip of her breast.
He covered it and sucked until he could feel her squirming with anticipation.
                “Dinner
will be ready in a minute,” she gasped, wrapping her legs around his hips.
                “Oh,
like hell it will,” he said turning and depositing her on the couch. He took
just the barest of moments to enjoy the sight of her beneath him, naked and
wanting him, her eyes misty with desire, before yanking off his clothes and
falling upon her to feast on his favorite dish of all.
                That
night, for the first time in months, they talked with real excitement about
their coming wedding. After dinner, they slipped into the master bathtub to
talk and scheme, to plan and dream.
                “Remember
the convent?” Ella murmured. “And Greta?”
                “I’ll
never forget,” he murmured to the back of her neck as he held her in front of
him between his legs. The flickering votive candles lined the bathtub and
provided the only light in the room. Ella sipped from her wine glass but
Rowan’s sat untouched on the wide flat rim of the tub.
                “How
can two people be so happy and yet so miserable?”
                “I
know.”
                “Maybe
our problem is we don’t know how to
be happy. I mean, unless we’re cold or exhausted or bleeding.”
                Rowan
laughed and kissed her neck.
                “I’d
hate to think that’s the case,” he said. “I like comfort.”
                “Me,
too. Especially soap, you know? I think that’s what I missed the most.”
                “For
me, it was the food variety. I just can’t eat the same damn thing day in and
day out.”
                “You
did, though.”
                “You
do what you have to.”
                “I
guess so.”
                “Rowan,”
she said tentatively.
                “Hmm?”
Rowan was feeling more at peace and mellow than he could remember feeling in
months.
                “I
am so sorry about how things played out with your mother.”
                Rowan
was aware that this wasn’t actually an apology. He noted that Ella wasn’t
taking responsibility for how things turned out. She was just sorry that the situation
was the way it was.
                “Yeah,
don’t worry about it,” he said. There must have been something unconvincing in
his voice because she turned around and looked at him. The humidity in the
closed room had made her hair curl around her face. She looked even prettier,
if that was possible. He worked to keep his face blank.
                “We
need to not let outside forces throw us off kilter with each other.”
                “Outside
forces?”
                “Maybe
that’s not the right phrase,” she said, pulling away now and pushing the
bubbles up so they hid her breasts. “I mean, we need to be a united front.”
                “All
these battle terms,” he murmured, reaching for his wine glass.
                “I
don’t mean it like that,” she said. “It’s just that, of all the things we have
had to deal with in our relationship, we’ve never