You’re not helping your case at all right now, Echo. I’m gonna ask you one more time—where is the key?
I heard her sigh and felt her consideration of giving me what I wanted to know. If I tell you, will you consider not taking those damn pills?
I was agitated. Fine, where is it!
I wasn’t lying, Eden. It really is buried.
Okay, so where is it buried. I'd grown tired of this stupid game Echo insisted on playing.
Echo's voice was solemn when she finally answered. With me, it's buried with me.
“What,” I shrieked, and Drew glanced down at me in question. I held up a finger, signaling for him to wait and then pointed to my head.
It was buried with me. If you go downstairs and look at all my pictures, you’ll see I always wore a necklace—with a key pendant. I NEVER took it off other than when I was using it.
I buried my face into Drew’s chest and let the rest of me sink into his embrace. I didn’t know how much more I could take. All I knew is that right at that moment, I didn’t want to think about it anymore. Standing in Drew’s arms made that easy. I concentrated on the steady, rhythmic beat of his heart, felt it against my cheek, and heard it echo in my ear. It did a lot to calm my emotions. I could feel him stroking my hair as I breathed him in. Gawd, he smelled good, but then he always did. It wasn’t some particular cologne or soap. It wasn’t aftershave or deodorant. It was his smell, and it was something I could get lost in without even trying. No one else smelled as good as Drew.
“Well, what did she say,” he asked, and I felt his voice reverberate through his chest.
“The key was buried when she was, we—you are gonna have to pick the lock.”
“It shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” he said, placing a kiss on the top of my head and then tipping my face up to look at him. “We’ll figure it out. I promise, okay?”
I nodded my understanding as he closed the gap between us and kissed me. I leaned into him, and he gathered me closer to him. The way he kissed me, the way he held me, made my heart sputter. His scent surrounded me, and the taste of him made every bit of anger flood right out of me. Being like this with him was better than any damn antidepressant could ever be. Drew made me happy. I needed that, I needed him.
“Are you hungry,” he asked as he reluctantly pulled away from the kiss.
“What,” I asked with my mind only half there.
He looked me in the eye and said, “Eden, if we keep doing this right now, I am gonna want more than just kissing.” He paused and searched my face as his meaning became clear to me. “Do you want to go get something to eat?”
I groaned because I didn’t want to stop any more than he did, but I was also pretty sure I wasn’t prepared to take it to the level he was insinuating either. What he was asking for was a distraction, and so I leaned up on my tippy toes and brushed a light kiss across his cheek and said, “Food sounds fantastic.”
I walked out of the bathroom and back into my room to fetch my keys. When I turned around and looked toward the bathroom door, he was walking out, but then stopped and shook his right leg. He looked up, saw me, and instantly flushed bright red.
“What are you doing,” I asked him with a little giggle, he looked so funny.
He’d stopped shaking his leg as soon as he saw me, brought it down to the floor, and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. He fixed his gaze on the door frame of my room and cleared his throat nervously. “Umm,” he stammered then looked at me again, bashfully, “adjusting.”
“Adjusting what,” I asked like an idiot because as soon as the question filtered through my lips. I got what he meant.
He cast me a dry, sarcastic look and said, “Really Eden, do I have to spell it out for you? Isn’t it obvious?”
Unfortunately, my own embarrassment left me at a loss for words.
“When I kiss you, Eden, it turns me on. When I am turned on, my mind starts to imagine all the things I want to do with you. It plays like a movie in my mind's eye, taunts me with how it would feel to fit my body to yours. After that, certain body parts get a mind of their own. I can’t help it, and I can’t fight it, understand?”
When I just gawked at him, he sighed, looked toward the ceiling, and ran an agitated hand through his now loose hair. “I had a boner Eden, and my boys were sticking to the side of my leg.”
He looked so self-conscious I couldn’t help but laugh. I strolled up to him laid a hand on his cheek, “You are so cute when you’re embarrassed,” I told him and brushed a soft kiss across his lips before walking out the bedroom door.
He followed me down the stairs, and as usual, insisted on driving. I didn’t bother arguing, but gave him the keys and slid into the passenger side. I put Echo and that blasted box out of my mind and was content to go where ever Drew wanted to take me.
Chapter Seventeen
Too Close For Comfort
After way too much Chinese food and a few hours with no success opening the box, I was about ready to give up.
“You know we could always just take a chainsaw or—maybe an ax to it,” I suggested.
Drew looked up from his work with a
