Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

something in what he said that made her shiver, a cold chill sliding down her spine, but she wasn’t certain she could put her finger on just what it was.
    “Sometimes you’re a little scary, Thomas.” She tested the name. Now that she knew him as Stefan, Thomas didn’t quite suit him, but she’d learn to live with it, just as he would.
    “I don’t mind you being a little afraid sometimes, Judith. You’re a woman who could twist a man around your little finger.”
    She burst out laughing. “I swear I just was thinking you had me around your little finger.”
    He tugged on her hair until she yelped. He brought the strands to his mouth. “I’m very fortunate you enjoy sex. Whenever I see I might have an argument on my hands, I kiss you senseless.”
    There was a little too much truth in his quiet statement to be entirely comfortable. He could kiss her senseless. She forgot her own name when he was kissing her. “I’ll have to watch out for that.”
    He smiled then and her heart leapt. He didn’t smile often, not a genuine smile that crept into his eyes like now. “You have nothing to worry about, angel. You’re the only woman in the world who is capable of making me lose all control. I think we both have a good shot at distracting each other.”
    “Well, you do make the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. What did you put in this?”
    “It’s a secret Russian recipe for falling asleep. You’ve had a hot bath, hot chocolate and my promise to let you sleep until morning.”
    “What time would you consider morning?” Judith asked mischievously.
    He flashed a small grin at her. “Well, I haven’t quite decided that yet. You aren’t getting enough sleep and I have to quit being so selfish.”
    Judith took another long swallow of the chocolate and studied the stars overhead. “Actually, I believe it was me waking you this last time. You were sleeping all sexy and I just couldn’t resist temptation, so technically, I suppose it really is your fault after all.”
    His eyebrow shot up. “Your logic completely eludes me. When I’m asleep I can’t be responsible for looking sexy.”
    Judith laughed again, that low, melodious sound Stefan listened for, like soft, perfectly tuned chimes in the wind. He could listen to that sound forever. Sitting on her balcony with the stars sparkling overhead and her sea of white star flowers below, he found he was perfectly content. He knew Judith worried he would find their life together boring, but for the first time since he was a small boy, he felt he had a home. There was no way to express in words what having a real home meant. Sitting on a balcony with the wind touching his face and mist beginning to creep in from the ocean, he felt absolute freedom.
    “When I was boy, we were snuggled in our apartment, the fire going and my father stretched out on this couch, his head in my mother’s lap, two babies on his chest. I remember he looked at my mother with such love on his face and he took her hand and said, ‘This is a golden moment, my love.’ At the time I didn’t know what that meant, but it stuck in my head because of the way he looked at her, with so much happiness. Now I know what he meant.” Once again he brought the fistful of her hair to his mouth.
    He loved the feel of all that silk. He thought it looked like a shining waterfall, dark and mysterious on a dusky night. When Judith lay on a pillow, with her hair spilling all around her, he’d never seen a more beautiful or seductive sight. He rubbed her hair over his jaw, wanting this moment to last forever. He glanced at her, was immediately caught in the spell of her. Tears swam in her eyes, diamond droplets caught in her eyelashes.
    Without conscious thought, he leaned over and kissed her tears away, sipping them from her soft skin. “Don’t ever feel sad for me, Judith. My life brought me to you and that’s enough for me. That’s everything.”
    Judith shook her head and finished off her chocolate, too choked up to answer him. Sometimes, when those small memories came back to him, Stefan broke her heart. She wanted to hold him forever. He thought she saved him. She could tell in the way he looked at her, in the things he said to her, but it was the other way around. She had become lost in her need to avenge her brother’s death. In her belief that she didn’t measure up because she couldn’t find a way to make Jean-Claude suffer.
    She sighed. The chocolate was definitely doing the trick,