Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

making her sleepy. She let herself drift, thinking of the man beside her. He was an anchor in the storms of emotion that washed over her so intensely. Sometimes she couldn’t contain all the force of her passionate nature, so concentrated by her element, but when she was with Stefan, she didn’t need to keep constant vigil. She found she could relax and just feel what she was supposed to feel. She’d felt half alive, desperate to control the growing power within her, yet the moment she’d met Stefan her spirit had recognized him as some sort of protective shield. It made no sense—yet it made perfect sense.
    “You make me happy,” she said, half closing her eyes, allowing herself to drift further toward a dreamy place. It was more than that. She’d felt empty and he’d filled her. She’d felt afraid of herself and he gave her confidence. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to it, but strangely, they fit, two misfits completing one another.
    She turned her head to look at him, struggling to keep her eyes open. Her lids felt heavy and her body deliciously exhausted. “I was happy here, and I knew I’d have a decent life. I didn’t know I was empty until you came along. And I didn’t have any idea what real happiness was until I laid eyes on you. Isn’t that crazy?”
    He shook his head. “No. I didn’t consider another way of living. Even when I prepared for it, I never really thought I’d disappear into the real world. Men like me live our lives apart and we die that way. No one knows we exist and no one mourns our death, because we’re ghosts. I didn’t consider myself unhappy. My life was just what it was.”
    He allowed the soft strands of her hair to slip through his fingers, watching it slide back around her, a cloak of silk framing her face and falling with grace below her waist. “Until I saw you. The world just seemed to hold its breath, waiting for you to notice me.”
    Judith felt as if he had given her the world. He didn’t think he knew the right words to say, but nevertheless he found them, at least for her. He made her feel as if she were the only woman in the world.
    “Tomorrow your sisters are going to talk to you, angel. You know they’ll come at you from a million different ways.”
    She could hear the concern in his voice, the worry that once away from him, she would be persuaded she’d made a terrible mistake. “I worry that once you’re away from me, you’ll change your mind, Stefan,” she admitted.
    “Thomas. Think Thomas all the time. You can’t think of me as Stefan. And you have nothing to worry about, Judith. I said forever and I meant it. I’m a fairly single-minded man.”
    “I meant it too. My sisters will eventually accept you. They have Levi. He kind of grows on you.” She paused, and then gave a little sigh. “When he’s not forcing us all to learn self-defense.”
    “You know I’ll side with him on that issue,” Stefan said, unrepentant. “I’ll probably be far worse than he is. And we’re getting a couple of dogs. Big ones.”
    “I’m a little concerned about the dog issue. Rikki brought it up the other night and we discussed it. Everyone seemed to be okay with it with the exception of Lissa. She’s sort of a warrior woman and I would expect her to totally want dogs on the property, but she was very silent on the subject. She didn’t advocate for them. Airiana did, but Lissa stayed quiet. I asked her if she was okay with getting dogs, but she didn’t exactly answer me.”
    “Would the others balk if she did?”
    “We tend to do everything around here together. It’s worked in the past. Blythe is the leader and the most diplomatic. She reads people very well,” Judith explained.
    “I doubt if she reads them as well as you do. You’re empathic.”
    She yawned and hastily covered it with her hand. “I thought I hid that very well.”
    “Not from me.” He stood up, taking the mug from her hand and putting it on the small tray table beside his chair. “Come on, angel, you’re exhausted. I’m putting you to bed.”
    “We get into trouble when we’re in bed. I thought I’d just sleep right here.”
    Stefan shook his head and leaned down to pick her up, cradling her close to his chest. “I don’t think so, baby. You’d hurt your neck. I can restrain myself when it’s necessary.”
    She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. “I wasn’t worried about you restraining yourself. It turns out I don’t have any