“Do you have any more to do there?”

“No. I’ve done all I can do for today, I think. We’ll start again tomorrow.”

“Come spend the night,” he says, sending shivers along my skin.

“With you?” I ask teasingly.

“That was the idea, yes,” he says, a smile evident in his voice.

“Could we…?” I hesitate, not sure I want to bring this up now. “I don’t want to stay at your house tonight.”

“Noah’s not due back yet. We—”

“It’s Aiko’s house, Ez. Her photos, her slippers and robe and clothes and Mommy mug. She’s everywhere, and I would like a night with you where every time I turn around I’m not confronted by your life with her.”

“I’m sorry, Tru,” he says after a loaded pause. “I should have realized that, but a hotel feels…seedy. I understand discretion, but I don’t want you to feel in any way that we’re sneaking around or doing something wrong.”

“I don’t feel that way, but we don’t have to go to a hotel. I know just the place.”

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

Ezra

“I didn’t get to come here when we were growing up,” I tell Kimba. “It’s beautiful.”

Lake Lanier’s surface shines like volcanic glass under the moonlight, black and bright.

“My grandfather bought the lake house right before you guys moved.” She sets down a plate of cold cuts and the fresh-baked bread we bought on our way here. “Things picked up significantly for Daddy—not just the money he was making, but all the work he was doing. It became a good place for us to get away from the city.”

The Allens’ lake house is modest, but comfortable. Its best feature is the private dock that leads to the lake. We’re having dinner under a small covered structure set at the end of the dock.

“The glamorous life, huh?” Kimba jokes, proffering a sandwich. “I really go all out for my man.”

I grab her by the waist and pull her onto my lap, inhaling the unique mix of lemons and cocoa, which shouldn’t work, but is intoxicating on her skin.

“Say that last part again,” I say into the cove behind her ear.

She turns to me, kisses my jaw. “Which part, baby?”

I make a note that I also want her to call me baby later. “Don’t tease me, Tru. You know. Say it again.”

“My man.” She hooks her arms behind my neck. “You like hearing that you’re my man, Ezra?”

“Very much.” I cup her breast, brushing a thumb over her nipple and smiling against her throat when her breath hitches. “Your man is hungry.”

“So is your woman,” she says, slanting her mouth over mine, kissing me possessively with ardor that matches mine.