Chapter 22

DIM LIGHT SLANTED ACROSS MY EYELIDS. I BLINKED, THEN LOOKED up at the heavy drape of blood-colored velvet above my head. The night before, I’d barely registered the fact that this bed had a canopy, but now I could see a little more clearly. The sheets were dark red as well, along with the heavy brocade comforter that now lay in a crumpled wad toward the foot of the bed. The overall effect was womblike, to say the least. Luke’s voice came from somewhere over to my right. “Rested?”

I startled, then clutched the sheet against my naked torso. Not that he hadn’t seen my body already, but somehow what happened between two people in the dark got overridden by the light of a morning after. My hair was a disaster, half still pulled up and held in place by some very determined bobby pins, the rest tangling over my shoulders.