“K,” I squeaked, mortified by the idea of Weston Garfield busting up my morning-after at the behest of my worried grandmother.
Ignoring the crowd waiting below, Royal pressed a kiss to my forehead, then my lips. “Last night was magic, Daisy. Not quite what I had planned but magic all the same.”
I reached up and curved my hand over the nape of his neck, bringing him down for another kiss. “Magic,” I whispered against his lips.
At that moment in time, it was the truest thing I knew, all the way to the depths of my soul. Together we made magic, and all I wanted was more.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
royal
I strode through the lobby of The Inn, whistling under my breath. Everything was on track for the day. Construction on the first few cottages was moving along, I'd managed the latest guest crisis, and Daisy was on her way to meet me in my office for lunch.
It was hard to believe that almost a month had passed since the night Daisy and I were trapped in the watchtower. Some things had stayed the same, but the framework of my life had turned upside down, and I had no intention of letting it go back to normal. Not ever.
Daisy and I had barely slept apart since that night. I couldn't bear the idea of being alone in my bed, the sheets cold, Daisy's soft body out of reach. She hadn't argued, only interested in sleeping apart from me the one weekend J.T. came home. Whatever was off-kilter between them, I wanted it set right for Daisy's sake, so I sucked it up and encouraged her to spend time with him when she could. The rest of the nights she was mine.
Together we ignored the rest of the world. I hadn't yet met her parents. She was hesitant to introduce us, and I didn't push. I knew she had issues with her father and she'd mentioned they didn't approve of her dating me, but she didn't want to talk about it.
It went against the grain to let a problem fester—if it had been up to me we would have set things straight and gone on with our lives—but Daisy was stubborn and we were talking about her family, not mine, so I let it go for now. We'd deal with them eventually. For the moment, everything was so good I didn't have much trouble convincing myself to focus on Daisy and ignore her family.
My family wasn't as easy to dismiss. Partly because I worked with three of them, but mostly because we had to spend every night at Heartstone Manor. Savannah was more than our housekeeper, she was our prison guard, reporting to the family attorney if one of us missed a night spent in the house.
Savannah was subtle in her duty, keeping an eye on our comings and goings with the help of the security team but never making a big deal of it. We were all well aware of what would happen if we missed too many nights at home. So far, no one was pushing the limits.
I couldn't complain. I had a luxurious suite in Heartstone Manor and a short commute unlike my youngest brother, Brax, who worked out of his office in Asheville and had an hour-long drive both ways, his new condo in town already sublet to strangers.
Having Daisy in my life had changed more than my sleeping habits. Lucky for me, she understood the situation with the will and never complained about having to stay at Heartstone.
My siblings liked her, and Parker's husband was long gone, but Bryce went out of his way to be an ass on a regular basis, just because he could. We both avoided him as much as possible.
It was barely a month, and we were pretty much living together.
It should have felt too fast.
I should have felt trapped.
I should be itching for a new diversion.
I wasn't.
I woke up by four every morning to make love to Daisy before pulling her into a quick shower and driving us both into town. Well before dawn, I left her in her kitchen with a kiss, though some mornings she made me wait until she'd cooked us both breakfast.
I hit my desk hours before the rest of the management staff, at first surprising the night-shift desk clerks. By now, they were used to me coming in while the rest of the town was sleeping. Tenn showed up each morning to find me almost finished with my paperwork, ready to work with Forrest or jump on whatever fire had to be put out next.
Most days I headed to Heartstone for lunch unless Daisy could get away to meet me. She was oddly reluctant to talk details on the bakery expansion, but she was eager to test new recipes for the planned lunch menu, and I loved being her guinea pig.