Page 81 of The Beekeeper

Worry tightened my chest. The loss of a queen was devastating to a hive. Yes, they would grow a new one, but for the next two weeks, the colony would be in chaos, and with the numbers already weakened from the parasites…if they didn’t make it, I didn’t know how I was going to explain that to Paisley.

But what else could I do? Nothing. And definitely nothing more tonight.

I let out a heavy breath and shimmied out of my jeans and tee, feeling the steam creep out of the bathroom. Perfect.

I went to toss my clothes in my hamper and gasped when I turned.

“Blaze!” My hand flattened to my chest to stop my heart from jumping out of it. He stood in the doorway to my room, and my first thought was that he shouldn’t be here. “Is Paisley okay?”

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely, his eyes roaming over me. It was the goose bumps on my skin that reminded me I was in nothing but a bralette and a thong. “She’s been out cold for almost an hour.”

I wanted to reply, but every word clogged like a traffic jam in my throat. We hadn’t been alone for more than minutes, if that, for an entire week. And now he was here. And I was practically naked.

Heat climbed into my cheeks. We hadn’t had a minute to talk about what happened—what I told her. I didn’t know if it was right or wrong or simply just out of line.

“About earlier, I didn’t mean to overstep,” I stammered. “Maybe I should’ve made up something else⁠—”

“Stop,” he ordered with a deep voice.

I shivered.

For a second, the only sound was the expulsion of a heavy exhale from his chest.

“Thank you. For everything you did earlier. The way you talked to her. Let her feel…grief. I don’t—” he broke off and blew out another breath. “I’m not good at that. I just want to fix it. I want to fix everything for her. I have to⁠—”

“Blaze.” I went over, my head shaking as I put my hand on his chest. His heart slammed into my palm like it couldn’t keep up with all the ways he wanted to punish himself.

Our eyes met, and my skin began to prickle.

“Her mom is gone,” I said because he needed to hear the truth, too. “There is no fixing that, no matter who you are or how hard you try.”

His jaw knotted with tension.

“All you can do is be there for her the way she needs.”

His chest deflated under my hand. “I wish I could do more. I wish I could take all her pain away.”

“Loving her is enough,” I told him, my throat tightening over the words that, even in the context of his daughter, felt like something forbidden for me to say around him.

“The way you talked to her,” he started again, his voice turning hoarse. “It reminded me of the nights we talked at the inn.”

Slowly, my arms crept over me, one across my chest and the other over my stomach, like I could hide that part of myself from him again.

“You always knew the right thing to say.” Blaze spoke low, his eyes dipping back over my body.

My heart tripped against my chest. This was the first time he’d ever said anything positive about that time—the first time he’d ever referenced it as something other than my attempt to subvert him.

“Not always,” I said with a weak laugh that snagged in the center of my throat as he stepped toward me.

“Blaze…” My breath hitched and my stare locked to the center of his muscular chest in front of me.

A hand caught my chin and lifted it, our eyes locking before his mouth came down on mine.

Chapter 19

Blaze

She tasted like the sweetest kind of forbidden fruit, soft and delectable on my tongue. All I wanted was to drink from her mouth—from those lips that always said the right thing, always knew the right thing, when I consistently was wrong.