Chapter 20: The East Room Door

Nina's POV

The east bedroom door came off its hinges at nine o'clock that night.

Elliot did it with a screwdriver from the garage, kneeling in the hall in his shirtsleeves, tapping out each pin.

I held the door steady while he worked.

It was heavier than I had expected, solid oak, and when the last pin came out it leaned into my arms.

"Where do you want it?" he asked.

"Out of the house."

We carried it down the back stairs together, and set it against the garage wall.

Elliot looked at it for a while.

"I think I'll keep the hinges," he said. "I'd like to look at the empty frame."

"That's morbid."

"Very."

I laughed, and he turned and took my face in his hands, and we were kissing before we reached the top step.

The hall light was on.

The east room stood open behind us, with nothing between its lamp and the corridor.

"Not there," I said against his mouth. "Come to mine."

My old room in the west wing had a wide bed I had slept in alone for three years.

I had never once brought anyone into it.

Elliot stopped on the threshold, and I took his hand and pulled him across.

"Say it," I said.

"I'm allowed in."

"You're expected."

He shut the door behind him and then, seeing my face, opened it again a hand's width.

"Better," I said.

He undressed me this time with his eyes open and his hands slow.

He started with the buttons of my cardigan and went on from there, kissing each patch of skin as he uncovered it.

The shoulder, the inside of the elbow, the bone of my hip.

"You said slowly," I managed.

"I said I wanted to see all of it."

He laid me on the pillows and knelt beside the bed, and looked.

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