Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
She flinches as if slapped, what little color that had been left on her face now gone. She blanches when she mumbles her reply on a half cry. “I saw someone murdered,” she repeats in a choked voice. “I… I got lost. I was with them, yes, but they left on their flight to Italy, and I walked home.”
She’s making no sense. I can’t shake the truth out of her. So I stifle a growl that will only scare her and nod, trying to stay calm.
“Go on.”
“There was… a woman. She was all tied up and gagged and screaming.”
“Where were you?”
“I—I don’t know. I got lost. My phone was dead.”
I grit my teeth. A lecture won’t help right now.
“I was behind some kind of a pub. I saw them and they saw me. I didn’t know what to do. An officer came and they—they killed him. Right there. I don’t know what happened after that. I ran.”
“Did they find you?”
“Not at first. Please, Thayer, lock your gates. I’m so afraid they were following me. I heard—I saw—I don’t know what I saw. I hid for hours until I was so cold, and I thought they were gone. I remembered where you were near the Seine, so I made my way here, and I swear—I swear they followed me, Thayer.”
She looks over her shoulder as if chased by a ghost and takes an involuntary step toward me.
I try to gentle my voice and fail. “If they followed you, they won’t get you now.”
Maman speaks up. She does what I wouldn’t dare to do—runs a hand down the back of Savannah’s wild hair and smoothes it down. “Hush, mon amore,” she whispers. “Come tell us what happened, and we—” When she pauses, she corrects what she was about to say. “You’re safe here. Believe me when I tell you, Thayer won’t let anyone hurt you. Even if someone did manage to get past Lyam and Mario, no one will get past Thayer.” She lowers her voice and swallows before she finishes. “And I do mean no one, love.”
Savannah nods.
“Sit.” I stifle the need to snap my fingers.
We’re not in Le Luxe.
Savannah is not my slave.
Hell, she’s not even my submissive.
Still, when she sits and lays her hands in her lap, she looks at me and my heart turns over in my chest.
I don’t care that she’s beautiful.
I don’t care that she’s dainty and graceful and everything I love in a woman.
I don’t admire her perfect, shapely legs, or the way her lips part when she’s afraid, or the long, sensitive fingers that graze her neck when she swallows…
Aw, hell.
I admire everything about her.
I don’t remember staff coming in the room and handing me the first aid kit. I find it in my hands. Normally, in serious emergency situations like this I’d let staff handle it, but the thought of anyone but me touching her…
I can’t touch her.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m kneeling in front of Savannah.
“Thayer, allow me,” Maman offers.
No.
“I’ve got it, Maman. Like you said, she’s safe now. I’ll make sure no one hurts her.”
Ignoring my suggestion, Maman sits on the couch next to Savannah and reaches for her hand. “Can I get you anything?”
Savannah looks at Maman and her lower lip quivers. Maman reaches over to her and embraces her. She runs her hand down the length of Savannah’s hair over and over until Savannah releases a shuddering sigh.
“Maman, why don’t you have the staff prepare her a room?”
Maman lets her go. “I’ll do that,” she whispers to her. “Thayer, if you need anything at all, call me.”
I nod as I open the first aid kit. My mind is reeling with the details she told me. If she was at Avelline’s, this is a lot worse than she even knows. Last year, the Lyon family was arrested for a dual murder in the alley outside the restaurant. It was the first time we realized their enemies and ours frequented the establishment.
I’ll ask her for more details, but right now, I tend to her wounds.
Maman leaves.
Mario and Lyam have yet to return.
Staff retreats when I give them a look that makes them scurry.
Savannah and I sit alone in the living room.
“Now tell me,” I say, as I lift her leg to examine her injury. “Tell me everything you remember. Start from the beginning.”
THREE
Savannah
Thayer Gerard is kneeling in front of me.
Touching me.
Sure, he’s doctoring my wounds, and he’s trying his best to take care of me, but I can’t stop my mind from reeling.
Minutes ago, I came here gasping in fear. I was sure that the men who murdered that cop followed me. I snuck around the city trying to find something that would help me find my way here, to the only friends I have.
And now… the man who’s the epicenter of every damn fantasy I’ve had in months is here.