Page 20 of Keep Him Like Secrets

Somehow, though, nothing about Soren lifting me up off my feet and onto the stage felt uncomfortable. Or like he was judging me.

I was just thinking that I wouldn’t mind ifhepicked me up by my ass and carried me to bed when my feet landed on the stage.

The problem was that (A) I was distracted and (B) I temporarily forgot I was wearing heels. So when I put my weight down, it landed wrong, and I wobbled. Hard.

Soren’s arm shot out, going around my lower back to stop me from falling. But he’d overestimated his strength, knocking me right into his chest.

All my air rushed out of me. At his nearness, at the breadth of his chest against me, his strong arm around me, his leather and tobacco scent overpowering me.

My heartbeat tripped into overdrive as a flush crept across my chest, up my neck, and bloomed over my cheeks.

My gaze flicked up to his, finding him already watching me intensely.

On my hip, his fingers tightened ever so slightly.

I knew I needed to move away, to put professional distance back between us.

In the end, though, it was Soren who came to his senses first.

“A bit like a newborn foal in those things, Miss Amato,” he said, the warmth in his eyes tamping down the knee-jerk irritation that always bubbled up when someone teased me.

“Saff,” I corrected.

“Saff,” he repeated. And we just weren’t going to talk about the way a little shiver moved through my insides at the sound of my name from between his lips. “Is that short for something?”

“Saffron,” I admitted before I could think better of it.

Why did I just tell him that?

I never toldanyonethat.

No one in thefamilyknew that.

I’d had it legally changed to Saff years ago, so no one would ever find out.

“Saffron,” he repeated. As much as I hated that name—and the woman who gave it to me—I found I didn’t mind it so much when he said it. Actually, it was kind of nice. “That’s an unusual name.”

“Yes, well, my mother was an unusual woman.” Just the mention of her was enough to let me slip back behind my defenses. I didn’t even have to pretend to be an ice queen. Memories of my early childhood made me plenty bitchy for real. I moved away from him. I put two arms’ lengths between us. “Though, I’m not sure you can speak,Soren.”

“It means ‘stern’ or ‘severe,’” he explained. “Seems fitting.”

It seemed he had his guards too.

They were firmly in place as he moved down the small wing to the side of the stage.

Good.

That was good.

If we both had our walls up, the chances of us doing something as monumentally dumb as fucking up against the wall in an abandoned building were much lower.

“This is plenty of room for an elevator,” he declared after moving around. “Care to test walk the path with me?”

I’d almost reminded him that he’d already done that, but Renzo’s voice popped in my head, reminding me that he needed this deal to go through and I needed to check my attitude for that to happen.

“Sure. After you,” I said.

“I insist,” he said, holding a hand toward the exit.

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