Page 59 of Love in the Wild

They wanted Thorne to find him.

No. They werewarningThorne. Warning him that the man was coming for him.

Thorne bolted upright, his heart beating so fast it felt as though he might die. He wiped his face and gasped for breath. For a moment he didn’t quite remember where he was, but Eden’s sweet scent came to him, and he soon relaxed. He lay back in bed, holding her close and shutting his eyes tight. Yet he couldn’t chase away the words of worry, or the warning of the voices from the cave.

He is coming.

14

“Just try this one,” Eden begged as she handed Thorne a soft blue button-up shirt. He sighed and accepted the shirt, carrying it into the dressing room of the upscale boutique that had been on Cameron’s list of clothing stores. When they’d first come into the shop and Eden had handed Thorne a pair of pants, he’d tried to disrobe right in the middle of the displays. She’d had to rush him to the dressing rooms, explaining that he couldn’t take off his clothes like that. He’d given her a long-suffering look before walking into the dressing room and shutting the door.

“That will be a lovely color on him,” the young man who’d been assisting them said as he stood next to Eden. They had been making Thorne try on both casual and formal clothes for the last hour, but Eden could tell her jungle man had reached his last bit of patience with this shopping. Earlier that morning they had bought the basics, like boxers, socks, boots, and dress shoes. And now that they were done with jeans and trousers, they were finishing up with shirts.

Thorne stepped out of the dressing room, the shirt only partially buttoned. The top three buttons were undone, revealing his golden-skinned throat and pectoral muscles. Both Eden and the store clerk drew in a breath.

“Help me, please.” Thorne lifted his wrists to show the tiny white buttons on the cuffs, which were still undone.

“No problem.” Eden stepped toward him, gently threading the buttons through their slits so the cuffs were secure. Thorne gazed down at her, and she blushed wildly. She always got flustered whenever he focused on her like that.

“Thank you,” he said softly as she finished the second cuff.

“You’re welcome.” She tried to focus on the shirt. “I think that blue works nicely.” She turned to the clerk. “Can he wear this out of the store?”

“Yes, of course.” The young man tore his eyes away from Thorne. “Let me ring everything up. Just meet me at the counter.”

Eden helped him secure the last two buttons, leaving open the one at the base of his throat, before they headed to the counter.

“We got all the basics. We should be okay for anything Cameron throws at you.”

“He’s going to throw things at me?” Thorne’s rumbling query was full of sudden distrust.

“No! That’s not what I meant. It’s an expression. It just means that no matter what Cameron plans to do, I think we’ve got the right clothing for it.”

“Oh. I see.” He smiled. “And maybe I should throw things back?”

“Yes. Wait—what? No, no throwing anything, okay?”

Thorne curled an arm around her waist and leaned down to kiss the crown of her hair as he chuckled. She relaxed a little as she realized he was teasing her.

The private car that Cameron had hired arrived and was ready to take them to the estate. It was an hour-long drive, and Eden did her best to teach Thorne about how to behave around his uncle, such as calling him “my lord” unless otherwise instructed. She’d had to google a bit of this herself in order to explain it to him. For her part, Eden was going to do her best to remind Cameron that even though Thorne cleaned up well, he was still getting used to how to use a fork properly.

Thorne listened to her instructions with quiet reserve, but when she was done, his attention drifted back to the rolling green hills and pastures of the English countryside.

“Not many trees” was the only thing he said about it. He was right. Compared to the jungle, this had few trees.

A light rain settled in, and the distant shapes of sheep and cattle loomed out at them from the misty landscape. Stone walls built waist-high separated the endless emerald fields, which were divided further by small patches of forest. As they passed close to a pair of horses grazing, Thorne’s gaze was riveted on the beautiful beasts, as if struck by a memory. He leaned closer to the window before they sped past down a country road.

“Here we are,” the driver finally announced.

The car turned down an obscured gravel path lined by poplar trees. After another few minutes, the trees gave way to a pair of iron gates and stone pillars. The nameSomersetwas written across the center of the gates in gold letters. Well beyond, a grand manor house could be seen through the clearing mist, like a home that had been taken into a fairy realm a century ago and only now was emerging back into the modern age.

The Somerset estate was an eighteenth-century red brick home with the corners capped by large gray stones. Stately windows patterned the two-story walls, and wild ivy grew around the main doorway. The abundance of green rippling leaves made the entrance look even more like the entrance to another world. Rounded topiaries decorated a garden to the right of the house, and the base was lined with an explosion of colorful flowers.

The car stopped, and the front door opened. A dark-haired man in a bespoke dark-blue suit and a lovely woman in an emerald green knee-length dress stepped outside to meet them. This had to be Cameron and his wife, Isabelle. Cameron looked so much like Thorne it was startling. The dark hair, the intense blue eyes. If Cameron hadn’t been in his forties, it would have been easy to mistake him for Thorne’s brother.

“My God,” Cameron murmured as he came down the steps to greet them. He held out a hand to Thorne and shook it. “You look ... I didn’t think ... Can it actually ...?”

Thorne nodded respectfully. “Hello, Lord Somerset.”

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