Page 3 of Some Saviors Can Break You

He wanted what his parents had. That kind of all-consuming love that could weather any storm life threw at it, including the biggest loss a couple could endure.

How could he find that when he was surrounded by women who were only after him because he was rich and powerful?

All of the women he’d dated—or slept with—would have run in the wake of the crushing loss of losing a child. They wouldhave cut their losses, taken whatever they could get after signing a pre-nup, and disappeared.

Eli wanted more.

He wanted a woman who was his equal, who would challenge him, and who was sexy as sin.

Why was that so hard to find?

With an irritated sigh, he walked to his desk to gather his things. After losing his parents, he’d decided he couldn’t stay in London anymore and had packed up his life and moved back to New York. He’d tracked down a childhood friend, Elliot Emerson, who now ran a very successful financial management company that he’d built himself.

While his company bought, sold, and managed real estate across the globe, Eli had several other financial holdings that he needed someone to manage, and his old friend had seemed the perfect person to do it. He’d also rented offices in the building Elliot owned, since he was going to be putting roots down here he wanted a permanent place to do that, and there was something oddly comforting about being around someone he knew.

Well, he knew lots of people in Manhattan, but Elliot Emerson represented a time in his life where he had been carefree and happy. Their families had lived next door to each other up until not long after his seventh birthday when his father’s business had really started to take off, and they’d moved to London. Back when they were small boys, he and Elliot had been virtually inseparable. They’d played at being ninjas, and dressed as pirates, building a pirate ship in his backyard. They’d stolen cookies from the kitchen when they’d been told they couldn’t have more, and stayed up late on long summer evenings watching fireflies and counting stars.

Fighting the familiar ache in his chest as he thought about his parents and how much he had lost when they died, hewas locking his office door when his phone buzzed with a text. A half-smile quirked his mouth up when he saw it was from Elliot, despite the fact that his old friend could be rude when he dealt with others, Eli liked Elliot, and Elliot’s wife Susannah. Apparently, Elliot’s mellowing out was mostly due to the fact that he’d found love, and because he was now a father to a three-year-old daughter, Bessie, who he had only recently learned about, and a new little son who wasn't even a year old yet.

Elliot

It’s after 9:30 you owe me an apartment in Paris

with a view of the Eifel Tower if you're still at

the office

Eli

I never agreed to that bet

Elliot

I take that to mean you’re still there

Of course he was still here.

Where else was he going to be?

The hotel he’d been staying at?

The apartment he had bought but not moved into yet?

A bar or club picking up a woman to take home and have meaningless sex with?

That was getting old real quick.

Not that he was going to tell his friend that. Elliot might have mellowed since falling in love, but that didn't mean they had the kind of relationship where they discussed things of that nature.They hadn't even seen each other in over two decades until Eli had moved back to New York last month.

Eli

It’s a lot of work moving a business’

headquarters to another country you know

Elliot

If that’s what you need to tell yourself

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