Page 40 of Some Saviors Can Break You

“All right, call me if you feel worse and I can be here in fifteen minutes,” he told her.

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Call me if you change your mind and want that massage.” He winked.

“Okay,” she said again, this time with an eye roll.

“Call me if you get lonely and need some company.”

“Eli,” she said overly patiently, “I promise I will call you if I need you. But believe it or not, I know how to take care of myself.”

“You don’t need to take care of yourself anymore now though, princess. You have me. And Iwantto take care of you when you're sick.” He cupped her cheek in his hand and fixed his eyes on hers, holding her gaze and not letting it go like he could help her look inside his mind to see he was telling her the truth.

“I appreciate that,” she said, but her bottom lip trembled a little and for a second he was terrified she was going to cry. Women and tears were not something he was good at dealing with. Was any guy?

“Sleep well, princess, I’ll text you to say goodnight later.” He leaned in and feathered his lips across those sweet lips of hers.

“Night,” she whispered when he released her. With a wave, she turned and hurried into her building, pausing to look back before the door swung closed. His instincts were screaming at him to go after her, but he didn't want to crowd her right now when she was obviously battling against herself.

He asked his driver to take him back to the office, he may as well get some more work done since the evening he had planned for Florence wasn't going ahead. He’d give her an hour or two to take her bath and then he’d check in, make sure she was okay, and wish her sweet dreams.

Making his way through the quiet building, he saw the light on in Elliot’s office and thought he might stop by, see if Elliot had any advice for what he should do next with Florence.

“Hey, Elliot, do you…” he broke off as he opened the door to find Elliot with his arms wrapped around Susannah, their hair and clothes were mussed, their lips locked, and the desk in disarray. Obviously he had interrupted their office rendezvous. “I am so glad you guys have your clothes on.”

“If you'd walked in five minutes earlier we wouldn’t,” Elliot said. “What are you doing here? I thought you had plans with Florence.”

“She said she had a headache so I dropped her off at her apartment.”

“Florence is the cop, right? The one you saved a few nights ago?” Susannah asked, disentangling herself from Elliot’s arms.

“She is,” he nodded. “Yesterday we had this amazing day in Florence, and today she’s back to pushing me away again. I don’t get her. Scratch that, I don’t get women,” he said, walking over to the desk and sinking down into one of the chairs.

“You took her to Florence?” Susannah asked wide-eyed.

“For Valentine’s Day.”

“You took her all the way to Italy for Valentine’s Day? Elliot, you are really failing in the dates department, you gotta lift your game,” she said, swatting her husband on the arm, then she turned her attention to Eli. “She’s probably not used to being whisked off to another country for a date, I mean it’s such a sweet idea, but I'd be overwhelmed if I were her. I remember going to a charity ball with Elliot when we first got together, and I felt out of my element, I can't imagine how I would have felt if he’d done that. I mean, I would have loved it, and the gesture would have touched me, but I would have also felt so out of his league.”

“It really would have been that big a deal to you?” he asked. If it was that big a deal to someone like Susannah who had lived a middle-class life, then he couldn’t imagine how it would have felt for someone who grew up the way Florence had.

“Oh, yeah. Being around rich people can make the rest of us nervous, especially since she likes you and probably doesn’t want to disappoint you,” Susannah told him.

“She could never disappoint me.”

“You know that, but does she?”

“So how do I convince her that I don’t care about money and the different ways we grew up?”

“You have to connect with her on a different level. You did the all-out extravagant gesture with the Valentine’s Day date in Italy, now show her that you can be just a regular guy,” Susannah suggested.

“I’d listen to her, man, she’s good at giving advice,” Elliot said, wrapping his arms around Susannah and kissing her neck.

Connect with her on a different level, he could do that, sure he was used to having money and using it to get what he wanted, but being wealthy didn't define him. He would give up every cent he owned if it would get him his parents and brother back. Florence was his chance to create a new family, not that it could replace the one he’d lost, but he didn't want to be alone anymore. He wanted to share his life with someone, get married, have kids, travel the world, and grow old side by side.

Florence was the only woman he’d met who he could see himself living that life with.

Eli would do whatever it took to prove that to her.

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