Page 27 of The Gilded Lady
“That’s big talk for—”
“Go!” Glory surprised them both by interrupting him. Zane glanced over his shoulder to see her step around him, her finger pointed toward the door. “Zane works for me now.”
Harvey looked between the two of them as if trying to figure out if she was Zane’s employer or lover. Zane had to resist the urge to growl.
“That explains the suit,” Harvey said, taking in the clothes Zane wore.
Out of patience, Zane stepped forward, spurring Harvey into action toward the door. “You’re going to regret you made an enemy of me. Both of you.” With those words Harvey slammed the door behind him.
Zane holstered his gun and let out the breath he’d been holding, relieved that the violence hadn’t escalated. Harvey was wealthy, but he was small potatoes compared to the clout the Jamesons held in this town. No matter what Harvey tried, Zane was confident that his own association with the Jameson name would help him.
Glory had wilted at his side. She was shaking, her eyes closed as she breathed in and out as if that simple act were taking all of her concentration. He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight. It had been a bad idea to flirt with her in the dressing room, but she’d been so damn adorable with her flushed cheeks that he hadn’t been able to stop. He’d been glad when she’d run out of there because it was going to be damn hard to change his pants with an erection and that’s exactly what would’ve happened had she stayed a second longer. But had he kept his head and notflirted, she’d have had no reason to go flying out of the room and into the front of the shop. He’d put her at risk.
What if he hadn’t come to check on her? How far would Harvey have gone?
“You okay, Glory?”
The question only seemed to make her trembling worse. He stood there feeling as inept as a fawn on an icy lake. One wrong move could send him crashing to the ground, but he couldn’t not move. He couldn’t not do anything. Every fiber of his being was telling him to pull her against him, but he knew she didn’t want that from him. She’d made it clear how she valued her independence.
A muffled sob broke out of her, causing her shoulders to shake. Aw, hell. As gently as if she were made of the thinnest glass and could break into a million pieces if handled the wrong way, he put his arms around her. Much to his surprise, she didn’t resist. In fact, he’d only barely moved toward her before she threw herself against his chest. It was the strangest feeling in the world. Strange, but good.
He tightened his arms around her, feeling her heartbeat against him, breathing in her heady rose scent. She felt warm and solid in his arms, not as fragile as he’d first imagined. And to his surprise, that warm solid strength somehow worked its way inside him, settling somewhere deep in his chest, making it hard to breath for a minute. When he could finally take a deep breath, he filled his lungs with Glory. She was all around him.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He nodded, unable to speak past the lump in his throat.
Able pushed his way through the velvet curtains, still tugging his clothes into place from his fitting, probably summoned by Zane and Harvey’s angry voices. He paused abruptly when he saw them. His dark gaze going from Zane to Glory and back again.
“It was Harvey, but he’s gone now,” Zane said. The fact that his voice was so low and steady surprised him.
The large man took a breath and nodded. His gaze lingered on Glory for a minute before something seemed to change on his face. Anger gave way to some sort of acceptance and he met Zane’s gaze again. With a nod, he ducked back into the dressing area. As bizarre as it sounded, Zane felt as if he’d given them his blessing.
Zane tightened his grip on Glory, unwilling to let her go just yet. He knew something had changed between them. Whether they liked it or not, they seemed to be on a runaway train headed for whatever was waiting for them. Only he didn’t know what that was.
“I want to go home.” Her small hand rested on his chest but not in a manner that was meant to push him away. It simply rested there above his heart. The heat of all five of her fingers and palm warmed his skin through the shirt and waistcoat he wore. His heart pounded beneath them.
“Give me a minute to change clothes, and I’ll take you.”
She nodded, but didn’t step back right away. His hands clung to her small waist reluctant to let her go. Her eyes were soft and open when they met his. The vivid green swirled around the brown, giving them depth. She took in a breath and her bottom lip trembled slightly. He wanted to touch it with his own, to kiss her and tell her that he’d make everything better. But he knew it was a lie. At best he’d make things manageable for her. He’d find the phantom from her past and put him to rest once and for all, but then he’d leave her.
Chapter Twelve
The inevitable sadness of leaving her colored Zane’s every thought of Glory. It was like the sweetness of going home to his mother’s people. Seeing their faces brought back so many memories of his childhood that the initial arrival felt good. It made him feel warm and whole for a time, but the feeling didn’t last. Deep down he knew he didn’t belong there and soon those feelings overshadowed the good ones. Then he’d leave.
Looking at Glory and holding her was like that. The initial feeling was amazing, but he knew it’d change eventually. He didn’t belong in her world any more than she belonged in his. His scar tingled with the reminder of what had happened last time he’d forgotten that.
He dropped his hands from her waist and forced himself to step back. She wore one of those decorative hats ladies sometimes wore. The kind that was somehow attached to the hair piled high on her head with a little black veil that didn’t even come down enough to cover her forehead. It sat more slanted than usual, so he reached out and pushed it back into place. Herecognized it as an excuse to touch her again, but didn’t check the impulse. Life was too short to not to do the things that felt good, the trick was to keep his heart out of it. He had a feeling it was going to be damned tough to do with her.
“Oh.” She dipped her head and reached up, pulling at pins and rearranging them to settle her hat. When she walked over to the mirror in the corner, he slipped into the back room to quickly change back into his own clothes.
She was ready to go when he returned to the front of the shop, and she looked as poised and confident as she ever had with her chin titled the slightest bit upward and a smile on her face as she bid goodbye to the assistant and called out to Sainsbury who was still hidden in one of the alcoves in back.
“They’ll have your suit altered and sent over by evening. I’d appreciate it if you’d wear it tonight when you join us downstairs.” They stepped out onto the boardwalk and she hailed her carriage which was tucked inside an alley off the larger street. This part of Helena was just off the main street, Last Chance Gulch. It was more fashionable here and had progressed from the years of mining to a more cosmopolitan atmosphere. She looked like she belonged. Hell, she could walk down the Champs-Élysées in Paris and fit right in.
“What?” She’d caught him staring and looked up at him, a slight smile on her face.
“I’ve never had anyone buy me a suit before.”
