Page 70 of Pride
I took her hand, the one resting on my arm, and I held it.
“You have nothing to apologise for. You did nothing wrong.” I stroked my thumb over the back of her hand, wanting to soothe her. Wanting to do so much more. I wanted to take her shame away. Shame she shouldn’t have felt. “If anyone should be apologising, it should be me. Someone I trusted hurt you. I invited you into my home and you became unwell. Not to mention the fact that I knew your boss was an evil fucker. I knew what he was capable of, and I could’ve done more to help. If this is on anyone, it’s on me. But it’s over now.”
“Thank you.” She smiled weakly, then asked, “Did you manage to speak to the police?”
I didn’t want the police involved in this, not really. It’d cause me issues I didn’t want to deal with. In the heat of the moment, at her house, I’d said I’d call them. But now, I wanted to keep them as far away from this as I could. So I gave a vague response. “It’s all in hand. Your loft space will be secured in the next week or so, your locks changed, and the damage will be rectified.”
She sighed, her eyes brimming with tears, but they didn’t fall. Instead, she looked at me and said, “You’ve been so kind to me.” And then, with another sigh, she stated, “Tomorrow is another day. And it’ll be a better day. I know it will.”
“It certainly will,” I replied, wanting to lean forward and kiss those almost-tears away. Taste the bitterness that she’d had to endure for too long. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t a victim. She didn’t shy away or act weak. But sometimes, life had a way of knocking those who didn’t deserve it. And she was one of those people.
I noticed she was stifling a yawn, so I asked her, “Did you have chance to choose a room?”
“I did,” she nodded. “There’s a room your butler, Clive, told me about. The white room overlooking the lake. He took me to see it and it’s so pretty.”
I knew exactly which room she meant.
“That’s the room opposite mine,” I said, and a slight blush grazed her cheeks.
“He told me that, too.”
I asked her if she was ready to sleep and she nodded. So I stood up, and she did too. I walked her out of the drawing room and led her up the stairs and down the corridor to where the bedroom was. All the time wondering how I was going to sleep knowing she was in the room opposite. When she’d been unwell, I’d stayed with her and watched over her. But this was a different matter entirely. Back then, I wanted to protect her and make her well again. Now, my thoughts were the opposite. They were downright dirty and dangerous.
She stopped as we approached the door to her room, and she turned to face me.
“Thank you. For everything. Honestly. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I know I keep saying it, but I really do mean it.”
I stood close to her, watching the way her chest rose and fell as she breathed deeply. Her neck moved in a gentle, sexy way as she swallowed. And her eyes, that bore into mine, seemed to speak words her voice couldn’t say. They looked needy, wanton, as if she wanted me to take control. But something, a niggly voice in the back of my mind, or the guilt I felt that she might not be ready for what I wanted, held me back.
Instead, I reached up to touch her mouth, my thumb stroking gently over her lips, and they parted as she let out a slow breath. Then I cupped her face as she leant into my hand, her skin so silky and soft it was taking every inch of restraint I could muster not to slam her against the wall, pin her with my body and devour her.
“Goodnight, Emma,” I managed to rasp as I leaned forward to place a kiss on her cheek. And as I did, she turned slightly so that her mouth met mine. It was so innocent, a barely there peck with a promise of what could be. A ghost of a kiss, but holyshit, did it throw my heart into my stomach and send my pulse shooting through the roof.
“Goodnight, Alex,” she said, her breath so close to my face I could taste the sweetness that was uniquely her, and the feral beast inside me roared in his cage, begging to be freed.
But I couldn’t unleash him. Not yet.
Instead, I let her turn and walk into her bedroom, and I stood outside, toying with my urges to barge in after her or go to my room and get lost in the fantasies of what could be. But either way, I knew this was going to happen between us. There was no stopping it now. I wanted her, and I would have her.
Because I always got what I wanted.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EMMA
Icouldn’t believe what had just happened. He’d stood so close to me, held my face that way and made me want him. The feel of his body so close to mine, the way he looked at me like I was his whole world; it did things to me. And when he’d leant forward, I turned my face because I didn’t want a peck on the cheek. After hearing the threat on my life was gone, I felt free. And I wanted to kiss him, properly kiss him. To taste him, get lost in him. It had been a chaste kiss, our lips only half meeting, but it was enough to send my brain spiralling and my heart racing.
Would he come back in here and claim more?
I wanted him to.
I lay awake in his luxurious spare bed, listening to him pacing back and forth on the wooden floorboards outside my room. I stared at the door, willing him to make a move and take a chance. I hadn’t been this excited about a guy in forever, and considering the rest of the shit going on in my life, that was something. He was something, because he had the power to override all of that and make me think about him. Only him. I wanted him. But I wasn’t sure he felt the same way. I wasn’t in the same league as him, class-wise. And he was a good guy;maybe I’d misread the signs. Maybe all he wanted to do was help me. He’d said himself that he did the same for S.K.A.M., giving him a leg up when he needed it.
Was I the same?
A pity case that he wanted to support?
I really fucking hoped not. I wasn’t a pity a case, and I wanted to be seen as more. But then, the way he looked at me and touched me wasn’t pity. I knew I wasn’t always the best at reading people, but I felt the spark. I saw the fire in his eyes. And he’d told me he wanted to get to know me. That he’d felt the spark too. I needed to stop overanalysing everything.
