Page 19 of The Moon & His Tides
Adam gave me a subtle squeeze before releasing me and stepping up in line with me to address Chaucer. “This, Chaucey, is our new driver, Sebastian Lombardi.”
“What happened to Albert?” she asked, suddenly glaring at me. “He was my favorite! Much better than that nitwit, Oscar.”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” a familiar American voice spoke coolly from behind me, and a moment later, Savannah appeared beside Adam in all her refined beauty. “But Albert decided to retire. Happily, I was more than satisfied with my service at Luxury Regent Car Services, and we were able to steal young Mr. Lombardi away from them.”
She turned her back on Chaucer in a deliberate way that illustrated her irritation with the young woman and offered herdelicate hand to me as though she were a queen at court with peasants. I raised it to my mouth and brushed a barely-there kiss over her knuckles. Chaucer couldn’t see the red stain that bloomed in Savannah’s cheeks, but Adam and I could. I looked at her husband for signs of jealousy, but he only shot me a satisfied sidelong look and squeezed me where he still clasped my shoulder.
“Sebastian’s more than that,” he offered Chaucer warmly, flashing his movie star grin. For a moment, the bottom dropped out of my stomach, and I wondered, horrified, if Adam was going to tell her I was their new boy toy.
Instead, he smoothly continued, “He’s a very talented screenwriter and actor.”
Chaucer cocked an eyebrow at me. “Is that so? Anactor.”
I shrugged at her helplessly. “When God gives you good looks like mine, it’s practically blasphemous not to take advantage of them.”
She blinked at me, then gave in to a reluctant giggle. “I can see why Savannah was taken with you.”
“Can you see that I’m currently rather vexed that nothing seems ready for the soiree tonight?” Savannah asked as she fingered the petals on a massive peony in one of the arrangements on the sideboard.
I still couldn’t believe I knew a woman who said things like “vexed” and “soiree” or that I was so attracted to her for exactly her haughtiness and sleek grandeur. She wore a tidy little skirt suit in some kind of tweed material in pinks and pale lavenders. With her hair gathered into a loose twist at the nape of her neck and a pair of ridiculous yet sexy schoolgirl shoes with heels on her feet, she was almost impossibly alluring. A prim, proper little miss in need of educating from someone with more experience.
The irony of our significant age difference compared to our burgeoning sexual dynamic wasn’t lost on me, but it wasn’timportant either. It was exactly the contrast between Savvy’s maturity and grace, and her almost childlike wonder and vulnerability that hooked me through the gut and dragged me inexorably toward her.
Sensing my gaze, she smiled just slightly without looking at me.
Adam’s tight grip on my shoulder drew me back into his conversation with Chaucer.
“He’s got the run of Albert’s carriage house,” he explained. “You’ll be happy to show him the place? I’m afraid I have to run to a meeting, and Savannah has to finish setting up for tonight.”
“I’m happy to make myself useful,” I offered. “If there is anything I can do to help.”
Savannah’s eyes sparkled, but her mouth remained unsmiling as she studied me critically. “Well, you do look like you can carry a heavy load.”
I resisted the childish urge to flex for her, but just barely. Instead, my smile stretched wider between my cheeks, and I had the satisfaction of watching her blush as my eyes traced her small figure. “I could throw you over my shoulder to demonstrate.”
“Caveman,” Chaucer shot back, not flirtatiously, not really. She was a woman numb to the glory of the limelight, but she was a woman all the same, and she enjoyed repartee as much as the rest of them.
I pouted, pressing a hand to my heart. “You’re objectifying me, and we’ve only just met. I’m wounded.”
She laughed, a high, yipping hiccough of a giggle that suited her diminutive stature and round curves.
“Enough,” Savannah said, and her voice was the west wind bringing winter to the sun-drenched kitchen. Now, her eyes sparkled like ice. “We are simply too busy for idle chitchat.Sebastian, do settle in and then find me to discuss my schedule for this week.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said somberly even though laughter lodged in my throat.
Her little nose wrinkled slightly with distaste at the moniker. I knew without having to be told that “ma’am” made her feel old.
Adam coughed to hide his own laughter and clapped me on the back. “Good man, I’ll see you shortly. This is your new home, so make yourself comfortable. Chaucer,” he said by way of goodbye before he brushed a swift, light kiss on Savannah’s cheek. “Sweetheart, I’ll see you tonight.”
“Don’t be late,” she reprimanded as though she could see into the future and knew he would disappoint.
Adam’s smile was a slow, closed-lip smirk that spoke of mussed bedsheets and late-night debauchery. I had the feeling he was often late, for very good and very wicked reasons.
After he swept from the room, the air seemed to flatten as though Adam had stripped the atoms of their current. It was so strange and wonderful to be in the presence of one of the greatest men in cinema, a man I’d admired for so long, that I doubted I’d ever become used to it.
A soft touch on my arm drew my attention to Savannah. Her wide eyes were so clear that staring into them was like looking into the bottom of a depthless lake.
“The enchantment fades,” she murmured, leaning close so that the words were a secret kept from Chaucer. “Remember, Sebastian, you’re here becauseIwant you here. My husband… he is as transient as the tides.”
