Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ALEX
H e’d said he didn’t feel anything, but I knew that was bullshit. His problem was he felt too much. That’s why he needed to do what he did, to numb the pain. It’s why he needed rehab, to break the chain. He’d started something, and I had to finish it.
I’d always supported him through the good times and the bad, but what he’d done to Emma was a step too far. I had a chain to break, too. Enough was enough.
And so what if I had a saviour complex. Just looking at her made me want to wrap her up in my arms and protect her. I wanted to make her happy because she was crying out for that. From the first moment I’d met her, I could tell she was a girl who put on a brave face. The one that went unnoticed. But I noticed her. And I wanted her. Okay, maybe my methods were a little unconventional, tracking her down in the street, but my intentions were honest.
I drove back to the house, turned the engine off, and got out of the car, taking the steps to the front door two at a time. Once inside, I made my way to the drawing room where I’d left her. As I walked through the door, I noticed she was lying on the sofa, fast asleep. Hearing my footsteps, she began to stir, and I reached for a throw to cover her and make her warm. But she didn’t need it, she just took it from me, saying, “thank you” as she sat up.
“Everything is sorted,” I said, sitting down carefully in a space beside her. “My lawyers have contacted the newspaper. They will have a settlement drawn up for you in the next day or two. But I think they were looking at giving you six months’ severance pay.”
“What?” she asked, her eyes bugging slightly. “They’re going to pay me?”
“Yes. You’re the one who was wronged.” I began to second-guess myself. “Is six months not enough? I can instruct my lawyers to push for more.”
She reached forward to touch my arm, and the feel of her warm hand made my heart race.
“No. Alex, it’s more than enough. I didn’t expect anything. Honestly. I’m just relived that I’m not being sued.”
I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I spoke again.
“The other... problem... that’s been sorted too. He won’t be bothering you again.”
She dipped her head, like she didn’t want to address it, then asked quietly, “Are you sure?”
“Surer than anything else in my life. I wouldn’t lie to you, Emma. Not about something so important.”
I could see her shoulders sag with relief as she asked, “What’s happened to him?”
“He’s been sent away to a secure unit to be dealt with. He won’t be coming out any time soon. I can assure you of that.”
She looked up at me through her lashes, and the sadness I saw there fucking pulled at my heart strings.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
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 holy shit, 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.