Chapter One #2
Shock replaced the obstinacy he remembered well.
And traces of wary censure he didn’t. He ignored the flickers of unease the latter trailed over his nape, reminding himself he’d long passed caring about personal opinions.
Duty, purpose and the strength of his oath were all that mattered.
And he’d taken an oath to keep Lotte safe.
And yes, that included keeping her safe from himself, from those unacceptable thoughts that flashed through his mind during her unannounced visit to Cartana three years ago. These thoughts circling the edges of control right now.
‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘And you still haven’t answered me.’
He’d been called ‘intense’ many times by so many people, he’d lost count or care. He felt zero guilt for bringing that emotion to bear as he waited for her to comply.
She didn’t. Instead, she brought the hand holding the phone to eye level, right in front of his chest, and flashed a smile so striking, so eerily similar to another smile embedded in searing memory, every last scrap of air left his lungs.
Mocking him with why he’d kept his distance from Lotte all this time…
‘Sorry to cut this short, elskurnar, but I gotta go. Remember, be kind, love hard, live free. And don’t party too hard without me!’ She tossed a peace sign, then closing lushly lashed eyes, puckered her lips for three excruciating seconds before blowing a kiss at the camera.
A deep growl left Valenti’s throat before he even realised it was building. He barely noticed the crowd take a collective wary step back, but he did note that the music had died down significantly, probably courtesy of one of his team. Enough to hear himself think.
‘Are you happy now? Everyone is looking at us,’ she hissed, a blush creeping into her cheeks as he dragged his bizarrely compelled gaze from her lips to her eyes.
He plucked the phone from her hand and slotted it into his pocket. Then he led her decisively towards the exit.
‘What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ he growled. ‘We’re leaving.’
‘You may be, but I’m not.’
Valenti stopped abruptly. She stumbled into him, then grabbed his arm to steady herself. ‘I’m not having a conversation with you in this place,’ he said, seething, noting the various phone cameras aimed their way. Teo was going to have a field day with this.
‘Then leave! You weren’t invited here in the first place. I— What the hell!’
Valenti ignored the outraged screech as he tossed his wayward charge over his shoulder. Gritted his teeth when her wriggling dug his shoulder into her soft belly.
The clubbers who’d stopped to gawp he quickly dispatched with furious glares that had them scrambling.
Sixty seconds later, he had her ensconced—and bristling like a wet cat—in his front seat, his command for her to stay put, or else, seemingly working despite the ice-blue fire in her eyes.
Thank Dios for small mercies.
‘You’re supposed to be ten miles away, at finishing school. Why are you not?’ he enquired coolly, grateful the strange roiling had settled down.
‘Are you serious right now?’ she scoffed, her glare drilling into the side of his face.
‘You’re an intelligent girl or so your college professor told me when we last spoke. What do you think?’
‘I think if you cared about my education at all—even the useless part that for some reason requires me to go to finishing school like some mid-nineteenth-century non-feminist waif in desperate search for a husband—then you would know I graduated three weeks ago! Alone.’
A jolt of disquiet shook through him, one he didn’t allow to show as he accelerated through the busy streets.
A quick mental calculation provided the reason for the lapse.
He was one week from the next monthly report on her activities.
He’d only received the alert about tonight because his security had rightly deemed it an abnormal risk.
Still, it was…disconcerting that she would no longer be mandated to be locked away in some academic institution, as safe from harm as he could order her to be with his security team nearby to provide an extra layer of protection.
Even more disconcerted that she hadn’t bothered to reach out and berate him for his absence. Did she…hate him?
And why did that chafe when he shouldn’t care?
He smashed away the wavelet of discomfort. He was here to deal with a more perilous situation.
Pulling up to a red light, he slanted a glance at her and frowned when he saw the chagrin she was trying to hide. Replaying her response, he experienced another jolt.
‘What do you mean alone?’ he rasped.
Her nostrils quivered for a single second before she said, ‘Do you need the definition?’
‘I mean,’ he forced through gritted teeth, ‘when I spoke to your brother three weeks ago, he was still in Reykland. He said he would be home for another two weeks. I assumed he would be around to attend your graduation.’
A faint frown feathered across her brow. ‘Do…do you speak to Gunnar often?’ she muttered.
‘At least once a month, sí.’ It was how he learned snippets of her life that didn’t make it into his professional report.
How he knew Lotte hadn’t forgiven him for rejecting her in Cartana.
And why, as much as the fractures were unfortunate, he didn’t completely wish them gone.
Because they kept a necessary distance between the Lotte who was no longer the carefree girl he once knew—and the woman she’d become—and the rigid guard he’d discovered he needed to keep around her.
Her gaze dropped to her folded hands, then quickly switched to the window, blocking his view of her face. ‘Well, he didn’t attend. He was called away four days before I finished so…’
This time her delicate jaw clenched for several seconds before she visibly relaxed it. And kept looking out of the window. Ignoring him.
His own jaw started to clench, but then she turned, and he exhaled the absurd agitation rising in his chest.
He was here to take care of a problem. One yet unaddressed.
‘Did you not think it would be useful to tell anyone you’d recently acquired a stalker?
’ The snarl in his voice he deemed appropriate.
Necessary even. Just having to speak that infuriating and disturbing sentence riled him anew.
But the gravity of the situation couldn’t be underestimated.
He’d done that once and lost a best friend, a vital ally and changed the trajectory of his life.
‘Anyone? Or you specifically?’ she taunted.
‘You do not want to test me right now.’
No. He didn’t feel an ounce of pity when she paled. When her fingers twisted faster in her lap as he approached the apartment building he’d personally vetted for security before installing her at the very top. Ostensibly away from the kind of attention she’d attracted and blithely ignored.
He was waiting when she finally faced him. ‘How did you even find out about that?’
He arched a brow, the simmer rising to a boil.
She stared him down, misplaced fury making her bold. And reckless. ‘And that’s what it takes for you to jump on your royal jet to see your unwanted burden?’
‘I didn’t use my royal jet. I came by military jet to get me here faster,’ he corrected crisply, then took satisfaction in her widening eyes and sharp intake of breath. ‘And you’re not deflecting this. Answer me, Lotte.’
Did he imagine her shiver at his use of her name?
Dios, was he hallucinating this whole inconvenient but dire situation?
That explanation—an eagerly welcome one—would fit why he was noticing far too many aspects of his ward.
Like how the streetlight intensified the glow of her skin.
The elegant sweep of her neck. How well her hips fit into the bucket of his passenger seat.
He swung into a parking spot too fast, upsetting her balance. The side of her breast and hip imprinted on his arm before she righted herself. And that bizarre sensation from three years ago returned, making his fingers curl tighter around the wheel.
‘Every social media personality with more than a handful of followers attracts trolls these days. It’s not a big—’
Launching himself out of the car silenced her. Valenti utilised the time it took to round the hood to drag control back into his being.
To remind himself that feelings and emotion and pleas and considerations didn’t matter. Couldn’t matter.
He’d sworn an oath to a dying friend, an exceptional woman who’d given much more than he’d been able to give back. He would keep his oath come hell or high water.
He yanked her door open. ‘Out.’
‘Valenti—’
‘We will discuss this properly indoors, and I would seriously suggest you come up with a better explanation for the oversight than it happens to everyone so it’s no big deal.’
The moment she stepped out, lips pursed in displeasure, he wrapped his hand around her arm again. Not because he feared she would flee. Even his headstrong ward wasn’t that foolhardy.
No, it went deeper than that, he knew. And as disturbing as it was to admit, keeping his hand on her, reassuring himself that she was safe and breathing next to him, seemed paramount to quell his agitation.
She kept her silence until they were in the lift. Then her blue eyes narrowed. ‘You didn’t answer me. How do you know?’
He slanted a look dry enough to burn tinder. ‘Is that a serious question?’
‘Doesn’t the word privacy mean anything to you?’
‘Does it to you? You share yourself with millions. I take an interest in whoever seems out of place. And when it comes to your safety, I won’t compromise or apologise,’ he returned with zero remorse.
Her mouth dropped open. ‘You know I can have you arrested for that, don’t you?’
‘You’d be wasting your time. And mine. Or have you forgotten what we are to each other?’