Page 30 of Savage Protector
I shake my head. “He might do something to you, if he thinks you’re a threat. After what he did, I wouldn’t put anything past him. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“I’m certainly a threat to him, and he’s going to fully appreciate that soon enough. He won’t be doing anything to me, though, or to you. Not again. I need to know you’re going to be safe once you leave here.”
I can only stare at him, lost for words. “Why? Why would you do this?”
He cradles my jaw between his hands. “I like you. I care about you. I went to all the trouble of dragging you out of the ocean.”
I gaze up into his handsome features, take in his deep chocolate-coloured eyes, the determined set of his jaw, the hint of a smile on his lips. “I like you, too,” I whisper. “I think I like you very much.”
“That’s good.” He lowers his head, brushes his lips across mine. “Friends, then?”
“Yes. Good friends.”
He straightens, his grin slightly crooked now. “Shall I show you your room?”
“Please.”Did I just invite a man to my bedroom? A dangerous man, or so he tells me, a man I barely know.
He takes my hand. “It’s this way.”
It seems I probably did. Bring. It. On.
7
Zayn
“Can you manage the stairs?”I ask, mindful of her recent injury. “It’s on the second floor, but there’s a lift if you prefer.”
“I’m fine.”
I lead her up the main stairs off the hall, not disturbing the football this time, and start on the second flight.
“This place is amazing,” Leila murmurs. “The massive stone walls, the lighting, the heating coming from under our feet. It still looks ancient, but it can’t be.”
“Sympathetically renovated, I think they call it. Ethan spent a fortune on this place.”
The expression on her face suggests she’s trying to imagine the wealth it must have taken to create all this, but she maintains a polite silence. Instead, she trots on after me.
We pause on the second landing, just as Cristina emerges from one of the doors ahead of us. “Ah, Zayn. And this must be Leila. Congratulations on your exam results, Leila.”
“Thank you. I?—”
“You’ll be staying with us for a short while, I understand. Just until you go to your university course.”
“I…that’s right. I need to thank you for your hospitality. I’ll try not to be in the way.”
“How could you be in the way? This place is huge.” She gestures to the door she just came out of. “That’s our apartment, mine and Ethan’s, and the boys, obviously. Once you’re settled, pop round if you like, for a drink.”
“A drink? I don’t?—”
She pats Leila’s arm. “A soft drink if you prefer. Or just tea and some of Mrs McRae’s delicious lemon cake. I’ll see if Beth’s free, and maybe Magda. We could have a girls’ night.”
Leila looks just a little overwhelmed, but she manages to thank Cristina before I hustle her away.
“Did she mean it? A girls’ night?”
“She said so. You should go, meet the others. You might have fun.”
“I’m not used to socialising. My father didn’t want any of us to go out much, and we never socialised outside the family. My uncle always said?—”
