Grievous (Wanted Men #5) - Nancy Haviland Page 0,50
just gave me!—I don’t want to leave. Will you rescue me from myself?”
Uh-huh. What a sad, horny little thing she was.
“Ms. Michaels?”
She jerked away from Sorin’s touch and bumped her elbow into a stand of postcards that would have toppled over if he didn’t have the reflexes of a cat. Sucking in a breath and grabbing her arm because she’d nailed her funny bone, she glared up at him. “Don’t you know better than to interrupt a woman when she’s self-loathing?”
She couldn’t see his eyes behind the aviators he’d put on, but she had a clear view of his teeth flashing. “My apologies.”
“Listen. How about instead of leading me around this bizarre, you give me a lift to the nearest airport? Or train station?” At his stoic look, she kicked the toe of his boot. “Show me a donkey and I’ll make due, Sorin. Come on. Gimme a break.” She knew she was blowing hot air at this point. Did he? “And don’t you think it’s time you called me Yasmeen?”
“No. And I’m afraid I have no choice but to tell him of this conversation.”
She laughed. “So? I’m not bribing you. I’m appealing to your moral sense of what’s right and wrong. I really think I should go home.” Or at least want to go home, she added silently as she sipped her coffee.
“It is generous of you to assume we have that to appeal to.”
A small shiver skittered through her. “Don’t you?”
“We do not kill puppies or beat children,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, “so that is something. Start walking. People are staring.”
She started walking, noting the vendors were indeed staring. The men tipped their heads to Sorin while dropping their gaze. The older women stared at him, smiling and nodding as if he was a celebrity who’d just donated a million to save the village from total annihilation. No one looked at Yasmeen for more than a quarter of a second.
“How do they know you by sight?”
“We visit a few times a year.”
“And your visits are so memorable?”
“The priest at one of the monasteries outed Lucian. They know who we are now.”
“Outed him? What did he do? Use someone’s alter to sacrifice a virgin?”
“No. He built a local college that is fully funded by Fane Enterprises.”
“Of course, he did.” Her heart swelled with pride for her madman. She took a bigger drink of her coffee. “I knew he wasn’t a psycho. I’m an okay judge of character, and not once did I sense someone I should be afraid of the last time we were together. But…” She smiled at a little boy who tottered out of a tent and wobbled before falling to his bum. Before she could step forward to help him, Sorin’s big hands were scooping him up and handing him back to his mother. She murmured what Yasmeen could only assume was thanks and darted back into the tent with her child.
“But now he is different.”
She stopped in the shade of a building and looked up at Sorin as the aroma of grilled sausages drifted under her nose. “Yes. Is he different with you?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry.” Not sorry. “I shouldn’t be making you talk about him behind his back.”
“I have not said anything to you that I would not say to his face. Lucian has acted like an ass on certain occasions, and I have happily taken the opportunity to point it out. As he has done in return.”
“I have to admit I’m happy he has you.”
“So you have said.”
Before he’d put her in the Bentley at the Waldorf. “You two ever get in a fight?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes bugged. “An argument? Or a fist fight.”
“Both. The most memorable was the day we met. He tossed an iron pipe away after he broke my arm. We used our fists after that.”
She looked at his log of an arm. “Did you kick his ass?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “No. I am afraid he kicked mine. We were fourteen, and at a funeral. He was protecting Markus; I was protecting my friend who lied about something he had said. It was not until months later that I had the chance to admit to Lucian I had been on the wrong side that day.”
“Did he fight dirty? He totally fought dirty, didn’t he?”
Sorin was scanning the area, but his smile was in the conversation. “It was a skirmish filled with kneecapping and groin shots.”
“Knew it,” she whispered, picturing Lucian using his gorgeous body in the role of