Grievous (Wanted Men #5) - Nancy Haviland Page 0,84
when she found him already standing in the middle of the room looking at his phone. “I counted thirteen crude hand gestures.”
She brushed by him, and tried to convince herself her limbs hadn’t weakened at the sight of him in black sweats with a towel thrown over his shoulder. Never seen him dressed so casually. He wasn’t incredibly beautiful. Not at all. “Is that it? Then you missed a few.” The bathroom door rattled when she slammed it, as did the toilet when she plopped her butt down to take a pee.
“You will not roll over for a goddamn belly rub the minute he turns on the charm,” she whispered as she finished up and washed her hands. “You’re more than this. Why have you let him put you down here?”
Going back out, she went over and leaned her ass on her makeup table and tried to appear relaxed. “Did you have a nice day?” He was still in the middle of the room but his hands were now empty.
“No.”
“Well, I did. Your castle is really great. I see why you like it. Where are the horses?”
“Security had them out when you took your walk.”
“Oh. Too bad. Is the painting on the back wall of the ballroom an original Picasso?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. Sucks this place isn’t in France. Around say, oh, I don’t know, Villefranche-Sur-Mer? I could spend days there all by myself and it wouldn’t bother me in the least. Ever been? Any idea the artists who passed through that area? Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Bonnard.” She tapped her chin. “Henri Matisse and Picasso, too. Would have been nice to visit the Musée National des Messages Bibliques in Nice.” She shrugged as if she didn’t care. “Marc Chagall went there after the second world war. Not to the museum but to St. Jean Cap Ferrat. I researched that area to death because I did my final term paper on Chagall’s Bible-based works.”
She got some air into her lungs and held his stare, refusing to be drawn in. Not even when he came to stand before her did she allow herself to soften. With his pinkie, he hooked her collar and brought her forward. She resisted. He pulled harder. Because the clasp was digging into the top of her spine and she didn’t want him to break it, she gave an inch.
He tipped his head and jerked her hard enough that their noses brushed together. “When you see me, you will greet me properly.”
“Sorry, did you not see my tail wagging?”
She stumbled forward when he released her and walked off. She caught herself in time to see him go into her closet. A drawer opened and closed, but she didn’t wait around to see what he was doing. She went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Twice she’d gone to the kitchen today to find phantom cooks had prepared food. She’d eaten a sandwich and salad around noon, and at dinner, there’d been a hearty beef stew in a crock pot that she’d enjoyed because she’d been chilled from being outside.
“Yasmeen?”
Her lower belly tightened at the sound of that icy tone. The warmth she must have imagined last night was long gone.
She went out to find her warden crossing the room in just a towel. She gulped and refused to gape. “You called? Felt like showing off the goods?” And what goods they were, she thought as he bent to open the door on the bottom of the nightstand.
“If you would like to watch me shower, you may stay in there.”
She barely heard him. From a solid wall made up of bundles of money, he took three stacks and tossed them on the bed. Depending on the denomination, there had to be thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in that little cabinet. The way she’d grown up crowded her mind. From that…to this. Though this was likely going to be as temporary as her stays in the multitude of foster homes she’d passed through. She looked at him check a message on his phone. Completely relaxed, he tossed the cell next to the money and walked by her to close himself into the bathroom.
She stared at that cabinet as the shower started, and found herself going over to open it. She didn’t touch anything. She just looked.
He could buy anything he wanted. Anything. This was a few bucks to him.
Had he taken a break from her today because she was already boring him? Was he used to a